CALIFORNIA GRASSLAND RESTORATION AN EFFORT TO REINTRODUCE THE GRASSLAND PLANT COMMUNITIES OF THE INDIGENOUS UC BERKELEY CAMPUS SITE Ariel Cherbowsky* and Jennifer Podvin* *B.S. in Conservation and Resource Studies 2014 CURRENT SITE CONDITION
EXOTIC GRASSES DOMINATING OUR SITE: Ehrharta erecta, also known as Panic veldt grass, is an invasive perennial grass that became established in California in the 1930’s. Originally from South Africa, the plant has proven to be an aggressive invader which spreads easily from wind dispersed seeds and is able to re-sprout from stems and tips. Erharta decreases native biodiversity as it competes with and prevents the establishment of annual wildflowers and native grasses.
Avena fatua, or Wild oat, is a characteristic weed of disturbed locations such as roadsides or path edges and in agricultural fields. This annual invasive grass from Eurasia/ North Africa is thought to have been brought to California by the Spanish during the Mission period (1769-1824) and either introduced as forage grass for cattle and sheep or brought unknowingly along on their travels. It is a superior competitor which can produce allelopathic compounds that suppress other plants in its proximity. Their highly resilient seeds can last in the soil seed bank for up to 10 years!
THE INDIGENOUS UCB CAMPUS SITE The site of the main UC Berkeley campus was a grassland with strips of riparian vegetation along the course of Strawberry Creek during the time when only the indigenous Huchuin Ohlone people were the human residents of the Strawberry Creek watershed. The Huchuin Ohlone utilized fire as a land management practice to prevent woody plant invasions of grasslands, promote growth of favorable plant species, improve hunting and gathering conditions, and facilitate travel. It is likely that the site of our restoration project in the Grinnell Ecological Study Area in the west side of the main campus was a coastal prairie plant community within a Coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) grove.
A depiction of an Ohlone man and woman in an oak grove. Drawn by Michael Harney and printed in “The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area” by Malcolm Margolin.
THE LABOR
THE RESEARCH
Students from the Strawberry Creek Restoration DeCal and various volunteers and student groups hosted by the Strawberry Creek Collective have been working to prepare the site for planting by removing the invasive grasses. Other strategies for suppressing the exotics will be implemented before and after planting as well.
THE GOALS: - To encourage awareness of the ecological heritage of the site of the UC Berkeley campus and the East Bay and through the inadequacy of the restoration publicly acknowledge the devastating dismantling of the ecological and cultural conditions of the Bay Area as they existed prior to European arrival and conquest. - To provide an educational landscape where people can observe and learn some of the native plants common to pre-European coastal prairie and valley grassland ecosystems. - To raise awareness about previous indigenous land management practices. - To raise awareness about exotic species invasions and their threats to native biodiversity. - To test various grassland restoration strategies in hopes of finding successful methods of reintroducing native grassland species to the larger Grinnell Ecological Study Area. - To involve a variety of students and the wider UC Berkeley community in the continuing project.
A depiction of a pre-Spanish era East Bay coastal prairie, painted by Laura Cunningham and printed in “A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California”.
Map of “Plant Cover Before Colonization” in “Ecology of the Pre-Spanish San Francisco Bay Area” by David Mayfield
Coastal Prairie Plant community members
Research Sources
California oatgrass
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ,6
Purple Needlegrass
1, 3, 4, 5
Idaho Fescue
2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Pacific reedgrass
2, 3, 4
California hairgrass
2, 3, 4
Red Fescue
1, 3, 4, 6
Blue-eyed grass
2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Junegrass
3, 5
We have been researching a variety of sources to understand what plant communities grew in our site during the pre-Spanish indigenous eras, and we have found that our site was most likely a coastal prairie bordering Strawberry Creek’s riparian zone. In addition to reintroducing plants from the coastal prairie community, we are also planting representatives of the valley grassland community, the other common grassland type of the East Bay. We will source these plants from local native plant nurseries as well as collect them from seed, such as from local reference ecosystems like the coastal prairie at UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station.
Research Sources 1. Stromberg,M.R., P Kephart and V.Yadon 2002. Composition, invasibility, and diversity in coastal California grasslands. Madrono 48: 236-252 2. Munz, P.A., and D.D. Keck. 1973. A California Flora and Supplement. 3. Heady et al. 1988. Terrestrial Vegetation of California. Ch 21:Coastal Prairie. Edited by M.G. Barbour and J. Major. UC Press. Berkeley, CA. 4. Peterson, P.M., and R.J. Soreng. 2007. California Grasslands: Ecology and Management. Ch 2: Systematics of California Grasses (Poaceae). Edited by M.R. Stromberg, J.D. Corbin and C.M. D’Antonio 5. Cunningham, L. 2010. A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California. CH 6: California Grasslands. Heyday Press. Berkeley, CA. 6. Anderson, M.K. 2005. Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California’s Natural Resources.