Upload
tierramor
View
849
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Changing Peoples, Changing Place
Stewardship at Pearson-Arastradero Preserve.
Acterra Action for a Sustainable Earth
Stewardship• From Old English stigweard; the keeper
of the hall.¹
• “The concept of land as a resource, our responsibility to wisely manage that resource, and our responsibility to future generations for the condition of that resource when we leave it.” ²
Acterra’s Stewardship ProgramAt Pearson-Arastradero
Preserve• Invasive weed
management• Guided hikes in English
and Spanish• Seed collection• Watershed-specific
outplanting• Research & information
sharing
At other sites• Native Plant Nursery• Restoration Database• Fundraising,
community relationships and logistics.
• Young Earth Stewards
Volunteers!• Backbone of Acterra’s
Stewardship Program at Pearson-Arastradero Preserve.
• Community service, interns, corporations, individuals.
• Adopt-a-plot, workdays, weed warriors, logistics.
• Avg. 750 people/yr with 4,000 hours donated!
Preserve Information• 622 acres• Palo Alto Foothills• Owned by City of PA, Environmental
Stewardship by Acterra• Free, open 365 days, allows biking,
hiking, fishing, horseback riding, nature study.
• 4 primary habitat types.
Oak WoodlandPlant Species• 5 oak species• California bay laurel• Herbacious native and
non-native understory
Animal Species• Acorn Woodpecker• Garter Snake • Bobcat
Oak SavannahPlant Species• Coyote Brush• Isolated oaks• Wildflowers• Invasive and native
grassesAnimal Species• Coyote• Western Rattlesnake• Pacific Black-tailed deer
Riparian and PondsPlant Species• Willows• Cattails• Invasive and native
herbaceous understoryAnimal Species• Herons and egrets• Dusky footed woodrat• Pacific tree frog
Native Americans• Minimal impacts or
Co-evolution? (A change in the genetic composition of one species (or group) in response to a genetic change in another.)³
• Burning, pruning, sowing, weeding, tilling, and selective harvesting. 4
Biocultural diversity?• Connection between Native American
cultural areas and ecological niches. 5
• 2124 of CA’s endemic plant species overlapped geographically with 14 endemic language families and multiple dialects of 72 endemic Native languages. 6
• Diverse peoples = Diverse ecologies?
Europeans• Cattle, logging, habitat conversion.• Invasive species – primarily affected
grasslands (~ 23 million acres.)– Seabloom, 2003: “one of the most dramatic
ecological invasions worldwide.” 7
Impacts of invasive species• Habitat dominance and displacement of
native species, • Outcompetition, • Alteration of ecosystem processes
such as fire, hydrological cycles, and erosion,
• Hybridization with native species and subsequent alteration of the gene pool,
• Promotion of non-native animals.
Examples• Poison hemlock: toxic
to most vertebrates.• Invasive annual
grasses: thick mat of thatch – unfriendly to small animal forage and nesting.
• Fuller’s teasel monocultures deprive riparian animals of accustomed food sources.
The elephant in the Preserve• Climate change, climate change,
climate change. • Could affect every aspect of
restoration. • More hard data and reccomendations
needed.
Restoration• The 4 E’s – Education, Economics, Ethics
and Ecology.• The science of complex questions and no
easy answers.• Structure and function (via composition /
biodiversity.)• Biological diversity: The natural variety and
variability among living organisms, and amongst the ecological complexes in which these organisms occur. 9
Diversities• Biocultural diversity: diverse peoples
coming together to restore diverse habitats and protects varied plant and animal species.
• Cooke (2006): take the dynamics of various group's biocultural values (focus on recreation, resource use, etc.) and use those as starting points for building additional approaches towards community based conservation. 10
We are the keepers of the hall
Contact• Miriam Sachs Martín, Chief Preserve
Steward. • [email protected] / (408)597-7830.
• www.Acterra.org• 3921 East Bayshore Road
Palo Alto CA 94303-4303USA.
• 650-962-9876 (Front Desk).
References• ¹ stewardship. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth
Edition. Retrieved March 02, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/stewardship
• ² http://dnr.maryland.gov/criticalarea/glossary.html• ³ http://biomed.brown.edu/Courses/BIO48/27.Coevolution.HTML: • 4 Anderson, M. Kat and Moratto, Michael J (1996). Native American Land-Use Practices and
Ecological Impacts. Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project: Final Report to Congress, Vol II. Davis: University of California, Centers for Water and Wildland Resources.
• 5 Kroeber (1963) cited in Maffi, Luisa, (2005). Linguistic, cultural, and biological diversity. Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 34, pp. 599-617.
• 6 Chung, Eugene R. (2000). Biocultural Diversity Hotspots and GIS Analysis: Alta California as a Case Study. Abstract. Presented at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic Botany. Retrieved 05/25/07 from: www.econbot.org/_organization_/07_annual_meetings/meetings_by_year/2000/abstracts_2000.pdf.
• 7 Seabloom, E., Harpole, W., Reichman, O., and Tilman, D. (2003). Invasion, competitive dominance, and resource use by exotic and native California grassland species. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol 100.
• 8 Bossad et al. (2000.) Invasive plants of California’s Wildlands. University of California Press, Santa Rosa, CA.
• 9 Redford, K. & Richter, B. (1999). Conservation of Biodiversity in a World of Use. Conservation Biology, Vol. 13, pp. 1246 - 1256.
• 10 Cocks, Michelle (2006). Biocultural Diversity: Moving Beyond the Realm of 'Indigenous' and 'Local' People. Human Ecology, Vol. 34, pp. 185 - 200.