MOORPARK : Arroyo Simi Habitat Restoration Finished

Pulling weeds from around the cottonwoods and sycamores they planted months ago, members of the Environmental Coalition’s Moorpark Chapter put the final touches Wednesday on a yearlong effort to restore native habitat along the Arroyo Simi.

With the help of nearly 400 volunteers from local high schools and the neighboring community, the group has painstakingly pulled out tons of such invasive plants as the ravenous arundo donax--a giant reed that chokes out native vegetation--and replanted the area with more than 6,000 cuttings of native mule fat and willow brushes.

Members of the Environmental Coalition will periodically check the area to make sure the native vegetation they planted continues to flourish.

“It looks like it’s in pretty good shape right now,” said Roseann Mikos, who has managed the restoration project.

Mikos said that biologists expect about half the cuttings to survive and roughly 70% of the sycamores and cottonwoods to make it. So far the survival rates are much higher, she said.

The Environmental Coalition received $64,000 from the California Department of Water Resources to restore the five-acre site. Because there are no concrete flood control channels in the area, it was considered one of the best sites for restoration on the arroyo that stretches from Simi Valley to the Pacific Ocean.

Mikos said the invasive species removed by the group were crowding out native vegetation that birds and animals depend on.

After the invasive plants were removed, the land was replanted with native vegetation. Watering of the plants ended in July, Mikos said, and weeding ended this week.