What is stealing our native habitats?​​​

 

If you want to help local wildlife thrive, you must make their home (their habitat) healthy. While it starts with the soil, practically speaking it's about the plants. An easy way to think about it: non-native invasive plants have “invaded” our landscapes such that the space that would otherwise provide homes to native plants and animals is no longer available. Simply put, non-native species (weeds) steal land and water from native species.

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There are many reasons for this. The most fundamental is that humans have introduced, either on purpose or by accident, plants and animals from other areas into our native landscapes.  Because native species evolved together in a balanced fashion, non-native species can sometimes out-compete native habitat areas as there are not sufficient natural predators to keep things in balance. For example, eucalyptus trees are native to Australia and brought to America either to serve as railroad ties or wind breaks. They spread vociferously into waterways all throughout southern California, replacing oaks and other native species and making our landscapes more flammable with their high oil content.

 

How that translates on the ground for the Conservancy is a lot of time spent by our preserve managers and volunteers removing and treating land to control invasive species.  The Conservancy does both passive restoration to remove non-native invasive weeds from an otherwise intact healthy habitat and active restoration where new native plants are planted after weed control is complete.  

 

We have monthly volunteer projects on our preserves to restore the land and help reduce the threat of fire by removing flammable non-native plants, allowing more fire resistant native plants to take their place.  Follow us on Eventbrite to be informed of events whereby you can come and help heal the land.