restoration in coastal sonoma

[Anonymous]

My wife and I are in the process of purchasinga small parcel of land in the coast range about5 miles east of Fort Ross in Sonoma county. We'dlike to tread as lightly as possible at some point we'd like to put up a small straw bale house and the first order of business is some pretty serious restoration. The land has been neglected for years after heavy disturbunce mostly logging but also dumping oftires and other car parts. There are some fairlyhuge almost monoculturalstands of scotch broomand Himilayan blackberry that we are slowly hacking away at currently with weed wrenches.Since we're very new at this we are concerned about things like erosion, whether to try and propagate plants in the vicinity, how to do said propagation, etc. and were wondering if anyone had any tips about who we could contact tolearn about restoration techniques based on thebest current understanding of the local biology.Thanks for any tips,

-- Karl Young </p>

[Anonymous]

Hi there -

For starters, I'd recommend you join a local chapter of CNPS - either Milo Baker or Dorothy King Young.

Next, you might want to get in tough with Larner Seeds of Bolinas. Their website is www.larnerseeds.com and they have all sorts of information, workshops, etc. about small-scale restoration and growing native plants. The owner, Judith Larner Lowry, has a wonderful book called 'Gardening With A Wild Heart' - a must-read.

You could also visit some nurseries in Sonoma County that include natives among the plants they grow. Wayward Gardens is one - I think their in Sebastopol, but check the phone book. Once you start reading and talking to people, you'll get more and more ideas and connections to other people and sources of information. Just start reaching out, and go with the flow.

In addition to Judith's book, there are back issues of Fremontia from CNPS, back issues of The Four Seasons from the East Bay Regional Parks Botanic Garden, CNPS chapter newsletters, all sorts of information. You can really immerse yourself in growing natives in restoring your land!

Good luck,

Lori Hubbart</p>