The Influence of Land Use Alternatives on Traditional Ohlone Floristic Resources

Publication Date

1-1-2025

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Human Ecology

DOI

10.1007/s10745-025-00599-5

Abstract

The ancestral homeland of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe is located in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Spanish and Anglo-American colonists degraded the land, negatively impacting species richness and diversity through the suppression of Indigenous burning, land privatization, overgrazing, urbanization, and the introduction of European agricultural and socioeconomic practices, along with non-native species. Despite this, the knowledge of plants traditionally used for food, medicine, ceremonies, and building materials remains intact, rooted in Ohlone traditional ecological knowledge. We conducted a vegetation survey using 30 transects in a riparian corridor within the watershed to understand the current distribution of historic plant resources. We applied the Kruskal-Wallis test and Dunn’s post hoc tests to analyze the distribution of historical resources, as well as native and non-native plant species across various land-use types. Areas with higher levels of anthropogenic land use, pastures, and service roads exhibited the lowest levels of plant biodiversity, traditional plant resources, and native plant presence. In contrast, undisturbed and ecologically restored sections of the corridor demonstrated a greater presence of conventional resources and plant species diversity. The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe can use these results to guide future resource collection and land management decisions, and we advocate for incorporating traditional ecological knowledge into current land management practices.

Keywords

California, Ethnobotany, Historic plant resources, Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, Traditional ecological knowledge, Vegetation survey

Department

Environmental Studies

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