Landscape Transformation Begins at Elings Park By: Julia McHugh, Elings Park Contributor
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lings Park is the site of a new collaboration with Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, partners, and community volunteers, which allows park visitors to see firsthand how California’s native plants can transform a landscape. Work has begun on the park’s South Bluffs to remove the invasive plants from a 1-acre (.4-hectare) area, which will be planted later this year with species native to the region. Science experiments will compare the abundance, diversity, and composition of plant and animal life both before and after the transformation, compared with the areas still planted with invasive species. Even though Elings Park is mere steps away from thousands of residences and has nearly a quarter million visitors annually, a large portion is undeveloped. Many people who play in its popular sports leagues or attend concerts or weddings here have never visited the scenic South Bluffs. During the Spanish period and into the last century, this area was used for livestock grazing. Later, parts were plowed under and planted with beans. After that venture failed, the hills became overgrown with invasive, nonnative plants — and was once the domain of a feral mule who reportedly chased local children!
Elings Park was just 97 acres (39 hectares) when it opened in 1985, thanks to a community campaign that turned the former landfill into a free public park. In 1994, it expanded to 230 acres (93 hectares) with the purchase of the adjacent property, which is now called the South Bluffs. The site of the Landscape Transformation Project is next to the park’s Sierra Club Trail. This trail is popular with walkers, runners, mountain bikers, and dogs and their humans (members of the Elings Park Dog Owner Group, EPDOG) for its shady oak (Quercus spp.) groves, sunny, ocean-facing hilltops, and spectacular views. The hope is that park visitors will leave inspired and begin transformations in their own backyards and in landscapes across Santa Barbara County and beyond. Plus, the project is being documented for future reproduction in other local areas. These photos offer an intimate overview of its first steps. Volunteers willing to get their hands dirty can find out more and sign up at SSBotanicGarden.org/ conservation/our-impact/restoring-habitats/elingspark-transformation. O
The Landscape Transformation Project at Elings Park began in May 2023 with a bioblitz — a three-hour assessment of the pollinators, birds, bugs, and plants (both native and invasive) on part of the South Bluffs. Santa Barbara Botanic Garden’s Matt Guilliams, Ph.D., the Tucker systematist and curator of the Clifton Smith Herbarium (holding phone), trains "blitzers" the iNaturalist app, which will be used throughout the program to store data. (Photo: Julia McHugh)
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