Vernal pools are one of the rarest and most unique habitats in southern California consisting of seasonally, small wet basins that get wet for a very short time during the rainy season and then dry up for the rest of the year. Vernal pools occur as small ponds in areas with a hard soil, which traps the water when it rains, preventing percolation into the ground. Distinct wet and dry seasons, typical of the Mediterranean climate, result in species that have adapted to extremes of short, wet winters and long, dry summers during when all surface waters evaporate. Because theses vernal pool species have adapted to such harsh conditions, they cannot survive anywhere else, making them very rare. Many of them are threatened or endangered.

The City of Carlsbad recently took over long-term management of the Poinsettia Station Vernal Pool Preserve. The city will get Habitat Management Plan coverage for five vernal pool species. By getting “coverage” for a species, it means that the city is conserving, protecting and managing the species so the species are now protected from disappearing within the city boundary. 

Here is a list of the species for which we recently received coverage.

• San Diego buttoncelery Eryngium aristulatum var. parishii
• Spreading navarretia Navarretia fossalis
• California Orcutt grass Orcuttia californica
• Riverside fairy shrimp Steptocephalus wootoni
• San Diego fairy shrimp Branchinecta sandiegoensis