Little Basin © Dan Quinn 2007

Of all the forest floor residents, the bright yellow banana slugs are perhaps the hardest to miss. There are actually three species of banana slug. The largest can reach nearly 10 inches in length and, despite their name, they range in color from white to spotted to nearly black.

In our redwood forests, the trees and the banana slugs seem to have reached an agreement. The trees help maintain the consistent temperature and moisture levels that the slugs need to survive, and in return, the slugs avoid eating redwood seedlings and feed on other plants that compete with redwoods.

Banana slug eating a strawberry at
Little Basin State Park  © Jacob Kantor 2012

After they’ve targeted their intended meal with their small sensory antennae, banana slugs move across the food and use a ribbon-like organ called a radula to eat. Small teeth (denticles) on the radula scrape or cut food particles for digestion. The slugs are detritivores—animals that devour the debris, or, detritus, of the forest floor. (Although, as mentioned above, the banana slugs will also feed on small live plants, and seem to have a particular fondness for mushrooms!)

As they move throughout the forest processing what they’ve eaten, banana slugs leave behind waste. This waste adds plant nutrients like nitrogen to the soil. Nitrogen helps build plant cells and is an ingredient in photosynthesis, helping plants produce food so they can continue the cycle of growth, decay and new growth.

Let’s face it: slugs probably won’t win any awards for being cute and cuddly. In fact, when you search online you’ll find page after page of articles on getting rid of these “garden pests.” But like all living things, they have their part to play (and it’s not just as the mascot for the University of California, Santa Cruz). The banana slug’s role in enriching soil makes it an essential member of the amazing ecological system of our local redwood forests.

Michelle Mellon
POST Publications and Public Relations Manager

Approximately the size of a robin, marbled murrelets are primarily seabirds, with webbed feet and short powerful wings to propel them through the water. But during their summer breeding months, pairs of birds head inland to the forests. There they take turns nurturing a single chick in a mossy nest 100 feet or higher on the large limbs of redwoods or other large trees.

These tiny torpedoes can fly at 60 miles or more per hour, which comes in handy since they fish in coastal waters for herring, smelt, anchovies and invertebrates, then zoom ashore to feed their young at dawn or dusk when they’re less likely to be seen. Even with their speed and natural secrecy, however, they’re facing challenges.

The first marbled murrelet nest in North America was only discovered in 1974, in Big Basin Redwoods State Park in Santa Cruz. Less than twenty years later the species was added to the federal threatened list and the state endangered list. Oil spills and gill-net fishing pose hazards in the water, while the shrinking of old-growth forests leaves them exposed to predators on land. POST’s acquisition of properties like CEMEX Redwoods is critical to  preserving habitat that helps these birds survive.

Jays, ravens and crows like to prey on marbled murrelet eggs and chicks when they can find them. They are also scavengers, happily feeding on food that humans leave unattended. As more and more forests become small and fragmented, these birds are easily able to scour smaller areas looking for scraps. And despite the camouflage effect of the marbled murrelet’s plumage, the more time the scavenger birds spend in these areas, the more likely it is they’ll discover a marbled murrelet nest.

There are simple things you can do to help. First and foremost is keep nature natural. When you’re enjoying the great outdoors hiking, cycling, riding or camping, remember to secure your food, clean up after yourself and don’t feed the wildlife.

You can also visit our Heart of the Redwoods page to learn more about the campaign to save our local redwood forests. Together we can conserve more areas like CEMEX Redwoods to help the marbled murrelet—and the rest of us—who depend on these protected lands.