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Vol. 32, No. 3 July 2004 FREMONTIA

A JOURNAL OF THE CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY

IN THIS ISSUE:

BIODIVERSITY AND STEWARDSHIP: OUR COMMON RESPONSIBILITY by Peter H. Raven 3 LISTENING TO CALIFORNIA’S GRASSLANDS AND THEIR STEWARDS by Grey Hayes 12

MAKING ENDS MEET: COMMUNITY- BASED STEWARDSHIP ON PRIVATE LANDS by Dan Leroy 18 CREATING A SENSE OF PLACE IN THE GOLDEN GATE NATIONAL PARKS by Pete Holloran 25 STEWARDSHIP PROFILES 10, 11, 17, 23, 24, 30 VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 FREMONTIA 1 SPECIAL ISSUE: STEWARDSHIP CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY FREMONTIA CNPS, 2707 K Street, Suite 1; Sacramento, CA 95816-5113 (916) 447-CNPS (2677) Fax: (916) 447-2727 VOL. 32, NO. 3, JULY 2004 [email protected]

Copyright © 2004 MEMBERSHIP California Native Plant Society Membership form located on inside back cover; Distributed in October 2004 dues include subscriptions to Fremontia and the Bulletin Linda Ann Vorobik, Editor Mariposa Lily ...... $1,000 Supporting ...... $75 Pete Holloran, Convening Editor Benefactor ...... $500 Family, Group, International . . . $45 Bob Hass, Copy Editor Patron ...... $250 Individual or Library ...... $35 Beth Hansen-Winter, Designer Plant Lover ...... $100 Student/Retired/Limited Income . $20 Justin Holl & Jake Sigg, Proofreaders STAFF CHAPTER COUNCIL CALIFORNIA NATIVE CALIFORNIA NATIVE Sacramento Office: Alta Peak (Tulare) . . . . Joan Stewart PLANT SOCIETY Executive Director . . . . . Pamela C. Bristlecone (Inyo-Mono) ...... Muick, PhD Sherryl Taylor Channel Islands ...... Lynne Kada Development Director . . . . Michael Dedicated to the Preservation of Dorothy King Young (Mendocino/ the California Native Flora Tomlinson Sonoma Coast) . . . Jon Thompson The California Native Plant Society Membership Coordinator . . . Marin East Bay ...... Joe Willingham (CNPS) is a statewide nonprofit orga- Lemieux El Dorado ...... Amy Hoffman nization dedicated to increasing the Sales Manager ...... Paul Maas Kern County . . . . . Laura Stockton understanding and appreciation of Finance Manager . Lois Cunningham Los Angeles/Santa Monica Mtns . . . California’s native plants, and to pre- East Bay Conservation Analyst . . . . . Betsey Landis serving them and their natural habi- Jessica Jean Olsen Marin County ...... Bob Soost Milo Baker (Sonoma County) . . . . . tats for future generations. At Large: Reny Parker CNPS carries out its mission Fremontia Editor ...... Linda Ann Mojave Desert ...... Tim Thomas through science, conservation advo- Vorobik, PhD Monterey Bay ...... Robert Hale cacy, education, and horticulture at Sr. Policy Analyst ...... Emily Mount Lassen ...... Jim Bishop the local, state, and federal levels. It Roberson, PhD Napa Valley ...... Marcie Danner monitors rare and endangered plants So. California Regional Botanist . . . North Coast ...... Larry Levine and habitats; acts to save endangered Ileene Anderson North San Joaquin . . . . Gail Clark areas through publicity, persuasion, Orange County ...... Sarah Jayne Interim Rare Plant Botanist ...... and on occasion, legal action; pro- Redbud (Grass Valley/Auburn) . . . . Misa Ward vides expert testimony to government Chet Blackburn bodies; supports the establishment of Vegetation Ecologist . . . Julie Evens Riverside/San Bernardino counties . . native plant preserves; sponsors work- Vegetation Ecologist . . . Anne Klein Katie Barrows days to remove invasive plants; and San Bruno Mtn. Project Coordinator Sacramento Valley . . Diana Hickson offers a range of educational activities Joe Cannon San Diego ...... Dave Flietner including speaker programs, field trips, Legislative Advocate .Vern Goehring San Gabriel Mtns . . . . Lyn McAfee native plant sales, horticultural work- Legal Advisor ...... Sandy McCoy San Luis Obispo . . . . Charles Blair Sanhedrin (Ukiah) . Chuck Williams shops, and demonstration gardens. Website Coordinator ...... Santa Clara Valley . . Georgia Stigall John Donaghue Since its founding in 1965, the tra- Santa Cruz County . Janell Hillman ditional strength of CNPS has been Bulletin Editor . . Michael Tomlinson Sequoia (Fresno) . . . . Warren Shaw its dedicated volunteers. CNPS ac- Shasta ...... Dave DuBose BOARD OF DIRECTORS tivities are organized at the local chap- Sierra Foothills (Tuolumne, Cala- ter level where members’ varied in- Carol Baird, Jim Bishop, Vern veras, Mariposa) . . . . Patrick Stone terests influence what is done. Volun- Goehring, Steve Hartman, Diana South Coast (Palos Verdes) ...... teers from the 33 CNPS chapters an- Hickson, Lynn Houser, Lynne Kada, Barbara Sattler nually contribute in excess of 87,000 David L. Magney, Sandy McCoy, J. Tahoe ...... Michael Hogan hours (equivalent to 42 full-time em- Spence McIntyre, Carol Witham Willis L. Jepson (Solano) ...... ployees). (President) Allison Fleck CNPS membership is open to all. Yerba Buena (San Francisco) . . . . . PROGRAM DIRECTORS Members receive the quarterly jour- Mark Heath nal, Fremontia, the quarterly statewide CNPS Press ...... Holly Forbes and Gail Milliken MATERIALS FOR Bulletin, and newsletters from their PUBLICATION local CNPS chapter. Conservation . . . . . David Chipping Horticulture ...... Peigi Duvall CNPS members and others are wel- Fremontia logo (by L.A. Vorobik) re- Posters ...... Bertha McKinley come to contribute materials for pub- printed from The Jepson Manual, J. and Wilma Follette lication in Fremontia. See the inside Hickman, Ed., 1993, with permission Rare Plants ...... Ann Howald back cover for manuscript submission from the Jepson Herbarium, UC. © Re- Vegetation . . . .Todd Keeler-Wolf instructions. gents of the University of California. Printed by Business Point Impressions, Concord, CA

2FREMONTIA FREMONTIA VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 CONTENTS GUEST EDITORIAL: MEASURING SUCCESS ...... 2

BIODIVERSITY AND STEWARDSHIP: OUR COMMON RESPONSIBILITY by Peter H. Raven ...... 3 Peter Raven, known throughout the world for his conservation efforts, considers why California has such a diverse flora and the current threats to natural habitats, yet concludes that stewardship of our “backyards” may be one of the greatest contributions we can make towards preserving wildlands.

LISTENING TO CALIFORNIA’S GRASSLANDS AND THEIR STEWARDS by Grey Hayes ...... 12 California’s prairies are precious, endangered communities thriving because of unsung human heroes. From the nutrient-poor, species-rich serpentine to the moist, colorful coastal prairies, these grasslands support most of California’s endangered plant species. California grassland stewards can teach us a lot about how future generations might live alongside these species. MAKING ENDS MEET: COMMUNITY-BASED STEWARDSHIP ON PRIVATE LANDS by Dan Leroy ...... 18 Community-based groups and high school students are working with private landowners and government agencies to restore native ecosystems on farms and ranches in the Central Valley. And, to the benefit of farmers, ranchers, students, and native species, the collaboration seems to be working. CREATING A SENSE OF PLACE IN THE GOLDEN GATE NATIONAL PARKS by Pete Holloran ...... 25 The experience of stewardship comes alive in this series of quotations from volunteer stewards, accompanied by photographs of them working in the Golden Gate National Parks near San Francisco. It’s all about giving something back, finding joy and mystery in the natural world, and building towering piles of iceplant. STEWARDSHIP PROFILES Like many evocative words with a long history, stewardship means something different depending on who you ask. So we asked around and invited eight different practitioners to share a few thoughts about their philosophy and experience. While working on their own articles, Grey Hayes, Pete Holloran, and Dan Leroy conducted the inter- views that were then crafted into these profiles in stewardship. Where appropriate, the stewardship profiles appear adjacent to the relevant article. Dennis Rogers Martinez ...... 10 Mary Petrilli...... 11 Joe Morris...... 17 Dave and Linda Batcheller ...... 23 Petey Brucker ...... 24 Sue Gardner ...... 30 Sharon Farrell ...... 30

THE COVER: Volunteers, staff, and students engaged in stewardship activities in the Golden Gate National Parks. Captions on pages 25-29 except upper left (Oceana High School students) and bottom right (students in the park’s LINC program). Images courtesy of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and National Park Service.

VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 FREMONTIA 1 GUEST EDITORIAL: MEASURING SUCCESS USEFUL WEBSITES AND CONTACT INFORMATION ow do we know when stewardship efforts are successful? Since the Hecological world is so complicated, scientists measure vital signs to Stewardship Resources: indicate ecological health, like a doctor checking your pulse. But ecological See p. 29 indicators aren’t the only story. Social vital signs are just as important: California Native Plant smiles from strangers along the trail, donations from community founda- Society: tions and corporations, a child’s shout of delight upon spying a creek, www.cnps.org, with links to satisfied volunteers eating watermelons after another warm day working conservation issues, chapters, publications, policy, etc. out in the field. In May 1993, when I attended my very first stewardship workday, I To sign up for “NPCC News,” e-mail news on native plant remember thinking it strange that several dozen people would give up part science and conservation, send of their precious weekend to do such hard work. But within a few hours I a request to [email protected]. quickly understood their perspective. It was a beautiful spring day, the company was quirky and entertaining, the work was pleasantly strenuous, For updates on conservation and there were so many things to learn. It just felt good. Amid all the issues: disappointing news about the environment, here was an opportunity to Audubon Society www.audubon.org make some good news, to engage in something positive and life-affirming. Center for Biological Diversity Maria Alvarez, who was leading the Habitat Restoration Team that day, www.sw-center.org as she has for more than ten years of Sundays, helped me understand that Natural Resources Defense stewardship is as much about restoring our relationships with the land and Council each other as it is about restoring ecological processes. It was the seamless www.nrdc.org combination of the social and the ecological elements that made it so Sierra Club attractive. www.sierraclub.org This issue of Fremontia celebrates both the social and ecological dimen- Wilderness Society sions of stewardship. Peter Raven suggests that although Californians live www.wilderness.org in a diminishing world—in which the meadowlarks are moving even further For voting information: up into the hills, in his delightful turn of phrase—we can halt that decline by developing a strong stewardship tradition. In his review of grassland stew- League of Women Voters www.lwv.org, includes online voter ardship in California, Grey Hayes reminds us that such traditions still exist, guide with state-specific nonparti- among California Indians and some ranching families, and continue to san election and candidate emerge. Dan Leroy demonstrates that building bridges between private information. land owners and urban school children can contribute to ecological health US Senate as well as community well-being. A final pictorial essay illustrates how www.senate.gov volunteers working with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area are US House of Representatives remaking the landscape and each other. www.house.gov These stories only scratch the surface. The last decade has witnessed an California State Senate incredible boom in stewardship activities around California. Some still think www.sen.ca.gov that it is merely the leisure time diversions of earnest urbanites near San California State Assembly Francisco, but nothing could be further from the truth. There are hundreds www.assembly.ca.gov of special places where individuals, schools, and entire communities are acting as stewards of natural landscapes. To write letters: After spending months thinking about land stewardship in California, President George W. Bush I’m starting to feel a bit more ambivalent about the word itself. I began The White House seeing the term everywhere, from advertisements for “wealth creation” 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington, DC 20500 companies to the political pronouncements of the Bush administration describing their forestry policies. The word stewardship is like a beautiful Senator Barbara Boxer or Senator Dianne Feinstein urn that retains its charm even when it’s being filled with bad burnt coffee. US Senate Appreciating the mug doesn’t mean that I have to drink from it. I like to Washington, DC 20510 think of these stewardship profiles, full of wry wit and honest work, as a Your CA Representative reminder of how good coffee can taste. Let us know (at [email protected]) US House of Representatives how it tasted to you. Washington, DC 20515 Pete Holloran

