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.
On Saturday April 18 I participated in the Santa Monica Bay Keeper’s restoration of the Stone Canyon Creek behind the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. This was my second time volunteering and the progress that has been made on the restoration project is significant. I hope that the Santa Monica Bay Keeper’s continue this project and should introduce the project at local high schools to get more student volunteers who need more community service hours. The purpose of the project is to protect and restore the creek to a more natural habitat. This means the removal of non-native and invasive plants that have dominated the area.
My role in the project was to remove branches and pieces of wood that have been had been cut down from the project site and then for the majority of the time my role was to remove invasive grasses using gardening and working tools. When removing the invasive plants I had to make sure the vegetation was taken out from the root to ensure that the plant would not re-grow. This was difficult because some of the roots were deep and thin so it was easy for the root to break off when pulling it out. Certain areas of the project site had newly planted native plants that were marked by flags to inform volunteers not to pull out those plants.
Native vegetation is crucial to the restoration of the creek because it guarantees that the Stone Canyon Creek will be a natural ecosystem and not dominated by invasive plants that can cause harm and disrupt the habitat. Furthermore, native plants help with stability of the environment and with stability can the creek be functioning at its optimal capacity. One of the goals of the project is for the re-introduction of native plants as well as the survival and growth of this vegetation, because invasive species can affect creek flow in a negative way. Another reason for the rationale behind this project is since the 1970’s when environmental legislation started to get underway the Clean Water Act discussed the preservation of waterways, thus legally it is imperative that further destruction and losses of Stone Canyon Creek does not occur, and one way of ensuring this is by restoring the creek. The restoration project follows both the science and policy rationale because restoring the creek is ecologically most beneficial for the health of the creek and for the preservation of a waterway which by law are protected from further harm.
Filed under: Watershed Restoration
Stone Canyon Creek: Activity Planning Committee (Danielle Perrot and Natalie Ma)
When volunteering for the Stone Canyon Creek project on October 18, we primarily removed non-native vegetation from Stone Canyon Creek near the Anderson school (largely physical work). Although the removal of non-natives is the point of the activity, we felt that our experience might have been enhanced had we been prepped before working with a quick tutorial on identifying the natives and non-nonnatives, the historical context of those plants, where Stone Canyon Creek comes from, and why it is important to this ecosystem to remove the invasive, non-native species.
As future “activities” for the Stone Canyon Creek project, we propose the following:
- Introduction of project leaders and of project
- Removing exotics: pulling invasive weeds out, cutting down non-native trees
- Picking up trash from, in, or around stream
- Planting of native plants
- Surveying of native flora: This would include taking gps coordinates, dbh, height, canopy size, etc, of the plants. This could be conducted every few months to track the status of the natives as the non-native vegetation was removed.
- Stream survey: take pH of water, test for contaminants, measure flow. Again, this would be a longitudinal study (over time)
- Soil Survey: use existing soil survey as a means of studying the soil and understanding the vegetation that grows there. Again, ph tests, collect soil samples through auguring, etc.
- Fauna survey: what lives in the soil, what lives in the trees, what lives in the water, what needs the native vegetation to survive?
- Participant education – what’s invasive and what’s endemic? How do you identify these plants? Why is it important? What significance have they had historically? Why do the native plants grow there, and why are we removing the non-native plants? Where does Stone Canyon Creek come from? Why do we care about it?
- Lunch – What we eat and how it impacts the environment.
I was on the Financial Team for the Stone Creek restoration project. Find money to finance any type of restoration project can be difficult, but restoring an on campus creek can provide new sources of money. By talking to the administration about the academic benefits of having a natural habitat can bring in financial sources. Also, beautifying the campus may be in the interest of the college to attract more students by providing a wider variety of places to explore and relax. Restoration projects can also be funded by external environmental groups who are always looking for people to help them and their goal to restore as much native ecosystem as possible.
The Stone Creek restoration was funded by a grant which was used to buy supplies for restoration (gloves, shovels, weed removers, native plants/trees, and a truck to take the weeds away). The only really big expense is the cost the native plants, but restoration projects can often get the needed plants from other organizations that provide them for free or at a reduced price. After buying all the supplies, the only continuing charges that are needed is the weed removal services and any fees needed for advertising and such. Since the people doing all the work are volunteers, there are no labor costs.
My experience with the restoration was really great. It’s a really good well to help restore part of the UCLA community which was lost but is still saveable!! Helping remove invasive species and plant new native trees was actually really fun and I learned about native species and how to plant them. I’ve done similar projects in the past and plan to keep active in habitat restoration community.
Filed under: Watershed Restoration | Tags: invasive species, Los Angeles River Basin, Santa Monica Bay, stone canyon creek
“Reviving the Natural Landscape”
Restoring Stone Canyon Creek is an essential step in preserving the last flowing waterway in the local watershed that ultimately collects in Ballona Creek in West LA. The environmental purpose is to eliminate the persistent invasive plants, restore native vegetation, and attempt to fully reconnect all sections of this waterway in order to carry out its natural processes. But why bother with such a project that is unseen and unheard of by most people of the area? The lack of “flowing rivers” in this once saturated Los Angeles basin is the driving answer. 0With years of development around and over this creek, it is essential to set an example for future generations that steps are needed to preserving a historical natural landscape, for the good of the environment and communities.
