In the fall, the Strawberry Creek Restoration Program (SCRP) applied for and received a small grant from The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF). Thanks to these funds, we were able to purchase a number of ecologically vital native plants from the wonderful Watershed Nursery Cooperative in Richmond (check them out!). We wanted to use this activity as an opportunity to get in community with other students, so we reached out to Cal Wildlife Society - a community of environmentally conscious students on campus with a focus on animals, big and small - to help us put these plants in the ground!
On a brisk Thursday afternoon (December 11th), our little group met up at the Rain Garden, a site on the Grinnell Walkway that has been under SCRP student intern maintenance for several years. From swaths of ivy and invasive blackberry, we have slowly worked to transform this little spot of land into a garden fostering habitat, biodiversity, and education. With lots of open space amidst the established native plants, this seemed like the perfect place to bring our new plants!
The soil, hard and threaded with fibrous redwood roots, resisted our shovels, but we persevered and carved out new homes for Berberis aquifolium (Oregon grape), Ribes aureum (golden currant), Ceanothus (California lilac), Juncus (rush), Fragaria vesca (woodland strawberry), Vaccinium ovatum (evergreen huckleberry), and ten (10) Rubus ursinus (California blackberry). These plants will require our attention and care as they try to establish, so keep an eye out for them as you walk by!
Members of SCRP and Cal Wildlife Society, finding spots to place their plants.
Julia, a SCRP student intern (left), and Hanni, a volunteer (right), planting native blackberry.
Plant spotlight! At left: Native californian blackberry, planted just above the ravine leading down to Strawberry Creek. Hopefully this species will be able to establish here, filling the niche often appropriated by the highly invasive Armenian blackberry plant. At right: A species of rush, a riparian grass native to California, was planted along the sides of the channel which runs through the center of the Rain Garden, helping to collect and filter runoff water from the Grinnell Walkway.
Jett (Cal Wildlife Society) waters the newly planted additions with water straight from Strawberry Creek. The orange flags are used to alert folks walking by to the presence of vulnerable young plants, with the hope of preventing trampling!