Changing Peoples, Changing Place

Stewardship at Pearson-Arastradero Preserve.

Acterra Action for a Sustainable Earth

Stewardship• From Old English stigweard; the keeper

of the hall.¹

• “The concept of land as a resource, our responsibility to wisely manage that resource, and our responsibility to future generations for the condition of that resource when we leave it.” ²

Acterra’s Stewardship ProgramAt Pearson-Arastradero

Preserve• Invasive weed

management• Guided hikes in English

and Spanish• Seed collection• Watershed-specific

outplanting• Research & information

sharing

At other sites• Native Plant Nursery• Restoration Database• Fundraising,

community relationships and logistics.

• Young Earth Stewards

Volunteers!• Backbone of Acterra’s

Stewardship Program at Pearson-Arastradero Preserve.

• Community service, interns, corporations, individuals.

• Adopt-a-plot, workdays, weed warriors, logistics.

• Avg. 750 people/yr with 4,000 hours donated!

Preserve Information• 622 acres• Palo Alto Foothills• Owned by City of PA, Environmental

Stewardship by Acterra• Free, open 365 days, allows biking,

hiking, fishing, horseback riding, nature study.

• 4 primary habitat types.

Oak WoodlandPlant Species• 5 oak species• California bay laurel• Herbacious native and

non-native understory

Animal Species• Acorn Woodpecker• Garter Snake • Bobcat

Oak SavannahPlant Species• Coyote Brush• Isolated oaks• Wildflowers• Invasive and native

grassesAnimal Species• Coyote• Western Rattlesnake• Pacific Black-tailed deer

Riparian and PondsPlant Species• Willows• Cattails• Invasive and native

herbaceous understoryAnimal Species• Herons and egrets• Dusky footed woodrat• Pacific tree frog

Native Americans• Minimal impacts or

Co-evolution? (A change in the genetic composition of one species (or group) in response to a genetic change in another.)³

• Burning, pruning, sowing, weeding, tilling, and selective harvesting. 4

Biocultural diversity?• Connection between Native American

cultural areas and ecological niches. 5

• 2124 of CA’s endemic plant species overlapped geographically with 14 endemic language families and multiple dialects of 72 endemic Native languages. 6

• Diverse peoples = Diverse ecologies?

Europeans• Cattle, logging, habitat conversion.• Invasive species – primarily affected

grasslands (~ 23 million acres.)– Seabloom, 2003: “one of the most dramatic

ecological invasions worldwide.” 7

Impacts of invasive species• Habitat dominance and displacement of

native species, • Outcompetition, • Alteration of ecosystem processes

such as fire, hydrological cycles, and erosion,

• Hybridization with native species and subsequent alteration of the gene pool,

• Promotion of non-native animals.

Examples• Poison hemlock: toxic

to most vertebrates.• Invasive annual

grasses: thick mat of thatch – unfriendly to small animal forage and nesting.

• Fuller’s teasel monocultures deprive riparian animals of accustomed food sources.

The elephant in the Preserve• Climate change, climate change,

climate change. • Could affect every aspect of

restoration. • More hard data and reccomendations

needed.

Restoration• The 4 E’s – Education, Economics, Ethics

and Ecology.• The science of complex questions and no

easy answers.• Structure and function (via composition /

biodiversity.)• Biological diversity: The natural variety and

variability among living organisms, and amongst the ecological complexes in which these organisms occur. 9

Diversities• Biocultural diversity: diverse peoples

coming together to restore diverse habitats and protects varied plant and animal species.

• Cooke (2006): take the dynamics of various group's biocultural values (focus on recreation, resource use, etc.) and use those as starting points for building additional approaches towards community based conservation. 10

We are the keepers of the hall

Contact• Miriam Sachs Martín, Chief Preserve

Steward. • arastradero@acterra.org / (408)597-7830.

• www.Acterra.org• 3921 East Bayshore Road

Palo Alto CA 94303-4303USA.

• 650-962-9876 (Front Desk).

References• ¹ stewardship. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth

Edition. Retrieved March 02, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/stewardship

• ² http://dnr.maryland.gov/criticalarea/glossary.html• ³ http://biomed.brown.edu/Courses/BIO48/27.Coevolution.HTML: • 4 Anderson, M. Kat and Moratto, Michael J (1996). Native American Land-Use Practices and

Ecological Impacts. Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project: Final Report to Congress, Vol II. Davis: University of California, Centers for Water and Wildland Resources.

• 5 Kroeber (1963) cited in Maffi, Luisa, (2005). Linguistic, cultural, and biological diversity. Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 34, pp. 599-617.

• 6 Chung, Eugene R. (2000). Biocultural Diversity Hotspots and GIS Analysis: Alta California as a Case Study. Abstract. Presented at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic Botany. Retrieved 05/25/07 from: www.econbot.org/_organization_/07_annual_meetings/meetings_by_year/2000/abstracts_2000.pdf.

• 7 Seabloom, E., Harpole, W., Reichman, O., and Tilman, D. (2003). Invasion, competitive dominance, and resource use by exotic and native California grassland species. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol 100.

• 8 Bossad et al. (2000.) Invasive plants of California’s Wildlands. University of California Press, Santa Rosa, CA.

• 9 Redford, K. & Richter, B. (1999). Conservation of Biodiversity in a World of Use. Conservation Biology, Vol. 13, pp. 1246 - 1256.

• 10 Cocks, Michelle (2006). Biocultural Diversity: Moving Beyond the Realm of 'Indigenous' and 'Local' People. Human Ecology, Vol. 34, pp. 185 - 200.