Weeds No Match for Rotarians on Earth Day
"Save The Natives!" was the battle cry of the day. Remember back in January we had a contingent of volunteers make the trek out to the new Coast Dairies State Park at Laguna Creek to plant a slew - nearly 10,000 - new native seedlings in a former artichoke field. Today we returned to see how the little critters are doing and to give them a bit of help.
The small by hearty group of Rotarians included: Jeremy "the hoe" Lezin, Tom "will-weed-for-trail-mix" Knott, Ross "DJ BBQ" McClenahan and his very understanding wife Robin, and repeat offender Dave "from Arcata" Campbell and son, and of course yours truly. Also present was Rob "mega-weed" Morse representing both Rotary and PG&E. Honorable mention to Dina Blair and Shelley Sonnenberg who had every intention of helping out, but were unable to attend.
This event was sponsored by the Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks, doing what they do best - supporting Santa Cruz County's 20 state parks. Besides our Rotarian contingent and a few locals from the community, about 100 employee volunteers from PG&E were on hand! Some were local but many came from places as distant as Fresno, Sacramento and Modesto. PG&E also presented the Friends with a check for $1000 they raised in support of the non-profit and the important work they do.
We were greeted with coffee, bagels and pastries upon arrival at the Wilder Ranch meeting place. From there we headed up the coast to Laguna Creek and got right to work. The good news is the most of the natives survived their first 3 months in the wild. The bad news is the invasive weeds did even better. Here's a before and after weeding shot.
As you can imagine, indescrimate yanking of the weeds would have been fatal to the young natives. So extreme finesse was required to eradicate the weeds while preserving the good guys. Except when Jeremy got a little carried away with his WMD-hoe, we did a pretty good job.
We managed to work over about 20% of the entire plot during the 3 1/2 hours we were there. In addition to the weeding a group was also dispatched to scour the beach of trash and the ever-present cigarette butts.
To cap off the morning, we were treated to a lovely lunch back at Wilder. It's always a great feeling to work the land and help out a great local organization committed to preserving our environment. Finally, to quote Jim Hightower, "The only difference between a pigeon and the American farmer today is that a pigeon can still make a deposit on a John Deere." (I know this quote doesn't have anything to do with anything, but you have to admit it's sadly funny in an ironic sort of way. :))
Rotarians with Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks Executive Director Bonnie Hawley and Marketing and Special Events Coordinator Peg Danielson.