The Future of the Benchlands
Interview with Valentin Lopez
Amah Mutsun Tribal Band
Host: Parks and Recreation Department, Santa Cruz
January 19, 2023
https://www.cityofsantacruz.com/home/showpublisheddocument/93120/6381 88028057600000
As part of the redesign process of San Lorenzo Park, Noah Downing and Travis Beck, (staff members of the Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Department) as well as Marcel Wilson and Sarah Moos Thompson (employees of Bionics, the design consultant) interviewed key environmental stakeholders regarding the future of the Benchlands, the flood plain area between Water St. and Soquel Ave. in San Lorenzo Park. Groups interviewed included were the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band (AMTB), as well as the Sierra Club (represented by Micah Posner), the California Native Plant Society, the Santa Cruz Bird Club (Lisa Sheridan) and the Coastal Watershed Council.
Valentine Lopez is the Chairman of AMTB between San Juan Batista and Santa Cruz. The Amah Mutsun tribe belongs to the land south of of Aptos, associated with the Mutsun speaking people. There are no known speakers or tribes from land within Santa Cruz City. Therefore, the AMTB helps protect and steward the ancient lands of these disappeared
Below is the transcript of the complete interview with Valentin Lopez.
Parks and Recreation: Tell us more about the AMTB and how it relates to open space and parks?
Valentine: We are a land trust. Creation story tells us to take care of Mother Earth and all living things. We learned how to take care of our lands.
It defines our tribal territory and what and how we take care of these lands.
We have a moral obligation to take care of these lands. Our people learned how to take care of plants for their biodiversity, so the plants and animals took care of the fungi, the insects, birds, four-legged and people as well. First and foremost, (we must) restore those native plants back as much as possible, (we must) restore the biodiversity. Plants also provide food, basketry, housing. (It is) Important to have those plants (in order to)
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educate people how to restore, protect, take care of the plants, how indigenous people used them, the benefits of the plants, how biodiversity supports the butterflies, bees, hummingbirds. Education is important.
Biodiversity can tell a very large story. In 2006, I started doing a lot of research at the UC schools, helping to relearn the indigenous knowledge. (Our tribe) is doing a lot to restore the knowledge, and now restore landscapes to what ancestors left here. You can see more about our tribe and work we do on our website. A lot of restoration work in Santa Cruz mountains and along the coast. Have an ocean and coastal program. Very involved in land management, land stewardship, land restoration. Restoring sacredness back to the land. Work together to bring back the sacredness back to the land, and have visitors recognize that these lands are important.
P & R: Can you talk more about restoring sacredness?
Valentine - The highest mountain in Santa Cruz. is Mt Umunhum. The military lopped off the top of the mountain for radar. It transitioned back to open space.( The Amah Mutsun Tribe) consulted with the military on how to restore that site. as a place for prayer, as a place for ceremonies, for all people and all religions.
P & R: How do you think about your moral obligation to (or the sacredness of) sites that are so dramatically changed and/or have other systems and modern infrastructure as parts of them?
Valentine - (the current San Lorenzo Park) is at the confluence of the San Lorenzo River and Branciforte Creek. Our people had villages and ceremonial sites where rivers came together. This is where people lived.
The greater Monterey Bay area had the highest population of native Americans in the US. During the Missions/Spanish period the population was reduced by 50%. During the Mexican period another 25%. of the population was lost. And then during the American period overall population was reduced by 95%. Not only were our people colonized and destroyed, our environments were treated in the same way. Mother Earth was destroyed in the same way our people were destroyed. Plants and animals were exterminated completely from the land. This area had the heaviest population of grizzly bears.
The climate as well allowed for the biodiversity. All life thrived here. Let’s tell the history of what happened on this land. What was the impact. People lived on these lands for 50,000+ years. Our people took care of the lands.
