Small-Scale Sustainable Ag Class Offered This Fall At SBCC

Here's a chance this fall to get your hands dirty, learn new skills, have fun and grow your own garden-to-table veggie dinner. GS Founder Don Hartley will be offering a three-unit class in Small-Scale Food Production at Santa Barbara City College that explores the natural and sustainable techniques and skills used to produce healthy organic produce. Soil development, composting, mulching, suitable vegetables, fruit trees and herb cultivation will also be covered. The class (EH 207) is offered through SBCC's Environmental Horticulture department to all registered SBCC students. For class and registration info contact info@growingsolutions.org and check out the SBCC website.

Eastern Oregon Update

Our awesome grassland continues! We now have Steelhead and Chinook salmon fingerlings thriving in one of the creeks running through the property. Due to logging damage to the creek in the early 1900's the structure of the creek wasn't optimal for fish. We are mitigating this issue by adding small shallow pools. Pool "riffles" allow small gravel to settle out, creating prime fish habitat for small fry to stay cool and hidden during long hot summers. For more info on the Eastern Oregon Grassland Project, click Here.

Jerry Sortomme, SBCC Teacher and Growing Solutions’ Mentor, Wins Real Food Hero Award

Jerry Sortomme, founder of Santa Barbara City College’s Environmental Horticulture Department,and Department Chairmen as well as lead instructor was honored recently for his lifetime’s work by his colleagues, former students and the community. Sortomme, whose passion is teaching sustainable horticulture, received the Local Food and Plant Hero Award at the 10th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap last January. As one of “Jerry’s Kids” Karen Flagg took classes from Jerry in the in the ‘80’s and he later hired Don. Jerry has remained their good friend and valued mentor since. As founder of the Environmental Horticulture Department at SBCC Jerry has taught and mentored hundreds of students who have found their way into the horticulture industry. Some students have started or work at nurseries, some have started nonprofits or consulting businesses, and all carry with them a love and value of plants. Currently Jerry is growing historically significant plants with the help of many volunteers for Santa Barbara’s Mission La Huerta Historic Garden. 

GS and UCSB’s Coastal Fund

Over the last year Growing Solutions has worked with students from UCSB’s Coastal Service Program on a variety of Santa Barbara restoration projects as part of GS's Healthy Habitat program. The Coastal Service Program is dedicated to preserve, protect, and enhance the terrestrial and marine habitats associated with the shoreline of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Hosting various clubs, sororities, fraternities and groups at UCSB gives Growing Solutions staff an opportunity to work with students outside of the restoration community. Many students we work with are majoring in areas without an environmental health emphasis and so we have a golden opportunity to show how PLANTS MATTER (happily said) to everyone.  Through plant propagation and nursery work students gain an understanding of the importance of native plants and specifically plants important to our local wetlands, ocean bluffs and beaches. We’d like to thank students from Phi Sigma Pi, Lambda Theta Nu and La Escuelita de UCSB for spending time and attention with us.

County Nursery Moves On

In 2003, with support from former 2nd District County Supervisor Susan Rose and partially funded by the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project, we built our third nursery with the mission of propagating native plants for the benefit of Santa Barbara county residents. The nursery was sited on 30-acres of property adjacent to the County Campus Foothill Open Space. Over the last 15 years, with help from area students and volunteers, thousands of plants were grown for hundreds of projects. This enabled the region to retain the biological diversity for which the Santa Barbara area is renowned. As times have changed, so have the needs of the community and the nursery is now being decommissioned. The nursery is currently being recycled into other Santa Barbara-area projects. The hoop house is going to SBCC where it will continue to be used by students practicing their horticultural skills. The irrigation and benches will be used at our other nursery, either expanding tabletop space or replacing aging benches. 

Malibu Lagoon Restoration...A Reason To Celebrate!

Five years after planting thousands of native-California wetland seedlings at Malibu Lagoon, Growing Solutions staff and volunteers joined the staff of the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation to remove irrigation and allow Mother Nature to do the heavy lifting in ensuring the long-term health and vitality of the lagoon. Starting in 2013, Growing Solutions was part of a multi-agency effort to restore the lagoon’s natural tidal flow and ecosystem back to the historical function that existed before human pollution, sewage, and debris dumping started in the late 1800s. Misguided efforts to turn the lagoon into a jogger’s haven by building manmade islands connected by bridges choked off the natural ocean and creek flow vital to lagoon ecology. Over the last 100 years the lagoon was plagued by decreased tidal flushing, increased pollution, non-native weed infestation and massive algae blooms that turned the once-pristine wetland into a stinking cautionary tale.

