David Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy Post #2

David Schmaier
7/8/17
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy
Steve Wilson
stevewilson@parksconservancy.org

After I volunteered at Rancho Corral de Tierra, I volunteered at Mori Point in Pacifica. The main thing we did was remove an invasive species called bristly oxtongue from a ponds in Mori Point in order to maintain an ideal habitat for the California red-legged frog and San Francisco garter snake. California red-legged frogs are an endangered species. Before being protected, the frogs were killed in the thousands every year for their legs since frog legs were a very popular dish served in French restaurants in the city. Another reason why they are endangered is that their habitat has been threatened by human development. For example, at Mori Point, the wetland area where these frogs live was going to be turned into a race track.
After volunteering at Mori Point, I volunteered at on a reforestation project in the Presidio. When the Army Corps of Engineers planted the Monterrey cypress trees in the area that I worked on, they planted the trees too close together. Because they were planted too close together, the trees grew to be tall and skinny (without growing proportionally wider as well) in order to compete for sunlight. Because many of the trees were so tall and skinny, they were not sturdy enough to survive strong winds during storms and were blown over, causing extensive property damage. Apparently, a single storm a few years ago blew over as many as fifteen trees.
In order to solve this problem, the Parks Conservancy cut down many sections of these trees and has been working to plant new trees in place of the old trees. When I was there, the main thing I did to help was remove weeds around the growing saplings. The species that we removed included both native plants - Lupin and Horseweed - and invasive plants - kikuyu. In order to prevent the weeds from growing back, we also dumped mulch around the base of the saplings. Removing these weeds is important because the weeds steal nutrients from the growing saplings, which can cause the saplings to die early in their development.