Kept the land sacred. But today many people don't even recognize that indigenous peoples lived here at one time. Very few people learn what
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happened here. Education lies. This was indigenous land, indigenous people lived here. This is a very important message
P & R: Tell us about your approach to teaching people, to letting people know. Who tells the story, who does it well?
Valentine: There is no place that does that well. There is no place like that yet. I recently finished an effort with the Universities. I did a lot of research with a $1 million budget, learning how to retell that history of the mission times. That history is coming forth in a book being published by the university press. This is a story that needs to be told. We are one of the tribes in California to tell that story.
P & R: Is that body of research available? Is there something we could read/ review?
Valentine - There is a school curriculum for Santa Cruz County. We could show you that curriculum. UC Santa Cruz is preparing a link with this curriculum.
Marcel- When there is a story that is complicated to understand it is good to get the simplest version or something that everyone can understand. That curriculum would be a good way for us to educate ourselves and think about how to incorporate the story into the park design and education.
Noah - This would be very helpful when we are talking about different themes for the Park. Or later on in the process as we start to zero in on the Park, we can talk about how the park could incorporate the education, ceremonial aspects of it, see how it could all fit in. Like the natural restoration, and demonstrative nature of it. The types of plants, how they may have been used, the importance of them.
Travis - You have brought a really rich conceptual underpinning for what we could do. One specific idea - we do already have the Chinatown bridge connection and the dragon arch on the other side of the river, a similar motive to make visible the history of the space, and the contribution of the Chinese community to the area. Could there be an interplay between the different parties that used the land — In the interpretation and in the landscaping and programming?
Marcel - Can we talk more about your restoration efforts? When you get involved in a restoration project, how does that work? Do you raise money
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for it? Is your coalition involved in a hands-on way? What is a restoration project for you?
Valentine - There was a very important cultural dwelling site that we got designated as a cultural preserve by California. They (the owners of the site) are co-working with us on the land’s 255 acres. We received permits to remove trees. We cleared the valley and removed invasive plants, removed acres of hemlock. Then we started the restoration work. We have a nursery where we started over 120,000 plants. 90,000 plants are being grown for seeds. 30,000 in the valley itself. We plant the seeds, collect the seeds, use the new seeds for restoration. We have brought back fire that helps to get rid of non-native plants and also helps native plants germinate. (Bird?) shells are very hard, fire softens those shells for good germination of plants for the birds. That is part of the indigenous knowledge, not known to ignorant hunters and gatherers. UC recognizes the stewardship, and indigenous knowledge and ways. They really want to work with our tribe to regain that knowledge and to restore the coastal prairie and greatly reduce the catastrophic fires. Along the coast, we received a grant (from the Ocean Council for Tribal Ways?)
P & R: Is your work done with volunteers?
Valentine Native stewardship is the core. We hire tribal members that are paid a fair wage with benefits to learn the job and teach the next generation.
There is a conference on Saturday at UC Santa Cruz where there will be a lot of information about food plants. Tribal members will come together and share many years of research about the indigenous foods of our ancestors.
We will discuss fish and shellfish as well as over100 plants used as food. We are collaborating with a lot of people. We are looking forward to talking with Tony Elliot (director of Parks and Recreation Department). We collaborate a lot as land owners with County / City parks.
Travis - It would be good to discuss other opportunities for other parks and partnerships to work together.
Valentine - We have limited capacity, but this is a high profile site and would be a great opportunity to teach and devote our energies.
P & R - How would it be best for you to engage with us throughout the redesign process?
Valentine - We can have periodic meetings, have members come in to provide their thoughts and perspectives. For the designs, we can work with
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you to start developing more ideas, thinking through what these spaces could look like. We don't get paid to attend meetings. If we ask members to attend a meeting, they don't expect to get paid — or else we will pay them.
When you are developing budgets, consider consultants and incorporate these costs into budgets.
Noah This will be a conceptual plan — including ideas, themes of what should be included. It would be great to have your perspective on that, it will not include detailed specifics, but will define the grand vision.
Valentine - We would like it to be all native plants or as much as possible.
