Going Back in Time
We at Sonoma Mountain Institute have been searching for information on the history of this beautiful land in which care for here in Petaluma, CA. Luckily, we found California’s Coastal Prairies website that takes us back in time to the Pre-History and History of Sonoma County. The website begins about telling how grasses started to develop 80 million years ago and then leads to describe how California underwent climate and geology changes that diversified grassland environments. Summaries regarding the last 10,000 years and our current history, explain the evolution of megafuana grazing the land, the arrival of Europeans and Native Americans, and the historical timeline in which non-native grass and forb species have invaded the historic space in which native species primarily resided. Although we found additional websites that offered information about our historic location, we found that the California’s Coastal Prairies website did an efficient job of encompassing the longest time period and had the most detailed information within their historical timeline. If you are interested in reading more about the Pre-History & History of Sonoma Counties Prairies feel free to click on the hyperlink above.