By Raquel Guevara-Bolaños:
On a crisp Friday morning, the students of Restoration Ecology from Sonoma State packed up and drove out to the Laguna de Santa Rosa foundation in Occidental. Our group was led by Brent Reed who is the Ecological Program Manager at the foundation and Paul Weber who is a Restoration Field Supervisor. We began our day with a tour of the location. There were several things to feast our eyes with!
One of our pit stops included the Observation deck. Here, we got a panoramic view of the grassland that was in the shape of a bowl and at the other end was Irwin creek. Paul told the group that because of the topography, the whole field floods during the rainy season. Though the previous owners of the land had used it for other reasons, such as agriculture and grazing, the foundation was trying to restore the bowl to its historical setting. Of course the question always remains, how far back do you go in a restoration project? For the purpose of this project, it was being restored back to its condition before it was used for agricultural purposes. One of the main methods for restoring the field was to plant “wetland loving species” as Paul called them. This was done by collecting seeds from Irwin creek and planting them in the field. A benefit to this method was that eventually with a field of what’s been planted, it can be harvested and distributed to other places.
Hannah and Wendy checking out the Native Plant Nursery. Photo © by J. Raquel Guevara-Bolaños.
The next stop was the native plant nursery on the property. Brent explained to us that everything that was grown there was either grown from a seed or from a cutting. There are many different seeds from several locations and it is important to keep them separate because as Paul mentioned earlier, the location in which plants originate is important. As a response to the wildfires that tore through Sonoma county, the Laguna de Santa Rosa is partnering with the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) to collect seeds from fire areas to plant them and save the vegetation genetics from those areas. Eventually they plan on contacting the homeowners to try and get them to plant the plants that came from those areas as a restoration effort.
The rest of the day at the Laguna, the group of students worked along the Irwin creek. They worked on taking chunks of sedge that grows on the property and transporting it over to the creek. There, the students worked on planting the chunks of sedge in rows right along the sides of the creek. This would be beneficial for the creek since sedges grow fast and they provide habitat for other species. The day finally came to an end after much hard work. Though the students helped plant a lot of sedges, there is still a lot of work to do!
The Restoration Ecology Squad facing Irwin Creek, eager to get planting! Photo © by J. Raquel Guevara-Bolaños.
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