Laguna Canyon Foundation opens up about native plants, habitat restoration
- Share via
Laguna Beach’s natural beauty contributes significantly in making it the destination that it is, and whether the motivation is the sea or further ashore, there are many intent on protecting it.
Those coming to town via the inland entrance along State Route 133 pass through the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, part of the larger South Coast Wilderness and most dear to residents and visitors alike.
Laguna Canyon Foundation makes conservation of the 22,000 acres that comprise the South Coast Wilderness its mission, and to help inquiring minds get a little closer to the action, it hosted an open house at two plant nurseries on Saturday.
At the foundation’s headquarters, the focus fell on the production of plants, where there were hundreds placed in containers. Species ranged from caterpillar phacelia to tiny oak trees.
Marjorie Rhodes, a Los Alamitos native who studied environmental science at UC Davis, is now a restoration project manager at Laguna Canyon Foundation, where she began volunteering 13 years ago when she was in high school.
Rhodes explained that many of the plants produced at the nursery are prepared to be given out to the public or to become part of restorative efforts for the local habitat.
“We wanted a day where both of the nurseries are open for people to come learn,” Rhodes said of the open house event. “It’s really in the spirit of people learning about how to grow native plants, how to care for native plants, habitat restoration, how nurseries play a role in all of that, but it’s really about connecting people with the land and connecting people with the plants, and helping people build relationships with their local community.”
Janet Fordunski, of Laguna Woods, said she became a volunteer after attending the first open house event last year. She toured the nursery with guests, showing several a caterpillar feasting on common deerweed that had been potted.
Across Laguna Canyon Road, a partner nursery is managed by Orange County Parks at the Willow Staging Area. While bikers and hikers alike hit the trails just beyond, longtime volunteer Diane Walters was among those working on a habitat restoration project at the base of the hills.
Pictures along the fencing demonstrated the progress of the project, which began two years ago with the clearing of weeds, planting native species in their place.
The project is carried out by volunteers, said Walters, an Aliso Viejo resident who said habitat restoration has become a labor of love for her for a dozen years.
“The flags [planted in the ground] are so we stay away from stepping on things that are natives coming up that might be little, teeny, tinies,” Walters said. “A lot of people, too, volunteers, don’t know what they are … The cages that we have is where we seeded, and so if we have volunteers come in and they’re weeding, we don’t want them in that area because they’re not sure what the native plant is, or what the seeds are, or what the weeds are.”
Rhodes said the foundation has been collecting seed as part of a new approach to habitat restoration. Volunteers will be asked to go on hikes, collect seeds and map out where they find them.
“Traditionally, if you’re getting involved with habitat restoration for the past 20 years, what that looks like is usually planting with container plants — like you purchase the plants, or you grow the plants, and you have this pot with the plant that you then take out to the site. More recently, in Orange County, we’re transitioning towards a seed-based habitat restoration process, which is really cool because basically, you use a diverse seed mix of locally collected seed to then reseed a restoration project. It’s kind of like you’re going to listen to the land and let the land tell you what it wants to grow there.”
Laguna Canyon Foundation also helps inform the city’s approach on fuel modification, which uses a combination of goats and hand crews to manage vegetation as part of its wildfire mitigation efforts.
The fuel modification program has to take into account a whole host of priorities, from protecting property by maintaining defensible space to the accessibility of the area for hand crews.
“On the subject of the native habitat, a lot of the fuel mod is within southern maritime chaparral habitat, which is a really special habitat because it’s pretty much only located south of here. It’s here, and then it’s in San Diego, and probably also Pendleton,” Rhodes said. “That habitat has some really special plant species, such as verbesina dissita, which is bigleaf crownbeard, which is an endangered and rare plant species. When we do fuel mod, we actually have to go around those plants and preserve those plant populations.”
