January, Lecture at Caspers and Revisiting Mother Oak at Donna O'Neill

Back to Natives vs. Scotch Broom, Part 2

Working in the rain at the El Cariso Campground.

Breaking for lunch in the warm, dry Interpretive Center.

We won!

Tackling Tamarisk in Modjeska Canyon

We began with a lecture on non-native trees and small shrubs.



Then we went down to the creek bottom to remove Tamarisk & Scotch Broom! We removed ALL of the tamarisk from the Howard House to the Bridge.

Our motley crue.

Removing Scotch Broom at the El Cariso Campground - October 2008

USFS Back to Natives Restoration Training Class Orientation & "Hike & Weed"

Enroute to the "weed" - our class and a few guests participate in the "Hike and Weed" on National Public Lands Day at the Donna O'Neill Land Conservancy.



Dead heading mustard


Learning to sanitize our tools.


Posing with our bags of seed heads - that many fewer mustard plants this Spring!


Orientation at the beautiful interpretive center at Caspers Wilderness Park.


Our first lecture.

Class Final and Graduation - June 2008

Debra Clark awards Back to Natives the "Landsteward of the Year" award on behalf of Orange County Wild.


Our class concentrates on their final exam.

The exam finished outside, where our students demonstrated the use of each tool, and how to sanitize them.

Students were awarded for their high test scores and number of hours volunteered over the course of the class.

What a handsome looking group of graduates - in their cool new matching BTN/USFS "Restoration Team" t-shirts!

Combating Tamarisk at Riley Park in May 2008

Our class treks through the parking lot to the restoration site, carrying the heavy weed wrenches that will aid us in removing the pesky tamarisk and Scotch broom. Notice the good spacing between tools/people - a safetly measure we learn in class.

Reggie always finds time to snap a shot of something beautiful to remind us why we are sweating so much!

The guys stand proudly over their tamarisk root ball conquest.

A surprise find in the creek bed.

The obligatory safety meeting after the day's events. It's good to review what went well, and what worried us. Someday we will all be leading groups of volunteers into the wilderness. Watch out!