continuing cape ivy removal at the Jazwin property

Manually removing cape ivy is a long and slow process, but is working beautifully at the Jazwin property. It's about persistence. I visit once a month to continue where I left off. Above is the first removal site. This was the first time no cape ivy sprouts were found!

What I did find were lots of these native blackberry (Rubus ursinus) sprouts.

The burrito roll is completely dead after one year and decomposing.

At the second site, I've got the entire patch almost rolled up into one long burrito. I'll need some help in the future rolling this over so it doesn't resprout.

The last patch that I need to remove is enormous. It's one acre and grows basically into the marsh. Here it is intertangled with pickleweed.

Nasturtium at the Springer property

1pm. Mapped nasturtium infestation to fenceline of neighbor. Very windy, cool but not cold. If not for the wind, it would be warm. Edges are mixed with nasturtium sparse. Middle of infestation approx. 100% Nast. cover.

Above are notes from mapping a nasturtium infestation under the oak woodlands at our Springer property. Note: we name our properties by the last names of the most recent owner, unless we can find a better more historically appropriate name.

This is a large infestation (couldn't calculate the acreage due to operator error!). But easy to remove and replace with natives. As I may or may not have stated here before; Nasturtium is not a good competitor. At least not here at this site under the oaks. It will persist - the seed bank - but cannot compete with dense planting of species like woodmint. We continue to remove Nasturtium by hand and plant clusters of natives.

The mapping is essential to monitoring progress. One conservation goal at ESNERR is to protect, enhance, and restore coast live oak woodlands. The removal of invasive non-native species such as Nasturtium is an integral part of that plan.

Rabbit's foot grass

 The floating lawn. Rabbit's foot grass (Polypogon monspeliensis) seed head, bent over into the freshwater where hundreds of seeds germinated on water. This is a non-native invasive grass, especially invasive in wet habitats, and this picture exemplifies why.

logic models

Yes. Logic models. My new best friend. Maybe everyone says that after they get out of a two day workshop on project design and evaluation, but I really mean it.

Now, my husband may scratch his head at me actually identifying with logic models, but isn't it about the complimentary relationship here? What I lack in logic, the model makes up for in organization? In any event, I intend to use them to map out my stewardship management objectives at the Reserve.

Here's an example taken from the web. I don't know if you can detect my excitement in this text, but believe me, it's there!

green thumb, black thumb, win some, lose some

The nursery is often productive but sometimes, it's not. Most of what you see here are dead plants.

After transplanting these mugwort (Artemisia douglasiana), most of them died. This isn't what is supposed to happen, especially with this hearty species.

What should happen is this. 

 Same soil, different plant but just as hearty. These are bush lupin (Lupinus arboreus) and they all survived. Yep. Every last one. None show any signs of distress.

It's not easy to show the things that don't go well in restoration. But it is just as important to show what went wrong as what went right. It's advancement of knowledge either way.

I do think it's time, however, for the "Women Growing Natives" group to really get going. Better walk my talk and pull this group together.

resources and links

I am updating all the great web resources that exist for us as restoration folk and native plant enthusiasts. The list to the right isn't even the half of it. These are my favorites (although not nearly all) and I would expect that if I asked a colleague, she might give me an entirely different list. Next will be a list of hard copy resources that I can actually dog ear and get coffee stains on.

As the blog grows and changes, it becomes a resource for me. I would love for it to become more of a collective, or to change and morph it into something more collective and collaborative. Or create something new that is collective??? I'm open to ideas. . . .

making lots of babies

in the nursery. Not those kinds of babies. These kinds of babies.

Martha's hands are moving so fast I can't even capture her transplanting with a digital camera!

Believing we are going to have significant rainfall this season, I have ambitious goals this planting season. Judging by this storm coming in, I don't think I'll be disappointed. However, it could rain a lot, then stop for several months and start again in say late January. Who really knows??

We have thousands of plants getting ready to go in the ground. We'll start planting beginning of November and go through late February.

eucalyptus

Over 200 species planted in the states in the last hundred plus years. A few became invasive and now I'm dealing with what was once hope for economic prosperity. This water sucking tree is right at home at the Reserve. It's not all bad. The little research that has been done doesn't make this species out to be the demon of all invasive species. In fact, a eucalyptus forest may support a diversity of species comparable to an oak forest (see Elkhorn Slough's Coastal Training Program references on Eucalyptus, http://www.elkhornsloughctp.org/). This is a bit dangerous to say; nevertheless it's the truth and we need facts to help inform decisions.

What I'm most concerned about is that these trees have been used to dry wetlands. I'm also concerned with fire, but we won't get into fire right now. Back to wetlands. . .one restoration strategy is to remove eucalyptus from around important freshwater wetlands that support listed species such as the Santa Cruz long-toed salamander, California red-legged frog, and Western pond turtle. All of whom use a particular freshwater pond on the Reserve called Cattail Swale.

In hopes of securing as much freshwater as possible for Cattail Swale, we have begun the process of removing eucalyptus saplings from an adjacent upland canyon. By saplings I mean anything less than 12 inches diameter at breast height (DBH). Even these small trees take time and care to remove. Each stump is treated with herbicide so it won't grow back (at least I hope not).

For almost every eucalyptus removed, a coast live oak grows underneath. My long-term goal is to help this particular canyon above Cattail Swale return to native coast live oak forest. It won't be difficult. It WANTS to be a coast live oak forest. The pieces are already there. There's just one piece that doesn't really fit. Yep. The eucs don't belong here.

images of the week

This praying mantis was near one of our freshwater guzzlers.

This guzzler just had a face lift (thank you Shirley Murphy!) with new native plants and a brush pile for refuge.

Rush rose (Helianthemum scoparium) seeds about to go into the toaster oven. 250 degrees for 5 minutes helps them to germinate.

Rush rose seeds.

Found this beauty while I was moving bricks.

Deerweed (Lotus scoparius) seeds.

Deerweed seeds in a hot water bath. You know, to help them grow.

And who is this sweet heartbreaker and why is she in the Slough images of the week? Well, I picked her up after work as she charged out of the marsh into the busy Elkhorn Rd. She's safely at a shelter, and if no one claims her. . .let's just say she made an impression on me in the 15 hours we spent together.