Art from the Watershed

A felled Peninsula Watershed eucalyptus tree has gone on to a new existence as a permanent sculpture by a local Bay Area artist.   

The original eucalyptus comes from a previous habitat restoration project in the southern part of the watershed, where stands of the non-native species and other invasive growth were removed from the lands around Homestead Pond.

The artist, Evan Shively, has created a system for using a whole tree and works with reverence for his salvaged materials. When you saw a tree, he said, “It dictates where it wants to be cut.” 

Homestead Pond, once a vital breeding habitat for threatened California red-legged frogs, had declined over the years. But now restored grasslands and healthy young coastal oaks are providing renewed foraging and shelter for both the frogs and the endangered San Francisco Garter Snake (considered by some as “one of the most beautiful serpents in North America” ).

Hunting and Gathering on the Watershed

These days we’re collecting acorns from local mature Coastal Live Oak forests in the vicinity of Upper Crystal Springs Reservoir. They’ll be nurtured in a nursery for about a month before the December planting. The young saplings will sprout through 6-foot-tall protective tubes, with the future new forest eventually occupying a total of about 19 acres. 

Our crews also just finished hydroseeding about 44 acres with native grass seed mixes, spread out across four different locations along Upper and Lower Crystal Spring reservoirs. The mixes--which varied from site to site--consisted of several  grass species, including some collected from the watershed. The straw-filled fiber rolls, shown in the same photo, slow stormwater runoff and prevent erosion into streams, drainages and the reservoir. 

In all, the Habitat Restoration Program will bring back about 180 acres of native grass, wetland and Coastal Live Oak forest at several different Peninsula Watershed locations. The historic habitats provide essential food and shelter for a variety of native plant, butterfly, bird and other wildlife species, some found nowhere else in California.