STUDENTS TEND TO BIG SUR TREES
They team up with park staffers to spend 3 days restoring wilderness
Some Monterey County students teamed up with California State Parks staffers in the Big Sur area recently to wage war against invasive vegetation and restore critical redwood habitats.
“It feels good to help out on such an important project,” said San Lucas eighth grader Areli Gonzalez. “The plants from outside the forest could take over and choke out the plants that belong here. If that happens, the animals that live here wouldn't have enough to eat.”
The students spent three days restoring wilderness areas in the servicelearning program provided by the Nature Corps, a nonprofit conservation organization that recruits volunteers to preserve national parks.
Since 1987, the Nature Corps has organized hundreds of volunteers to preserve and restore fragile wilderness ecosystems within national parks. The organization also offers a variety of youth programs and “voluntours” in several national parks throughout the country and provides companies with employee volunteer opportunities.
The San Lucas students worked alongside park staffers to learn how a science, technology, engineering and
math-based plan is being used to preserve California's redwood ecosystem.
Park researchers used science to determine what plant populations looked like before fires and droughts damaged the habitats, Mark Landon, executive director of the Nature Corps, explained. Park staffers then used this research to guide plant vegetation projects and restoration efforts.
“Once (students) understand the science behind their work and they understand the impact that nonnatives have on the environment, then all of a sudden, they get really excited and they want to make a difference,” Landon said.
The restoration effort in Big Sur was the first time that the Nature Corps partnered with the San Lucas and San Ardo schools.
Students watered hundreds of recently planted Douglas irises and uprooted invasive vegetation including French broom, hedge parsley and sticky eupatorium along the Pfeiffer Falls Trail. The trail reopened in June 2021 after 13 years of being closed because of severe damage from the 2008 Basin Complex Fire.
Landon said that because of the students' efforts in the redwood grove, the habitat will maintain its original state — high in biodiversity and resistant to drought and wildfires.
“Science is a very instrumental part of stewardship and why it's important for us to pass on conservation from one generation to the next,” Landon said. “Education and science is vital to making that happen.”