New galvanized metal cages are definitely rodent-proof!

What a busy past few weeks we’ve had! With a total of 7 volunteer days under our belts, we’re moving right along with our acorn planting. Serendipitously, at our last volunteer day in 2013 we reached our first major planting milestone: 1000 holes planted!  This means that in 2013, our volunteers planted 3000 acorns along the Arroyo Mocho! Wow.

After we discovered that our plastic rodent-proof cages weren’t actually rodent-proof, we switched to galvanized metal. These cages are significantly more work for us, but definitely not edible!  The wire comes in 36-inch wide rolls, which we cut into rectangles, and then zip tie into cylindrical cages.  In preparation for a volunteer day, we spray each cage either orange (for Valley oak) or green (Live oak), and

The truck filled with cages ready to be laid out and painted for the volunteer day.

lay them out next to each hole. This way, volunteers can easily figure out which acorns to plant where. After each hole is planted and caged, we place and secure weed mats around each site. Weed mats will prevent the growth of unwanted plants around the acorns, which can use up the resources that the young oaks rely on. The weed mats and metal cages will help to maximize the chances of survival for our young oaks.

We were lucky enough to have a variety of

Dougherty Valley Honor Society students working hard!

groups to help us out this month. The students of Dougherty Valley National Honor Society came out to help us at both of our regular Saturday volunteer days in December.  On the 14th, we had the Rotary Club of Livermore Valley and a group of Cub Scouts out to help us!  Everyone was awesome and all 3 volunteer days were extremely successful and fun.

Thank you as always to all our amazing volunteers, Peet’s Coffee in Dublin, and Clif bar! We couldn’t do it without you guys!

Most of the group on our last volunteer day in 2013. You guys rock!