Soil cores help determine plant palette

It looks so innocent and poetic unfurling from the soil. But it's hemlock. This seedling along with hundreds of other seedlings (mostly hemlock and radish) are popping up from several soil cores taken from a new "pocket" restoration site (more on pocket restoration sites later). I'm trying to determine if we have any natives left in the seed bank. I'll need to wait at least two seasons to account for dormancy. So far, the only natives to germinate are sky lupin.

Not surprising since this plant is regularly seen on disturbed sites, as this particular restoration site is.

The soil cores were taken from around the site, mixed together, then spread atop sterile seed germinating mix and placed in the greenhouse. If any particular native plant community expresses itself, I'll go in that direction when planning the revegetation. If not, I'll take cues from the nearest intact native reference site.

I realize this may not be the most riveting process in the world to read about. But the act of getting to know a site intimately is actually very engrossing. I find myself going to these trays every day to see what's come up.

dirt

Working with plants so much I can't help but contemplate soil. As the volunteers and I pulled old hemlock stalks to clear a new restoration site today, I kept thinking about dirt. How does it change with different plants? How does that change affect the progression of plants at a site? How long might it take to return to "healthy" soil? What is healthy soil anyway?

Over the years I've been told or read various things about how different plants and disturbance regimes can change the structure, composition and critter make-up of the soil. Sometimes false information is passed down, based on a few observations or poorly drawn conclusions. Sometimes not. The process of exchange between a plant, the soil, the critters (from bacteria and microorganisms to birds), and air is incredibly complex. I don't pretend to completely understand it. But I need to know certain information so I can best plan for system recovery at a site.

Here's an example of the complexity of change in soil. Some folks on the peninsula at Edgewood Park, are helping the recovery of the threatened bay checkerspot butterfly by focusing on the problem of added nitrogen to serpentine soil which promotes growth of certain plants that then crowd out host plants for the butterfly. (http://www.butterflyrecovery.org/species_profiles/bay_checkerspot/)

I hope to embark on a new monitoring journey, focusing specifically on coast live oak understory, hemlock (Conium maculatum), italian thistle (Carduus pycnocephalus), maybe a few more weeds, and the soil before and after the addition of appropriate native plants and before and after removal of said weed. I have a bit of research and assessment to do. Maybe this has been done.

To be continued. . .