Meet LandPaths - Sharing Our Love Of Nature Every Step Of The Way

This summer IOOBY is experiencing some changes. We welcome a new staff member Jackrabbit Justin, as LandPaths Assistant Education Director. Justin hails from Arkansas, and most recently from Tennessee. He brings years of teaching about the environment to various age groups, from elementary to high school students. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and has enjoyed working with the Hispanic community in Tennessee as an interpreter. We are excited to have him join the LP team, bringing his knowledge and enthusiasm for kids and the outdoors to our beautiful county. Please welcome him to the LandPaths community.

Another change at IOOBY this summer is that Bree Bird is pregnant. Thanks right folks, I’m expecting my first baby in November. If you know me, you know I love kids and I am so excited about becoming a mom. My baby (and belly) are growing steadily and I look forward to introducing the little one to the LandPaths community in winter. My husband, baby-to-be, two joyous dogs, and I will be taking a road trip this summer to check out the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota, the 50th state for yours truly to visit; then I will have been to them all! Wishing you a fantastic summer filled with outdoor adventures.  –Bree Bird

IOOBY Summary 2010-11

Stewardship

IOOBY held 31 stewardship days this year. All kinds of projects were undertaken to help take care of the land. Students removed non-native plants, planted native plants, protected native tree saplings with tree protecting tubes, planted veggies and flowers at our farm, cleaned bird boxes and collected data on what they found inside, created and distributed fliers to neighbors detailing their stewardship project, created and hung up beautiful creek flags about their stewardship projects for neighbors to see.

Total results for the year from IOOBY students, parents, teachers, and volunteer stewardship include:

• 658 natives planted
• 200 farm veggies and flowers planted
• 140 education fliers distributed
• 91 Creek flags created and displayed
• 65 Native saplings protected
• 56 Bird boxes cleaned
• 55 Non-natives removed including fennel plants, dozens of teasel,
• 2 cubic yards each of lemon balm, English Ivy, and Himalayan Blackberry removed
• 1 cubic yard of French broom removed
• 1 new IOOBY staff member!

• Alexander Valley students pulled a cubic yard of broom, removed 20 fennel plants and roots, dug out dozens of teasel roots, and distributed over 60 fliers to the neighbors informing them of their experiences at Healdsburg Ridge Open Space Preserve.
• Two classes of Brook Hill 6th graders planted 39 native riparian plants along Matanzas Creek across from their school and created more than a dozen creek flags to let neighbors know about the project.
• With Windsor High’s help Cali Calemecac 6th graders planted 150 native redwood understory plants and removed two cubic yards of non-native, invasive Lemon balm at Riverfront Park.
• Doyle Park planted 38 native plants, removed 2 cubic yards of English ivy, and created two dozen creek flags to let neighbors know about the project along Matanzas Creek.
• Flowery planted 199 native grass plugs at Glen Oaks Ranch!
• Helen Lehman cleaned out and recorded data on many of the 33 bird boxes at the Doerksen’s Ranchero Mark West. They also protected more than 35 native saplings on the property. While protecting the trees, they also took time to name them.
• Hidden Valley cleaned out and recorded data on many of the 33 bird boxes at the Doerksen’s Ranchero Mark West. They also protected more than 30 native saplings on the property. While protecting the trees, they also took time to name them.
• Kawana removed 35 non-native fennel plants along Colgan Creek. They also planted 8 native riparian plants and created 10 creek flags.
• Lincoln 3rd graders planted 50 redwood sorrel at the Doerksen’s Ranchero Mark West.
• Lincoln 4th graders removed 1 cubic yard of non-native blackberries and planted 21 native plants at Poppy Creek.
• Live Oak planted 60 native plants at Ellis Creek/Petaluma Marsh.
• River Montessori planted 40 native plants at Ellis Creek/Petaluma Marsh.
• Roseland and Sheppard stewarded Bayer Farm, planting hundreds of veggies, flowers and native plants, tending the compost, harvesting ripe food, and creating delicious farm cooked meals. “I hauled 22 wheelbarrows full of mulch. Now I’m tired and I want to take a nap.” –Jon Jay
• Steele Lane 3rd graders distributed more than 80 fliers to neighbors telling them about Poppy Creek and their planting project. They planted 23 native plants and removed 1 cubic yard of non-native blackberry. They also created 30 creek flags to share with the neighbors about their efforts to steward Poppy Creek.
• SunRidge 5th graders cleaned out 23 bird boxes at the Laguna Uplands and recorded data
• on what they found inside. They also created 15 creek flags to share with their school the work they did to help take care of the Laguna Uplands.