We would like to consult on those native plants.
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Aulinta Urban Riparian Forest
A Proposal for the Restoration of a Native Riparian Habitat in the current Benchlands from Water to Soquel
1. A quiet greenspace for residents and visitors to breathe more deeply and absorb the beauty of a restored and restorative river environment - just a few steps from downtown Santa Cruz As our downtown business area grows higher and busier, a beautiful and quiet green oasis at the center of our downtown for visitors to relax, enjoy shade and quiet, experience a natural riparian environment and enjoy the rich diversity of birds that such a riverside environment attracts, would be a welcome complement to the urban bustle of Pacific Ave.
2. A significant contribution to a healthy river. A real riparian restoration project would create habitat for the full range of wildlife - birds, mammals, reptiles, insects, fish and other aquatic life.
Riverside tree canopies would provide both the shade that helps regulate water temperature as well as organic matter that adds nutrients to the stream. Riparian vegetation would protect water quality by filtering pollutants and helping to prevent bank erosion.
3. A Tribute to Early Stewardship of the River by Native American Inhabitants We could dedicate such a restoration project to the earliest settlers on this land, honoring their hundreds of years on this land as we have honored the early Chinese settlers with the beautiful entrance to the Park.
4. Easily Accessible Location The location would provide an easily accessible “wilderness” experience for many people who may not have the transportation or physical capacity to venture into the more distant forest areas of our region.
5. A Safe Experience in Nature The immediate proximity to the County Building and Courthouse , plus proximity to the larger San Lorenzo Park and downtown Santa Cruz, would create a safe experience in nature that many people are now denied due to real or imagined fears about more remote areas.
6. A symbol of Santa Cruz’ commitment to protecting our natural resources. A restored woodland in the downtown floodplain would serve as a symbol of our community’s commitment to reverse to some extent the damage that past generations have imposed on this sensitive and critical wetland area and the wildlife habitat..
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7. An educational resource With the addition of inconspicuous digital signage, this woodland could be a living museum of information about the flora and fauna of a riparian habitat.
8. An opportunity for community members to volunteer and learn Creating a restored riparian woodland would provide a splendid opportunity for community volunteers to help our community connect with nature, address the climate crisis and learn more about the native vegetation that supports native wildlife.
9. Closeness to the river The Benchlands is the only stretch of the downtown river that is not separated from human traffic by a tall levee. It actually functions as a flood plain, designed to absorb the river flow in high water events. It is therefore the only stretch of river that could potentially provide our community with an opportunity to sit or walk with a clear and close-up view of the river.
Although a potentially damaging and controversial possibility if done wrong, a Benchland restoration project could possibly provide our community members with the rare urban opportunity to commune with the river in close proximity.
The Benchlands has been the traditional site of occasional community events — like the Santa Cruz Tequila and Taco Festival, as well as Earth Day. Many people who support Earth Day realize the irony of holding this event in a sensitive wetland area and would presumably prefer a location more consonant with Earth Day values. Hopefully, sponsors of the Taco festival would also support the environmental values of restoration and would be amenable to accepting other venues if the restoration project were to become a reality. The City would hopefully support the festival by shutting down streets, offering London Nelson or Mission Plaza, etc.
Beyond our hope for such a restoration is the equally important imperative that such a restoration project only be considered and undertaken with the City’s solid commitment to working in close partnership with local Native American tribes and nature advocacy groups. Only with this kind of partnership could we hope for a restoration of an authentic riparian wetland. It would also provide a wonderful opportunity for City staff, Native Americans and nature conservationists to meet and work together more closely.