2 FREMONTIA VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 BIODIVERSITY AND STEWARDSHIP: A COMMON RESPONSIBILITY by Peter H. Raven

hen I was 14 years old, did most people begin to think about is very bad—they’re talking about Wmy family moved to a how the environment affected their widening the road over Tioga Pass.” house near the west end own lives and take actions to im- But when he asked why it was bad, I of the Presidio in San Francisco, prove the situation. had to think about it. If you want to and I began to search for plants on Even the Sierra Club was not go over Tioga Pass, why wouldn’t the sandy and rocky slopes in that much involved in conservation ac- you want a wider road? To get fascinating area. The following year, tivities when I joined in 1948. The somewhere as rapidly as possible 1951, I found there an undescribed members were generally more con- was a generally held value at the manzanita, now called the Presidio cerned with such things as skiing, time—even if it required cutting manzanita (Arctostaphylos hookeri ssp. rock climbing, and outings than through pristine forests. ravenii), which was represented by with conservation matters. For me, My personal awakening to con- only a single plant. Some 46 years the Club provided wonderful op- servation paralleled that of the coun- later, that plant was featured in a portunities to visit natural areas I try as a whole, progressing through wonderful documentary, Don’t Say hadn’t seen before, to collect plants, the 1950s and into the 1960s. In the Goodbye, made by Susan Middleton and eventually to serve as a natu- summer of 1959, while a doctoral and David Liittschwager. The film ralist on some of the Base Camp student at UCLA, I joined a dozen shows the elaborate preparations outings. students on a two-month study trip they took to photograph the plant, The first actual conservation is- to Colombia. We took classes and carefully putting boards down so sue I can remember concerned the explored the country, but had no they wouldn’t compact the soil road over Tioga Pass. I recall say- knowledge of a vanishing rainforest, around it, and wearing protec- ing to my father, after reading a much less a consciousness that the tive gloves while rearranging the story in the Sierra Club Bulletin, “It world’s environment was somehow branches slightly for photography. As I watched a preview screen- ing, I thought, “Good heavens, his essay is based on a talk presented on April 22, 1998, at an when I first collected that plant, I TEarth Day event that took place in Berkeley at the University would never have thought of tak- of California campus. Although the author was born in Shanghai, ing such extreme care for any wild China, Peter Raven grew up in San Francisco, where John Tho- plant: the idea that it might be in mas Howell was his early mentor in the Department of Botany at danger of extinction simply never the California Academy of Sciences. After graduating from UC occurred to me. At the time, I sim- Berkeley (AB, 1957) and UCLA ply walked up to the plant, snipped (PhD, 1960), Raven served as off a few branches, cut them up director of the Missouri Botani- with shears, and put them into my cal Garden and Engelmann Pro- plant press. It was lucky I didn’t fessor of Botany at Washington take the whole plant!” University for some 33 years, What has happened in the in- following nine years at Stanford tervening decades that caused such University. He has been an a dramatic shift in my environmen- outspoken advocate for con- tal awareness and that of countless servation and sustainable devel- others? I was born in 1936, so I can opment throughout the world, remember the latter part of World co-authored best-selling text- War II and the late 1940s. In those books, and received numerous days, the “cutting edge” of environ- awards, honorary degrees, and mentalism was whether you should academy memberships in the throw trash out of your automobile US and abroad. onto the street. Only gradually, and more intensely starting in the 1960s,

VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 FREMONTIA 3 Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park (above). Photograph by B. Ertter. • Presidio manzanita (Arctostaphylos hookeri ssp. ravenii), known only from a single plant (left). Photograph by L. Vorobik.

matters of concern, and many were the short-term environmental im- doubtful about the basic steps as pacts myself, when I taught in the America forged a durable environ- Organization of Tropical Studies mental policy. basic ecology course in Costa Rica Several of us at Stanford began in 1967. One could really see how to worry about the projections of much forest was being cut down population growth and its conse- because of the rapidly growing quences for the environment. One population and rising affluence in projection showed that if the hu- the country. Biologists began to re- man population kept growing at alize that the disappearance of the present rate, the mass of hu- tropical forests and the alteration threatened. The rainforest was man bodies would be expanding at of other communities would drive there: if you wanted to go and study the speed of light in a matter of a many species of organisms rapidly it, you could just go and study it. few thousand years. At any rate, to extinction. This was recognized Then in 1962 I joined the De- our discussions of the relationship as an important issue that contin- partment of Biological Sciences at between human population levels, ues to motivate much conservation Stanford, when the battle over hunger, starvation, pollution, and activity now, and will clearly con- DDT was already underway. I re- many unfavorable consequences tinue to do so in the future. member a professor from San Jose eventually led Paul Ehrlich to write Another very necessary ingre- State University who used to ap- The Population Bomb, published in dient in the public’s growing envi- pear on television eating spoonfuls 1968. With its vivid scenarios of ronmental awareness, social justice, of DDT powder to prove that those these consequences, it helped to also began to come to the fore dur- who wanted to ban it were overstat- set the new agenda of environmen- ing the 1960s. People began to ing the danger. Battles raged around tal concern. realize that unless the world’s re- environmental issues as they became I observed first-hand some of sources were distributed more

4 FREMONTIA VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 equitably, there would be little mately followed by widespread gla- Mediterranean climates on the west- chance for the kind of stable civil ciation in the north as well. ern sides of continents in the world’s society in which environmental In the face of these changes to oceans. In the latitude of the pre- challenges could be met adequately. worldwide climate, the hemisphere- vailing westerlies, winds coming in This in turn set the stage in this spanning flora and fauna gradually over cold currents increased their country for the enactment of our became fragmented and were also moisture-holding capacities when basic environmental legislation, in- affected locally by the presence of they passed onto warm lands. The cluding the National Environmen- newly-rising mountain ranges. Only result was that rain became very lim- tal Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, widely separated regions, called ited during the warm part of the the Clean Air Act and the Endan- Tertiary refugia, still harbor sig- year and fell mostly during the cool gered Species Act. Within the nificant representatives of this origi- season. Such Mediterranean climates framework provided by this legisla- nal biota, and even these have been are unusual on a world scale, occur- tion, environmental matters have depleted differentially over time. ring in California, southwestern Aus- remained an important part of our Although China, the United tralia, central Chile, the Cape re- national agenda subsequently. States, and Europe are all about the gion of South Africa, and of course Nowhere is this truer than in same size, Europe has 11,500 spe- the Mediterranean region itself. California, where the unique and cies of plants, the United States fragile environment has heightened about 18,000 species, and China the sense of environmental aware- about 30,000. More have survived ness beyond that in most of the in China, and more have evolved Nation. In order to maintain the there. For example, the dawn red- sustainability of their beautiful state, wood, or Metasequoia, which was the explosively growing millions the dominant tree in much of west- who will live there will have to do ern and northern North America even better. 40 million years ago, ultimately van- ished from the continent. It is now represented in nature by only about WHAT MAKES 6,000 trees surviving in south-cen- CALIFORNIA tral China. SPECIAL? Another result of realigned oce- anic currents was the formation of To understand what makes the California flora special, as well as uniquely vulnerable, it is necessary to look far back in time, when simi- lar assemblages of plants and ani- mals occurred throughout Eurasia and North America. The world bio- logical scene started shifting rap- idly in the mid-Miocene Period, some 15 million years ago, with the origin and spread of continental gla- ciation in the Southern Hemi- sphere. This glaciation, triggered by the impact of tectonic realign- ments on oceanic currents, was ac- companied by spreading aridity on a continental scale and was ulti-

Shasta snow-wreath (Neviusia cliftonii), a recently discovered species, restricted to moist canyons in northern California (top right). • Coast redwood (Sequoia semper- virons) forest in the hills east of San Francisco Bay (right). Photographs by B. Ertter.

VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 FREMONTIA 5 Wildflower groups with great species diversity in California are exemplified by the following four genera: Phacelia, with a species from the San Gabriel Mountains shown here (top left), is represented by over 90 species in California. Photograph by B. Ertter. • Trifolium, represented here by T. fucatum (top right), includes over 40 species in California. Although many think of all clovers as introduced, at least 32 species of native clovers occur in our state. Photograph by B. Ertter. • Eriogonum, with Conejo buckwheat (Eriogonum crocatum) shown here (middle left), is represented by over 110 species in California, and includes species such as the sulphur buckwheat which have numerous subspecies (E. umbellatum has 17 subspecies in California). Photograph by L. Vorobik. • Manzanita (Arctostaphylos) (bottom left) has over 50 species in California; A. insularis, a Channel Islands endemic, is shown here in fruit. Photograph by L. Vorobik.

The cumulative impact of these ern California, and with its rela- changes in California was that many tives in the southeastern United of the species that occurred here States and in Asia. Redwoods pro- until the Early Miocene Period vide a different example, with their disappeared. As a result, the cur- ability to trap moisture from fog rent flora largely consists of two that permits them to create their groups of plants that have had very own microhabitat where a whole different origins, each of them con- group of associated organisms sur- tributing to California’s special vives. character. The first group consists The second group consists of of Tertiary Era survivors, which genera that thrived in the new, sum- coped with seasonal aridity because mer-dry climate. To such genera, of their unusual adaptations, or be- the geologically rapid spread of cause they moved to higher, cooler such a climate made much of Cali- elevations or became restricted to fornia’s area functionally like the moist canyons and other habitats bare surface of an island emerging similar to the ones that had been from the sea. This situation, in com- widespread earlier. bination with the complex geology Shasta snow-wreath (Neviusia and topography, created great op- cliftonii) is a prime example, re- portunities for adaptive radiation, stricted to moist canyons in north- producing tremendous constella-

6 FREMONTIA VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 tions of species in genera such as losing that richness today as human state provides an environmental sce- Phacelia, Eriogonum, Trifolium, Cea- beings and fragile nature collide ever nario in which sustainability will be nothus, and Arctostaphylos. more forcefully. increasingly difficult to achieve. These unique and fragile eco- To make matters worse, Cal- systems of relatively recent origins ifornia’s biodiversity is being eroded that occur over much of the state CALIFORNIA UNDER by a tidal wave of invasive species are, then, home to a diverse biota SIEGE from other parts of the world. Many consisting largely of unique spe- of the worst plant pests have come cies that are often adapted to pecu- A main threat to California is, from those areas that have a similar liar local habitats. As a result, the of course, habitat loss to develop- Mediterranean climate, and a ma- native flora of California is extraor- ment, which is getting worse all the jority of them were brought to Cali- dinarily rich, comprising about time as the population continues to fornia deliberately. Bruce Babbitt, 5,500 vascular plant species out of increase. California’s population of then Secretary of the Interior, noted the approximately 18,000 found in over 30 million people is growing in 1998, “The invasion of noxious the United States and Canada as rapidly towards 40 million, with 60 alien species wreaks a level of havoc a whole. million predicted by the middle of on America’s environment and More remarkably, 40% are en- the 21st century. When queried, economy that is matched only by demic to the California Floristic most residents say they want a com- damage caused by floods, earth- Province (the part of California that fortable house and an affluent Cali- quakes, mudslides, hurricanes, and lies west of the Sierra Nevada, plus fornia lifestyle that takes for granted wildfire.” northern Baja California and south- a level of consumption considered Today it’s virtually impossible western Oregon). This makes Cali- very high by world standards. Add- to imagine how the fragile ecosys- fornia the biologically distinctive ing up these individual dreams and tems looked that greeted Father and endlessly interesting place that desires and multiplying them by the Junipero Serra and his companions it is. Unfortunately we are rapidly growing numbers of people in the when they reached what is now the

The urban development of Oakland encroaches on the wildlands of the East Bay Hills. Photograph by B. Ertter.

VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 FREMONTIA 7 southern border of San Diego the sides of the canyons, with rela- on serpentine, some wooded—but County in 1769 and continued tively few adventives (introduced all fascinating biologically. The northward, founding missions along and not yet naturalized plants) University of Santa Clara had been the way. On their horses, in their among them. Perhaps such a scene in the area since 1851, but Silicon clothes, and among their supplies provides a clue to what pre-Euro- Valley was still unimaginable, some- were the first seeds of Medicago, pean California would have been thing for the distant future. Down- Erodium, Avena, Bromus, Hordeum, like, but we simply cannot know ingia was still present on the Stan- and many other Eurasian plants that with any degree of certainty. ford campus until the 1940s. have subsequently come to domi- Whatever California looked like Particularly since 1945, however, nate the grasslands of California. in 1769 changed drastically in an the natural communities of the Bay We might imagine something amazingly short period of time, and Area have deteriorated rapidly, and like what Elizabeth McClintock and many of us have witnessed a similar biological diversity has decreased at I saw in Corral Hollow in the early period of rapid habitat loss during an ever-increasing rate as invasive spring of 1949, which was a fantas- our own lifetimes. During the 1940s plants spread and housing develop- tic wildflower year. There were when I was a small boy, I remember ments exploded. The meadowlarks sheets of wildflowers coming down when our family used to drive down have moved further back into the to visit relatives near San Juan hills, and something important is Bautista and Hollister, in northern clearly being lost. And global warm- San Benito County. ing, projected to increase mean tem- On the three-and-a-half-hour peratures by more than 3 degrees drive from San Francisco through Celsius by the middle of the cen- the orchards around San Jose we tury, will displace many habitats and passed beautiful flats, vernal pools lead to the extirpation of many spe- filled with colorful patches of Down- cies unless we can achieve major ingia and Lasthenia, and other spe- changes in our industrial activities, cialized habitats, some saline, some starting immediately.

Non-native Cape ivy (Delairea odorata) and native California rose (Rosa californica) (left) compete for habitat at Albany Hill, a small park in the San Francisco Bay Area. • Volunteer stewards pull weeds to encourage native plant growth at Albany Hill Park (below). Photographs by B. Ertter.

8 FREMONTIA VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 are manufacturing something and Bay Area, people who care are in- putting huge quantities of waste volved in stewardship activities in products back into the living sys- their own backyards—on Bernal tems that support us, or if we are Heights, on Twin Peaks, in the East using up natural resources more Bay parks, in the Presidio. In the quickly than they can be replen- Golden Gate National Recreation ished, we are impairing the ability Area alone, volunteers from around of the Earth to sustain itself and the Bay Area contribute tens of thus stealing from those who come thousands of hours annually to help after us. Ultimately, we are also restore sensitive habitats. making it impossible to preserve What will be the outcome of biodiversity, including California’s our efforts to save California’s natu- extraordinary flora. ral areas, in the midst of continuing In the face of such overwhelm- development? Will the meadow- ing and not particularly pleasant larks retreat further into the hills? Downingia sp. Photograph by L. Vorobik. realities, people often ask me Will we see less and less of Down- whether I am a pessimist or an op- ingia? I do not know the answer, A gracious lady, then in her timist. The reasons that I am an but I am appreciative of those who nineties, told me in the 1980s that optimist are, first, that I intend to her parents had started bringing the do something about the situation family annually to Carmel in 1929. myself, and I know I can make mat- I gasped and remarked wistfully, ters better by doing so, and also “Sadie, it must have been absolute- because I know that the world is ly gorgeous then!” She looked at filled with other people like you, me somewhat incredulously, then dear Fremontia reader, who are laughed and said, “Peter, do you committed to doing something know what local residents said when about the situation, and who will we first arrived there? They said, do something about it. ‘You should have seen this place in As Americans, we need to rec- 1925, when it really amounted to ognize our special responsibility as something!’” citizens of the richest nation in the A good lesson for us all, isn’t it? history of the Earth, and take ad- The opportunities to preserve vantage of the extraordinary privi- biodiversity will never again be as leges that we enjoy. Most of the great as they are right now. If we readers of this magazine are already Regrowth of native plants after non- want future generations to be able concerned with the preservation of natives have been removed by volunteer to enjoy California’s rich and ex- California’s flora, but I ask you to stewards at Albany Hill Park. Photo- traordinarily beautiful flora, each adopt a broader perspective on the graph by B. Ertter. of us must act. There is plenty to do situation, while at the same time right now, and we need to do it! But intensifying those local efforts that undertake the important work of that preservation can take place alone can lead to success. nurturing the land, and protecting only in an overall context of sus- At the same time, there is no the plants and animals that occur tainability: preserving biodiversity substitute for local action. I enthu- on it, and to all of those who work in an unstable world is simply not siastically applaud the efforts of to promote environmental sustain- possible. communities throughout the state ability in any way. I am certain that that have become involved in the our children and grandchildren, restoration of natural communities, and those who come to Califor- NURTURING WHAT’S and in working for sustainability in nia in future years, will also be LEFT, NURTURING many other ways. Many volunteers grateful for their efforts to keep OURSELVES are working hard rooting out inva- this state as beautiful and interest- sive plants and creating suitable ing as it is now. Think of the Earth as a place conditions for native plants and where only sunlight comes in, some animals right in the neighborhoods Peter H. Raven, Missouri Botanical Gar- heat goes out, and everything else where they live. den, P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166. that happens is our problem. If we Throughout the San Francisco [email protected].

VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 FREMONTIA 9 Profile DENNIS ROGERS MARTINEZ

Dennis Rogers Martinez (O’odham, Here’s an example: California and joined CNPS. In 1972 I began Chicano, and Anglo) has more than 34 Indians dug corms and bulbs for working on rare plants and conser- years of land management experience food. The very act of digging re- vation with the East Bay chapter and serves as chair of the Indigenous leased the little cormlets from the and started doing a combination of Peoples Restoration Network. In 2001 mother corm. They were there- conventional and native plant land- Martinez was a finalist for the Ecotrust fore propagating the plant by scaping. A few years later I teamed Buffett Award for indigenous leader- their labor, the women with their up with David Amme to cofound ship in conservation. From his home in digging sticks, and the tracts in- Design Associates Working with Trinity County, he recently talked with creased in size and quality. Where Nature (DAWN). Charli Danielson Pete Holloran about ecological restora- patches of Brodiaea, Calochortus, was our propagator. We had about tion and indigenous stewardship of the and Triteleia have been locked up, 130 different species of native plants California landscape. they’ve actually tended to decrease that were nearly impossible to find in size. There are many other ex- in the trade. ome Indian elders use the word amples of food plants—or medi- During the last 20 years, I’ve S“caregiving” rather than stew- cine plants or basketry and cord- probably done more work with tra- ardship. There’s reciprocity age plants—that have become ditional ecological knowledge than involved, like when parents take care much less common across the anything else. I write about how of kids, and then, when the parents landscape. we can integrate these two kinds get older, the kids take care of them. In 1969 I was working with a of knowledge systems—traditional Plants and animals sustain us, so we Pomo Indian elder on a conven- ecological knowledge and Western need to take care of them. The el- tional landscaping crew in Sonoma science—in land management. To ders say that if you don’t take care Valley. He told me about the In- the degree that we can, we should of the plants and animals and use dian uses of the plants. I got really incorporate Indian management them, they get lonely and go away. interested in native plants that way practices. Of course we cannot retrieve what we cannot retrieve. Dennis Rogers Martinez. Photograph courtesy of D. Martinez. It’s always modified by changed en- vironmental conditions such as habitat fragmentation, fire suppres- sion, invasive species, development, and so on. We’re always balancing historical fidelity with ecological functionality. Restoration is a process, not a product. It’s not a landscaping project or a job, it’s something that communities need to be involved in intergenerationally. I have never seen a finished restoration project in my life. I won’t live to see one either, in terms of full species com- position and function. Restoration doesn’t heal the earth, it heals it- self. But we nudge the trajectories, accelerate or retard succession just enough to where nature then takes off on its own. For Native Ameri- cans, the spiritual imperative for restoration is to participate daily in the recreation of the earth. That is why there are world renewal ceremonies.

10 FREMONTIA VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 Profile MARY PETRILLI

Mary Petrilli has helped direct volun- That’s what stewardship is all about. you’re caring for people, or animals, teer work parties for 15 years, first as a You have to be open to other or the world. I feel sad for people National Park Service ranger in San people’s cares and concerns. who don’t have that in their lives. Francisco and then as director of the It’s great when you can turn the It’s wonderful to be connected to California Native Plant Society (CNPS) negative into a positive. I remember the earth, to feel the sand between San Bruno Mountain Stewardship talking with a bird enthusiast who your fingers. People have so many Project. She recently talked with Pete was terribly upset about our weed layers that separate them from this Holloran about her stewardship career. removal work. She was afraid for amazing earth. Stewardship helps the birds, and I could relate to that. peel away those layers, getting you backed into my career as a park Just by talking to her for a little back to your bare hands and feet. Iranger. In college I had fallen in while, she felt better. I love with the idea of making told her that it’s hard, Mary Petrilli with Pete Holloran, center, and Mark things come alive on the screen. but you just have to trust Heath, left (top). • Petrilli, center, facing left (bottom), Charles Kuralt was my hero. I us. I told her we were leading volunteer training on San Bruno Mountain. Photographs courtesy of the California Native Plant wanted to travel around and tell being really careful, not Society. gentle stories about people. After working during nesting graduating, I began working at a season. She was still a television station, where the work little skeptical, but as the was totally stressful, requiring all months went by she be- kinds of hours at the computer. gan complimenting us on I started volunteering at Fort our work. She could see Funston in 1988. It was great to go that we weren’t just de- out there every other Saturday. I stroying things, that helped grow native plants in their stewardship was a life- teeny tiny nursery. Later, when I giving process. Her was even more miserable in my tele- daughter even joined our vision work, I became a seasonal work parties and created ranger on Alcatraz. It was a 60% our gorgeous website as pay cut, with no benefits. I was a volunteer. so poor, but I had so much fun. Any time you’re car- Alcatraz was a fascinating place to ing for something, that’s learn interpretation, to learn how stewardship, whether to make connections with park visi- tors and help them see history or nature in a new way. I then became a ranger at Fort Funston. It was glorious to com- bine teaching with hands-on work in the nursery. I really loved going to work, going out in the pouring rain, planting these little babies that you had nurtured and setting them free. It was great to be able to share that with other people, especially people who don’t usually do that. It’s important to take skeptics seriously. We shouldn’t be afraid of people who have the opposite opin- ion. It takes time to build trust with people. If you want people to help you, find out what they care about.

VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 FREMONTIA 11 Coastal prairie at Pt. Reyes National Seashore, Marin County. Photograph by L. Vorobik. LISTENING TO CALIFORNIA’S GRASSLANDS AND THEIR STEWARDS by Grey Hayes

alifornia’s grasslands have native grassland types in Califor- refuge. Nitrogen deposition from Cbeen called the most in- nia. Most of them are in decline. urban smog—mostly from auto- vaded, most endangered, Habitat conversion and mismanage- mobile exhaust—is fertilizing ser- and most altered ecosystem in the ment have destroyed most native pentine soils, making them more world. They have been ranked grasslands in the desert, while ur- amenable to invasion. among the top ten most endangered ban sprawl has paved over vast But we should not abandon ecosystems in the United States, stretches of coastal prairie. The hope. There are thousands, per- alongside the more publicized Central Valley’s moist grasslands— haps millions, of acres of grass- Florida everglades and coastal sage so vividly described by Thomas lands throughout the state that still scrub in southern California. All Jefferson Mayfield in 1850 as a harbor a diverse mixture of native with good reason: many of Cal- “crazy quilt of color”—have mostly grasses and wildflowers. These ar- ifornia’s rare, endangered, and disappeared under the plow. eas share one thing in common: threatened plant species occur in Millions of acres of remaining the need for stewardship. Without grasslands, including 90% of the grasslands throughout the state are stewardship, almost any type of plants listed in California Native being overwhelmed by invasive spe- California grassland will degrade as Plant Society’s Inventory of Rare cies, including non-native thistles it becomes overrun by shrubs, trees, and Endangered Plants of California and grasses. The poor and some- or invasive weeds. (Sixth Edition). times toxic soils of serpentine grass- Grassland stewardship can mean Thanks in part to our diverse lands, once thought safe from inva- many different things: ecologically- climates and soils, there are many sive plants, no longer provide safe oriented grazing, prescribed fire,

12 FREMONTIA VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 mowing, weed removal, erosion con- among California Indians. Piecing grasslands they depended on for sus- trol, and various other techniques. I together traditional peoples’ land tenance, a new Californian grass- witnessed some of the many types of management patterns is a slow pro- land ecosystem came into being. grassland stewardship while work- cess, integrating ethnographic work Learning how to practice wise stew- ing on my doctoral dissertation at with pollen and opal phytolith ardship of these novel grasslands has UC Santa Cruz. For two springs, I analyses as well as investigation into presented numerous challenges. drove northward along California’s early written records. Ranchers in the late 1800s en- coast, following the coastal prairie However, the landscape is much countered extreme drought, and spring from Morro Bay to Fort different now. We can’t turn back having overstocked the land with Bragg. Over the course of my stud- the clock to the time before inva- cattle, California’s economy was ies in these coastal prairie remnants, sive species arrived. Nevertheless, devastated. Some attribute wide- I became convinced that steward- given indigenous peoples’ long spread loss of native perennial ship is the only hope for many of history of grassland stewardship, grasses to this episode, making it California’s rarest grasslands. they can teach us a great deal about not only an economic but also I have published the results of sustainable land management prac- an ecological disaster. After the this work in scientific journals, tices. Dennis Rogers Martinez (see drought, the moister coastal grass- where I illustrated the dramatic interview on page 10) has played a lands became much more impor- differences between grazed and key role in translating traditional tant. Always the most productive ungrazed plots in adjacent grass- ecological knowledge into land and diverse grasslands in Califor- lands, but here I want to share a few management practices appropri- nia, coastal prairies became the of the inspiring stories that I heard ate for the current ecology. He has home of extensive dairy operations, during my travels. In the pages that follow, we’ll meet some of the people who are contributing to our growing awareness of the impor- tance of grassland stewardship.

THE FIRST STEWARDS

It is inevitable that humans in California would develop grass- land stewardship techniques, since grasslands blanket one quarter of California’s landscape. For thou- sands of years, the vitality of those grasslands was closely linked to in- digenous cultures and economies. California Indians cultivated an ex- tensive list of grassland-dependent species that could only have been Serpentine grasslands at Ring Mountain, part of the Marin County Open Space Dis- provisioned in concert with ex- trict. Photograph by L. Vorobik. tensive and expert ecosystem man- agement. worked with many land managers some of which gained fame among Kat Anderson’s brilliant ethno- in using fire to restore healthy land- early sightseers for their wildflow- graphic research has provided con- scapes and species. ers and beauty. vincing evidence of such widespread Peter Arvelas grew up on this ecosystem management. More re- beautiful coast amongst these prai- cently, Chuck Striplen, a member LEARNING FROM ries. Arvelas’s father emigrated from of the Mutsun band of the Ohlone THE GRASS Crete to northern Santa Cruz of the Monterey Bay region, is ex- County in 1912 and brought with tending Anderson’s work through During the last two centuries, as him generations of experience in his doctoral research at the Univer- invasive species became more domi- stewarding Mediterranean grass- sity of Calfornia at Berkeley, docu- nant and the close ties broke down lands. By the 1930s, Arvelas and his menting grassland management between California Indians and the father were working alongside a

VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 FREMONTIA 13 He has outlasted most of the other among university scientists who ranchers in his area and is now a study grasslands. There is a long vital elder in the community of tradition of grassland science in people working together to con- California, but the sum total of sci- serve these grasslands. Hundreds entific research findings offer little of people were once active in the compared to all of the traditional grassland economy of Santa Cruz ecological knowledge accumulated County, but Arvelas is one of only a over centuries by those practicing handful that remains. Having lost grassland stewardship. so much stewardship expertise dur- One of the founders of plant ing the last two centuries, people ecology in the United States, like Arvelas are a rare and precious Frederic Clements, visited Califor- resource. Everyone in the commu- nia during the early 1900s. Already nity hopes that he is successful in well-confirmed in his beliefs about passing his knowledge on, especially ecological succession and climax to those of his grandchildren who communities, Clements made quite Peter Arvelas and his grandson Tommy are enthusiastic about ranching, broad conclusions on the nature on Santa Cruz County’s beautiful north coast prairie. Much of what is left of those and that they will join in protect- of pristine grassland structure and grasslands is because of this family. ing these same grasslands. composition after observing bunch- Photograph courtesy of P. Arvelas. grasses growing on railroad rights- of-way in an area of the Central community of ranchers that main- LEARNING THROUGH Valley that had already been in- tained large intact ranches. Their SCIENCE tensively managed for decades. economic viability as ranchers, reli- Clements concluded that Califor- ant on the productivity of native During the last few decades, nia’s pristine grasslands were domi- coastal prairies, prevented row crop Arvelas and other Californians who nated by perennial bunchgrasses. agriculture from expanding into the depend on grassland ecosystems Following his lead, grassland species-rich prairies. have witnessed the twin powers studies during the rest of the 20th The economics of California of urbanization and increasingly century focused mostly on a few ranching has changed in recent de- mechanized agriculture working in species of widespread perennial cades. With the advent of large Mid- tandem to remove from the land bunchgrasses, mostly at only a half western feedlots and centralized those who had been developing new dozen research stations: the Jepson technology-intensive dairies else- traditions of grassland stewardship. Prairie, near Davis; San Joaquin where in California, it has become Quite different forces are at work Experimental Range; Hastings Res- less viable to run cattle in coastal prairies along the California coast. Native bunchgrasses at Antelope Prairie Poppy Preserve, Kern County. Photograph Consequently, during the last 40 by L. Vorobik. years or so, ranches up and down the coast have closed down. Many of these ranches have been saved from development us- ing public funds, but their trans- formation into cattle-free public parks has not provided as much pro- tection for native grasslands. Pub- lic agencies have fewer resources— and experience, in many cases—to practice grassland stewardship. Since the ranching economy col- lapsed, grassland stewardship has become much more variable, more expensive, and less sustainable. As a result, endangered coastal prairie species are disappearing. But Peter Arvelas is a survivor.

14 FREMONTIA VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 ervation in northern Monterey and restoring native grassland plants County; and the Hopland Field Sta- and animals including native pe- tion in Mendocino County. More rennial grasses, elk, quail, and deer. and more people are beginning to One innovation the family has question the applicability of this developed is ground-level water bunchgrass-oriented research, but troughs that benefit wildlife. The Clements’s tentative suggestions Works have also participated in an still hold sway among many land experimental brush reduction pro- managers, restorationist ecologists, gram through the California De- and the public. Researchers working with Jaymee Marty. partment of Forestry. The program There are too few scientists with Photograph courtesy of J. Marty. mimics fire and reduces dangerous too few resources to answer the fuel loads while maintaining a level many stewardship questions facing In many ways these landscapes of disturbance upon which some California’s grasslands. Neverthe- are like libraries, and long-term species depend. less, The Nature Conservancy has stewards such as Hujik, Marty, and George Work takes the lessons attempted to address this problem Arvelas have become their refer- he has learned to an expanding com- by developing partnerships between ence librarians. They are bringing munity of scientists, legislators, and scientists and traditional grasslands traditional stewardship knowledge land managers. He has been invited stewards to generate credible and forward where it might otherwise to speak to the Sierra Club, Cali- precise information on methodolo- have been lost, and in the process fornia Native Grass Association, So- gies for restoring grasslands. are inspiring new hope for main- ciety for Ecological Restoration, Two Conservancy stewards taining the species of these beauti- American Association for the Ad- stand out in particular: Peter Hujik ful grassland systems. vancement of Science, and the Cali- and Jaymee Marty. Hujik stewards fornia Executive Council on Bio- grasslands of the Lassen foothills in logical Diversity. He frequently partnership with a community of RANCHLAND hosts classes from Cal Poly, San local ranchers and firefighters. To- STEWARDSHIP Luis Obispo. The competitive 2003 gether, they experiment with com- National Cattleman’s Beef Associa- binations of grazing and fire, while George Work’s family plays a tion Environmental Stewardship Hujik works with researchers such similar role amongst dryland ranch- Award is just the most recent in a as Caroline Christian at The Na- ers in California. Work’s grandfa- long list of accolades the Work fam- ture Conservancy, out of Monterey, ther homesteaded land in southern ily has received. to monitor the effects. Jaymee Monterey County in 1890 and be- The Works have successfully Marty similarly works with grazing gan the working ranch that now combined many necessary steward- and fire, but in the very different promises to support Work’s grand- ship elements, including economic vernal pool systems of the Sacra- children—that’s five generations of sustainability, attentive work on the mento Valley. Even though the Works. The 12,000-acre Work land informed by experience, out- grasslands where they work have Ranch is an inspiration for the reach and education, and active par- the usual profusion of invasive spe- present generation of ranchers in ticipation in democratic institu- cies, these partnerships serve as tem- California. The Works have col- tions. The evidence of their effec- plates for restoration that others in laborated with diverse conservation tive stewardship is right there on their region can turn to. partners to develop grassland stew- their land, in plain sight of anyone The work of stewards such as ardship expertise that contributes who cares to look. Hujik and Marty is documenting to responsible land management. the varying responses of grasslands The list of collaborators is ex- to different stewardship choices. By tensive, including the California A SCIENCE OF LAND working in partnership with those Native Plant Society, California HEALTH with traditional knowledge and ap- Department of Fish and Game, plying the few available grassland Community Alliance with Family Aldo Leopold is often consid- restoration tools carefully, they are Farmers, and the local Resource ered one of the founders of the mod- convincing the most skeptical and Conservation District. Through ern stewardship movement. In his cautious “hands off is safest” land these partnerships, the Work Ranch book A Sand County Almanac, managers, as well as other conser- has managed to attain economic Leopold reminded us that “the art vation organizations, legislators, and sustainability while improving wa- of land doctoring is being practiced environmentalists. ter quality, decreasing soil erosion, with vigor, but the science of land

VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 FREMONTIA 15 native species, California is clearly expertise and interests. We need lacking untouched sites below 4,500 mentors, and we need to experi- feet in elevation. Rather than ence first-hand what stewards can searching for mythical pristine sites, do for our grasslands. By engaging we should consider using well-man- in this type of dialogue throughout aged landscapes as our reference the state, we can build a steward- ecosystems. ship community that can learn by Also needed is a tentative list of comparing diverse methodologies. principles for grassland stewardship. Every year California’s unique Three come to mind. First, we need grasslands are burned, grazed, to cherish and honor traditional eco- mowed, tilled, seeded, or left alone. logical knowledge as well as other Management is happening, even sources of knowledge. We cannot when the management decision is afford to lose more grassland stew- to do nothing at all. But steward- George and Elaine Work, who are a ardship expertise, and we are in dan- ship is something different. Ulti- portion of the many generations of their ger of doing so unless we begin mately, grassland stewardship is family that live more and more by the land, and for the land. Photograph by spending more time with Califor- about listening—listening to what A. McMahon, courtesy of The Nature nia Indians and ranchers like Peter indigenous peoples can tell us, to Conservancy. Arvelas and George Work. The what people like George Work have landscapes that generations have to say, to what the grasslands them- health is yet to be born.” In its in- created are disappearing. selves have to teach. If enough of us fancy, stewardship advocates wisely A second principle is that there begin to listen, generations to come advised us to identify reference eco- is no substitute for familiarity with will be dazzled, like I have been, by systems to serve as templates for specific grassland sites. Each of wildflower-filled coastal prairies, land health. Leopold suggested that California’s diverse grassland eco- mesmerized by the wind rippling wilderness areas “untouched by systems deserves specific attention. through the native grasses, and in- man” would best serve as these Scientists have begun to learn what toxicated by the scent of tarplant points of reference. ranchers, and the native peoples filling the air. As our awareness of steward- before them, knew—that generali- ship broadens, we have come to re- zations about grasslands don’t work. Grey Hayes, Coastal Training Program alize that the wilderness areas of A third principle is that stew- Coordinator, Elkhorn Slough National Leopold’s time were the wild gar- ardship is a community endeavor Estuarine Research Reserve, 1700 Elkhorn dens of indigenous peoples. Now, that works best when it brings to- Road, Watsonville, CA 95076. grey@ with the invasion of so many non- gether people with a wide array of elkhornslough.org.

Blue dicks (Dichelostemma sp.) flowering in a well stewarded eastern Mt. Hamilton Range meadow. Photograph by G. Hayes.

16 FREMONTIA VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 Profile JOE MORRIS

Joe Morris lives on his family’s ranch in the rolling hills of San Benito County. Grey Hayes interviewed Morris in January 2004, catching him between speaking engagements where he was helping to invigorate a discussion on land ethics.

rasslands have affected me Gdeeply since I was a little boy spending summers on San Benito County ranches. I have always loved the experience of space, the smells of the tarplants and horses, and the quality of light. There’s nothing like the feeling of late spring when you can feel the warmth rising out in the hills or walking down a draw that is filled with buckeye and it absolutely tan- talizes you with the smell—it’s in- toxicating. There’s so much varia- tion of sensation, the smells and sights, the plants, the wildlife, the wildflowers in spring. What excites me most is to see healthy plants: plants vibrant, vigorous, and regen- erating. I love the perennial grasses: the wild rye, the Leymus triticoides in the swales, the Nassella pulchra, Joe Morris with his children. Photograph courtesy of J. Morris. the California brome, and the Danthonia that I find around Elk- the work should be done with el- that is vigorous, beautiful, and di- horn Slough. And then of course egance, which is why I treasure the verse, while supporting an econ- there’s the oak trees, not just the tradition of the vaquero. omy that provides enough for us old trees, but I like to see the young, In our ranching business, we to be secure with the kinds of lives middle-aged, and old. When I see a have a goal to be economically se- we want to live. diverse age structure, it lets me cure. That economic security in- We are becoming native to this know that there is a good effect of cludes the long-term health of our place, observing what the native something that we are doing, and social community and the land; it things are, how the animals live it’s really exciting. can’t be pursued to the degrada- here, and how they go on living I grew up in San Francisco, but tion of either of those other two here forever in the way that they my family has been ranching for parts. And so we manage for the do—they become part of a commu- over 150 years in California. My health of the land, monitoring the nity. Becoming native takes time, grandfather loved the land, his ani- plant and wildlife communities and intelligence, and energy. We try to mals, and the traditions of the va- being mindful of how our use of help our human community by pro- quero, which helped inform his animals affects those other mem- voking conversations about what work with the land and the ani- bers of the community. If we do it becoming native means: what are mals. He believed in the hard work right, not only will we thrive, but their observations about this place, that was required to live in concert so will they. As a result, we help to how we want it to be, and how we with the land and animals while maintain a community of just and can live here forever while enhanc- producing food. He believed that peaceful relationships and land ing this place.

VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 FREMONTIA 17 Native plants along the Batcheller Ranch fence line. All photographs by D. Leroy MAKING ENDS MEET: COMMUNITY-BASED STEWARDSHIP ON PRIVATE LANDS by Dan Leroy

hile much of California’s accomplishment, but it still accounts particularly for farmers and ranch- Wnative plant life is pro- for only 2% of the state. The local ers who are struggling to stay in tected in national and land trust in Yolo County, where I business. Federal conservation in- state parks, nearly half the state, live, has purchased less than 1% of centive programs can pay for a por- some 50 million acres, is owned the county’s 662,000 total acres. tion of these expenses, but they privately. These lands, which are Here, where more than 90% of the often fall short of covering the true overwhelmingly rural, support land is owned privately, acquisi- costs necessary to support success- large-scale agricultural and forestry tion efforts, however important, ful private land stewardship. operations as well as native plant will never be enough to protect the During the last decade or so, and animal populations. They are county’s natural heritage. Promot- conservation groups, government important as habitat corridors be- ing, supporting, and rewarding good agencies, and private landowners tween larger protected areas and stewardship on private lands is criti- have responded to this challenge by as refuges in areas dominated by cal to protecting and enhancing working together to protect and in urban development. natural resources in Yolo County some cases restore native ecosys- Over the last few decades, na- and the rest of California. tems in ways that don’t require land- tional, state, and local land trusts We all benefit from the native owners to sell their land or give up have spent billions of dollars acquir- plant and animal communities their rural way of life. In Yolo ing land in order to protect the found on private land, yet we rely County, the local community has plants and animals that inhabit it. on landowners to devote the time begun to bridge the gap between By some estimates, these groups now and money necessary to protect what federal programs provide and own more than 2.3 million acres them. These stewardship costs can what it takes to successfully protect in California. This is an impressive be difficult for landowners to bear, and restore native ecosystems.

18 FREMONTIA VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 According to Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) field officer Stephen Jaouen, community groups “have helped landowners implement many of the conserva- tion practices that are a burden in time, money, and know-how.” Over the last few years, I’ve participated in that effort and witnessed both the challenges and transformations that can occur when the public gets involved in stewarding private lands.

BETTER THAN HOUSES

Duane Chamberlain grows hay and straw on the valley floor along Willow Slough in Yolo County. By any standard, Chamberlain’s farm is big. It stretches across 3,000 acres and yields more than a million bales of straw and hay each year. Although he would hardly call himself a natu- ralist, Chamberlain appreciates the wildlife on his farm. He has seen landowners to plant and protect more than 70 different bird species native species. All of them, includ- in his fields since he began farming ing the Wildlife Habitat Incentives here in 1965. Program, the Wetland Reserve About eight years ago, his neigh- Program, the Grassland Reserve bor John Anderson, a former presi- Program, and the Conservation dent of the California Native Grass Reserve Program, offer financial Association and a local proponent incentives and technical advice to of native hedgerows, convinced farmers and ranchers willing to take Chamberlain to plant locally native or keep land out of production. The trees and shrubs along the edge of local NRCS field office has 154 one of his alfalfa fields. Chamber- conservation-related contracts with lain hoped that the project would landowners in Yolo County for Duane Chamberlain discussing agri- increase habitat for birds, benefi- more than 20,000 acres. Of these, cultural and wildlife habitat issues with cial insects, and other wildlife. To 715 acres have been planted with students from the Davis School for Inde- help pay for the planting, Cham- native species. pendent Study. berlain applied for and received a When I visited Chamberlain at small assistance grant from the En- his project site, I couldn’t help but barely hanging on. Eight years af- vironmental Quality Incentives Pro- notice the valley oaks. Even from a ter the initial planting, only 30% to gram, a federal program adminis- distance the oak plantings were vis- 40% of the plants remain. tered by NRCS. Staff from NRCS ible as they shot upward along the Though Chamberlain is proud worked with the Yolo County Re- edge of the field. Among the oaks of the effort he has made, he is also source Conservation District to de- we found red willows, coyote bush, discouraged by the mortality rate. sign the project and select appro- mulefat, and healthy bunches of “The trouble is,” he explained, priate native species. California wild rose. Most of these “there’s no follow-up.” His team of The Environmental Quality plantings were relatively healthy, workers did the initial planting, but Incentives Program is one of sev- but others were struggling. Some maintaining the site turned out to eral federal programs administered of the live oaks and toyons were be more work than Chamberlain by NRCS that encourage rural stunted; the western sycamores were expected. He didn’t have time to

VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 FREMONTIA 19 ers, he is struggling just to stay in AMONG THE SHEEP, business. “For every single parcel BEYOND that I own,” Chamberlain says, “my THE CLASSROOM taxes went up this year, even though all the crop prices were down.” Four miles up Willow Slough Meanwhile, despite doing what from Chamberlain Farms, Dave he can to reduce chemical use and and Linda Batcheller operate a emissions, he is facing increasing much smaller agricultural opera- pressure to make his operation more tion on 30 acres. The sheep ranch environmentally friendly. “I tell the consists of three rams and 50 brood environmentalists all the time, ‘You ewes which, in an average year, pro- know, if you guys make it too hard duce 75 lambs. They too consid- for us, we’re gonna be gone, but ered enrolling in the Environmen- there’s gonna be houses out here.’ tal Quality Incentives Program. To me, you’re a lot better off with Then they heard about an oppor- The Batchellers’ silver sedge lawn. these alfalfa fields and cattle pas- tunity being offered by Audubon tures. We may not be the best thing California in partnership with the do the work himself, so he looked for the environment, but we’re a Yolo County Resource Conserva- into hiring a private contractor to hell of a lot better than houses.” tion District (RCD). maintain the project, but couldn’t The program, now known as afford it. the Landowner Stewardship Pro- Chamberlain, who makes his liv- gram, helps private landowners con- ing off of growing things well, gazed serve and restore wildlife habitat on over the low row of shrubs with a farms and ranches while preserving look of resignation. “You can’t just the economic conditions of local plant this stuff and walk away from agriculture. Program staff provide it. And I just don’t have the time to technical and financial assistance for take care of it like it should be.” As up to three years beyond the initial Chamberlain points out, that’s be- implementation phase. They also cause like most Yolo County farm- help landowners develop long-term conservation and restoration plans

Esparto High School students (left) planting native grasses at Good Humus Produce, another SLEWS (Student and Landowner education and Watershed Stewardship Program) partner in the Capay Valley. • A SLEWS student (above left) from Grant Union High School planting native grasses. • A SLEWS student (below) from MET Sacramento High School planting toyon near Putah Creek.

