Weeding project protects new native plants by a Santa Barbara coastal estuary

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - They are digging in on Santa Barbara's East Beach to clear an area of invasive crab grass and make it a home for new native plants .

Much of the work is done by the Santa Barbara Creeks division and volunteers, with hand tools or just yanking them out.

Santa Barbara Creeks Restoration Planner Erin Markey said, "this is the best option for us."

They started at 9 a.m. In a few hours, there was a big difference.
 Markey said,  "in addition to the great recruitment and growth of the native plants that we have, we just want to knock back the non-natives  and give the natives the best chance that we can of making it."
You have to look close to see the seedlings popping up but they are all over.

Markey said, "in this dune zone we've planted about 4500 native plants and most of them are doing wonderful.  We had some pretty high tides in this area and some were over washed and some of our seedlings that we spread here got washed away." 

Liz Smith is the Creeks  Outreach Coordinator she was using a hand tool and removing a pile of weeds."Yes we are trying. not to break them too much, we are trying to get them out."

Markey said, "this grass can have zones several feet deep and we are kind of getting the more vigorous ones close to the surface and getting the ones that best we can."
The  large area nearby is doing very well  and the crew won't have to come in and get out as much  crab grass but  there are some weeks here and they will have to do some work ."

The site is near the recently finished project to have a better tidal flow back and forth with the nearby Andree Clark Bird Refuge to enhance circulation year round on the 29-acre lake.
Restoring the beach plants and the banks was a perfect fit with this work.

"We've lost 80 to 85 percent of our coastal estuaries and wetlands so preserving the ones that we have and improving the ones that we can is incredibly important along coastal California," said Markey.

To see this level  of environmental commitment with hands in the sand and volunteers on their knees shows how grounded Santa Barbara's effort is for these projects.

Smith said, "Santa Barbara is very passionate about our environment and protecting it so having community members and even visitors come and join us today is very wonderful."

(more details, video and photos will be added later today)