Restoring the park
Habitat restoration - the rewilding project
In the heat and dust of old ranching land there now lies a strange sight: plots of empty milk and orange juice cartons, standing in methodical rows. These boxes, usually thrown away, or recycled, are now repurposed as protection for the hundreds of native plant seedlings that have been planted as part of the Rewilding Project.
Saturday September 24, 2022, was a National Public Lands Day, hosted by Santa Monica Mountains. Over 115 volunteers joined the NPS and SAMO Fund for a morning of planting native seedlings at Rancho Sierra Vista and Satwiwa trails. By the end of the morning, three separate plots had been planted with a total of 3,000 consisting of 4 species: Stipa pulchra (purple needle grass), Verbena lasiostachys (Common Vervain), Grindelia camporum(Gum plant), and Sambucus nigra (Elderberry).
The Rewild non-profit, founded by Leonardo DiCaprio through a grant with Snapchat aims to plant 100,000 native plants in 5 key areas affected by wildfires by the end of 2023. Rancho Sierra Vista is one of the areas, the other four are Paramount Ranch, Cheeseboro Canyon, Peter Strauss Ranch and Rocky Oaks. Areas that were affected by the Springs Fire in 2013 and the Woolsey Fire of 2018.
Matthew Wells leads the outreach program for habitat restoration in the Santa Monica Mountains. He explained that although grass is ubiquitous in the mountains, the grassy ground covering is not native to California, but was introduced by settlers, for cattle, in the ranches of California. As the ranches were established, native trees, shrubs and years of growth were torn up to make way for the acres needed for farming cattle. The loss of native plants meant the invasion of species such as Black mustard and annual nonnative grasses which outcompete and impede the growth of native plants and contribute to more frequent, and fiercer, fires.
The Rewild Project plants and cares for native plants, including indigenous grasses, herbs, shrubs and trees, while trying to decrease the amount of invasive plants in depleted, fire-damaged areas of the Santa Monica Mountains. The project is part of a greater number of similar projects that have been running over the past decade or so.
Established plantings, along the creek bed are thriving and shelter an abundance of local wildlife. There is however, the constant struggle of ongoing maintenance, invasive weeds needing to be kept under check, and grass mown regularly, allowing indigenous plants space and chance to take hold.
Seedlings are grown in the Native Plant Nursery, with plantings happening on Fridays and Saturdays, throughout the planting season. To volunteer and sign up for these events, please visit Eventbrite
