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ECI Ecologists Recognized as Experts
ECI is pleased to announce that three members of our team are now certified by the Society of Ecological Restoration as Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioners. Congratulations Josh Fodor, Jon Laslett, and Joe Rigney! For more information go to: http://www.ser.org/page/Certification
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Removing One Invasive Opens Habitat for Another!
Often times, when invasive exotic plants are removed, they are simply replaced by other invasive exotics. We have often seen this problem in the field, but now there is research to back it up. Early removal and eradication is the best strategy. Read the full article here: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170518140211.htm
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Will grasslands help solve the carbon crisis?
A new research project is looking at alpine meadows as a carbon sequestration sink. This builds on work already being performed in other ecosystems. If grasslands are actually shown to sequester carbon, it may be that money raised through a cap-and-trade program could be used for large scale grassland restoration in the near future! Check…
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Are the rains washing you away?
The final numbers aren’t in yet, but it is looking like this past winter will be one of the ten rainiest on record. (see Our Ocean Backyard: Winter of 2017: How does it compare?). For long-time Bay Area residents, that comes as no surprise. Many have compared this winter to other giants – 1981-1982 and…
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Trees Threaten Homes and Roads: What you need to know
Residents of the Central California have taken a beating this winter storm season. This winter has been a great example of how our storms are changing along with climate change. It is predicted that there will be less frequent but stronger storm systems headed our way in the future (Source: NASA). As these storm systems…
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Easy Live Willow Stake Planting in Four Steps
Willow stakes are easy and effective way to revegetate a riparian corridor. They provide valuable erosion and bank stability as well as vital cover for local fish. Below is a quick demonstration of how to collect and stake your cuttings. For a more in depth description check out this great guide from our friends at Wildhorse Riverworks…
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President Obama Protects 6,230 Acres Along the California Coast
President Obama has protected approximately 6,230 acres of land in California, and there is a large section that expands the Coast Dairies property in Santa Cruz. This will bring more funding and public accessibility to the dynamic landscape. Most of the new federally protected land is along the Central and Northern coast. READ MORE “NOW,…
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Coastal Dune Restoration to Combat Sea Level Rise
ECI is working with several partners to restore (eradicate invasive iceplant and reestablish native plants) twenty acres of sensitive dune habitat within Salinas River State Beach (SRSB). The twenty acres were carefully selected because of recent studies that show coastal vulnerabilities to Sea Level Rise. These studies have found that the adaptive capacity of natural…
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Employee Photography Shines on New Instagram Account
Find and follow ECI on Instagram. Like our photos and share relevant information in the habitat restoration community. We’re all working together to improve California’s habitats and ensure a better future.
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ECI & The San Lorenzo River Parklets Project
At the corner of River Street and the Soquel Avenue Bridge, there is a serene walkway along the San Lorenzo River flanked with a beautifully and naturally planted patch of earth. This patch is the first completed “parklet” and was sponsored by The Rotary Club of Santa Cruz and designed and installed by ECI. These…
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Lawn Replacement and Xeriscape Project on Monterey Military Base UPDATE
ECI removed about two acres of lawn from a military chapel in Monterey last year and the plants are looking awesome! Browse cages are coming off and they are spreading their branches. The goals of the project are to reduce watering by 20%, reduce use of heavy fertilizers and maximize rainwater retention rates. There is…
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Creek Pollution Disaster May Turn Into a Well Funded Habitat Restoration Project
This July, California Water Service Company (Cal Water) settled with both the San Francisco Bay Region of California’s Regional Water Quality Control Board and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) over the damages from a major pipe leak. In October 2013, a Cal Water pipe broke and polluted the San Mateo and Polhemus…
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Think Twice About Letting Your Lawn Go Brown This Summer
Sam Greenspan, producer of 99% Invisible, covers the history and design of our American home landscape, aka our lawns. There is a deep history of psychology that keeps many Americans from converting their water loving lawns to more sustainable gardens. In this episode of 99% Invisible, the team deconstructs our love of lawns and highlights a Tampa man’s…
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DredgeFest California Workshop & Landscape Tours 2016
