Stewardship Update
Spreading the Love for Nature
Students and staff weeding at Mangini Ranch Educational Preserve. Photo by Mary Nagle
Students at Pittsburg High School, along with staff of Diamond Construction and Enkasa Homes, the sponsors of the event, joined staff at Mangini Ranch Educational Preserve for our first Conservation Collaboration Agreement (CCA) of the calendar year.
Staff first presented to multiple biology classes at Pittsburg High before the students were given the opportunity to join us outside.
During the sunny day, the participants took part in a solo experience, learned about local history and ecology on an interpretive walk, and contributed to a service project.
Removing invasive grasses! Photo by Mary Nagle
For that stewardship project, everyone weeded around the native plantings in the two interpretive gardens, removing annual grasses from around the plantings and the perimeter of the fencing that surrounds the gardens.
By removing the grasses, everyone was helping the native plants have a better chance at growing and thriving. Students also explored nature at the micro level by looking at plants using portable microscopes.
During the beautiful day, red-tailed hawks and turkey vultures soared above. Thank you to all the amazing students and staff from the sponsor that joined us for a fun-filled day!
Plant Party!
Photo by Haley Sutton
This month we held three workdays at Save Mount Diablo’s Marsh Creek 1 and 7 properties to plant over 300 grasses, shrubs, and trees to establish more wildlife habitat in the area.
DiRT volunteers planting at Marsh Creek 1 and 7. Photo by Haley Sutton
The latest Diablo Restoration Team (DiRT) day focused on weeding and sheet mulching around the plantings to suppress annual grass and thistle growth around them. Burlap, cardboard, and coconut blanket were all used as the first layer over the ground, followed by a thick layer of mulch.
We also celebrated our love for planet Earth by planting valley oak acorns at Irish Canyon on Valentine’s Day.
We added another restoration planting site to our Irish Canyon project in partnership with the East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy.
Volunteers planted acorns collected within the watershed to establish 21 new tree sites and install multiple protective measures of cages and tubing to give those acorns the best chance at survival.
Over 100 volunteer hours helped us accomplish both of these projects. Thank you all our amazing DiRT volunteers who joined us for one or all of these days!
Stewards in the Field
Staff feeding branches into the chipper. Photo by Haley Sutton
Save Mount Diablo and Mount Diablo State Park staff participated in a chipper training to learn how to operate and maintain the two new Vermeer chippers that were purchased with funds from the Coastal Conservancy’s Wildfire Resilience Program grant.
Save Mount Diablo was awarded the grant to purchase two chippers to conduct fuels reduction projects on our and state park lands.
This training prepared staff to lead a chipping day at Curry Canyon Ranch with volunteer property stewards. One of the big limbs of a heritage valley oak unexpectedly broke off the tree last summer, leaving a lot of debris strewn around the tree.
Save Mount Diablo property stewards and staff at Curry Canyon Ranch. Photo by Sean Burke
During the Pine Canyon Cleanup last winter, volunteers trimmed the branches into movable and chippable pieces and placed them in piles around the tree. This month, we were finally able to chip them using our new Vermeer chipper.
Volunteers gathered branches to hand off to trained staff that fed the pieces into the chipper. We let the chips scatter on the ground, making a thin layer that will break down over time.
It took a lot of hard work to chip so much of that biomass, and we are grateful for all the help from our stewards!
Discover Diablo
There weren’t any Discover Diablo events this month, but you can now sign up for events later this spring.
