Growing
Solutions Restoration

by
Stephanie
Langsdorf

 

"Bioregionalism is the world at work on itself, getting something done which the world knows to be in need of doing. It gets the work done through ideas, through words written and spoken, through organization, discipline, practice and politics. But from first to last, it is the world’s work, and the world either knows or will figure out how to get it done." – Daniel Kemmis in the forword of Bioregionalism, edited by Michael McGinnis

The magnificent beauty of the Central Coast has made our communities havens that many of us are grateful to call home. We are in a unique biogeographical zone that is home to a great diversity of life. The native landscape is a mix of many habitats: from Torrey pine and oak forests in our mountains and foothills, to coast live oak and riparian woodlands, chaparral, and coastal sage scrub, and wetlands and bluff grasslands. These ecosystems harbor 1,400 native species, of which 140 are endemic. This rich biological heritage, our priceless quality of life, we cannot take for granted. Unfortunately there are many threats to these ecosystems with both predictable and unintentional ramifications.

Here, as in other parts of the coast, we face unacceptable levels of ocean pollution, which is in part due to the degradation of our creeks and watersheds. Urbanization and traditional flood control engineering has resulted in significant negative environmental impacts where a naturally functioning resource once existed. One of the obvious results here is seen in the demise of the southern steelhead. Our watersheds have ceased to support lifeforms that were at one time abundant.

Bioregionalism is a consciousness based on a sense of place and community. With restoration, we can recreate the ecological values we have lost. To help restore diversity it takes diversity, an interdisciplinary approach. It takes a village to do the job right.

Growing Solutions, a program of the Restoration Education Institute, approaches the environment and the community intent on building collaborative efforts in creek restoration projects. Founders Don Hartley, Karen Brooker and Stephanie Langsdorf responded to the call to clean up ocean pollution by restoring ecological creek function within urban Santa Barbara. They started teaching classes on ecological restoration in conjunction with Santa Barbara City College’s Environmental Horticulture Department. Last year their students grew thousands of plants for watershed restoration projects. Santa Barbara City College, U.C. Santa Barbara, and high school students joined interested community members to renovate the high school’s 40-year-old greenhouse nursery complex to make it suitable for growing native plants. There was much help and support from a wide variety of community groups and small businesses, and today the site is functioning as a small, productive facility.

Extensive research showed that the availability of locally collected and grown native plants was the weak link in other local restoration efforts. Most projects imported plants grown outside the area and used seeds collected in Southern California and elsewhere. These plants eventually cross-pollinated with the endemic species, causing hybridization. This leads to the loss of valuable genetic information that species have evolved to fight disease and drought. By propagating native species instead, the Growing Solutions project is strengthening the plant community by ensuring its diversity.

Running a native plant nursery requires much capital. With some successful fundraising, its suporters have set out to grow, and teach, a better way of living.

SBCC students will be trained to become the project coordinators and managers of restoration projects. Such community based education is critical to long-term survival and the health of the planet. Watershed activism needs constant diligence on all fronts to create positive solutions, always building a stronger bioregion.

Aware that young people need to participate in the healing process and be a part of implementing solutions for the future, Growing Solutions is working at the elementary school level, too, in Isla Vista at the newly constructed Estero lathhouse built by the Parks and Recreation District.

This diverse group of people are working to slow and eventually stop the rate of environmental degradation and has taken responsibility for ensuring a clean and healthy environment for the future and has begun to reverse the tide. There will be a time when we can swim in a clean ocean.

Stephanie Langsdorf can be reached at 965-4692; PO Box 30081, Santa Barbara, CA 93130 or growingsolutions@wavecrazy.com.