CIR Hosts the Backyard Collective at the San Marcos Foothills Preserve

On April 15th, local members of the Conservation Alliance - All Good, Clif Bar, Deckers, Patagonia, REI, Toad&Co - helped CIR at the San Marcos Foothills Preserve. With more than 100 volunteers in attendance, it took less than a few hours to remove 10,000 square feet of invasives such as black mustard, cheese weed, and fennel and replace them with 362 native plants - some of which were supplied by SB Natives purchased with funding from Santa Barbara County - and some of which were proudly grown by volunteers in our own Camarillo nursery. The Backyard Collective has volunteered with CIR every other year for the past 6 years (on off years they volunteer their time in Ventura with our friends, the Ventura Hillsides Conservancy).

Their work in the San Marcos Foothills, along with each and every one of our volunteers that have dedicated their time in the area, has made a profound impact on this hidden tract of open space in the foothills of the Santa Ynez Mountains. Since 2010, CIR has partnered with several non-profit organizations, businesses and County Parks to restore portions of the Preserve. Our restoration sites along Cieneguitas and Atascadero Creeks have been spectacular successes. In a time of drought when the hills are sunbaked golden and the annual invasives have died off, the perennial native plants we put in the ground have remained green and steadfast. These native plants continue to provide critical habitat to the native species of 130 birds, 49 mammals, 20 reptiles, six amphibians, and countless invertebrates. The sites attract butterflies that feed on nectar from the flowers, and they attract birds that collect seeds and insects from the plants. The success of the restoration sites is due to our dedicated staff and the help of more than 1,500 people who have volunteered with CIR at the San Marcos Foothills since we began our work.

CIR to Remove Tamarisk in the San Rafael Wilderness

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), in partnership with the US Forest Service, has awarded CIR a large grant to eradicate nonnative tamarisk trees that are invading the Sisquoc River, Manzana Creek, and their associated tributaries. 

In the wake of the Zaca fire, invasive plants have established a foothold in this remote area of wilderness - most concerning among them tamarisk (also known as salt cedar). Tamarisk, a deciduous shrub or small tree native to Eurasia, thrives in streambeds with often little to no water by use of its deep and extensive root system that it uses to draw up groundwater. Not only does their thick root system crowd out the roots of other native plants, but it consumes huge amounts of water turning streams to bone dry washes. Tamarisk readily regenerates from remnant roots after the rest of the tree is scoured away from a flash flood. A single tree can produce as many as 500,000 seeds in a single growing season. Suffice to say, tamarisk poses a very serious threat to any ecosystems it invades.

The remote backcountry streams of the Los Padres National Forest give refuge to a large number of rare and endemic species. Among these are the arroyo toad, California red-legged frog, and steelhead trout, all of which are federally listed as threatened or endangered. By eradicating tamarisk trees, our project will provide an opportunity for native plants to reestablish themselves, thereby restoring this critically important habitat.

We are honored to be awarded this grant that allows us to undertake this project and we are humbled at the scope of what will be necessary to complete this project. In total, we will remove tamarisk within 61 miles of backcountry streams. Because there is no motorized access to most of the project area, all personnel and supplies will be packed in on foot and a mule pack train. Tamarisk trees will be removed in a way that does not impact the sensitive riparian habitat that they have invaded.

Sisquoc River in the San Rafael Wilderness

photo by Chris M. Morris

Wetland Restoration at Point Mugu Naval Air Station

As we reported in our November newsletter, CIR began working with the U.S. Navy and Tetra Tech, Inc. to restore a portion of the Mugu Lagoon. In the time since then, we have installed over 5,000 native plants, all of which were grown in our native plant nursery in Camarillo. The most common plants we installed were Parish's glasswort (Arthrocnemum subterminale) and marsh jaumea (Jaumea carnosa), though arguably one of the most important plants was Eriogonum parvifolium or 'seaside buckwheat,' the host for the rare and endangered El Segundo blue butterfly, which can be found on the Point Mugu base. This little butterfly spends its entire life cycle around this particular buckwheat. Overall, the plants we have installed are helping to reestablish a very threatened wetland habitat, which gives home to many rare and common species of plants, animals, and insects. Many thanks to the hundreds of volunteers that dedicated their time to make this happen!

