Habitat restoration is underway at Santa Barbara’s East Beach

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Along East Beach’s sand dunes lies an invasive species called the ice plant.

Instead of using harmful chemicals, the east beach habitat restoration project is harvesting the power of the sun to safely kill 1.13 acres of this plant.

“Part of why we're solarizing the plants is so that we can just remove the top layer of the plant. We're going to leave the roots in place, and those roots of the ice plant will be able to stay belies the dune until those new baby plants that we bring in, we're going to plant them in that root base,” said Santa Barbara Public Works Senior Planner Beth Anna Cornett.

A variety of native plants will be planted once the ice plant is eradicated.

Santa Barbara Public Works says these new plant species will aid in the formation of sand dunes and support local wildlife.

The project will also honor Santa Barbara’s unique ecosystem.

“It's going to be kind of a lush, dense, kind of green color. They'll be flowers. They'll it'll attract birds. It'll attract different like, you know, different critters to come in,” said Cornett.

“This is one of those projects that basically brings the local environment and the local ecology back to what it was prior to, you know, our community changing it by bringing in invasive species,” said Santa Barbara Public Works Project Manager Bradley Rahrer.

The new plants are expected to be planted by February.

The project will include a 5 year maintenance period to monitor and support plant establishment.