Filed under: 11505682, Community Service/Volunteer, Santa Monica Bay, Spring 2009, stone canyon creek, UCLA Sustainability, Watershed Restoration
This past Saturday I participated in the Stone Creek Canyon restoration project. It is an ongoing project organized by the Santa Monica Bay Keepers. As volunteers our main jobs are to remove invasive species (weeds) and do other clean-up jobs. Along with a small group of other students and volunteers, I first helped to move several piles of wood from the creek bank to the dumpster. We helped one another by having several people make small piles of wood for everyone else to carry and made a small path cutting across the bank. By moving the wood we were opening space on the bank for more native plants to be planted and just clearing the area. We moved both small pieces and larger trunk-sized pieces of wood. After finishing this task, the group I was working with moved to the other bank and joined the rest of the volunteers with weeding. Everyone was working to clear the bank of grasses and other weeds that are non-native to California. There were several native plants which had already been planted and were marked with small flags. We were all careful to not pull these plants, but to remove all invasive species from around them.
During the restoration I met several people from my class and also some people who did not go to UCLA. They were members of a local Key Club who participate in many of these projects. Making these social connections within the environmental community is one of the reasons I really like to participate in local projects. There is a sharing of information and an immediate connection about the project you’re are working on. Along with the actual restoration that is occurring, the creation of a community to continue the work is very valuable.
During this project we were applying conservation biology and ecology principles. We are trying to reestablish a native Californian ecosystem and create a natural place on campus. By removing invasive species we reduce competition for the wanted native species. After the native plants have been established, theoretically they will be superior competitors to the invasive species and be able to thrive without further human intervention. Also, I’m sure the native plants are planted in a way to help establish the correct succession. This is a very small area though, so it will be harder to create a stable ecosystem with strong populations when there exist so few individuals in the system. When populations are small, they are more easily affected and Stone Creek Canyon will probably always need a bit of human help to continue to thrive.