Additionally, a huge thank you to all of the volunteers that gave their time to the Camarillo Nursery! Plants raised in the nursery have not only been used in the restoration of the Mugu Lagoon, but also the San Marcos Foothills Preserve and the Burton Mesa Ecological Reserve.

Anacapa Seabird Habitat Restoration Underway

Channel Islands Restoration, in a continuation of our restoration efforts on East Anacapa Island, is in the process of growing 2,500 plants to be installed in the coming fall. While we are growing many of the same plants grown in the past, this project differs in that we are now working in cooperation with multiple agencies. CIR has joined up with the National Park Service and the California Institute of Environmental Studies (CIES) to create and expand seabird habitat. With these joint forces, new plants will be on a drip system (which improves survival rates by over 50% or more). This new partnership is very exciting, and it will create a lasting impact that visitors will notice in the years to come.

The plants are being grown in our NPS/CIR constructed and maintained shade house and plant nursery stationed on the island which was made possible by a grant from Patagonia and NOAA B-WET and was built in collaboration with the National Park Service. The plants will be installed by CIES and volunteers, who are using funds from the Montrose Settlements Restoration Program to improve seabird habitat. CIR will be funding educational work trips for high school students to assist in habitat restoration as well.

Join Us At Our Annual CIR Membership Event!

Become a CIR Member today and join us for a BBQ lunch and guided tours 

of the Goleta Beach and Goleta Slough Ecological Reserve!

Sunday, April 10th, 2016 from 11:00 am-3:00 pm

Goleta Beach Park Picnic Area

Don't miss out on these two fascinating walking tours!

Geology of the Monterey Formation 

Geologist and CIR Board Member Tanya Atwater will describe and demonstrate the Monterey Formation, whose rocks form most of our local beach-cliffs, including those around Goleta Beach. Besides being the source of most of our oil, these unusual rocks hold the keys to understanding many aspects of our geological history and are responsible for many quirky local phenomena.

Ecology of the Goleta Slough Ecological Reserve

CIR's Senior Ecologist, Eliyahu Gevirtz, will take CIR members on an educational tour of the Goleta Slough, with an emphasis on examining the various parts of the slough, including a variety of types of wetlands, willow forest, coastal sage scrub and oak woodland, endangered plants and animals, and bird nesting areas. Members will also take a close-up look at a habitat restoration site in the western portion of the estuary that Eliyahu has been overseeing for nearly six years. Eliyahu will also speak about the cultural history of the slough.

All CIR Members are invited to our 2016 Spring Membership Event

and YOU can become a CIR Member for a minimum donation of $35!

All contributions are tax-deductible! Click

here

to donate now!

Volunteer with CIR at Earth Day Festivals in Santa Barbara and Ventura!

CIR Ambassadors pose at our Earth Day Festival booth.

Earth Day is just around the corner, and we're excited about celebrating at the upcoming festivals in Santa Barbara and Ventura! We are eager to share the importance of native habitat restoration and to engage the community in our work, and Earth Day presents the perfect opportunity. Once again, we are honored to sponsor the Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival, and we'll be setting up a booth for both days, Saturday, April 16th to Sunday, April 17th. We will also be at the Ventura Earth Day Ecofest on Saturday, April 23rd.

Many of you might not know this, but Earth

 Day has special roots in the Santa Barbara area. In

1969, our community and precious coastline suffered a devastating blow when Union Oil's Platform A blew-up and spilled over 80,000 barrels of crude oil into the Santa Barbara Channel. The spill was a wake-up call for many, including Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson. To help avoid such an atrocity from occurring again, Senator Nelson wanted to create a "national teach-in on the environment" and, on April 22, 1970, about 20 million Americans banded together and demanded a healthy, sustainable environment for all. The tradition continues today, and CIR is proud to take up the cause.

