Climate Change

 

Climate Change on the Juan Bautista de Anza Trail

Climate change is reshaping the world as we know it. It has serious consequences for people and ecosystems everywhere—including along the Juan Bautista de Anza Trail.

The story of climate change isn’t over, and the future is in our hands. The story of the Anza expedition has a lot to teach us about how climate change is shaping the landscape, and how we can respond. People have risen to big challenges before. Now, it’s time to do it again.

Learning from the Anza Trail

Have you ever overcome a difficult challenge, even though it felt overwhelming?

The Anza Trail follows the route of a Spanish colonial expedition from October 1775 to March 1776. Approximately 240 family members, 1,000 pack animals, three Spanish priests, Indigenous guides and translators, and Spanish military colonel Juan Bautista de Anza made the trek on foot from Sonora, Mexico to San Francisco in less than a year.

They encountered extreme hardships, including a wide river crossing, a winter storm and earthquake, many illnesses, and periods of dehydration. Anza and Father Font, a Catholic priest, kept detailed journals of their travel, often referencing hardships and describing the state of the land and its resources. As they traveled, the expedition party worked together to support each other and overcome challenges. They received help from Indigenous communities along the way with river crossings, finding water sources, land guidance, and language translation.

Today, we face a different challenge: climate change. Like the expedition party, we’ll need to approach hardship with resilience. We’ll need to keep careful records of what we experience and the shifts in the world around us. And we’ll need to work together, each playing a role according to our strengths, in order to work towards a brighter future for all.

Climate Change and Colonization

Despite its name, the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail wasn’t discovered by Anza. Indigenous Peoples have been using these trails since long before the Anza expedition. Indigenous communities have cared for the land since time immemorial, and are still connected to it. But the Anza expedition was tied to Spanish colonization, which dealt a violent and devastating blow to Tribal worlds as they existed.

As Spanish colonists spread, they brought new agricultural systems that were often practiced unsustainably for existing conditions. In some cases, overgrazing led to erosion and the loss of native grasslands, while forests were cleared for building materials. The colonists, in importing their way of life, also suppressed Indigenous cultures and lifeways.

These actions have lasting impacts today, including in the context of climate change. Both grasslands and forests store a lot of carbon. When those healthy ecosystems are changed or destroyed, that carbon is released into the atmosphere, where it contributes to climate change. The Indigenous stewardship practices that colonists worked to prevent are also highly effective keeping ecosystems healthy around the world. Western studies have confirmed that areas managed by Indigenous Peoples are often more biodiverse¹ and store more carbon² than other lands. By preventing these practices, colonization harmed the land and climate.

As we respond to climate change, we can learn from history. It’s crucial for climate action to include everyone. That’s especially true for those with traditional knowledge like Indigenous stewards, so climate action can honor knowledge gained over generations of interactions with the land. The story of the Anza expedition also highlights the need for justice in our response. How can we respond to climate change in a just way, and move towards a better future?

Climate Change on the Anza Trail: How is climate change reshaping the landscape?

Drought along the Santa Cruz River

On their way north towards Tubac, the expedition stopped in an area they called Las Lagunas, in modern-day Nogales, Arizona on October 14th, 1775.

“All these lands are abundant in pasturage, and in them, the San Ygnacio [Santa Cruz] River rises.” (Diary of Father Font, October 14th, 1775)

The expedition relied upon the Santa Cruz River as a natural water source to survive. Today, the Santa Cruz River water levels are decreasing due to increased overgrazing, development, and intermittent drought. Reduced river levels have threatened the aquatic life and riparian plants that are reliant on the river for their survival.

 

Santa Cruz River in 2021

NPS photo

Urbanization along the Colorado River

In November of 1775, The Anza expedition reached present-day Yuma, Arizona, where the Colorado and Gila Rivers converge. The colonists needed to cross the river to make it to San Francisco, but in 1775, the water level was too high to cross safely. The only way they could cross the river was on horseback with the help of the Quechan tribe who knew the best and widest crossings.

