Carrizo Plain NM Field Trip: Part 1

Written by Emily Allen
At the end of March John and I joined in on a field trip to the Carrizo Plain National Monument, located in San Luis Obispo County. We were fortunate enough to have Larry Saslaw and Denis Kearns, botanists with the BLM, as our guides. They are a wealth of knowledge about the flora and fauna of the Carrizo. We started our trip at the Guy L. Goodwin Education Center.  There is a lot of information about what you can find in the area and a great display area with a cross section of a Giant Kangaroo tunnel. Around the center is a labeled garden with some of the species of grass, flower, shrub and tree species found in the monument.

Our first stop was a site that was planted with Stipa (Nassella) cernua, nodding needlegrass and Poa secunda, one sided blue grass. Hedgerow Farms has been growing Poa secunda and Stipa cernua that was collected in the Carrizo so the seed can be used in areas that are disturbed or being restored throughout the Carrizo. This site was seeded in 2006 and there is an established stand of Stipa cernua that has started to fill with new seedlings. There is a lot of weed pressure from red brome, but the Stipa seem to be doing well. There were only a few Poa at this site. 

An area successfully seeded with Stipa (Nassella) cernua in 2006.

Our second stop of the day was to a cinder cone that we hiked to the top of. From the top you can see a large amount of giant kangaroo rat (k-rat) precincts. A k-rat will generally keep his burrow and the area around it (all together called a precinct) cleared and groomed. Each precinct houses one k-rat.

View of the giant kangaroo rat precincts from the top of the cinder cone.

A k-rat will harvest seeds from his precinct and dry and store them in his burrow. The giant kangaroo rat is a state and federally listed endangered species and is a keystone species within the Carrizo NM.

A trail of seed at a burrow entrance.

A Giant Kangaroo Rat burrow entrance.

We also got to visit a site where Poa secunda, one sided blue grass, is the dominate perennial grass (below).

A view of the valley and Poa secunda, one sided blue grass.

 Below is a site near a parking lot that was seeded in early 2011. The Stipa cernua is doing really well.

Stipa (Nassella) cernua that was seeded in early 2011.

Usually this time of year is a great time to see wildflowers, but since it has been a dry spring so there weren't very many to see. One of the wildflowers that we did see throughout the valley is Phacelia ciliata, valley phacelia (pictured below). There were patches of it along the road as we entered the norther part of the valley and there were pockets of purple throughout the valley.

Phacelia ciliata, valley phacelia.

Stay tuned for part 2: the Vernal pools.

New Year, New Office!

As you can tell from our long absence on the blog fall and winter are our busiest times of the year. A lot of projects are seeded in the fall, which is the ideal time of year if it actually rains like it should. We have not received anywhere near normal rain this season. We were irrigating fields in January.....January!!! We have had to replant several production fields where the seeds either germinated with the first rain of the season and then withered with no substantial rains or the seeds just never germinated. Hopefully we will see some steady precipitation in the forecast soon. The farm got around 1.5 inches of rain with last weeks system, so things are looking up.

The 70 degree weather that we were seeing a few weeks ago was good for construction, which helped with the installation of our new office. The new office is twice the size of our current office, offering some much needed space.

Here are some photos of the construction process:

The new office with the bones of the patio

Finished office with the finished deck, handicap parking, ramp, and paved sidewalk to the cleaning barn

The beautiful shaded patio

A separate room!

There are two rooms in the office, a large one that will have all of the desks in it and a smaller side  room that will be used to house the noisy printer/fax and will also be used for meetings. We are hoping to move into the office soon, just need to finalize permits and install larger windows. We should be in by April!

Native Grass Straw

Harvest is mostly finished on the farm and now we are focused on cleaning the seed and getting ready for fall orders.  We also have most of the straw for the year baled up and ready to be used on projects. 

Leymus triticoides, creeping wildrye, straw freshly baled

Straw stack mover collecting the bales from the field

Straw stack mover dropping off another stack of straw

The majority of the straw we have now is really nice Leymus triticoides straw. We also have a limited amount of Hordeum brachyantherum and Nassella pulchra straw. We sell the straw by the bale as well as the ton, depending on how much you need. Our straw is certified noxious weed free.

The straw bale sizes are variable but they are roughly 3.5' x 2' x 1.25'. The Leymus triticoides and Nassella pulchra straw bales weigh around 80 lbs each (~ 25 bales/ton) while the the Hordeum brachyantherum straw bales weigh around 90 lbs each (~23 bales/ton). 

Native grass straw can be used for erosion control, mulch, and as seed cover. Most straw contains viable seed, but we do not recommend using straw as the only seed source. 

Straw is used to cover a hydroseeding trial on the farm (more on the trial to come!)