CIR booth at the Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival.

CIR has participated at the Santa Barbara Earth Day for almost ten years. One of our main goals is to educate the public on the amazing landscapes, plants, and wildlife right in their backyard, and we prominently display maps, photos, and informational materials to give people a glimpse into this world. We talk to hundreds of people at these events, and many learn about the Channel Islands for the first time. Indeed, a handful of our dedicated volunteers were once curious passersby that decided to pop into the CIR booth.

Earth Day events are incredibly important to us, but they are a lot of work! We increasing rely on volunteer "ambassadors" to help us staff the booths. Being a CIR ambassador at Earth Day is a wonderful opportunity to share your island stories and encourage the public to get involved and experience the magic of the Channel Islands themselves. For those who have only begun volunteering with CIR, fear not! We always make sure to pair less experienced volunteers with long-term volunteers, or CIR Board members, so no one will feel overwhelmed.

Become a CIR Earth Day Ambassador! 

Shifts are available! Please sign up to volunteer with

volunteer@cirweb.org

:

Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival

Saturday, April 16 from 11:00am to 7:00pm

Sunday, April 17 from 11:00am to 6:00pm

Alameda Park, Santa Barbara 

Ventura Earth Day Ecofest

Saturday, April 23 from 10:00am to 5:00pm

Promenade Park, Ventura 

CIR Stewardship of the San Marcos Foothills

Volunteers pose at the San Marcos Foothills Preserve

following a day of invasive plant removal near

a natural freshwater spring.

In addition to maintaining our current restoration projects and planning new ones for the years ahead, CIR adopted a more active stewardship role for the San Marcos Foothills Preserve. In 2015, we now provide educational programs and have produced materials that educate visitors about protecting wildlife while we all enjoy the 210-acre Preserve, located between Santa Barbara and Goleta.

This year CIR organized three educational walks at the Preserve, including two bird watching events with biologist Mark Holmgren and a plant walk with Ken Owen.

All of these events were popular and were attended by nearly 60 people.

CIR also created a web guide to the Preserve that highlights the plant and animal life, geology and history and more.

We continue to develop a docent program for the Preserve, which will train volunteers to lead educational walks.

Biologist Mark Holmgren leads a CIR bird

watching walk at the Preserve.

As CIR takes on new responsibilities at the Preserve, we’re mindful of our previous successes there.

Since 2010, CIR has partnered with several non-profit organizations, businesses and County government to restore portions of the Preserve.

Our restoration sites along Cieneguitas and Atascadero Creeks have been spectacular successes.

Even during this dry year, in the middle of the worst drought in history, many of our plants continue to bloom well into autumn.

The sites attract butterflies that feed on nectar from the flowers, and they attract birds that collect seeds and insects from the plants.

In a generally dry and brown landscape, our restoration sites are some of the only green spots in the Foothills.

The success of the restoration sites is due to our dedicated staff and the help of more than 1,000 people who have volunteered with CIR at the San Marcos Foothills since we began our work.

Common buckeye butterfly collecting nectar on California

buckwheat plants installed by Channel Islands

Restoration at the San Marcos Foothills

Preserve.

Thanks to a grant from outdoor retailer REI this year, CIR also removed invasive plants along trails and at a freshwater spring, where several species of wetland plants grow.

The REI grant paid for the cost of a staff person to lead the 16 volunteer days and for the cost of recruiting the 278 volunteers who participated.

Thanks to REI and to the Volunteers!

Upcoming Volunteer Trips to San Nicolas Island

CIR volunteers maintaining the native plantings

that were installed early this year.

CIR, in partnership with the U.S. Navy, has two upcoming multi-day planting trips to San Nicolas Island in January 2016.

CIR will be recruiting a select number of volunteers for the chance to visit the most remote of the Channel Islands, and the hardest for civilians to visit!

