Letter From The Founders

This past year found Growing Solutions staff busy growing thousands of plants and working with a broad section of the community- activists, mentors, fellow ecologists, at risk youth, students from various schools, disabled veterans, kids and oldsters. And we couldn’t have done it without our dedicated supporters. Thank you one and all!

One of our larger projects is growing plants for the California State Parks Malibu Lagoon Restoration Project working with Suzanne Goode, Senior Ecologist for California Parks & Recreation and Mark Abramson, Senior Watershed Advisor with the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation. We are finding working in the heart of an urban city very different from the work we have done on islands and remote isolated sites. The citizens of Malibu are not shy about voicing their opinions and we have learned from listening. In the end we hope that solid science wins the day and the lagoon can be restored to a healthy functioning habitat.

We have been fortunate in being able to include Santa Barbara City College students and disabled veterans in this project of growing over fifty different species. This provides students and veterans a hands-on opportunity to learn how to grow native plants.

Wetlands have been a theme in recent years with Growing Solutions participating in the National Park Service Prisoners Harbor Wetland Restoration growing plants in the central valley nursery.

After successfully growing several thousand of plants for the restoration of Montrose funded Scorpion Rock Seabird Restoration, Prisoners Wetland and recovery of federally listed endangered plants, the invasive Argentine ant  arrived at the nursery making it no longer feasible to grow plants there. While NPS and TNC continue to work towards eradication of the ants  Growing Solutions is moving the nursery and continuing our mission of education and restoration.

Specifically in the Goleta Slough, Growing Solutions has the privilege of sitting on the Goleta Slough Management committee which is looking at how climate change may affect the slough and surrounding area. Currently with funding from the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project we have been removing invasive weeds and including local businesses and school children from the Santa Barbara Charter School in the efforts to continue to restore the slough while enhancing their appreciation of the beauty and importance of wetlands.

While wetland restoration has been prominent on our agenda we have also been working on restoring coastal sage scrub related to a Santa Barbara county solar installation project.

Working with the county Growing Solutions was able to incorporate youths from Los Prietos Boys Camp

installing plants on the site. The participants learned the basics of native plant species habitat requirements and how to plant them for optimal survival.

We continue to be grateful for our wonderful Santa Barbara City College students enrolled in Restoration Ecology. It is a pleasure to teach these classes as we enjoy the students; their diverse backgrounds and future plans. 

We find a special pleasure in hearing from past students and occasionally hiring newly graduated students such as Peter Harman. Peter did a summer internship with us, gaining experience in restoration, nursery operations and farming. We are pleased to have him on the Growing Solutions’ staff as an ecologist.

Coming Year 2013

We hope the coming year proves to be a watershed year, as climate change ramifications become clearer and it becomes critical for us as citizens to participate in our collective future. To this end Growing Solutions is moving forward with our Future Solutions program – acknowledging that the health of ecosystems depends on humans living sustainably and making better choices. To that end Growing Solutions is collaborating with others such as Orella Ranch and Puma Canyon Ranch to offer educational opportunities – look for workshops on sustainable issues and how we can enhance our native habitats by supporting local businesses and farms, eating organically, valuing our own skills and abilities.  Examples of this will be workshops and classes on subjects such as: adding native plant insectaries to traditionally farmed land, increasing the habitat for pollinators and beneficial insects, pizza oven construction and use, micro-brewing and wildcrafting.

In our efforts to protect biodiversity we are continuing to work with rare and endangered plants- collaborating with Kathryn McEachern USGS Senior biologist. On Santa Cruz Island we successfully grew Malacothamnus fasciculatus var. nesioticus, the island bushmallow. SBCC students helped in the outplanting of these plants and we look forward to monitoring their progress. www.centerforplantconservation.org/.../stacruzisl-bushmallow.pdf

It is with a grateful heart that we thank you all for your continued support.