20 FREMONTIA VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 amazing what just a little hand-hold- ing can do,” Dave told me. “Then you go through the operation once and you get all kinds of confidence.” Audubon’s initial plan called for hundreds of native trees and shrubs and thousands of native grass plugs—far more than the Batchellers could handle on their own. The grant paid for labor crews to assist with the planting, irrigation, and weed control. Rather than just hir- Students from Berkeley High School (above) restoring a riparian corridor on a ranch ing a regular field crew, Audubon near Esparto. • SLEWS students from Berkeley High School (above right) after planting partnered with the Center for Land- sedges and rushes. Based Learning (formerly FARMS Leadership, Inc.) to get the work and secure additional funding from you want to control the weeds, you done while building bridges between NRCS and other federal and state quit watering it. The weeds die and farmers and youth. agencies. For the Batchellers, the the sedges keep going.” The Student and Landowner deal was too good to pass up. As we circled around to the back Education and Watershed Steward- Driving up the gravel road to of the house, the Batchellers showed ship Program (SLEWS) is based the Batcheller Ranch, I saw the signs me the native bunchgrasses that on the belief that, in addition to of a typical Yolo County ranch— they’d planted: red fescue, blue providing a valuable service to pri- old, rusty irrigation pipes, splintered wild-rye, purple needlegrass, and a vate landowners, the restoration fence posts, and beat-up machinery few others. “We’re just playing process can be a transformative kept around for spare parts. Our around,” Dave offered. “But what a experience for young people by tour began on the front lawn, if you great way to get to know your can call it that. It looks like a lawn, grasses.” Then we walked behind SLEWS students spend part of every field even though there isn’t a single the barn. From there we gazed over day recording thoughts and observations blade of grass in sight. “I always the 15-acre project area—a series in their own nature journals. promised Linda I’d give her a lawn. of ponds, swales, berms, and wet- It took me 15 years, but I did it,” lands, dotted with native trees and Dave said. shrubs pushing out of their plastic He pointed to a dense stand of tree protectors. silver sedge bunches (Carex prae- The Audubon-RCD program gracilis) planted in orderly rows at assisted the Batchellers with their one foot centers. “Want to know project by equipping them with the the best thing about this lawn? You inspiration and know-how to take don’t have to mow it. And then if on the project themselves. “It’s

VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 FREMONTIA 21 the day planting sedges, tules, and work. So often the stuff you do is rushes along the edge of the newly- just fluff to put on your [college] dug wetland. The more adventur- applications. SLEWS is actually ous students were up to their knees something real.” The program ben- in water, their smiling faces painted efits the land, the landowners, and with mud. the students simultaneously, and all Davis High School formally three seem thrilled with the results. adopted the ranch the following “You can’t call this project anything year. From October to May the but a success,” Dave Batcheller said, same group of students visited the looking over a dense stand of tules site five times to work alongside the and spikerushes. “And it’s more than Batchellers. They planted over 300 just what’s here. Just think of all the native trees and shrubs, and over people that have been touched.” 10,000 creeping wild-rye plugs. SLEW program organizers They also installed drip-irrigation hope the students’ experiences will line, removed invasive grasses and make them care not just about the yellow star-thistle, and planted particular site they worked on, but sedges. In addition to their hands- also about larger issues pertaining on work, the students kept nature to agriculture and native ecosystems journals and played team-building in California. Practicing good stew- games. ardship now can lead to more sup- Schools from all over Yolo port for good stewardship practices County and nearby Sacramento and down the road. Such students may Solano Counties work with other be more likely to make decisions private landowners on habitat resto- that preserve farming and native ration projects. In the three years species in the future. Students from Davis High School embark since that first field day at the All the landowners I have spo- on a journey to plant creeping wild-rye Batchellers, the program has imple- ken to have told me that sharing on an island at the Batcheller Ranch. mented over 30 projects with 15 dif- their projects with young people— ferent schools and engaged nearly who are often disconnected from offering them an opportunity to en- 1,000 students in habitat restoration. the land, agriculture, and native eco- gage directly with nature in a man- As these projects mature they will systems—has become an important ner that addresses local environ- literally transform their watershed. part of their own education. Duane mental problems. Perhaps even more important Chamberlain believes that youth “You don’t know how good it than what the SLEWS students education programs could be the felt,” Dave Batcheller said, “when I leave behind is what they take home key to enticing more landowners in looked in that stack of paperwork with them. SLEWS staff work the county to undertake steward- and read that Audubon would as- closely with participating teachers ship projects. “I think you can do a sist with the planting of the trees to make every project an exciting lot of these projects if you approach and the shrubs. I didn’t realize at context for student learning, both people in the right way,” he said. the time that the assistance would in the field and in the classroom. “Everybody likes kids. Getting them come in the form of high school And the students appreciate having involved is a good way to get farm- kids. I don’t think you could work the opportunity to learn outside the ers involved.” it out any better. That is such a traditional classroom setting. “Text- If Chamberlain himself is any good marriage.” books can only teach you so much indication, he may be right. Moti- On the first SLEWS day at the about biology,” one student told me. vated by the opportunity to receive Batcheller Ranch, 30 students from “We get to go out and see that the help from the SLEWS Program, Esparto High School climbed off a plant has seeds and rhizomes, and he has initiated two new riparian school bus minutes after a ewe had touch it.” “It’s a way to refresh our- hedgerow projects in the last two given birth. The twin baby lambs selves,” said another. years. were still wet and clinging to their Students also value the oppor- mother. The students marveled for tunity to affect their local environ- Dan Leroy, The Center for Land-Based a few moments listening to Dave ment in meaningful ways. As one Learning, 5265 Putah Creek Road, Win- tell them about birthing and baby student explains, “With SLEWS, ters, CA 95694. dan@landbasedlearning. lambs, and then spent the rest of you can really see the results of your org.

22 FREMONTIA VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 Profile DAVE AND LINDA BATCHELLER

Dave and Linda Batcheller live on a is getting to know the characteris- 30-acre sheep ranch near Winters in tics about the plants. It’s really Yolo County. In January 2004 they pretty cool to know that the Baltic talked with Dan Leroy about their in- rush doesn’t flower at the stem, volvement in an innovative partner- like a spike rush does. Or purple ship that brought local youth to their needle-grass—the seeds really are ranch to learn about ranching, habitat faint purple! Or buttonwillow—to restoration, and land stewardship. know that these guys here were just sticks in water for the first 6 months of their life. They were submerged DAVE BATCHELLER all winter and they still made it. The welcoming entrance to Dave and They love the water! And then Linda Batcheller’s sheep ranch outside t’s cool to be able use this resto- there’s California fuchsia; I just Winters. Iration project for outreach, for love the color. workshops with high school kids, Up there is Edgar Peak. That’s time and effort, it would be kind of or just to inspire people. And it’s the beginning of the watershed nice to pass it on, somehow, some really rewarding to see the wildlife. we’re in. Before doing this proj- way. I can’t see living anywhere else. I walk it every morning. I get up at ect, I had never thought of it like I’d just as soon die. four a.m. to go for two or three that. It makes a big difference. loops around the perimeter of the To say, we’re a part of that Edgar site. You might think it’s too dark Peak watershed, right here gives LINDA BATCHELLER to see anything, but that’s not true. you a little bigger picture of the That’s when I see the owls. Walk- situation. e were thinking about ing while it’s still dark does have its Before working on this project, Wmoving up north, out advantages, because you don’t get we were thinking about moving out of state, even went and sidetracked. of the area. We were kind of frus- looked at some property. Then What I find really intriguing, trated. But now we’re starting to when this came up and we saw what more so than having a favorite plant, realize that, after putting in all this you can develop, we said, “This is where we’re going to stay. We’re Dave and Linda Batcheller. Photographs by D. Leroy. not moving. This is it. This is our project.” One of my favorite things to do here is to see the different wildlife and then to try and figure out what they are, if you don’t know. Then when you do identify them, you can start to delve a little bit deeper into their habits. Like with those pied-billed grebes. When I first saw them, I knew they were a diving duck, but I would never see their head. Then when I read up on them, I found they swim like submarines. It’s fun to know what plants are around here, so that when you’re going for a drive up to Lake Berryessa you are able to recognize what’s out there. My Dad used to be able to do that and I always ad- mired him for it. Blue blossom ceanothus is my favorite.

VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 FREMONTIA 23 Profile PETEY BRUCKER

Around 300 people live in the 500,000- found my way to the Salmon educational workshop. I called it acre Salmon River watershed in IRiver watershed in 1975. The Salmon Ed; the agencies called it Siskiyou County. The US Forest Ser- economy in those days was log- Poaching Prevention. I wrote a skit vice or other public agencies own 98% ging, some mining, and a tree plant- and put the agency folk in it. They of it. Petey Brucker, a cofounder of the ing cooperative called Ent Forestry. were all fish. Salmon River Restoration Council, re- In 1977, a forest fire burned up That skit took away so much cently talked with Pete Holloran about about 50,000 acres. After the fire, baggage, it just broke down all these land stewardship in the watershed. there was a logging boom and the barriers. There was conversation Forest Service began between managers and managees Petey Brucker, far right (top), on a field trip to Blue spraying the burned that was very relaxed. It was so magi- Ridge Lookout. • Petey Brucker (bottom) doing a fuels areas with herbicide. cal. The fishing—or what other management photo point at his Godfrey Ranch home. One of the herbicides people called poaching—decreased Photographs courtesy of Salmon River Restoration Council. was 2,4,5-T, also by more than 80%. known as Agent Or- Out of this partnering feeling ange. There was quite came the Salmon River Restoration a reaction in the com- Council. We started as a very fish- munity. We formed a focused group. But then we started group called Salmon realizing that fish are related to the River Concerned Citi- world out of water. We collected zens, filed litigation, native plant seed, helped run a nurs- and eventually helped ery, started pulling Scotch broom force the Forest Ser- and dyer’s woad. Then someone vice to stop spraying found spotted knapweed, a state- Agent Orange. listed noxious weed. In 1987 another The Forest Service told us to forest fire burned get rid of this plant or they were 90,000 acres—and going to start spraying herbicides once again my house again. One guy was great. He looked burned down to the at our fields of knapweed along the ground. After that I river and said, if you guys don’t like became more involved herbicide, if there’s no plants, there in timber sale monitor- probably won’t be any spraying. We ing. We remembered really took him up on that. People the 1977 salvage log- came out of the woodwork. Every ging; a lot of it was time someone published something green timber, and we saying that hand-digging is going didn’t want that to hap- to fail utterly, it really inspired pen again. We got people. Since 1998 we have dug out pretty creative at chal- more than 400,000 knapweed plants lenging the Forest from nearly 250 populations. Vol- Service. unteers have devoted more than The Salmon River 1,850 person-days since 1997. probably has more The threat of herbicide spray- runs of wild fish than ing triggered all that work at first, any other watershed in but now it’s gone beyond that. the Klamath Basin. People are learning much more The agencies thought about native plants. We have a com- that up to half of our mittee that’s growing things with chinook salmon were the kids in schools. We realize that being poached. So I a healthy native plant community is wrote a grant to do an a healthy watershed.