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Barbara Riverwoman
[email protected]
831-454-0252
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San Lorenzo Park Redesign
City Council Presentation
August 8, 2023
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Agenda
Process Overview
Park Significance & Transformation
Stage 1 Engagement Summary
Opportunities, Guiding Principles, Design Goals, Potential Programs Next Steps
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San Lorenzo Park Redesign 3
Process diagram
San Lorenzo Park Redesign Process
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San Lorenzo Park Redesign 4
Previous Efforts
San Lorenzo Park
Redesign Master Plan (1988)
San Lorenzo Park
Built 1964
San Lorenzo Urban
River Plan (2003)
Ideas to Activate the
San Lorenzo River
(2007)
Ocean Street Area
Plan (2014)
Godbe Quantitative Survey
(2016)
Draft Downtown Plan
(2017)
San Lorenzo Park
Redesign Plan (2023)
City of Santa Cruz Parks Master
Plan 2030 (2020)
San Lorenzo
Park Redesign
Needs
Assessment
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Needs Assessment
Existing
Features &
Conditions
Research &
Analysis
City’s
Maintenance
& Operational
Needs
Community
Engagement
San Lorenzo Park Redesign 5
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Park Significance &
Transformation
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San Lorenzo Park Redesign 7
Downtown & Neighborhood
+
1/2-mile
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San Lorenzo Park Redesign 8
City of Santa Cruz
+
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San Lorenzo Park Redesign 9
Santa Cruz County
+
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10 San Lorenzo Park Redesign 28.623
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12 San Lorenzo Park Redesign 28.625
Uplands: 6.7 acre
Riverlands: 6.3 acre
San Lorenzo Park
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San Lorenzo Park Redesign 14
Riverlands
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San Lorenzo Park Redesign 15
January 2023 - Riverlands designed to flood
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San Lorenzo River
San Lorenzo River & Park provide
habitat for swallows, great horned
owls, wood ducks, spawning Coho
salmons, an occasional seal, and
steelhead trout.
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San Lorenzo Park Redesign 17
Mature Trees
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Available Space Based on
Mature Tree Drip Line
Riverlands: 3.56 acre
Pond & Lawn Bowling: 0.72 acre
Uplands: 2.48 acre
Tree Drip
Trail
Playground & Building
San Lorenzo Park Redesign 18
Available Space
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Downtown Park Precedents
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key stakeholder meeting attendees*
online survey responses
emailed comments
community meeting #1 attendees
* 17 key stakeholder meetings held
1,322
212
73 72
San Lorenzo Park Redesign 22
Redesign Stage 1 Engagement Process
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Presentation
Individual Comments
School Groups
Question & Answer Session
Conversations with City Staff
Youth Comments
Activities
Small Group Conversations
Virtual Meetings & Comments
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Active: activities such
as a playground,
events, sports facilities
Others
Q16: What overall experience do you think should be at the park? More passive: activities
such as picnic, nature
trails, bird watching
A combination of both active
and passive experiences
Q11: Should t
Q10: What would you change it to? And why?
Overall Park Experience
Park Experience
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A combination of both active
and passive experiences
Safety issues
Environmental
restoration
Overall improvement
Playground for better uses
Pickleball
Sports/fitness amenities
Events/performances/show
Accessibility/Facilities/Parking
Duck pond
Garden/green space/riverfront Others
Include la
towers, s
ziplines,
features
Make it m
than othe
playgrou
Q10: What would you change it to? And why? Q15: W
Incorpora
or the en
the desig
What should change about the park?
Park Experience
Question 10: What would you change it to? And why?
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Imagine it is 10 years from now
(your ideal park is a reality) and you take visitors to the park.
What would you be most excited to show them?
Park Experience
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Where is the main entrance to the park?
Park Access
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h
es
should be at the park?
es
tive
Events
None of the above
Q11: Should the bench lands be used for restorations, events or both? Restore as
natural area
for wildlife
habitat and
nature trails
A combination of boths
d why? Q15: What playground features?
How should the riverlands be used?
Specific Program Elements
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Should the park be
used for events?
Would you attend
events in the park?
Events
What types of events would you like to see?
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Program & Activities
What activities do you like?
