Hello From Groundwork!
Our outdoor climate action center, the EarthLab, is now open on Saturdays from 9am to noon, so please come see our students and volunteers in action, or lend a hand. Here is an update from our EarthLab manager, Alex Garcia, on some of the EarthLab comings and goings.
Hi everyone! Hope you all enjoyed your holidays and hope you all have started 2018 with a bang! A positive bang that is! Yes, I’m aware, it’s already been 3 months since we started 2018. So, without further ado, let me update you a little bit on what has been happening at EarthLab.
One of those tasks was to plant some Sycamore and some Willow trees by the creek. Not sure if you all remember but a few months ago we got some help from the marines during fleet week as well as some help from NASSCO. They helped clean up the creek by removing all the weeds and trash. Now that the creek is all clear we decided to plant some trees! Not much to look at, at the moment, since they aren’t fully grown. But, take a look…..
Well, since we are talking about the creek, let me show you what else I have been up to. About a year ago we started seeing some paw prints appearing on the seed trays that we have over at the native plant propagation center. We also started seeing some of the plants that we have in 1 gal pots tipped over, as well as scat. But, most frustrating of all, our irrigation pipes were torn. All of this was occurring pretty much on a daily basis. The culprit: coyotes! Well, there is an opening by the south end of the creek covered by, what I will refer to as, a grate. The grate had big enough openings for a coyote, even big enough for a human, to squeeze through. So I decided to cover it up with some chicken wire and Wholla! Problem solved! Until, a few weeks back when someone decided to pull it apart. Our coyote friends are very clever…next move is theirs!
Let’s go ahead and change scenery and head over to the propagation center. Something that I haven’t or perhaps briefly mentioned is that we are working on a project called the I.R.W.M project. To keep it brief, my role is to help in the installation of native plants at homes in the Encanto neighborhood. Some of the plants we propagate and some we acquire. Recently, we acquired some soft agave but, we can’t just go and plant them right away. They need to be aired dried until the soft inner tissue calluses over. Check it out….
Well, that’s it for now. See you all next time!