Volunteers

This year IOOBY had 516 volunteers come out on IOOBY field days. These volunteers donated more than 3,096 hours of their time to the IOOBY program, mentoring Sonoma County students about nature. This is 528 more volunteer hours for IOOBY than last year! We are so grateful to you all for your dedication to teaching students the wonders of the outdoors!  We would especially like to recognize our ever dedicated volunteers: Johnny Junco, Duck Dave, Dragonfly Dave, Lizard Liz, Kathy Caterpillar, Randy Raccoon, Matt Madrone, Mary Manzanita, Peregrine Pat, Laura Flora, Cougar Kyle, Puma Pat, Mountain Lion Marta, Ginger George, Dani Dirt, Eva Evergreen, Lani Leaf and Sean Scorpion! Thank you thank you thank you!

Quotes
“Thank you for taking us to Ranchero Mark West. It was so fun I though I was going to blow up. I like the parts when we went looking for fish and other lake animals and lizards”. Your friend, Jesse, IOOBY 3rd grader

“I’m really glad I chose to join LandPaths because I was able to learn about and see a variety of habitats I would have never known about.  I also think it’s really rewarding to see our new plants thriving and taking back the riparian habitat at Riverfront Park.  After working with and teaching younger students, I feel a lot better about public speaking and am more comfortable giving presentations.  Joining LandPaths was a very beneficial experience, and I can’t help but look after the environment more than ever.”
–Kevin Kingsnake, IOOBY high school student

‘This year in LandPaths was awesome.  Working with the kids was really fun.  I remember doing the same thing when I went to Cali.  Coming to Riverfront Park every other Friday was soothing, even if it was pouring rain outside.  I have learned a lot about the outdoors and this makes me want to travel and be outdoors all of the time.  This park is beautiful!”  -Tyler Tarantula, IOOBY high school student


Partners

IOOBY would like to thank our many partners, who make IOOBY possible. Partners include: the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, the Sonoma County Community Foundation, the Dean Witter Foundation, the Medtronic Foundation, the Sonoma Valley Fund, Calpine, Save the Redwoods League, donations from individual LandPaths supporters, the City of Santa Rosa Creek Stewardship Program, Sonoma County Regional Parks, Sonoma Land Trust, the City of Petaluma and the Ellis Creek Treatment Facility, STRAW of PRBO, the Laguna Foundation, the Doerksens, and all of the Sonoma County teachers and staff we work with.

Click here to read article at The Windsor Times

Windsor students celebrate 10 years of green thumbs

Environmental partnership helps shape students' futures
by Robin Hug - staff Writer at Windsor Times

For the past decade, Windsor students have been gaining hands on experience in environmental studies thanks to an ongoing partnership between the Windsor Unified School District and LandPaths of Sonoma County.

This project, In Our Own Backyard (IOOBY), is part of the youth education program that the non-profit organization has been providing students in the Windsor District for ten years. The program is designed to teach the students discovery, watershed, and wildlife habitat.

Students finish off the year in a stewardship project like the plant-restoration project recently completed at River Front by a group of WHS and Cali students

"We have been doing this for a long time and it's been really great for everyone involved," said Lansia Jipson who the students call ‘Lansia Larva' following her instruction that each person in the project use their first name attached to an animal name.

Windsor High School students from the WISE Academy, a core program that focuses on environmental studies, along with a sixth grade class from Cali Calmécac rode the bus to Windsor's River Front Park on Jan. 14 to meet with representatives from LandPaths and learn about restoring native habitat along the riverbanks.

The students started off the morning by joining Jipson in a circle near the redwood grove to review the concepts they learned from their last meeting. They discussed the benefits of removing invasive non-native plants and restoring the area with native plants.

WHS students are also taught about erosion prevention and how to provide a native habitat for animals in the park. They learn how to plant native bushes, trim-back redwood suckers, and remove invasive plants. Each high school student then mentors two Cali Calmécac students to teach them what they have learned.

Students said the experience had a measurable impact on their plans for the future.

Tyler Conners, a senior at WHS, was once a Cali sixth grader who participated in the Land Paths program, which led him to select the WISE Academy when he got to high school. "I plan on moving into a career in environmental studies," he said. "I am not sure exactly what I want to do yet but I am applying to Cal Poly."

"This program is a good learning experience because I don't want to work in an office, I want to be outdoors," said Bella Montez, an eleventh grader who wants to own an organic winery and study at UC Davis.

By the end of the morning the collaboration of students planted 30 new native plants and removed the non-native invasive plant, lemon balm, from the riverbank. They cleared away sucker limbs around the redwood groves at the entrance of the park and dug holes for a new split rail fence that will protect the new plants.

