Learning from the Land
3/22/07

Education plays a key role in Elkhorn Slough Foundation's strategy to conserve and restore Elkhorn Slough and its watershed.

On March 7, 2007 we hosted a group of students from Cabrillo College's
Restoration Landscaping course at Porter Ranch. The students are learning to restore native landscapes with the goal of promoting biodiversity--mimicking natural habitats, solving erosion problems, and assessing compromised soil situations.

Dr. Grey Hayes, the Coastal Training Program Coordinator at Elkhorn Slough Reserve, was on-hand to educate students on the healthy coastal prairie habitat covering the cattle-grazed hills of Porter Ranch. Dr. Hayes has been researching grasslands at Porter and two other Central California sites since 1999. His ongoing research examines what affect disturbances like cattle grazing and mowing have on the plant community and attempts to introduce plant diversity.

His results have revealed that identification of potential restoration sites may be more difficult than previously thought, and that some projects require the establishment of hardy seed banks capable of lasting many years.

Dr. Hayes has also found that when cattle grazing is removed from a site, and no other disturbances occur, native grasses virtually disappear after six years. Frequent mowing seems to help increase native grass cover in the absence of grazing, but mowed plots have little diversity compared to grazed pastures.

These results have important implications for restoration landscaping as conservation organizations now rethink the removal of cattle grazing and consider mowing as a means to restore and maintain native grasses. Sharing this information with the restoration landscaping students brings them one step closer to becoming better stewards of the lands they will one day be charged with protecting.