Snakes on a Farm!

This spring and summer there have been numerous snake sightings in and around Hedgerow Farms. There are several species of snakes that have been found here, but more of the snakes being spotted this year are rattlesnakes. Below are some pictures of a variety of snakes found on the farm through the years:

Rattlesnake found on the farm in 2003

Gopher snake found on the farm in 2006

A king snake found on the farm in August of 2010

A rattlesnake found in May of this year digesting a large rat!
(It was roadkill and John opened it up to see what was inside)

Another rattlesnake found in the seed storage barn in June.
In that same week 4 other snakes were spotted, 3 being rattlesnakes.

With large numbers of snakes comes a high probability of bites. Within  a week there were two dogs bit by rattlesnakes on the farm. One snake bite occurred in some grass along a canal right before the fourth of July weekend and the other happened in the outdoor dog kennel right in the yard (no one saw the second snake, we just saw that Rottie, the farm dog, had a very swollen face).  The two days after the second dog was bit two additional rattlesnakes were found.

Rottie, thefarm dog, appeared to have been bit on the lip while in her kennel. She received one round of antivenom and recovered quickly

Darin, a black lab, was bit on the inside of his forearm. He received two doses of antivenom and after two weeks of recovery is back to normal.

We are all being diligent when it comes to being aware of snakes while walking around. There is an abundance of them this year!

Shop Fire

NOTE: WE ARE OPEN FOR BUSINESS AS USUAL! BUY SEED!

On Monday, July 18th, Hedgerow Farms lost its machine shop to a fire (this is the mechanic shop that contained tools for fixing farm machinery, NOT the seed cleaning shop or the storage barn! Those are fine). We still aren't certain how it started, but the whole building burned to the ground in about an hour.

It happened around 3pm and from the office we noticed some suspicious looking smoke (it actually looked like a dust cloud at first) coming through the front door.
Within a minute there were visible flames.

It was a three alarm fire with Madison, Yocha Dehe and Esparto fire trucks and additional crew from Winters. We also had several water trucks assist, one being from Willow Oak Fire.
We really appreciate all these folks did to keep the fire contained and under control!

 Here is a sequence of photos during the fire:

 

The roof collapsing

The fire created a large smoke cloud

There were several water trucks that brought additional, necessary, water.

After the fire had burned, there was a pile of scrap metal

 The frame of the Honda that was in the shop

Harvest Time!

Hedgerow Farms has entered full harvest mode. The unusual amounts of rain and the cold spring have proved challenging, but we hope that by the end of the week it will dry out and the weather will be back to normal for this time of year. 

Below are photos introducing the steps used to harvest the seed in most of Hedgerow Farms larger production fields:

When it is determined that most of a field is ripe the field is swathed:

A swather cutting Nassella ssp.

The swather cuts the grass (or flower) plant material and creates a windrow (see below) behind it:

windrow

Seed and plant material are left in windrows in the field to dry and cure. A windrow helps prevent seed loss by creating a basket weave out of vegetative plant material, capturing the seed as it shatters. 

After the plant material has dried a in the field (this can take just one day or a week) we use a combine to separate the seed from the rest of the plant material. After it has been combined the seed usually spends more time drying and curing on a tarp before it is cleaned.

A combine emptying seed and chaff onto a tarp

Other methods we use to harvest seed will be highlighted in upcoming posts. 

CNGA Field Day at Hedgerow Farms: A Success!

Thanks to all of you who attended the 4th annual CNGA Field Day at Hedgerow Farms!  We had beautiful weather and a great turn out. Below are a few of the highlights from the day. All the photos are by Phil Hogan of the NRCS, who did a great job documenting the day.

The road to the entrance of the farm was beautiful with Ceanothus and Lasthenia glabrata (yellow ray goldfields)

We had two main tours.  One was on on straw bales and featured irrigation canals, hedgerows, our habitat area, planting techniques and weed control techniques:

The straw bale tour heading to the habitat area 

We are currently grazing sheep in the habitat area on the farm for weed control

The tour included a demonstration with our native seed drill

The second tour was a walking tour featuring many of our flowers, some meadow plantings, landscaping ideas, a tailwater pond and some of our research and development plots:

A tour stop looking at a field of Layia chrysanthemoides (smooth tidy tips)

At lunch we had three speakers who focused on the ecosystem services native grasses and forbs provide.

Tom Griggs, with River Partners, talked about what native grasses have taught him about ecology

Dr. Truman Young, with UC Davis, Department of Plant Sciences, talked about  why native grasses are beneficial

Rachael Long, with the UC Cooperative Extension, gave her annual research update with pollinators in hedgerows 

Thank you to everyone who came; a lot was learned and shared!