Scotch and French Broom are invasive plants that are prevalent and widespread in our area, including at Placer Land Trust’s Canyon View Preserve. Brooms are a super-successful invasive species — they grow rapidly, and each plant can produce thousands of seeds. In addition to out-competing other native plant species, broom is also highly flammable, increasing the risk of spreading a wildfire.
We often get requests from community groups seeking one-day community service projects. Many individuals also want to volunteer outdoors on our preserves. So, we have come up with a way of putting the pieces together: Broom Battles! These events provide a hands-on way for our community to get involved with stewarding our lands, while tackling the problem of invasive species. It’s a win-win!
Community or corporate groups can request a community service opportunity. They work with the Preserve Manager to schedule a one-day workday, generally for a half-day during the week. Often the organization approaches this as a paid “work day” for the participants, and it’s also great for team building!
Recently we’ve hosted the Hewlett Packard “HPE Eco Champs,” Placer County Probation Work Crew, Cox Mobility Services, and Loomis Basin Charter School (nearly 60 eighth graders joined us in the field!)
We are also piloting an “adopt a patch” approach for community service projects with Southside Unlimited, a Sacramento-based nonprofit that provides employment training for adults with disabilities. They approached us to see if we had any type of volunteer employment training to offer. Together, we came up with the idea of a site adoption for broom removal. In conjunction with the Southside Unlimited program manager, the Preserve Manager designated a section of Canyon View Preserve for Southside staff and program participants to tend and care for by removing the invasive species.
And you don’t have to be part of a larger group to get involved! When the weather is cooperative and workload allows, we also hold public workdays at Canyon View Preserve. These tend to take place on a weekend, and are great for families and folks who want to “get their hands dirty” without having to make an ongoing volunteer commitment.
Be on the lookout for more updates on these types of stewardship opportunities. But more importantly, as time goes on, we hope you’ll be able to see more trees and native plants, rather than scotch broom forests, at Canyon View Preserve. Thanks to all of our wonderful volunteers who are helping make it happen!