Invasive plants around the creek:
- Ivy: Noticeable around adjacent hillsides of the creek; layers upon itself, making it difficult for volunteers to isolate and pull roots effectively.
- “Wandering Jew” silver-backing, leafy vegetation, some with white flowering: The large amount of shade provided by the natural oak trees is an ideal environment for this invasive species to thrive.
Eliminating this invasive vegetation will allow more room for natural vegetation to grow as they often are “choked out” by such persistent plants. The surrounding environment may soon be affected by these invasive plants and can ultimately be eliminated as well, distorting the natural ecological ground cover of the Los Angeles area. Policies are being developed at both the state and federal levels in order to effectively manage invasive species and offer better alternative options. The Cal-IPC (www.cal-ipc.org) is one non-profit organization that works to improve invasive plant management. Their policies and work are good examples of the steps needed to revive threatened areas. By offering local residents education on existing invasives and alternative options, all with easy-to-read facts and images, they are ultimately setting a guideline that can be used for future invasive vegetation policies and management.
From creeks to our front yards, invasive plants are encroaching on the natural vegetation of the Los Angeles area. Volunteering at the Stone Canyon Creek restoration project helped me realize how our growing sprawl and development into areas, whether it’d be a university or a household, does pose an impact on the natural environment who’s history can easily be buried and be long forgotten. While it is inevitable that such impacts can occur, our response in restoring this flowing creek responsibly and hopefully sustainably, can offer positive paybacks in the future in areas we may not necessarily see now. I do not necessarily limit “areas” only in an ecological sense, but rather also in equity, education and economic fields. Restoring this creek may be the step in positive change that can touch many uninformed lives to be mindful of one’s impact on the environment and possibly make change in areas that can disrupt this delicate earth.
Stone Canyon Creek – possible positive impacts:
- local community awareness and beautifying the area
- local businesses sponsoring the up-keeping of the area, informing customers of their “green” outreach
- local fauna and flora thriving with opportunity for observation of their revival
- water quality observation and possible low-impact development projects stemming from this creeks’ restoration
- soil, vegetation, water quality analysis as a future guideline for land cover management policies
[VickyZ, Green Team]
Filed under: Watershed Restoration | Tags: ivy, Restoration, stone canyon creek, wandering jew
Stone Canyon Creek Restoration
On Saturday I participated in the Stone Canyon Creek Restoration activity. I had actually never been to this particular part of campus, only heard about it, and it was really interesting to see what it was all about. We got there early and our mission was to remove all of the invasive species in the area and eventually replant the area with all native California species. The two species that we were interested in eradicating were the Wandering Jew and Ivy. Both were nuisances in the area, so we began work with our pitchforks clearing the area and transporting all of the weeds to a dump truck. Myself along with a group of classmates cleared a massive section of Ivy and surprisingly it was much more difficult than expected because the root system for the Ivy was fairly deep, and not to mention had thick roots. After we cleared that area we had to make sure we got most/all of the roots removed so we “turned” the soil and then sifted it to get rid of all the deeper roots. I thought this was a very interesting project to be going on but definitely a very worthwhile one. We need to restore more areas like these with a natural flow of water back to a state that is representative of native California vegetation and landscape. Overall I had a great experience working on the restoration of Stone Canyon Creek and hope I can volunteer again sometime soon!
Filed under: Watershed Restoration | Tags: bruincast, community service, podcast, stone canyon creek, vodpod
Restoration work in progress
This past weekend (November 15th) after taking part in the Stone Canyon Creek restoration process I have a new appreciation of the creek on campus. I think it’s interesting that so few students are even aware of the fact that there’s a creek located anywhere near us, let alone just behind Anderson. When asking my coworkers if they were aware of Stone Canyon creek they each replied “huh?” and after explaining about the creek only 2 of the 5 of them were aware of its existence. I think the steps that the Santa Monica Baykeepers are taking to restore the creek are great, but I also think there should be more of a push for awareness on campus. After informing friends and colleagues of Stone Canyon they became increasingly interested in visiting the creek and helping with the restoration process, and I think the simple act of raising awareness would greatly increase the effectiveness of the project. After spending a few hours pulling out weeds, grass, and vines along the creek’s bed I was also disappointed in the fact that we weren’t able to completely remove the vines due to the objection Anderson would have to it. I found it ironic that they were so adamant that we remove the vines and all of the roots, but we still had to leave a huge strip of vines behind to appease Anderson for visual effect. I feel as though our work may go to waste once the invasive vine species is once again allowed to spread because of the stuff we left behind. Obviously this isn’t the fault of the Baykeepers, but rather Anderson, but it still bothered me. Other than that I found the experience to be useful as well as enjoyable, and the final payoff of removing all we could of the invasive exotic species and planting the native species was a positive one.
–Sarah Y
Filed under: Watershed Restoration
Community Service Day and Environment 170 students engaged a day of uprooting ivy vines and planting native species along the Stone Canyon Creek Watershed.
Turning soil and planting natives along the creeks' eastern bank. Adjacent to the Anderson School
Turning the soil, planting natives
Native berries in
Site for information on California natives
The Theodore Payne Foundation
Filed under: Watershed Restoration
Primarily consists of gardening tools- supersized.
Daylighting implies that the stream is not exposed to the sun and normally refers to bringing a stream back up to the surface from a pipe underground. In this case it meant removing the non-native overgrowth, which surrounds and invades our stream.
