Our Native Plant Nursery Moves to Clear the Way for of Demolition of Abandoned Buildings
SPAWN’s native plant nursery is undergoing changes this month to prepare for the demolition of abandoned buildings on the National Park Service property. The abandoned buildings are being torn down next week as part of a joint plan with the Point Reyes National Seashore to restore the floodplain and habitat back to its natural state.
Thanks to the help of our nursery volunteer team, interns and staff, SPAWN was able to shift our nursery out of the path of work crews. Over the course of two days, we were able to:
Relocate several brush piles;
Move our two shade structures (one for pot washing, and one for re-potting plants) to a new location where we can continue to use them;
Disconnect irrigation and sprayers;
Re-arranging our nursery plants to new locations, out of the way of the work crews.
Relocate plants that were in the demolition zone to new locations, including three valley oaks, a coast live oak, and three coffeeberries.
During the demolition next week, SPAWN staff will continue to work. Our weekly volunteer nursery days on Friday from 10 am to 2 pm will meet as usual, however our activities will change slightly. We will be focus on collecting seeds and cleaning seeds.
After the buildings are removed, the next step in the multi-year plan is to have the site re-graded to the historic floodplain. This will allow floodwaters to spill over the creek banks and provide critacal backwater and off-channel habitat for salmon. The last step is for SPAWN to revegetate the area with native plants grown and cared for in our native plant nursery. Right now, SPAWN has a rich diversity of around 9,000 plants in the native plant nursery including 90 different species of various sizes. Many of these will eventually be used to help restore the nearby floodplain landscape.
