The Seabright Restoration Project The California coastline is home to some of the most unique marine ecosystems in the world. The Seabright project is part of a community wide restoration project that began in 2011 at Westcliff Beach. Gault School is the only public school in Santa Cruz City to have been awarded a $4000 NOAA grant to become an Ocean Guardian School this year. Our children are working with local non-profit Oikonos (oikonos.org/west-cliff/) to grow native plants in the Life Lab and transplant them to Seabright Beach. The Seabright project began in February 2014 with the clearing of ice plants to make way for the planting of native plants. The Ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis) is an invasive species, which out-competes our native flora. Ice plants are responsible for endangering our native plant species and destroying the habitat that feeds birds and small mammals. This project is an invaluable way to teach our students about coastal ecology, and for them to participate in hands on conservation. We are very proud to be part of the effort to create habitats for our native plants. The increased floral diversity will attract dozens of pollenating species. These include coastal scrub birds and migratory birds such as white-crowned sparrow, golden-crowned sparrow, warblers, Anna’s hummingbird, and Allen’s hummingbird. The restoration helps attract prey for Red-tailed hawk, Barn-Owl, and Coopers/Sharp-shinned hawks among others. Even reptiles such as alligators lizard, garter snake, and California slender salamander. Invertebrates including native butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. The butterfly pictured shows a female Acmon Blue (Plebejus acmon) feeding on native coast buckwheat flower (Eriogonum latifolium). Just one of the plants that the children are growing in the life lab. After the year is out Gault will be awarded Ocean Guardian School status. A school that guards, protects, or preserves our watersheds, ocean and special areas like Seabright Beach.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 20:05:11 +0000
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