Volunteers rake dead grass in preparation for seeding.

For the past few weeks, Living Arroyos staff and volunteers have been hard at work spreading native grass seed all over the Stanley Reach. The native grassland is the third and final planting section on the site. The Stanley Reach is divided into three planting zones: the oak woodland (top of the stream bank), native grassland (middle of bank), and riparian tree zone (closest to the channel). We started planting the oaks from acorns in the fall of 2013, and planted the riparian zone last spring. Last week, we finished seeding the native grassland!

Our youngest volunteer of the day working hard!

With help from 55 volunteers over 2 volunteer days, along with our awesome field staff, we raked and seeded over seven acres of grassland! Our seed mix contains three species: Blue wild rye (Elymus glaucus), Purple needle grass (Nassella pulchra), and Beardless wild rye (Leymus triticoides). All of these species are native, perennial grasses as opposed to the invasive annual grasses that currently cover the site. Hopefully we’ll receive a bit more rain to help the new seeds along!

Thank you to everyone who helped us seed, and don’t forget we only have 3 volunteer days left in the 2014-2015 program year!