Arana Gulch is a creek and

landform A landform is a natural or anthropogenic land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills, ...

that forms part of the southeastern boundary of the city of Santa Cruz, California. The creek begins in the

Santa Cruz Mountains The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central and Northern California, United States. They form a ridge down the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco. They separate the Pacific Ocean from ...

and flows southwest into Monterey Bay via what was once called Woods Lagoon, now the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor.

History

Arana Gulch is named after

José Arana José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced ...

, who came to

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

in 1834 with the Hijar-Padres colonization group. Arana was the grantee of the Rancho Potrero y Rincón de San Pedro Regalado (now the Potrero and Harvey West neighborhoods of northern Santa Cruz) in the year 1842. Sometime after that date, Arana moved to the area that now bears his name. Prior to California statehood, Arana Creek was the dividing line between lands assigned to the Villa de Branciforte (to the west) and those of

Rancho Arroyo del Rodeo Rancho or Ranchos may refer to: Settlements and communities *Rancho, Aruba, former fishing village and neighbourhood of Oranjestad * Ranchos of California, 19th century land grants in Alta California **List of California Ranchos *Ranchos, Buenos A ...

. The Arana Gulch open space parcel is mostly the former Hagemann farm, also called Live Oak Ranch. Frederick Hagemann was an early immigrant to this area from Germany. The Hagemann house (older section dates from 1860s, later addition from 1885) still stands on a remainder parcel adjacent to the open space. Cattle once roamed the pasture and were housed in a large barn, which no longer remains. In the 1920s, Arana Gulch housed East Side Dairy, which was owned by the Kinzli family.

Arana Gulch open space

The City of Santa Cruz maintains this large parcel that lies mostly on the west side of Arana Gulch, adjacent to and upstream from the Santa Cruz harbor, and maintains Arana Gulch Open Space as a public open space. The Arana Gulch open space is part of the "

greenbelt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which hav ...

" established in 1979 to mostly surround the city. The Arana Creek watershed is a groundwater resource for Santa Cruz County. The open space includes

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artifi ...

s (former farmland), California oak woodland, and the riparian zones along Arana Gulch and Hagemann Gulch. Trails for

hiker Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histor ...

s and bicyclists access the park from the upper harbor parking lot off of Brommer Street and from Mentel Ave. and Agnes St. in Santa Cruz on the north side. In January 2015, new, three-branched paved fully accessible pedestrian and bicycle trails were opened connecting Broadway in Santa Cruz east to Brommer Street in unincorporated Live Oak via a new bridges over Hagemann Gulch and Arana Creek, as well as a pathway connecting northward to Mentel Ave. in Santa Cruz. This connection between the City of Santa Cruz and the urbanized, unincorporated area of Live Oak was originally planned as a four-lane road – the "Broadway–Brommer connection". 2019-06-24a

Natural features

Arana Gulch supports a variety of

vegetation Vegetation is an assemblage of plant species and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic character ...

and

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animal species (biology), species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous ...

, including the

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

Santa Cruz tarplant (

Holocarpha macradenia ''Holocarpha macradenia'', commonly known as the Santa Cruz tarplant, is an endangered plant endemic to Northern California.

). To support the migratory monarch butterfly population, native tarplant growth has increased via the return of black angus cows who serve as a disruptive resident as they stomp and eat the competing flora. It has been observed at least since 1990 that a ravine of Arana Gulch appeared to indicate headward erosion due to concentration of

surface runoff Surface runoff (also known as overland flow) is the flow of water occurring on the ground surface when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other sources, can no longer sufficiently rapidly infiltrate in the soil. This can occur when th ...

. The lower reaches of Arana Gulch receive runoff from generally urbanized areas of Santa Cruz.

Historic closures

Several of the now public paths were on private property in decades past, marked with no trespassing signage. Since becoming a public park, the space invites visitors of many species to traverse pathways and hideaways near the cattle grazing areas and adjacent wetlands. In recent times, three notable closures of the human walking trails have occurred, all arising as a response to enhance and maintain safety for the residents and community living nearby. Arana Gulch barn

The first recent instance occurred in 2014 with the construction of the Arana Gulch Multi-Trail Project. The new porous trail material allows water to reach the soil below, enabling subterranean fauna to 'cross the road, and get to the other side' like any other above ground resident. This trail's construction took extra time and care to minimize the ecological impact of the native habitat, and partially closed the gulch for a number of months. The next closure occurred in November 2018, in response to the northern California fires. The measure was considered to be preventative, as locals had reported to the city police that transients were camping and cooking in the adjacent forest and posed a danger to the residents of the gulch and neighboring households. The most recent closure in April 2020 supported the state and local policy on social distancing and

shelter in place Shelter-in-place (SIP; also known as a shelter-in-place warning, SAME code SPW) is the act of seeking safety within the building one already occupies, rather than evacuating the area or seeking a community emergency shelter. The American Red Cro ...

measures resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic in California.

References

External links

* Friends of Arana Gulc

* About Arana Gulc

{{coord, 37.029116, -121.973572, source:gnis-218331_region:US-CA, display=title Valleys of Santa Cruz County, California Protected areas of Santa Cruz County, California Valleys of California