more than one way to eat a mango

We have a few methods to get rid of cape ivy. The manual removal method is one I talk a lot about. Cape ivy is a weed that can be dealt with successfully with manual removal. But we also spray our large patches with herbicide (only one large patch left to go!). After spraying, almost everything dies back. When we look closely, not everything has gone. These trillium bloom and set light and color to the hillside.

 

Look more closely and California blackberry (Rubus ursinus) begins to leaf out.

Both herbicide application and manual removal have their place in the war on weeds. Destruction and disturbance occur either way.

all I do these days is kill plants

It's brutal out there and it's me that's doing the killing. I make myself feel better by telling myself (and others) that I'm freeing the natives. But really it's just about killing at the moment. It feels pretty good to pop a huge root out of the ground and fling the plant across the field.

veldt grass

Pulling veldt grass (Ehrhara erecta) in the oak woodlands. With this weed, it's all about consistency. It's flowering now, some dropping seed. A very prolific seeder, it also reproduces by stolons.

After removing the plant, space is suddenly created for about a trillion seedlings. All of which I try to pull before they set seed the next year. Like I said, persistence and consistency. You can't turn your back on a weed like this. So my problem isn't so much the population in the woodland. It's the population along the roadside.

I've written about this weed and this problem before and I come back to it because it takes up my mental energy. I have to figure out a solution to this problem. Cut and mulch it to death? Shrubby barrier between road and woodland? Spray again?

weed terminator

As I was pulling veldt grass (Ehrharta erecta) in the oak woodlands this afternoon, I thought of a great analogy for who I was and what I was doing. I am a weed terminator. I seek out my plant victim and kill it. I will not stop. I will find every last plant. I will persist and be consistent. Elkhorn Road runs right above this site and carries thousands of E. erecta plants and this is a problem I'll need to deal with creatively.

 Here is my veldt grass bouquet, just before I bagged it. It is flowering already. I came not a moment too soon.

The veldt grass is easy to spot right now since most other plants are just greening up and it's not too thick yet. The wide lime green leaves give it away. Thankfully I have an eye for detail.

While I was pulling, a group of Townsend's warblers (I think - amateur birder here) came through, snacking on insects? on the oaks.

And another oak was beginning to flower, barely unwrapping it's stamens.

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.

under the oaks

I spent a day under the oaks monitoring what's growing. We had cows grazing last season, as they will again this season, on a small area of the Reserve. They ate the leaves on the oaks and everything underneath. I go on either side of the electric fence and write down what is there. I spooked an owl twice on my monitoring journey.

Then I spent some time weeding around the 500 or so plants we planted in the nasturtium. The bottom picture shows the native clusters of woodmint, mugwort, and beeplant thriving. I am totally jazzed about this project. The nasturtium is easy to pull. The ground is easy to plant in. The poison oak is far away. Volunteers helped in every step of this project so far. I'd like to double the planting next year.

pulling English ivy

This morning I removed a 10 x 10 meter area of English ivy. I ripped it out by hand, carefully clipping back the poison oak that was intertwined in some areas. I cut the runners going up two coast live oak trunks. Those will die back and not pose a problem again. I'll be monitoring this site every few months for a year, then once or twice a year after that.

As I removed the final runner I laid my hand on a branch that was hanging near. I was thinking in my head that I was healing the land, especially so that this particular tree could grow. The message I got though, was that the land was actually healing me.

The piled ivy will be left to die and rot. Meanwhile, the ravine once covered in ivy will recover with natives already on site.

Cape ivy, etc.

The point of this blog is first and foremost for me to keep a narrative of the restoration efforts. As I write, things come to me upon reflection that I may not have thought about as I was pulling weeds. And vice-versa; some things come to me when I'm pulling weeds or in the field that I may not remember unless I write them down.

I started as Stewardship Specialist at Elkhorn Slough on September 3, 2008. I concentrate on invasive weed removal and revegetation by planting native plants.

December moisture and heat has brought up the weeds and they are growing like crazy. When I started, I begged for the rains to start so I could begin planting but I knew also what comes with the rain. I dreaded the onslaught of the invasives that were sure to come and now are here.

Some of the weeds I've been working on are below.

Cape Ivy - I've been going after regrowth on a 3 acre site that was sprayed May of this year. The spraying has proven very effective. We've hauled out 5 medium bags of resprouts that have popped up in isolated patches over the entire site. After who knows how many years, native seeds that have been lying in wait are germinating with the increased light. Stachys bullata, Artemisia douglasiana, and native Rubus vines that can really get a head start. Also lots of poison oak. I've got a perpetual case!

English Ivy - removing small patches here and there around the Reserve. It stays under the oak canopy mostly and is easy to remove by hand. Even thought the seeds can keep germinating the next few years, I feel like I can really get a handle on it.

Periwinkle - this plant occupies a large area (yet tbd) of oak understory that needs to be restored to diverse coast live oak understory. We've started a project to manually remove outlying patches and will replant as needed.

Thinking about restoration in the face of our changing climate and such adverse conditions; it is the action of restoration that is so powerful. It is the laying of hands on and in the earth that will make change. Involvement of people.