“The width of the river where we crossed it I judged to be some three or four hundred varas [0.15 to 0.2 miles], and this is at the time when it is lowest, for when it is in flood it is leagues in width and extent through that land that is so level.” (Diary of Father Font on November 30th, 1775)

Increased agricultural activity and the canaling of water to southern California and metropolitan Phoenix have dropped the water levels of the Colorado River so much that the river no longer reaches its destination at the Gulf of California. It is a concern for future water needs in the American Southwest. It’s much easier to cross the Colorado River today, even on foot.

 

The Colorado River

NPS photo

Sea levels in San Francisco

When Font and Anza arrived in San Francisco Bay, Anza erected a cross where the Golden Gate Bridge sits today.

“The commander decided to erect the holy cross, which I blessed after Mass, on the extreme point of the white cliff at the inner terminus of the mouth of the port.” (Diary of Pedro Font, March 28th, 1775)

As global temperatures rise and ice caps melt, sea levels are rising all around the world. By 2100, it is projected that the sea could rise by an additional 6.53 feet, increasing the risks of flooding and erosion. This threatens natural, cultural, and recreational resources in the coastal area. But if we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, we could limit sea level rise in San Francisco to 1.57 feet by 2100³.

 

The San Francisco Bay

Kirke Wrench

Where do we go from here?

Comparing diary entries from the Anza expedition to the landscape today confirms what science has already told us: climate change is here, and it’s impacting places we know and love. However, the expedition’s history is a great example of overcoming extreme difficulty by resiliency. It can feel overwhelming, but remember that to accomplish this goal, we can lean on others to support and help us on this journey.

When is a time you’ve accomplished a challenging goal? Did you do it on your own, or with the help of others? What did that feel like?

Stories from the past show us that people have impressive determination when it comes to providing a better future for their loved ones. The expedition members were willing to go through extreme hardship to make that possible. We, too, can use the same determination, resiliency, and teamwork to combat the impacts of climate change for future generations.

Doing Your Part

Like all great challenges, the first step towards fighting climate change is finding your own unique way to contribute to the solution. While they were tackling a different set of issues, the Anza expedition reminds us of the depth of human courage, and the ways in which we can rise to meet the challenges of our time.

In the same way, we have to respond to climate change together. Everyone has a role to play, and there’s no one size fits all solution to the challenge that we face.

 

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

Consider this Venn Diagram, developed by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. It asks you to consider three questions:

• What work needs doing? What are meaningful ways to take action on climate change? To think about this, you can explore climate solutions tools like the UN’s Sectoral Solution to Climate Change.

• What are you good at? What tools and skills do you have? What networks could you reach out to?

• What brings you joy? Climate action is a marathon, not a sprint. Doing something that makes you happy and motivated will help you keep it up for the long haul.

At the intersection of these three circles is your climate superpower—the best way for you, specifically, to fight climate change and work towards a brighter future. It will take all of us working together to confront the scale of this challenge. If we all apply our climate superpowers, we can take big steps towards making it happen.

 

References

1. Richard Schuster, Ryan R. Germain, Joseph R. Bennett, Nicholas J. Reo, and Peter Arcese. 2019. "Vertebrate biodiversity on indigenous-managed lands in Australia, Brazil, and Canada equals that in protected places." Environmental Science & Policy 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2019.07.002

2. Wayne S. Walker, Seth R. Gorelik, Alessandro Baccini, Jose Luis Aragon-Osejo, Carmen Josse, Chris Meyer, Marcia N. Macedo, Cicero Augusto, Sandar Rios, Tuntiak Katan, et al. 2020. “The role of forest conversion, degradation, and disturbance in the carbon dynamics of Amazon indigenous territories and protected areas.” PNAS 117 (6), 3015-3025. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1913321117

3. NOAA Office for Coastal Management. Digital Coast Sea Level Rise Viewer. https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/slr.html. Accessed 2024.

These numbers came the San Francisco, California local scenario projections for the year 2100, under the “Intermediate Low” and “High” sea level rise scenarios.

Page authors: Claire Baker with assistance from Elizabeth Villano