DredgeFest California Workshop & Landscape Tours Explore the present and near future of sedimentary infrastructure in the Bay-Delta. DredgeFest California Workshop June 13-17 Public Tour June 18 & 19 DredgeFest California combines an intensive design workshop, held at U.C. Berkeley, with two tours open to students and the public. Our focus is the sedimentary challenges…
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Central Coast Wilds Nursery Welcomes Andrew Wall
Andrew Wall grew up in Sunnyvale and began studying horticulture in 2007 at Cabrillo College. Focusing on Crop Production, Andrew worked for Cabrillo horticulture as a student assistant, lab assistant and most recently as the nursery manager and garden curator. Andrew also developed his horticultural skills while working at Hidden Gardens retail nursery in Aptos…
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ECI Staff Picks for the Best Wildflowers Destinations in Northern California
El Niño brought a lot of great storms and the Sierra snow pack is up dramatically compared to last year. Those heavy rains have saturated the soil and spurred one of best wildflowers seasons in years. Death Valley received a lot of attention this year for their amazing blooms. You don’t have to go that far to enjoy…
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The EPA’s 8 Tools of Watershed Protection
As the El Nino rains fall this winter, we’re all reminded about watershed protection and the EPA has amazing online resources for developers and city planners. The eight tools roughly correspond to the stages of the development cycle including initial land use planning, site design and construction, and ultimate occupancy and long-term maintenance. As…
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Rainwater is Expected to Rank the Highest in Consumer Demand
Sustainable design is the big trend for residential landscapes, according to the 2016 Residential Landscape Architecture Trends Survey conducted by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). The top trend—rainwater/graywater harvesting—reflects a growing consumer demand for beautiful residential landscapes that also save water. The hottest sustainable design elements include rainwater/graywater harvesting (88 percent), native/adapted…
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California’s New Front Yard Workshop Sold Out at UCSC Arboretum
Atop the foothills of UC Santa Cruz, the Arboretum was the perfect setting for the California Native Grasslands Association to hold the California’s New Front Yard Workshop on Thursday, February 11th, sponsored by Ecological Concerns Inc. The workshop sold out and seating was tight. Luckily, everyone at the event was excited for a day of learning. The morning session…
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Habitat Restoration Education Starts Early in South Santa Clara Valley
ECI’s Jon Laslett, Ecologist and Senior Project Manager, and Michael Friedman, Marketing Director and Project Manager, participated in a restoration day organized by Students and Teachers Restoring A Watershed (STRAW). The restoration day was held along the upper reaches of the Pajaro River that winds its way through an easement property managed by The Nature…
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300 Acres of Tunitas Creek Watershed Now Permanently Protected
Nestled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains within the Tunitas Creek Watershed, the Potrero Nuevo Farm (PNF) is a privately-owned farm and ranch that encompasses nearly 300 acres. Ecological Concerns Incorporated (ECI) was chosen to write the initial biological assessment and habitat management plan in 2008 due to their deep knowledge of native plants and long-term relationship with local…
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Medicinal and Edible Plants of the California Redwood Understory
There is a plethora of medicinal and edible plants living in the foggy shadows of the California Redwoods. Below is a short list of great natives to use in your shade garden or observe in their natural environment. * Madrone / Arbutus menziesii – Both the fruits and the flowers are edible, although the…
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Rosicrucian Park Habitat Enhancement Project
The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose has been stepping up to water conservation by removing acres of turf from various gardens in and around their beautiful park. Management at the park has been working with ECI for over five years to slowly transform several of their gardens into wild native habitat gardens with Egyptian…
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Extending Moore Creek Preserve into a Westside Front Yard
This residential client, with a home overlooking beautiful Moore Creek Preserve in Santa Cruz, requested ECI’s help to transform their small front lawn and patio into a more ecological landscape. The client’s goals were to remove the lawn, reduce the footprint of the hardscape patio, create more space for gardening, and to use native plants…
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Rain Gardens and Bioretention Areas – A Quick Guide to Post Construction Water Quality Treatment
Rain gardens and bioretention areas are permanent landscape features that are designed and constructed using Low Impact Development (LID) principals. Professionals and residents around the Bay Area are installing these systems to reduce stormwater pollutants and to protect our limited natural resources. Both act as water quality improvement measures by capturing and filtering stormwater before…
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Stevens Creek Corridor Project Receives Multiple Awards
The restoration of the Stevens Creek Corridor has been a huge success since it’s initial planning in 2006 with the development of the Stevens Creek Corridor Master Plan. The project has recently been recognized four times with awards in various environmental categories. The project included 60 acres of upland oak woodland habitat restored along newly…
