GEOG 318 WINTER 2015: FINAL PROJECT

MOUNTAIN L ION HABITATS DISTANCE FROM SAN LUIS OBISPO HIGH SCHOOLS

By Katie Nehrenz & Dempsey Davis

INTRODUCTION

Research Question:• How many high schools are within a 2 km distance of hardwood vegetation and other factors which are conducive for mountain lion habitats?

The California mountain lion, P. concolor californica, prefers rough, rocky, semi-open areas with hardwood cover. According to research done by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, lions also prefer three types of hardwood vegetation which are found in San Luis Obispo County – Blue Oak-Foothills Pine, Blue Oak Woodland, and Coastal (Live) Oak Woodland – of the four found in the County Hardwoods 1998 in SLO County file available from SLO Datafinder. Another factor that is important for lions establishing their habitats is water source. For this specific analysis we chose named streams which are longer than 5000 m to see if they fall in close proximity (2 km) to high schools in San Luis Obispo County.

Tesky, Julie L. 1995. Puma concolor. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online].U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [2015, March 13].

FILES UTILIZED IN THE PROJECTWe used files provided by Dr. Bohr, these included:

California coastline (and USA counties)SLO County roads for Geocoding

We also used files provided by the SLO Datafinder, these included:Water Sources - Creeks in the City of San Luis ObispoEnvironmental - County Hardwoods 1998 in SLO County

The addresses for the eight high schools were found by looking at the school districts in San Luis Obispo County, California and selecting important high schools in the area.

IMPORTANCE OF THE PROJECTHigh school students in San Luis Obispo County are often not as aware as Cal Poly students that SLO area is a hotspot for mountain lions to build their habitats. By looking at the type of hardwood vegetation in the area which is conducive for mountain lion habitats it is clear that a majority of the area is covered by the three preferred types - Blue Oak-Foothills Pine, Blue Oak Woodland, and Coastal (Live) Oak Woodland. Schools within a 2 km distance of these hardwood areas are especially at risk of a lion visitor on their campus or around the area.

By creating this map we also have a display of other areas covered by the three lion preferred types of hardwood vegetation. This could also be of assistance when new high schools are proposed, to establish them in areas where there is less chance of encroaching mountain lion habitats.

METHOD - SELECT BY ATTRIBUTESelecting San Luis Obispo County from all Counties in the U.S.A. through the ‘Select By Attribute’ tool

The final selection layer removed from the counties shapefile

METHOD – GEOPROCESSING: DISSOLVEBefore using the ‘Dissolve’ tool – boundaries for the different hardwood areas are separated by boundary lines despite having the same name attribute.

After using the ‘Dissolve’ tool – boundaries for the different hardwood areas are no longer separated by boundary and are grouped together based on the same name attribute

OTHER METHODSWe used the ‘Clip’ tool to select roads to the SLO county shapefile

As well as ‘Select By Attribute’, ‘Dissolve’ and ‘Clip’, we chose to use:

Geocoding: We used Geocoding to code high schools to the main roads. We created an Address Locator from the roads shapefile, which contained all of the information about street addresses in San Luis Obispo County to code our excel spreadsheet of high school addresses.

Buffer: We created a 2 kmbuffer around the high schools that we Geocoded.

Map of San Luis Obispo County High Schools Within Range of Mountain Lion Habitats

CONCLUSIONSFour of the eight high schools which we processed fell within a 2 km distance range of at least one named stream longer than 5000 m, as well as within the range of at least one of the three types of hardwood vegetation which mountain lions prefer. One high school fell within the range of a creek but not any hardwood vegetation. The most abundant type of hardwood vegetation near the high schools was Coastal (Live) Oak Woodland.

From North to South:

• Paso Robles High School – Closest to Valley Oak Woodland, which is not a preferred hardwood vegetation

• Templeton High School – Close to all three preferred types of hardwood and Valley Oak Woodland, next to Paso Robles Creek

• Atascadero High School – Close by Blue Oak-Foothills Pine, next to Atascadero Creek

• Morro Bay High School – Not close to any hardwood, within proximity of Little Morro Creek

• San Luis Obispo High School – In range of Coastal (Live) Oak Woodland, within proximity of Stenner Creek

• Mission College Preparatory High School – Within range of Stenner Creek

• Coastal Christian School – Not close to any hardwood or creek

• Nipomo High School – Not close to any hardwood or creek