This was a spot along the road heading up to the trail heads at the top on Madera Canyon road. Last year the single lane bridge was widened and improved, in the process the sides of the road that slope down to the stream were scraped clear. Instead of just leaving that to regenerate on its own incurring possible erosion issues or invasive plants, the Forest Service paired up with Sky Island Alliance and Boarderlands Restoration to restore the area with native plants including grasses and milkweeds. The forest service used the rocks and boulders that were originally scraped to the side to build small water retention reservoirs to slow down the water running off the land during floods, and built other borders to help with water flow and retention. We came in on this sunny Tuesday in April and watered plants that had already been installed, planted more milkweed, and weeded vinca from some of the creekside habitat.
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Julia A. RoweI am an ecologist interested in an interdisciplinary approach to conservation and natural resource problem solving. Archives
February 2020
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