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Nursery Best Management Practices (BMPs) for Phytophthora tentaculata
For over a year now, Central Coast Wilds (CCW) has been working diligently to respond to an emerging issue in restoration: the spread of a newly discovered plant pathogen called Phytophthora tentaculata. Phytophthora is a fungal organism known as a water mold. It causes root rot in many woody species and threatens wildlands. It may sound…
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California Buckwheat: A “Must-Have” Even If It’s Not a Bay Area Native
California Buckwheat almost doesn’t need soil: give it a pile of rocks in full sun and it will probably be right at home. Once its root system is established, it can live for up to 50 years, requiring only the seasonal rainfall. It frequently flowers for months on end in the heat of summer after other…
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The Sustainable Sites Initiative™ (SITES™) Recognizes Two Bay Area Landscapes
The Sustainable Sites Initiative™ (SITES™) program recognizes two Bay Area landscapes as leaders of the built environment, meeting rigorous standards of environmental design and performance. They will join a list of over 34 landscapes that meet these standards and stand as examples of how development and urban growth can contribute to the local ecology and…
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Rosicrucian Park and Egyptian Museum Reduced Water Usage by 4.5 Million Gallons
The Rosicrucian Order in San Jose began a large scale effort to convert the water-use intensive lawns at Rosicrucian Park to natives in 2009. Five years later they have now removed approximately two acres of sprinkler-irrigated lawns and replaced them with primarily drought tolerant California native plants. They are now saving 4.5 million gallons a…
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PG&E Hosts Water Conservation Showcase with Bobby Markowitz
Bobby Markowitz, ECI staff landscape architect and resident rainwater expert, recently spoke to a group of about 150 people at the Water Conservation Showcase being held at the PG&E Pacific Energy Center in South San Francisco. The day was filled with free events and lectures. Mr. Markowitz will be presenting case studies of Closed Loop Designs, the…
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Bill Halleck Jumps into the Private Sector
Join us in welcoming Senior Designer/Project Manager and erosion control specialist Bill Halleck, CPESC (Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control). Bill will collaborate with ECI’s team of botanists, ecologists, biologists, landscape architects, nursery professionals and construction crews as we continue to develop a network of landscapes providing habitat, food, and environmental benefits that increase the sustainability of…
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San Jose Egyptian Labyrinth Construction Close to Completion
The Egyptian Museum and Rosicrucian Park is constructing a large labyrinth. The new labyrinth will be built where two administrative buildings stood. Blach Construction is leading the efforts with a grand design by Prodis Associates Architects and Dillingham Associates. This beautiful piece of machine weighs close to 55 tons or over 110,000 pounds. During demolition of…
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Monterey Bay Friendly Landscaping Program is Up and Running!
The Monterey Bay Friendly Landscaping program has been launched by Ecology Action to help residents and businesses transform once-thirsty and over consumptive landscapes into beautiful, healthy, and sustainable gardens and landscapes that send less waste to the landfill, conserve water and energy, and manage stormwater as a resource. The program is a spin off of the Bay…
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Water Savings Start with Your Landscape, Watersavingtips.org for More Info
There are so many great tips for water savings at the new Watersavingtips.org. Take the pledge and save 10% – 25% off all natives at Central Coast Wilds Nursery in Santa Cruz. Here is a great start for saving water outside: Plants and Mulch • Put at least a 3-4″ layer of mulch around trees and…
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Edible Monterey Features Rainwater and Greywater Articles
“We are all going to have to adapt in our lifetime, and it can exciting and creative-not a sacrifice or exercise in scarcity. People love cars that get good gas mileage. Now it’s time for our homes, businesses, landscapes, parks, schools and churches to get good “water mileage.” – LeAnne Ravinale, water wise coach, Scotts…
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Cupertino Celebrates Stevens Creek Corridor Park and Restoration Phase One
Stevens Creek Corridor Park and Restoration Phase 2 has recently opened to the public. The trails is a beautiful walk along the creek with large Sycamore lining the banks of new restored creek. The new stream’s contours are shaped to enhance habitat for endangered Steelhead and Salmon. ECI helped install Phase One and is proud…
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Staff Volunteer Day with the West Cliff Ecosystem Restoration Group
ECI would like to thank the West Cliff Ecosystem Restoration Group for their efforts and all the ECI staff members that volunteered on a few recent restoration projects. The West Cliff Ecosystem Restoration Group has been doing great work along West Cliff Dr. in Santa Cruz and has recently expanded their efforts into Davenport and…
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