The goals for the two restoration trips will be to install 1,000 native plants (which includes two dune species) and replenish the island with native and island-endemic vegetation.

CIR collected seeds on-island and grew the plants in the island nursery that was rebuilt by CIR staff and volunteers in 2012.

CIR nursery manager Kelle Green and volunteers has been tending the native plants in the nursery, and they are almost ready to be planted.

One of the dune species is Beach spectaclepod (

Dithyrea maritima

) a California rare and threatened species. 

Plants growing at the San Nicolas Island nursery including

needle grass, box thorn, and cactus.

Volunteers fly out of Point Mugu Naval Air Station to the island where they will stay in motel housing while working on this important restoration project.

Each volunteer will pay for their own single-occupancy room ($68 per night). Because of holiday flight schedules, the trips are

five and six days in length.

This allows more time for volunteers to enjoy an extraordinary experience and beautiful island views.

CIR staff and volunteers will be kept very busy planting and caring for these precious island plants in the coming months.

Watch for the upcoming volunteer announcements!

Upcoming Volunteer Planting Trips:

Thursday, January 14 – Tuesday, January 19

&

Friday, January 22 – Tuesday, January 26

Wrap-Up at Mission Canyon: Achievements

Volunteer removes a mature Euphorbia plant.

Since January, CIR has been involved in a mainland restoration project at Mission Canyon in Santa Barbara to help eradicate a growing population of an extremely invasive plant, Carnation Spurge (Euphorbia terracina).

This plant was recently discovered spreading through this residential area, down the road from the Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens, and its proliferation has exploded with the late winter rains.

With grant funding from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the County of Santa Barbara partnered with CIR to stop Carnation Spurge in its tracks and to keep it from spreading even further.

CIR held four volunteer events at Mission Canyon with CIR staff, 64 volunteers, and 4 CIR Board Members who helped to remove this non-native plant species before the next season of rainfall.

Much of the work was accomplished by basic hand removal and solarization (placing black plastic over the plants depriving them of light).

This project could not have been completed without the hard work and dedication of our volunteers!

We thank the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden for their support on this project by providing free admission at the end of the volunteer event to those who participated to help control this invasive plant population.

We also thank the Mission Canyon Association for all their support throughout this restoration project.

The California Invasive Plant Council is exploring possible future funding options to continue the efforts being made to purge this Spurge.

Planting Completed on San Nicolas Island! 8,000 Plants

Channel Islands Restoration and volunteers, in partnership with the U.S. Navy, have been kept busy with the restoration project on San Nicolas Island this year! Since February, CIR has successfully installed 8,000 island native plants with the help of 58 volunteers over the course of 5 multi-day volunteer trips. This completed the planting phase that began in December of last year when our first volunteer planting crew started by putting in native plants, including California box thorn and two species of native cacti, to help with erosion control on the island and to help enhance habitat for the Island Night Lizard.

The Island Night Lizard is endemic to only three of the eight Channel Islands. The lizard was recently removed from the endangered species list because of conservation efforts led by the Navy on San Nicolas and San Clemente Islands, and by the Park Service on Santa Barbara Island. Navy staff on San Nicolas have designed a project to enhance lizard habitat by planting species the lizard is known to favor.

In the wild, these thorny plants grow in impenetrable thickets that protect lizards from predators. CIR propagated these native plants from seed in the island nursery that was rebuilt by CIR in 2012. Even the seeds these plants grew from were collected on the island by CIR nursery staff and volunteers.

Through rain or shine, the valuable volunteer crews were able to finish plant installation and created an irrigation system for the native plants. All this could not have been accomplished without the hard work put in by CIR staff, Kevin Thompson and Nick Hernandez, and the dedicated volunteers who assisted on this restoration project. In upcoming months, CIR staff and volunteers will continue to care for these newly installed plants with watering and maintenance trips. Watch for upcoming volunteer opportunities!

