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Case Study:
From weed lot to restored coastal ecosystem
Introduction
Issues
Criteria
Alternatives
Solution
Results
Conclusion |
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An entrepreneur turns a coastal weed lot into a blooming garden of native plants by tapping a dormant seed bank, risking the clench of the Endangered Species Act.
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Introduction
Turning an abused and neglected plot of wild coastal California from weed lot into a veritable garden of native plants resurrected from an ancient seed bank would seem an almost miraculous accomplishment. But, it's been done by a private property owner using an innovative, common-sense approach which can serve as a new model for land management in a free society.
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Issues
Michael Shaw acquired 74 acres of undeveloped coastal live oak woodlands between Santa Cruz and Monterey in 1985 with the intent to engage humans with nature in productive and voluntary action that benefits both. The path to a coastal nature retreat required innovative approaches to control non-native plants and noxious weeds. Perhaps more daunting for Shaw was that he risked losing use of his property under the Endangered Species Act.
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Criteria
To create a wild wonderland of indigenous plants and native fauna, Shaw needed to manage the property to control non-native plants and agressive native plants. Even before he started with the project, Shaw realized that improving his land would require immense personal resources, significant time and effort, and legal risk associated with a trend toward eliminating private property driven by the modern environmentalist movement.
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Alternatives
Shaw considered the common approaches to land restoration used by the modern environmental movement and found them to be ineffective, indiscriminate, and risky. For example: - A hands-off approach would further blight the property with the noxious weeds and invasive non-native plants that had come to dominate the landscape, and would likely continue to invite illegal dumping by government and private parties.
- Controlled burns could indiscriminately eliminate even desired plants, might be too difficult to control because of the accumulated fuel that had resulted from non-management, and could threaten nearby neighborhoods.
- Grazing the property with exotic animals would likely prove ineffective because the animals might eat native plants that reappeared following clearing, and they wouldn't likely eat the most pernicious exotic plants.
- Large scale applications of herbicides could prove to be too indiscriminate, killing desirable native plants.
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Solution
Self directed human energyShaw decided to use self-directed human energy -- guided by scientific knowledge -- to simply pull the weeds, manage the native plants, and manage the hydrology. Over the next 10 years, successive layers of exotics were peeled back by size, starting with the tallest and working down to the smaller plants. This approach initially released aggressive native species, like poison oak and stinging nettle. But, by constantly managing the aggressive plants, Shaw was able to cause native plants to virtually explode from an ancient native seed bank that had lied dormant in the soil for decades. Improved hydrology system Shaw observed that part of the reason for the persistent proliferation of aggressive plants might have been a severely damaged hydrologic system that appeared to be depriving the property of sufficient water to support native plants -- especially during the summer months. Shaw reconstructed the gravel road around the valley to follow the slope and built a French drain to allow water to flow under the road without a culvert. The improvements to the hydrologic system served as the "spinal cord restoration" of the valley, Shaw said. This created greater recharge of the water table and raised the ground water level, resulting in sufficient water for the native plants to eventually flourish.
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Results
After 15 years of careful management, Shaw has turned a once weedy coastal property into a veritable garden of native plants, now called "Liberty Garden". The low-tech, slow-and-steady, weeding-only system of habitat enhancement has been "more successful and 'cleaner' in every way than any planting-based project I know of," wrote Randall Morgan, a botanical consultant and a fellow of the California Native Plant Society in an inventory of the property. "The results have been dramatic, with more than 200 species thriving, near complete eradication of formerly abundant noxious weeds, and lush multi-species gardens thrive in places formerly monopolized by poison oak," Morgan wrote. Other vital measures showing the dramatic improvements in the property from Shaw's self-directed human energy approach to land management were listed in "Releasing the Seedbank" by Craig C. Dremann in the June 2002 issue of Ecological Restoration, as follows: - The water table in the valley has risen from 10 to three feet, giving native plants sufficient water to flourish.
- More than 50 native plant species are thriving in the oak woodlenad where they didn't exist in 1985 -- nurtured from the property's once-dormant seed bank..
- Rare native species are thriving on the property, including the bottlebrush grass plant -- a rare grass that is only found in the northern coast region, with only a dozen specimens previously collected in Santa Cruz County.
- The property has gone from 99 percent exotic cover to 85 percent native plant cover.
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Conclusion
In fifteen years, Shaw turned a blighted coastal weed lot into a wonderland of native plants. His innovative approach shows the value of human activity in tending land to its maximum potential and serves as a sound model for land management projects in the arid West. Unresolved, however, is whether Shaw will be allowed the economic use of the land. While the property is zoned for up to 30 homes, regional governments and the Endangered Species Act are hindering private use and further development of the property. At risk is the abondonment of Liberty Garden and the creation of other stewarded landscapes. Healthy landscapes and freedom are dependent on the restoration of the ideals of private property.
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Written by LibertyGarden.com |
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Now showing!
Shaw v Santa Cruz County: Shaw Appeals
Disincentives preclude innovation
“Because of the Endangered Species Act—what developer or land owner would want to purchase or own the land and do what we are doing? Disincentives preclude innovation. It is no wonder that no one else is following this common sense formulation for success: Pull the weeds and manage the plants and the hydrology.”
- Michael Shaw
Liberty Garden takes on confiscatory court ruling
“Twenty-five years ago, the Court posited that a regulation of private property ‘effects a taking if [it] does not substantially advance [a] legitimate state interes[t]... Today we correct course. We hold that the ‘substantially advances’ formula is not a valid takings test, and indeed conclude that it has no proper place in our takings jurisprudence.”
-Ron Zumbrun
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