However, through careful planning and wetland re-contouring—together with vigilant watering, weeding and maintenance—the 31-acre lagoon is now able to maintain itself and provide critical habitat for dozens of wetland creatures that use the lagoon for shelter, feeding and reproduction. GS’s role was to collect the surviving native plants, propagate them off-site, deliver them back to the lagoon and help with installation and maintenance over the last five years. Results: marine species (i.e. fish, snails and crabs) populations have increased which in turn have attracted the native seabirds in increasing numbers. Many threatened species such as snowy plovers are experiencing modest but significant rebounds. Park visitorship has doubled, and many local schools now use the lagoon as a living learning lab to teach the critical value of ecology and just how hard it is to restore native systems after thoughtlessly destroying them.

Over the weekend of May 26th GS staff and volunteers helped remove, haul and recycle over three miles of irrigation pipe while managing Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation volunteers for the weekend event. In between they found time to enjoy some bird watching; observing osprey, egrets, pelicans, hawks and snowy plovers scurrying among the sand dunes.

If you would like to volunteer for future Lagoon events, contact the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation. 

UCSB Smithsonian Scholars Program To Santa Cruz Island

Last summer Growing Solutions' co-founder Karen Flagg volunteered as an instructor with the UCSB Smithsonian Scholars Program for a fun and highly productive field trip out to Santa Cruz Island. Over 25 students and instructors made full use of the UC field station to learn about the incredible biodiversity across the 22-mile long island. The Scholars program provides multidisciplinary research opportunities in biodiversity conservation to first generation, low-income, and/or underrepresented minority undergraduate students from UC Santa Barbara and local community colleges. To see a slideshow click on the image below. For more information on the Scholars program click here.

2017 UCSB Smithsonian Scholars Santa Cruz Island Trip (Click on image for slideshow).

2017 UCSB Smithsonian Scholars Santa Cruz Island Trip (Click on image for slideshow).

Channel Islands Serve As Reptile Evolution Laboratory

Growing Solutions has been collaborating recently with Dr. Amanda Sparkman, a herpetologist researching the effects of island evolution on reptiles out on the Channel Islands, including Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and Santa Barbara Islands where GS has been doing native-plant restoration ecology for over 15 years. Amanda will be setting up research stations on GS managed property on the mainland to compare and contrast with island species.  Click here to read a full account!

Malibu Lagoon 2017 Update

One and half million visitors flock to Malibu Lagoon and adjoining Surfrider Beach each year…and that’s not counting the birds! With the extensive restoration completed in 2013 and four years of plant growth, the Malibu Lagoon ecosystem is attracting birds and other wildlife in increasing numbers. Growing Solutions was a key player in the Lagoon restoration, growing over 65,000 native wetland plants and helping plant and maintain them over a two-year period. Our boardmembers Larry Loeher and Grace Murayama are avid birders, regularly monitoring and taking photos for the Santa Monica Bay and Los Angeles Audubon Societies.  Least Terns and Snowy Plovers are again successfully nesting (after a 68-year absence) near the lagoon, tucked away in the sandy flats between the Lagoon and the Shore, and hopefully staying on the right side of the construction fencing put up to protect them from wandering dogs and beachgoers. We are pleased to see The Bay Foundation getting volunteers on-site to weed and maintain the site. For a recent article about protecting and respecting nesting seabirds in the Malibu Surfside News, Click Here! Photos used with permission by Larry Loeher.

 

Former GS Employee Discovers Rare Native Plant On Santa Barbara Island

Former Growing Solutions intern and employee Andrew Yamagiwa made headlines last March with his chance discovery of a rare island endemic plant on remote Santa Barbara Island.

From VC Star News, March 21, 2017: "A small, delicate-looking flower has been discovered for the first time on one of the Channel Islands. What’s known as the White Mallow has been found on Santa Barbara Island, which is part of Channel Islands National Park. Andrew Yamagiwa is a plant biologist who works in the Channel Islands, and says he noticed some of the white, and pale purple flowers as he was exploring recent plant growth on the island. He consulted with other specialists, and says it took a few weeks to confirm the discovery. Eventually a number of groups of the white mallows were found on Santa Barbara Island. The white mallows aren’t completely unknown to the islands. But, the last known sighting on Santa Cruz Island was in 1888, and Santa Catalina Island in 1902. Because the plants are so isolated between the islands, Yamagiwa says they could be subspecies. He says it would take genetic testing to conform it. The big question is why the plants have appeared at this time. They are from a plant family that’s common in desert areas, with seeds that can remain dormant for decades until conditions are just right. Yamagiwa spends days at a time on Santa Barbara and Anacapa Islands. He’s working for the California Institute of Environmental Studies on a project to restore the native plant habitats for some bird populations hard hit by man-made pollution coming from Southern California."