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UCSB restoration project provides model for future efforts

Posted by: Maven on June 10, 2009 at 12:12 pm

From the Water Efficiency Journal:

When UC Santa Barbara built the Manzanita Village student housing project in 1999, the California Coastal Commission required that it mitigate the project’s impact on the neighboring wetlands by replacing lost habitat at a ratio of at least three to one.

UCSB’s Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (CCBER) worked with a Santa Barbara landscape architectural firm and civil engineers to go beyond these requirements, restoring six acres of California grassland, vernal pools, meadows, and marshes. The restoration site was awarded the American Society of Landscape Architects’ 2008 General Design Award, and was featured in an eight-page section of the April issue of Landscape Architecture magazine.

While the landscape architects created a beautiful and functional design for the area, CCBER focused on the restoration of native plants and animals. Together, they created a site that is now a national model for restoration.

CCBER raised and installed more than 80,000 plants in only two years, transforming what was formerly a gravel parking lot into a rare habitat called a vernal pool that is home to many endangered plant and animal species. “We’ve demonstrated that we can restore functional vernal pools, because people hadn’t really created them de novo like this, and it’s been very successful,” said Lisa Stratton, natural area director at CCBER.

Read more from the Water Efficiency Journal by clicking here.

June 10, 2009 · Filed Under Water Quality

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