"I really liked the smell of the lemon balm," said Rigo Barragan, 11, a sixth grader at Cali Calmécac when asked at the end of the morning what his favorite part of the day was.

"I really liked learning how to plant plants," said Mari Cruz, also 11 and a student at Cali.

Staff Writer Robin Hug can be reached at robin@hbgtrib.com

Click here to read article at The Windsor Times 

LandPaths' In Our Own Backyard (IOOBY) program is sponsored in part by the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation & Open Space District.  

Working on a school project that helps restore an ecosystem and will endure for years to come is not something most students have time to squeeze in between math and spelling, but the Flowery Elementary 3rd graders in Sonoma are doing just that. Begun in the 2008-09 season as part of LandPaths' In Our Own Backyard (IOOBY) program, and continued this year with a grant from the EPA and the Sonoma Valley Fund, Flowery students are restoring a native grassland with far-reaching implications.

Last spring, Flowery students collected native purple needlegrass, California brome, and blue wild rye seeds from Glen Oaks Ranch, a Sonoma Land Trust property in Glen Ellen. This year's 3rd grade planted the seeds in their school's greenhouse in September. By November the seedlings were robust and ready to be transplanted back at Glen Oaks to an oak meadow over-run by thistle and non-native grasses. Students planted the seedlings, mulched and watered them, and marked each one with a flag so that they could be located later in the year. On subsequent visits to the property, they kept their grasslings watered and mulched, and their plots weeded. By June, most of the grasses had grownseveral feet, and even produced seeds of their own! Next year's third grade will repeat the process, steadily increasing native grass populations on the property.

There are several differences between the non-native, annual grasses that were introduced to the California landscape from the Mediterranean by European settlers and thnative, perennial grasses that comprised our grasslands for hundreds of years. Perennial grasses are more drought tolerant than their annual counterparts. In fact, when only native grasses grew here, the hills of Sonoma County used to stay green all year long!

Perennial grasses live for several years, and are able to establish deep root systems (purple needle grass has been reported to have roots 16 ft deep!) that can absorb water from deep underground. In contrast, annual grasses complete their entire life cycle in one season, and only grow roots a few inches deep, dying as soon as the rains stop.

Annual grasses lose most of their nutritional value after the rainy season and turn brown. In contrast, native grasses persist as high-quality forage for native animals throughout the year, providing food for deer, birds, insects, and rodents.

Settlers both introduced annual grasses and suppressed wild fires to protect settlements and livestock. As a result, annual grasses spread quickly. However, published research in Ecology (2004) shows that, once reintroduced, perennial grasses hold their own against non-native annual grasses (more on CA grasslands at www.cnga.org).

By working to strengthen native grass populations, Flowery students are acting as positive role models and ecological stewards in their community, providing valuable food and habitat for native California wildlife, and creating a legacy of environmental education that will continued as a Flowery 3rd grade tradition for years to come.

In Our Own BackYard (IOOBY) is LandPaths' school-based education program. If you'd like to be a part of this wonderful work, contact Bree Benton at Bree@LandPaths.org and register to become an IOOBY volunteer.

This article was written by Lansia Jipson, LandPaths Assistant Education Director.  It appeared in the Summer 2010 edition of LandPaths Calendar / Newsletter.

Related Documents

LandPaths Summer 2010 Calendar - web version Download (204Kb, pdf)

Our goal: To provide all 700+ In Our Own Backyard (IOOBY) students with a new IOOBY tshirt for the 2009-2010 school year. With IOOBY tshirts, we hope to deepen the students' relationship to the outdoors by providing a tangible, take home reminder of their IOOBY experience. Every time they see and wear their IOOBY tshirt, it will bring back memories of their IOOBY fieldtrips and hopefully remind them how much they like to be outdoors.

We hope to raise a total of $15,000 for IOOBY to cover the cost of all the IOOBY tshirts and sponsor 2 classes (60 students) to participate in the IOOBY experience.

To sponsor an IOOBY student, class, or school you can:

Buy an IOOBY tshirt (click here to purchase online)

• for yourself - $25
• for one IOOBY student - $25
• for yourself and an IOOBY student - $40 ($20 each)
• for an entire IOOBY class (30 students) - $500 ($16.67 each)
• for an entire school (3 classes) - $1200 ($13.33 each)

To pay by credit card, click here for our secure online donation page.  If you prefer to pay by check, send mail to LandPaths c/o IOOBY T-shirts, PO Box 4648, Santa Rosa, CA  95402.  For questions or to specify adult t-shirt size, contact us at education@LandPaths.org.