Information provided by Wildfarmers. Lea este artículo en español aquí.
San Benito County conservation organization Wildfarmers has received a $20,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Monterey County for a second consecutive year.
This funding will make it possible to expand what is planted each fall. The organization has started a nursery that “will focus on native species perfectly adapted to thrive here in San Benito County without supplemental water — resilient plants that belong to this land and know how to survive on it. We not only want to plant these here but become a resource for land managers across the region.”
“We’re particularly excited about the prospect of cultivating prickly poppies (which grow wild here and we love them for it), buttercups, penstemon and red lady.” “These are the species that once defined this landscape and with this support, we are bringing them back.”
The nursery will work the way nature does — slowly and then all at once. Plants start in pots. The pots multiply. And before long, what began as a small propagation effort spread across the land.
The grant also allows for land manager, Raphael Campozino, to be on site weekly to support nursery operations, bringing knowledge and hands-on care that will keep our propagation work thriving season after season.
Wildfarmers’s executive director, Veronica Stork – “The Foundation giving us the grant for a second year allows our work to be more impactful. With the first grant we installed rain catching ponds which has made a huge difference with the blue oaks, a species that is struggling to survive and with new growth. In the last year we have not lost any oaks. This year we will expand on native plant cultivation.”