MIND WALK: Reconstructing the Landscape

Description: What did Morro Bay watershed look like before roads, ranches, and modern development transformed the landscape? This Mind Walk will uncover how the Morro Bay Estuary and surrounding valleys existed under full Indigenous stewardship prior to major Euro-American modification to the landscape. Through historic maps, imagery, writings, and drone footage, we’ll explore the landscapes, stories, and ecological processes that continue to shape Morro Bay and how understanding the past can guide watershed restoration and stewardship today.

Join Sean Baumgarten (SFEI), Chad Jackson (State Parks), and Jeff Ebner (State Parks) as they dive into Morro Bay’s rich cultural, ecological, and geologic history!

About the Presenters:

Sean Baumgarten is a Senior Scientist in the Resilient Landscapes Program at the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI), where he has worked since 2012. His research focuses on the historical ecology of California ecosystems, using archival data to reconstruct the form and function of past landscapes and understand how they have changed over time. Sean has conducted research on coastal, riverine, and terrestrial ecosystems throughout California. Sean earned a Master of Environmental Science and Management degree with a specialization in Conservation Planning from the Bren School at UC Santa Barbara and a B.S. in Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology from UC Davis.

Jeff Ebner has been an Environmental Scientist with California State Parks – San Luis Obispo Coast District since 2011. His work focuses on using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to collect, manage and visualize scientific data supporting sensitive species conservation, environmental planning and park operations. By combining field experience with spatial analysis, Jeff reveals patterns across the landscape and documents environmental change over time. He holds a degree in Environmental Management and Protection from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a concentration in Forestry. Through his work, Jeff bridges science, technology and field experience to inform conservation decisions and preserve the stories of California’s landscapes for future generations.

Chad Jackson has been the District Archaeologist and Tribal Liaison for the San Luis Obispo Coast District of CA State Parks since 2018. Prior to this role he has worked in the environmental field and within cultural resources since 2004, beginning his career locally with CA State Parks and in the private sector doing environmental compliance work for cultural and biological resources. He has been using geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing within the fields of archaeology, botany and earth sciences for the past 20 years and continues to apply this technology to scientific research and conservation. His current research, centered along the Central Coast, includes archeoastronomy, geoarchaeology of the marine terraces and coastal dunes, impacts of the Spanish mission system and subsequent colonialism on indigenous communities, sea-level rise over the past 12,000 years, and traditional Native American resource management and fishing during this span of time. One ongoing project, which had its beginnings during his undergraduate work at Cal Poly in 2006, involves studying coastal erosion and bluff retreat. The ongoing project has contributed to our understanding of punctuated bluff erosion, loss of archaeological sites, how human impacts on the planet are affecting our most precious coastal resources, and documentation of over 8,500 years of coastal fishing and intertidal stewardship of the indigenous people of San Luis Obispo County.