Announcing CIR’s New Office Relocation

Last year, CIR began searching for an office space comparable to the one we had in the city of Carpinteria, and the search is finally over! With the help of friends and CIR Board Members, CIR has moved to a new space for its administrative office in the city of Santa Barbara.  We are now located off of Milpas Street in the Rabobank Plaza near Trader Joe's.  Guests and volunteers are welcome to visit our administrative office Monday through Friday from 9AM-5PM where we can better assist you!  Our phone numbers remain the same, and any mailing items can be sent or delivered to our new address stated below.

Our new address:

928 Carpinteria Street, Suite #3

Santa Barbara, CA 93103

Watch for an Open House Celebration announcement in the upcoming month of June, and stop by to take a look at our new office!

Success at Earth Day Festivals: Over 400 Sign Up to Volunteer for CIR!

In the month of April, CIR participated in three Earth Day events over three  weekends and is excited to announce all had great turnouts, in addition to many new CIR volunteer sign-ups.  We had over 400 new volunteers join CIR this year just at the Earth Day Festivals!  This year, CIR hosted booths at the Earth Day events in the cities of Oxnard, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.

CIR was among hundreds of other non-profit and environmentally-friendly organizations at the Earth Day Festivals, and these  celebrations are CIR’s best opportunity to reach out to members of the public who want to become involved with environmental conservation.  In fact, many of our volunteers first heard about CIR at an Earth Day event.

CIR first participated at the Santa Barbara Earth Day event in 2007, and our booth has evolved from a couple of simple displays into a showcase of habitat restoration work on the Channel Islands and mainland.  CIR has also participated in the Thousand Oaks and Ojai Earth Day events and even some in the Los Angeles area in the previous years.

CIR Board member Cindy Kimmick brings her fascinating display of vertebrates for young people and adults alike, and she provides the visitors with a fun interactive learning opportunity.  CIR merchandise, such as our 100% organic cotton t-shirts, CIR caps, and educational field guides, is also made available for purchase at these events. 

We thank all those that took the time to visit our booth and the volunteers that helped make our booth successful!

CIR will be a first-time contributing "sponsor" at this year's Summer Solstice Celebration on June 19-21.  In the upcoming weeks, we will be looking for volunteers to assist us at this event as  CIR Ambassadors!

Volunteer with CIR at Earth Day Festivals

Join CIR and hundreds of other environmentally-friendly organizations at any of the many Earth Day celebrations happening in April in Santa Barbara and Ventura County. The Earth Day celebrations are CIR’s best opportunity to reach out to members of the public who want to become involved with environmental conservation. In fact, many of our volunteers first heard about CIR at an Earth Day event. Earth Day began when Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson witnessed the ravages of the 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara. The first event took place in 1970 when 20 million Americans all over the country demonstrated for the environment. It has since become a global event, held on weekends and centering on April 22nd, the anniversary of the first Earth Day. CIR has participated at the Santa Barbara Earth Day event since 2007, and our booth has evolved from a couple of simple displays into a showcase of habitat restoration work on the Channel Islands and mainland. We prominently display maps and photos of the Channel Islands and talk to hundreds of visitors throughout the two-day event. CIR Board member Cindy Kimmick provides a fascinating display of vertebrates for young people and adults alike, and many people learn about the Channel Islands for the first time at these events. The Santa Barbara event features two full days of live music, speakers, family activities and interesting exhibitors, including many environmental non-profits. CIR has become a contributing “sponsor” of this very worthy event. Since these events keep us very busy, we increasing rely on volunteer“ambassadors” to help us staff the booths. We pair less experienced volunteers with experienced ones or CIR Board members, so no one will feel overwhelmed. Being a CIR ambassador at Earth Day is a lot of fun, and it’s a great opportunity to share your experiences of the islands and environmental volunteerism with the public. We even provide soft drinks and snacks to those who help out. 

Become a CIR Earth Day Ambassador! 

Please contact us if you’d like to volunteer at these events:

April 4: Oxnard

April 18-19: Santa Barbara

April 25: Ventura