By Cassady Davis:
On November 8, 2019, our Restoration Ecology class took a field trip to an area of the Laguna de Santa Rosa. When we first got to the site, the leaders talked to us about why they were doing restoration at the site, what work they’ve been doing, and also what happens when the site floods. The project was started when the Santa Rosa Airport needed to increase the length of their runways, which took out portions of wetland situated near the airport. In order to offset the damage caused by them, the airport needed to invest in a project that did an equal amount of restoration at another site- the Laguna de Santa Rosa.
The work we were asked to help with that day was taking off the plastic covering that supports younger trees like Oregon Ash (Fraxinus latifolia) before they are mature enough to hold themselves up. The way we did this was by sliding a box-cutter down the side, careful not to get too close to the bark of the tree in case we accidentally cut that and opened the tree up to diseases. One other important thing to look out for was if there were any wasps hiding inside. Most of them had left for the season, but apparently over the summer, each tree is swarming with wasps’ nests.
It was interesting learning about the wasps and their make-shift habitats inside the plastic tubes because the lead restorationist talked to us about how these paper wasps– part of Family Vespidae– were not really seen in the area 20 years ago. But now, at least one nest can be found in every single plastic tube over the summer. Paper wasps use wood and plant stems to make their nests, so it makes sense that they would use the protective tubes that give them access to safety and wood.
After working on the plastic tubes, we were given a little tour around the property and got to see what an intern was working on for a smaller project. The intern had planted Santa Barbara Sedge (Carex barbarae) and Snowberry (Symphoricarpos) and the lead restorationist was talking about how he wanted to get in touch with tribal communities nearby to see if they could donate the grasses that are used in basket-weaving, which I thought was a great idea and a great way to stay connected in the community.
After walking around and then taking a break for lunch, we had a conversation with the restorationist who had been the original leader of the site’s restoration project. She spoke with us a lot about the oak trees and how the oak trees form networks in the soil connected by mycelium. This is how they “talk to each other” and communicate when they will disperse their acorns. This mass acorn planting gives them a higher chance of survival from predators like invasive turkeys, which graze incessantly on the acorns dropped from those trees. When she was finished talking to us, we packed everything up and headed back to campus. Overall, it was very interesting to learn about the wasp habitats and invasive turkeys.
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