24 FREMONTIA VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 CREATING A SENSE OF PLACE IN THE GOLDEN GATE NATIONAL PARKS by Pete Holloran

he Golden Gate National led to numerous articles about the say about the power and practice TRecreation Area, which fea- park’s programs, including profiles of stewardship. tures such well-known land- in California Wild and Orion Afield. In the pages that follow, you will marks as Alcatraz, Muir Woods, Late last year, I sat down with hear from the most important group and the Presidio of San Francisco two people who have helped shape of storytellers: the volunteer stew- among its 75,000 acres, is one of the park’s stewardship programs ards whose passion and enthusiasm the largest urban national parks in during the last decade, Sharon have played such a critical role in the world. A few more superlatives: Farrell and Sue Gardner. Our wide- making the park’s stewardship pro- it is one of the most heavily visited ranging discussion, touching on the grams so successful. The quotations national parks in the country and is past, present, and future of stew- are drawn from hundreds of inter- supported by one of the system’s ardship in the park, raised more views conducted during the last de- largest supporting non-profit or- questions than it answered (for an cade by Farrell and Gardner. Long- ganizations, the Golden Gate Na- excerpt, see the Gardner and Farrell term stewards, retirees, junior high tional Parks Conservancy, which profiles on pages 30-31). school students, first-time volun- has raised nearly $70 million for As we continued our conversa- teers—all are represented here. The park programs since its founding tion in recent months, it became quotations are set among images that in 1981. clear that there are many lessons illustrate what the volunteers and It might not surprise you, then, to learn and stories to tell. And staff working on the public lands of to learn that its stewardship pro- lots of storytellers too. Volunteers the Golden Gate National Parks grams are among the largest and and leaders from throughout the have helped create: the beginnings most admired in the entire national park’s stewardship programs— of a culture of stewardship. park system. A diversity of programs, from Maria Alvarez, for example, some stretching back more than 15 who has led the Habitat Restora- Pete Holloran, Environmental Studies years, routinely attract more than tion Team since it began nearly 15 Department, UC Santa Cruz, 1156 High one hundred thousand volunteer years ago, to Mia Monroe in Muir Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064. peteh@ hours every year. This success has Woods—have important things to ucsc.edu.

Milagra Ridge in 1992 (above) and Milagra Ridge in 2003 (above right). • A Midpoint student working on Milagra Ridge with the Site Stewardship Program (right). All photographs courtesy of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and the National Park Service.

VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 FREMONTIA 25 “I find it amazing that there are six high school students out here volun- teering. Even at a high school level, it’s amazing for us to even be out here. I find that it’s more than just pulling iceplants, it’s all about community and di- versity. You look at San Francisco, it’s such a di- verse city, and I get sad sometimes because the en- vironment isn’t as diverse as the community. Could you imagine a city this full of buildings and not any- thing else?”

Landscape following removal of iceplant and non-native trees, Fort Funston, ca. 1992.

“How has volunteering helped me? It has helped me get back to my roots. Growing up, I spent a lot of time outdoors and learned a lot from my dad and my uncles when we went out hunting and fishing. And as I got older, I got away from it and I’m getting back to that. It helps me be a better person. I feel better about myself, I’m not stressed. Friends who haven’t seen me for a while notice how much happier I seem. On the whole, volunteering is something that I’ve decided I don’t want to give up. I’m going to be working part-time and part of the reason I want to work part-time is because I want to continue my volunteer work. It’s very important to me.”

Interns and staff, Presidio Park Stew- ardship Program, summer 1997.

“Stewardship means that the commu- nity will feel invested in the part of the environment it is caring for. After pull- ing pampas grass out of an area in Rodeo Valley, I watch it like a hawk. Multiply this feeling to more and more people . . . and we can save the environ- ment.”

Dune swale, before planting, in former asphalt parking lot, Crissy Field, Presidio of San Francisco, November 1999.

26 FREMONTIA VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 “‘Stewardship’ is a very bi- ased, white culture word. Other terms like ‘volunteer’ or just ‘helping to plant’ are more representative of cul- tures outside white upper- class America.”

Landscape following native plantings, Fort Funston, ca. 1995.

“I’m a native of the Bay Area working in the health field. What I really like about working with the environment is that it gives me a break from the weekly routine. I enjoy the company of like-minded people who come out here and want to do something to preserve the beauty of the environment. It’s so beautiful no matter what grows, but when you know that it is native and natural, you really want to help that along. It gives me pride to walk through an area that I helped to maintain, that I helped to restore. The restoration process is continuous, so I know that each time I come back it’s changing and growing. I really enjoy that.”

Middle school students who won the competition for longest strand of ice plant removed, Crissy Field, Presidio of San Francisco.

“As more junior high school kids like me participate to fulfill volunteer hours required by school, more will return to it as adults as their volunteer activity of choice. More people should be able to work off parking tickets and misde- meanors in this way. Get city people into the countryside!”

Dune swale, April 2002.

VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 FREMONTIA 27 “After awhile you figure out that there’s only so much that you can do and the little work you do is very satisfying. If everybody would say, ‘Oh, we can only do so little,’ then nothing would be done. So I feel that every little bit helps and it gives me a lot of satisfaction.”

City College of San Francisco stu- dents head up to Wolfback Ridge near Sausalito.

“I grew up in Oregon, live in Berkeley, and work for an insurance broker in San Francisco. During a company outing, we were able to go into an area that is off-limits to the public because of the restoration [work underway]. We were down on ground level pulling out non-natives and I was able, I think for the first time, to really see the beauty of the spring plants in California. I guess in my many years of hiking with the Sierra Club I’d simply passed it by because I’d been more interested in grand vistas and covering a lot of miles. I got a tremendous amount of satisfaction out of helping restore something, and was so captivated by the beauty and the enjoyment that I came back [to help out].”

“I’m from San Francisco and I read in the newspaper every day about environ- mental destruction and I wonder, is there anything that I can do to help? Of course, writing to your congressman is important, but it doesn’t really give me a hands-on feeling of accomplishment. So I was really glad when I found this habitat restora- tion program where I could go out and do field work, and actually see that I was pulling out alien species and replacing them with native plants.”

It takes a village to take care of French broom (above). • An enthusiastic volun- teer of the nearly 600 at the Presidio during Earth Day 1997 (right). • Students in the park’s LINC (Linking Individuals with the Natural Community) program provide a valuable lesson on how to make park uniforms look “cool” (far right).

“In an era of corporate downsizing and reengineering, when there’s a tremendous amount of insecurity about the value of a person’s job or their work or whether or not they’ll even have a job, it’s great to come out to a place where you’re really needed. The parks need you, they want you. Budgets are cut, but they’re willing to give you the support to do a job well.”

28 FREMONTIA VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 Finding new uses for a weed wrench.

“When I first started vol- unteering, I never really got to work with people and I didn’t get a sense of the big picture. I was just al- ways yanking on this plant or that plant that was non- native and invasive. Once I started working with a team and we started to go to the same place and work on different issues in that same place over and over, I saw the change, I saw the impact that my work had on that particular site. That’s what I found most meaningful, and that’s what kept me coming back. That’s where I felt like I actually learned something, because I went below the surface, I wasn’t just clearing whatever plant someone had pointed out to me, but I was clearing plants and seeing the impact that that had on the native plants’ growth.”

Students from Longfellow Elementary School (top “It’s an endless task, but someone’s got to right) amid the iceplant they’d just pulled at Fort do it and heck, why not me?” Funston in San Francisco. • Hard-working students in the park’s LINC program relax after a long day at the nursery.

STEWARDSHIP: GETTING INVOLVED AND LEARNING MORE

STEWARDSHIP. n. management of formation for those interested in help- FURTHER READING entrusted resources; from Old ing. Among the best sources of infor- English stigweard, “keeper of the mation about such groups are local park Blackburn, T.C., and K. Anderson, hall” rangers, officers of your local CNPS eds. 1993. Before the Wilderness: chapter, and community newspapers. Environmental Management by Na- In our experience, such groups have tive Californians. Ballena Press. n the land management context, an intermittent and sometimes out-of- Menlo Park, CA. I we interpret stewardship to mean date presence on the Internet. Still, it’s Ertter, B. Community site steward- those practices that contribute to worth searching for them. A good place ship. 1988. Sierra Club Yodeler, Au- the conservation and restoration of to start is Native Habitats’ list of links gust issue. Archived at http:// biodiversity for the sake of future at http://members.aol.com/gstigall/calnat. sanfranciscobay.sierraclub.org/yo- generations. The list of resources htm. deler/html/1998/08/01.htm below (and additional ones listed The Natural Resource Projects In- House, F. 1999. To tem Salmon: Life at www.cnps.org) will help you ex- ventory at the University of California, Lessons from Another Species. Beacon plore the various dimensions of land Davis, sponsors an online database of Press. Boston, MA. stewardship and discover its special restoration projects at http://www.ice. Leopold, A. 1949. A Sand County Al- allure. ucdavis.edu/nrpi. The inventory includes manac. Oxford University Press. many projects that don’t offer volunteer New York, NY. A foundational TO GET INVOLVED opportunities, but it’s intended to be text; if there’s one book to read on comprehensive. stewardship, this is it. Local parks and open space Internships with land management Raven, P.H. and D.I. Axelrod. 1978. groups sponsor hundreds of volun- agencies often provide the best steward- Origin and Relationships of the Cali- teer workdays every month. Every ship training. The Occidental Arts and fornia Flora. University of Califor- large coastal wetland in southern Ecology Center also offers classes in nia Press. Berkeley, CA. California, for example, has an or- wildland and agricultural stewardship Stevens, W.K. 1995. Miracle Under ganized group of dedicated steward- that is focused on the central California the Oaks: The Revival of Nature in ship volunteers. There are often coast but has broader applications. See America. Pocket Books. New York, signs at trailheads with contact in- their site at http://www.oaec.org. NY.

VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 FREMONTIA 29 Profiles SUE GARDNER AND SHARON FARRELL

Sue Gardner has been director of the at its Sunday workdays, and has for balance between education and Golden Gate National Parks Con- more than ten years. The Site Stew- stewardship. How do we achieve servancy’s Site Stewardship Program ardship Program has found consis- our resource management goals for since it began in 1993. Sharon Farrell tency of a different sort. We’re go- a site while also reaching new audi- led the Presidio Park Stewardship Pro- ing from a pure drop-in program to ences? It’s a grand experiment and gram for the National Park Service a place where almost all of our vol- we learn something new every year. from its inception in late 1993 until unteer hours now come through But we can’t stray too far from edu- 1998, but has continued her involve- long-term educational partnerships. cation and outreach. It’s too criti- ment in Presidio stewardship activities Because they’re scheduled well in cal. Some of our students are terri- since then in a variety of capacities. advance, with numbers that we can fied to even go out into a natural Gardner and Farrell spoke with Pete count on, the consistency has helped area, so it’s not even about getting Holloran and Anouk Mackenzie on sev- our ability to plan stewardship ac- work done at that stage. It’s about eral occasions about their experience tivities. making a long-term investment. In with community-based stewardship That evolution came about not order for public lands to survive, we during the past decade—and where it so much because of our inspiration must make that investment! The might be headed in the future. or foresight. It really bubbled up demographics of California are from the grassroots, including two changing so quickly. volunteers who were students at There’s definitely a niche out SUE GARDNER City College in 1994. They helped there. It turns out that kids in non- us see how important it is to ad- traditional educational environ- here are some great drop-in dress diversity in our programs, to ments do brilliantly in the field. So Tprograms in the park. The reach broader audiences. we’ve invested in all sorts of part- Habitat Restoration Team The big question I’m really nerships with educational institu- routinely has dozens of volunteers grappling with is finding the right tions outside the mainstream. Over the years we’ve been able to figure Sue Gardner. Photograph courtesy of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. out which partnerships stick and provide positive results for both parties. Every year we’d see a few en- thusiastic students bubble up in each partnership. We wanted to provide them with the next step. This past summer we took a step in that di- rection with a pilot program for high school students. Ten students joined us for a seven-week natural resources boot camp. We called it Linking Individuals to the Natural Community (LINC). Each week had a different theme—invasive plant removal, nursery work, mapping, monitor- ing, trail work, environmental edu- cation. It was hard work for all of us, but it was very rewarding. We wanted to do authentic work, not just education. We were fortunate to have a very talented credentialed teacher, Amanda Keroes, working with us every day. We learned so much from

