2022.06.07 | Ranch Restoration Takes a Leap Forward

This week the Friends of the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve (FFRP) completed construction of a purpose-built nursery to grow plants for habitat restoration on the Ranch. The 10’x24’ screen house is located within the fenced Facilities yard near the East Ranch.

The nursery has 150 sq ft of bench space, enough to grow 450 Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) at once or a mix of pines and forest understory or coastal bluff plants. California native plants generally do not need the extra warmth provided by glass or plastic, so the frame is covered with screen to exclude the birds and mice that love to eat seeds.

FFRP has been reforesting the Ranch for many years. Since 2003, the forest has expanded approximately 25% due to replanting and forest management. This new nursery will allow us to expand these efforts. Building on the understory survey conducted last year by Cal Poly graduate student Natalie Nemeth and FFRP volunteers, we will grow native forest shrubs both to diversify the forest and to act as nurse plants for newly planted Monterey pine.

Constructing the restoration nursery was only possible because of generous support from the Arthur L. & Elaine V. Johnson Foundation, Orange County Community Foundation, and Reid Fund of the Ernest Lieblich Foundation (California Community Foundation). Dedications of tree plantings will continue to provide support for the restoration program.

Volunteers devoted five days to constructing the nursery, a project that took much effort and ingenuity. My thanks to Walt Andrus, Gil Eastman, Marvin Josephson, Tom Loganbill, Mark Meeks, Mike Mollohan, Brian Morgan, John Nixon, and Michael Thomas, as well as the Cambria Community Services District (CCSD) Facilities staff Carlos Mendoza, Berto Novas, and Martin Garcia for helping to complete this complex structure. Special thanks to Carlos Mendoza and CCSD for allowing FFRP to locate the nursery in this fenced area.

Article first published in https://cambriaca.org/