restoration – Santa Lucia Conservancy

November 17, 2023

Winged Restoration Project to expand monarch habitat

by Suzanne GillCommunications and Outreach Coordinator While the monarch butterfly is among the most beloved wildlife species in the U.S., populations of both the Eastern and Western monarch have declined precipitously since the late 1990s. By 2019, the Western monarch population was estimated to have plummeted to just two percent of the total recorded 22 years earlier, in 1997. The […]

3 min read

December 7, 2022

Managing Invasive Yellow Starthistle on The Santa Lucia Preserve

Conservancy staff hand-pull yellow starthistle. December 7, 2022 By Jackson Brooke, Restoration Manager Referred to as one of the most serious rangeland weeds in the state, yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) favors drought conditions and invades grassland, coastal prairie, and oak savanna habitats across California, opportunistically taking over heavily disturbed areas like roadsides and working lands. What makes it so invasive? [...]

4 min read

November 2, 2022

Restoring Land: How Two Preserve Households are Trekking the Path of Stewardship

Matt Himmelman, Rachel Finlay, and their dog Reese under their favorite oak on The Preserve. Photo by Alix Soliman. November 2, 2022 By Alix Soliman, Communications & Outreach Coordinator It is difficult to comprehend the change this land has known over its lifetime – mountains have risen and eroded; the sea has lapped up and receded; patterns of flooding, drought, [...]

6 min read

February 15, 2022

The Field Season Has Begun, Meet Our 2022 Restoration Crew

The 2022 Seasonal Restoration Crew. Photo by Jackson Brooke. February 15, 2022 By Jackson Brooke, Restoration Manager In 2019, the Conservancy launched its Grasslands Initiative after a rigorous assessment of the ecological health of The Preserve identified the 5,275 acres of grasslands as both an incredibly significant ecological asset and in dire need of restoration. The goals of the Initiative [...]

2 min read

August 24, 2021

Field Notes: Reflections on Grassland Restoration

Mary Snook hand pulls weeds in the Enchanted Forest in July. Photo by Alix Soliman. August 24, 2021 Mary Snook, 2021 Field Crew Member In April, we took a trip to Penon peak. We walked in a line to hear the results of the most recent plant surveys, and to learn about some of the successes we had seen so [...]