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This year, Channel Islands Restoration (CIR) has increased our capacity for conservation along the Central Coast! Our field operations team has nearly doubled to accommodate habitat restoration work in Santa Barbara, Santa Paula, Malibu, Thousand Oaks, the Gaviota Coast, and the Channel Islands, to name a few of our project sites.
We are incredibly grateful for your philanthropic support that has made it possible for us to provide educational opportunities for children and adults. Your support, large or small, is also critical to the continued ecological improvements being made for our local wetlands, grasslands, and woodlands throughout the Coast.
On one side of a path in the idyllic hills of Santa Barbara, a dense clump of dried out mustard rises more than six feet. Meanwhile, just across the way, the invasive plant is thinned to wisps.
Carolyn Chaney, 77, pointed out the difference in vegetation and also provided the reason: sheep.
“This is where they’ve been,” she said, pointing to the cleared patch of land.
Chaney would know. She’s a regular sheep docent at the 300-acre San Marcos Foothills Preserve, owned by Santa Barbara County and located between Santa Barbara and Goleta.
Carol Gravelle, a long-time volunteer for CIR and a fairly new member of our Board said to me recently, “I’m an island gal, but what you showed us from your desert trip looks amazing!” Maybe only a few of you attended CIR’s annual trips to Death Valley National Park and other locations in the Mojave Desert. Over the course of more than a decade, botanist Steve Junak and geologist Tanya Atwater took us to dozens of amazing desert locales, on trips that sold out just about every year.
Some may remember how the 2023 rainy season began. A few gentle rains in October and November and by News Years we had a nice manageable germination of weeds happening across all our project sites. Conditions were very favorable, and we assumed we would be starting early on many of our projects.
On February 28th, Channel Islands Restoration (CIR) staff gathered at Fillmore City Hall for professional development and knowledge sharing. The workshop aimed to provide field techs with some bilingual skills and riparian knowledge, supporting effective communication between crews in the field and enhancing their understanding of restoration work and related topics such as ecology and natural resource protection.
We’re all rightfully concerned about climate change and global warming, and most of us are taking actions on a daily basis to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in our lives; actions like driving less and moving towards electrification of our lives with the electricity generated by renewable sources like wind and solar.
The goal of the docent program is to provide information and to engage in conversation with visitors of the Foothills. We need your help with explaining this restoration project to people visiting the West Mesa.
Channel Islands Restoration is coordinating a trail maintenance program that will provide easier trail accessibility, stable footing, and designated walking paths for visitors, hikers, and outdoor enthusiasts at the San Marcos Foothills West Mesa Preserve located in Santa Barbara. This series of Santa Barbara based volunteer opportunities is a great opportunity to learn about trail maintenance and join a new program on how to maintain trails in the local community.
Painted Cave is a sea cave on the north shore of Santa Cruz Island, thought to be the fourth largest sea cave in length in the world and second largest in volume in the US. With weather and tides permitting, Island Packers Captains can make the decision to immerse the boat completely within the cave. The entrance is over 130 feet high, over 100 feet wide and over 1200 feet in length. Naturally occurring algae and lichens give Painted Cave its artist’s palate appearance.
What’s CIR doing that I can actually see? (Or, thanks Doug, this is a great place for a date!) A lot! CIR has gotten a reputation of working in places most people don’t regularly get to, we’re sort of like ‘Restoration Hotshots’. We are usually working so far off the beaten path that it takes some logistical effort to see us in action. Well, that is no longer the case in Santa Barbara at Elings Park!
KEYT Santa Barbara news covered Channel Islands Restoration’s 20th anniversary gathering at Manning Park in Montecito on October 22nd, 2022. The event was held in celebration of CIR’s 20 year history as an environmental organization and habitat restoration contractor, providing a variety of services to the Central Coast, Santa Barbara County, Ventura County, and of course the Channel Islands. Watch KEY’s full coverage of the 20th Anniversary event below.
