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Click here to view the recording on our YouTube channel
Growing Natives at the Cosumnes River Preserve
At the end of the Cosumnes River, along with a matrix of wetland, riparian forests, and seasonal floodplains, there’s our nursery, established this past fall 2024 as an effort to supply the preserve with wildland collected native plants.
The techniques tested and developed include propagation of cuttings, mapping and tracking genetic diversity, using native soil in containers, air and ground layering, and solarization.
With initial funding through BLM and TNC, the scale of the project’s future depends in large part on pending grant support. However, the ability to continue this project on a small scale is sustained through collaboration, and volunteers.
With the intent to offer annual fall and spring field collections and workshops, this event will leave you, too, with an invitation.
Mary has an active foundation of community building, art, design & most recently working in habitat restoration as a botanical specialist at the Cosumnes River Preserve. Mary’s first contract began in fall 2024–she designed and built a low cost and adaptable propagation nursery, and trained over 30 volunteers on how to collect and propagate cuttings of native plants.
Mary’s methods are rooted in curiosity and experimentation, with larger research questions that challenge current land management practices and herbicide use, while examining potential alternatives and circular strategies for control of invasives, and revegetation.
Photos courtesy of Mary Sand.
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