- Santa Rosa Plateau
The Santa Rosa Plateau is an upland in
Riverside County, California . It is a southeastern extension of theSanta Ana Mountains , and is bounded by the fast-growing Inland Empire cities of Murrieta to the northeast and Temecula to the southeast.The plateau is home to several native plant communities, including
bunchgrass prairie,Engelmann Oak woodlands,coastal sage scrub , andvernal pool s, which are increasingly rare in urbanizedSouthern California . The Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve preserves approximately convert|8400|acre|km2|0 of the plateau. The reserve was assembled in several stages; two parcels, comprising convert|3100|acre|km2|0, were purchased byThe Nature Conservancy in 1984. The intervening parcels were purchased in the 1990s by theState of California , theRiverside County Regional Park and Open Space District , and theMetropolitan Water District of Southern California . Although the parcels remain under the ownership of separate agencies, they are managed cooperatively, with biological resource management, which includes a prescribed fire and habitat restoration programs, managed by the Nature Conservancy, and visitor management, which includes operation of a visitor center and a convert|40|mi|km|-1|sing=on trail system, managed by the Riverside County Regional Park and Open Space District.External links
* [http://www.santarosaplateau.org/ Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve]
* [http://www.seetheglobe.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=881 Visiting the Santa Rosa Plateau from SeeTheGlobe.com]
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