30 FREMONTIA VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 her. I’ve run all sorts of environ- change their mind mental education programs, but I when they witness still learned a lot about how to work how landscapes can be with high school students. For shaped in positive Amanda, the summer experience left ways by stewardship. her feeling empowered enough as a It doesn’t make sense steward that she’s adopted a site as to bring everyone into her own and will be helping lead a single mindset. It’s workdays there. And she’s already our job to highlight signed up for a second year with the what stewardship can LINC boot camp! do for the land and then allow them to make up their own SHARON FARRELL mind. I’ve worked with hen I first started work- lots of organizations Wing at the Presidio ten and institutions on years ago, my definition stewardship issues of stewardship was all about the since leaving the land. It was about trying to find Presidio. In nearly ev- ways to nurture and revitalize a land- ery successful pro- scape that I had fallen in love with. gram, pioneers have As the program matured, I saw that helped shape the di- people needed stewardship as well. rection and breadth of Sharon Farrell (right) planting native grasses with Kurt I now see much more vividly how community involve- Delfino. Photograph courtesy of the National Park stewardship can transform lives as ment in watershed Service. well as landscapes. Even in my wild- restoration. Their ac- est dreams I never envisioned that tions continue to be important in incredulous tones, “you trust vol- stewardship could be so transfor- creating volunteer opportunities unteers to do that?!” mative. and laying the framework for com- Absolutely, I have to say. In my As the Presidio’s program grew, munity participation. When I first experience, if you believe that people the passion of its volunteers fueled started, the park did not allow vol- can do something, they will. That its ability to undertake larger proj- unteers to participate in monitor- sounds corny, I know, but I’ve seen ects. We quickly realized that not ing endangered species. Now, volunteers provide critical leadership every park visitor supported the thanks to the efforts of several pio- and support in planning, revegeta- transformations that were occurring. neering volunteers and interns, the tion, nursery management, monitor- Removing invasive non-native trees park’s monitoring program relies ing, and even research. By offering for a restoration project became a heavily on volunteer participation. broader volunteer opportunities the lightning rod for a large number of Once those path-breaking volun- Golden Gate National Parks in- concerned neighbors. At times the teers had demonstrated their abil- creased and diversified volunteer project was almost shut down. After ity to collect good data and built participation. The challenge comes two years of public education and strong relationships with park staff, in finding the right balance of field- outreach, it was gratifying to see it was easy for the park to shift gears. based experiences, social interactions that the opposition to tree removal I can’t tell you how many times and celebrations, and educational wasn’t implacable. One neighbor I’ve heard resource managers and planning opportunities. even took the time to write a letter around the state say that “all volun- Managers throughout the state to the San Francisco Chronicle ex- teers can do is weed.” There’s often are having to gradually change pressing his initial doubt about the a big disconnect between their vol- their attitude toward volunteer park’s restoration project but that unteer management actions—“let’s stewards, in part out of financial he had witnessed a wonderful trans- have a workday so we can get some need but also because they’re be- formation as the work progressed. good press and let people feel ginning to recognize that there are Some people will never change good”—and their resource manage- high-quality stewards out there. So their positions, no matter what evi- ment objectives. Volunteer pro- go out and be a pioneer! Help dence you marshal to support your grams are seen as merely supple- change some minds while trans- argument. But many people can mental. Some have asked me, in forming the land—and yourself.

VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 FREMONTIA 31 Wild Reading

CALIFORNIA NATURAL HISTORY GUIDES

WILD LILIES, IRISES, AND GRASSES Gardening with California Monocots NORA HARLOW AND KRISTIN JAKOB, EDITORS llustrations by Kristin Jakob “It would be hard to imagine a more knowledgeable group of writers, illustrators, and photographers than the dream team assembled to create this book. It is truly a celebration of the beauty of our native flora and encour- ages us to incorporate elements of it in our gardens to establish a firm sense of place…. I’ve waited twenty-five INTRODUCTION TO INTRODUCTION TO years for this book! It was worth the wait.” CALIFORNIA DESERT CALIFORNIA SPRING —Richard G. Turner, Jr., editor, Pacific Horticulture WILDFLOWERS WILDFLOWERS OF THE A Phyllis M. Faber Book, $50.00 cloth, $24.95 paper PHILIP A. MUNZ FOOTHILLS, VALLEYS, Edited by Diane L. Renshaw AND COAST and Phyllis M. Faber CALIFORNIA DESERT FLOWERS PHILIP A. MUNZ New Introduction by Edited by Dianne Lake and An Introduction to Families, Genera, and Species Robert Ornduff Phyllis M. Faber SIA MORHARDT AND J. EMIL MORHARDT REVISED EDITION—This pop- New Introduction by “[This] is an easy-to-use work that can serve equally well ular field guide has never been Robert Ornduff as a stand-alone guide to a casual day trip or, for more superseded as a guide to the REVISED EDITION— advanced botanists, as a practical companion to the wildflowers in these botanically Thoroughly revised and updated Jepson Manual.” rich areas. Easy-to-use, portable, throughout, it is now easier to —John N. Trager, Curator of Desert Collections, and comprehensive, it has now use and more accurate—the Huntington Botanical Gardens been thoroughly updated and perfect guide to take along on A Phyllis M. Faber Book, $65.00 cloth, $29.95 paper revised throughout, making it the outdoor excursions in California perfect guide to take along on and surrounding regions. excursions into the Mojave and $39.95 cloth, $16.95 paper Colorado Deserts. $39.95 cloth, $16.95 paper

AT BOOKSTORES OR ORDER (800) 822-6657 • WWW.UCPRESS.EDU UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

32 FREMONTIA VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004 Please Join Today! CNPS member gifts allows us to promote and protect California’s native plants and their habitats. Gifts are tax-deductible minus the $12 of the total gift which goes toward publication of Fremontia and the CNPS Bulletin.

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MATERIALS FOR CLASSIFIED ADS PUBLICATION Members and others are invited Classified ad rate: $1.00 per word, minimum to submit material for publication Botanical prints, note cards, postcards, in Fremontia. Instructions for $15; payment in advance. Address advertising Plants of the Lewis and Clark Expedition inquiries and copy to: CNPS, 2707 K St., contributors can be found on the notecards, books, fruit crate labels, hand Suite 1, Sacramento, CA 95816-5113. (916) towels, and T-shirts focusing on Cali- CNPS website, www.cnps.org, or 447-2677 or fax (916) 447-2727. fornia native plants from Sierra Nature can be requested from Fremontia Prints. Animal puppets, too. Visit www. Editor, Linda Ann Vorobik, NURSERIES AND SEEDS sierranatureprints.com. [email protected], or c/o Telos Rare Bulbs. Bulbs for your gar- PUBLICATIONS University and Jepson Herbaria, den, restoration projects, landscaping. Many Calif. native species, including Flora & Fauna Books, 121 First Avenue 1001 Valley Life Sciences Bldg. Calochortus, Fritillaria, Brodiaea rela- South, Seattle WA 98104, Tel. (206) #2465, University of California, tives, Erythronium. Catalog $3.00. Free 623-4727, Fax (206) 623-2001, ffbooks Berkeley, CA 94720-2465. shipping in USA. P.O. Box 4978, Arcata, @blarg.net, Specializing in Botany, Gar- CA 95518. www.telosrarebulbs.com. dening, Birding, and Ecology, both new SERVICES and out-of-print. We carry a large in- FREMONTIA EDITORIAL ventory of floras, keys, and field guides Nature landscape design. Landscape for the west coast and worldwide. A ADVISORY BOARD Design that celebrates the rich heritage large selection of our inventory is now Ann Bradley, Susan D’Alcamo- of California’s native flora. Duber Land- available on the web: www.abebooks.com/ scape Design, CA license #4316. (510) home/FFBOOK/. Potter, Ellen Dean, Kathleen 524-8665. Dickey, Phyllis M. Faber, Bart ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION ART O’Brien, John Sawyer, Jim Native California grassland and desert Shevock, Teresa Sholars, Nevin Notecards, Prints, and Originals. Visit ecological restoration standards and Smith, Dieter Wilken, John www.VorobikBotanicArt.com. PO Box costs, plus pictures showing results. Willoughby, Darrell Wright 866, Lopez Island, WA 98261. www.ecoseeds.com/standards.html.

VOLUMEVOLUME 32:3,32:3, JULYJULY 20042004 FREMONTIAFREMONTIA 3 FROM THE EDITOR

ould our local wildflower through time, and why we want to profiles of land stewards from a vari- C walks suffer from the tragedy work to steward native landscapes, es- ety of situations (each profile is placed of the commons? Will our pecially those in or near heavily popu- near an article that it relates to). In children and grandchildren love and lated areas. The articles of Grey Hayes these profiles, each steward speaks his work for native plants the way we do? and Dan Leroy let us know what it is or her mind about their challenges, re- Pete Holloran, Convening Editor for like to work on stewardship jobs, the wards, and treasured memories. this special issue on Stewardship, has challenges to private landowners, and The California Native Plant Soci- assembled articles that reflect why we the experiences of kids who pitch in ety is about the plants, but as a soci- need to work to protect native habi- to make a difference in what will be ety, it is, foremost, about the people. tats and how this is happening, along their world. It is my delight to share this issue with with a series of profiles of those who In the last article, Pete Holloran in- you, in that Pete has done a superb work as land stewards. troduces a collection of quotes and job portraying the people who work As an introduction to these photos that portray those helping to for the landscape, for the plants, and thoughts, Peter Raven, one of the dig weeds, plant native plants, of ultimately for the collective good of most well-known botanists of our those who get down on their knees all of us who revel in the beauty of time, who was raised and educated in and dirty their hands to make a place the wild. California, presents an overview of the better. Linda Ann Vorobik California flora, how it has changed Scattered throughout the issue are Fremontia Editor

CONTRIBUTORS

Grey Hayes received his PhD in environmental studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is now

coordinator of the Coastal Training Program for the

Address Service Requested Service Address

Sacramento, CA 95816-5113 CA Sacramento,

2707 K Street, Suite 1 Suite Street, K 2707 California Native Plant Society Plant Native California Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve near Monterey Bay.

Pete Holloran is a PhD candidate in environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Because of his studies, he rarely has time for stewardship activities, but he hopes to resume this work soon.

Dan Leroy coordinates community-based restoration and education efforts for the Center for Land-Based Learn- ing. He lives and works near Putah Creek, in Winters, California.

Peter H. Raven, PhD, a native of San Francisco, has been director of the Missouri Botanical Garden and George Engelmann Professor of Botany at Washington University in St. Louis since 1971. He is a strong advocate for conser-

vation and sustainable development. Postage U.S.

Nonprofit Org. Nonprofit

Permit # 3729 # Permit

Oakland, CA Oakland, PAID

CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY, dedicated to protecting native plants and their habitats.

4 FREMONTIA VOLUME 32:3, JULY 2004