Beginning this month, several acres along Nipomo Creek will be getting a makeover from the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County as part of a native plant restoration project aiming to install more than 10,000 native shrubs and trees on the property over the next three years.
In a recent interview with the Sun, the Land Conservancy’s Restoration Manager Michael LeBrun said the project would be completed in three phases.
Phase one planting will begin the week of March 9, culminating with a large-scale planting on March 14. At the event, local volunteers will help Land Conservancy and Dana Adobe Nipomo Amigos staffers plant 300 to 400 native shrubs and trees along the creek.
The Land Conservancy used funds allocated from the Guadalupe Oil Field Restoration Sub-Committee to buy plants for the project. Money also went toward weeding and setting up proper site irrigation.
“This acreage has been open graze for decades,” LeBrun said, adding that the site is also covered in a “weed seed bank” that took months to remove.
The seeds and weeds, LeBrun explained, will be replaced with dozens of “pioneering native plant and tree species,” such as wild cucumber and coyote brush, and creek dogwood, sycamore, and coast live oak trees.
Once the new plants have a chance to take root, organizers will start the last two phases of the project, which include fencing the riparian corridor and establishing a livestock water source. The fencing and water source will allow livestock to graze nearby on designated lands for short periods of time. Rather than jeopardizing the creek habitat, LeBrun said, grazing would help manage the weed population naturally.
“The goal is to not let them chew the grass down to the point that they start looking at the shrubs and trees,” he said.
The volunteer planting event is scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon at the Dana Adobe, 671 South Oakglen Ave., in Nipomo. Children younger than 18 must be accompanied by an adult.
For more information or to RSVP, call Dave Rau at 544-9096, Ext. 14, or visit LCSLO.org.
This article appears in Mar 5-12, 2009.
