Glossary

Climax community is the stable, long-term stage of ecological succession in which a plant and animal community has reached relative equilibrium with its environment. The same plant and animal communities re-establish themselves after disturbance rather than giving way to new species — the forest returns to itself.

Most of the forests visible in the San Lorenzo Valley today were clear-cut at the turn of the twentieth century. What has grown back is second growth forest actively returning toward climax — and it is recognizable to anyone who has walked a local trail:

• Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) in the upper canopy
• Tanoak (Notholithocarpus densiflorus) and bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) in the mid-story
• California hazelnut (Corylus cornuta) and thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus) fill the understory
• Sword fern (Polystichum munitum), wild ginger (Asarum caudatum), and redwood sorrel (Oxalis oregana) carpet the floor
• Madrone (Arbutus menziesii) and oak on the drier slopes

And beneath it all, a soil community built over centuries that supports every layer above

Every native plant restored, every ivy cord cut, moves that succession forward.

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