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Park Opportunities
Guiding Principles
Design Goals &
Potential Programs
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Entrance
Trail
Potential New
Connections
& Circulation
Framework
Repositioning the Park
for an Evolving City
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Promoting Traditions
& A Civic Destination
28.647 San Lorenzo Park Redesign San Lorenzo Park Redesign 2727 hinatown Dragon Bridge & Archway
Chinatown Bridge and Dragon
hway honor Chinese immigrants and
site of Santa Cruz’s last Chinatown.
Preserving & Revitalized
Existing Park Features
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Restoring Ecology
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Inclusivity in Open Space
Prioritizing Inclusivity
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Francisco Park, San Francisco
Includes a new maintenance and
restroom facility
Designing for Safety
& Operations
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planting stewardship event.
https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/
get-involved/volunteer-with-the-city/treeplanting-stewardship/ Fostering Partnerships
& Stewardship
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Guiding Principles
Ke
ep
the park clean,
safe & secure
Create a park
that attracts the
community and
visitors
Activate
the park
Make the park
a sustainable
green space
for everyone
Promote
biodiversity and
natural habitat
Make the park
uniquely Santa
Cruz & reflect
our culture
Offer a range of
activities, events,
& programs for all
ages and abilities
Increase
visibility and
accessibility
of the park
and river
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Design Goals
Preserve
heritage trees.
Conduct restoration
projects in the
riverlands to promote
native plant species.
Include a range of
spaces for active
recreation and
different programs.
Design for
multi-modal
access.
Promote
opportunities for
environmental and
historical education.
1 5 6 7 8
2 3 4
Include a range of
spaces for passive
recreation such as
trails, picnic areas,
walking, and bird
watching.
Provide facilities
including restrooms,
drinking fountains,
waste receptacles,
and seating.
Design a park
that is sustainable
and maintainable.
Include a
playground for all
ages and abilities with
natural, climbing, and
interactive elements.
Create venues for
different size events
and festivals.
Create prominent
entries and
connections to
the park.
Connect to the river
for education, unique
encounters, and
stewardship.
9 10 11 12
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• Amphitheater
• Art / Sculptures
• Basketball
• Bocce Ball
• Conservatory
• Disc golf
• Food & Beverage
• Garden
• Ice Skating
• Lawn
• Lawn Bowling
• Outdoor Fitness
• Pickleball
• Picnic Areas
• Playground
• Plaza
• Pump track
• Recreation Center
• Restoration Area
• River overlooks / viewing
platform
• Roller Skating
• Slackline
• Soccer
• Stage
• Tennis
• View tower
• Volleyball
• Water feature
• Zipline
Potential Programs
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Commissioner feedback:
• Think bigger and take risks with design.
• Let the Commission and Council rein in the project.
• Translate needs assessment executive summary into Spanish. • Reach out to UCSC as a stakeholder.
• Incorporate dark sky and public safety considerations into the design. • Provide more details for inclusivity.
• The final plan needs to have a capital improvement budget. • Safety and security is critical.
• Consider park uses that are free for users & consider revenue generation for adequate maintenance levels. • Appreciate the transparency of the process.
• Opportunities to socialize are important but do not necessarily involve food service. • Prefer the Tulsa playground examples to the San Francisco ones. • Natural restoration is a key to a successful redesign. • Highlight other City efforts through education, such as pollinator gardens. • Improve education opportunities throughout the park.
• Downtown growth will increase park use. Need facilities and infrastructure (restrooms) to accommodate.
Parks & Recreation Commission May 8, 2023
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On May 8, 2023 Parks and Recreation Commission
meeting, the Commission unanimously recommended
the City Council accept the draft guiding principles
and design goals for the San Lorenzo Park Redesign
process.
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Parks & Recreation Commission May 8, 2023
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Staff recommends the City Council accept the draft
guiding principles and design goals for the San Lorenzo Park Redesign process.
Next Steps:
Draft alternatives and concept plan.
Additional outreach.
Recommendation & Next Steps
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