Planting season is a crucial part of restoration and our year. For the Habitat Restoration Team (HRT), it is the small window when months of nursery propagation finally comes to an end with outplanting. This winter, we outplanted over 10,000 native seedlings—gumplant, alkali heath, and creeping wild rye to name a few—into the transition zones of our tidal marshes. These plants are not just habitat or beautiful to look at on walks along the shoreline; they are our defense against rising sea levels, sequestering greenhouse gases, filtering pollutants and creating essential high-tide refugia for endangered species that call the San Francisco Bay Area home. However, this year’s planting season was a bit different than most others we’ve encountered: the federal shutdown.
With access to federal lands restricted and agency partners on leave, our timeline was closing in. With thousands of plants to put in the ground and restricted access to our sites for the public, we had to cancel several planting programs, adjust, and make a new planting plan. Delays in planting can be tricky to navigate, since we time our planting season with the natural weather patterns of the rain. If we wait too long, seedlings can miss their biological window, and invasive weeds have more time to outcompete the far too small native plant seedlings.
During this time, we couldn’t host any members of the public at our Don Edwards NWR Ravenswood Pond site. Since our partners at the San Jose Conservation Corps (SJCC) are paid contractors on our permit for this project, they were able to support our small team heavily, doubling our team in size. After multiple seasons over the course of a few years working with the SJCC crews, they have become an extension of our HRT and vital to our team. Their corps members helped us pivot our work and compensated for the lack of hundreds of public volunteers that would have otherwise helped us plant thousands of plants over the course of several weekends. They planted thousands of native plants over many weeks, ensuring that the moment the government shutdown was lifted we could shift our attention to other project sites. Their hard work turned a potential massive delay into a testament to community resilience. By the time the government reopened, HRT and SJCC had finished outplanting at Don Edwards NWR Ravenswood Pond. We simply could not have kept our restoration goals on track without them.
Now, we need you to help us continue! We have volunteer opportunities open to individuals, families, and corporate groups throughout the rest of the season.
Ready to get your hands dirty? Visit our Events Calendar to sign up for an upcoming planting day and help us secure a resilient future for the Bay.
