CAMPGROUND RESTORATION

Pinnacles Partnership and Pinnacles National Monument are joining forces to take control of the dire weed situation that has infested the campground! Together, we are starting the Adopt-a-Site program, which aims for organizations, groups, or individuals to take responsibility of ridding a designated campground site of noxious weeds.

Over 100 non-native plant species can be found in Pinnacles National Monument. The park has in place a comprehensive program to minimize and reverse the impact caused by the most invasive of these plants. Some of the invasive plants found inside the Monument that are actively controlled are:

 

 

 

Yellow Star-thistle (Centaurea solstitialis)

Summer Mustard (Hirschfeldia incana)

Horehound (Marrubium vulgare)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These three exotic plants create serious ecological damage and detract from the natural biodiversity of the Park.  Unfortunately, all three invasive species are found in and around the campground. The campground is a vital staging area to combat the weed problem, and, in an attempt to restore the aesthetic beauty and native habitat of the area, we chose the campground as the launch point for our Adopt-a-Site program.

On February 28th, 2009 Pinnacles Partnership and PinnaclesNational Monument hosted the first Adopt-a-Site event aimed at restoring the campground area, which has been a site for many non-native, invasive plant species to establish themselves.  Our goal: the removal of horehound, one of the three non-native, invasive plants pictured below.  Approximately 39 hearty souls gathered at the Pinnacles campground at 9:00 AM ready to tackle this hard project.  This group of Habitat Protectors ate pastries and listened to a safety talk, an explanation of the objective for the day, and received plant identification skills from Brent Johnson (Pinnacles Botanist) and Tessa Christensen (Volunteer Coordinator). Starting at the Visitor Center, volunteers spent the morning clearing, pulling, and digging out horehound, occasionally resting to enjoy snacks, drinks and socializing.  Throughout the event, the dedication was great, resulting in approximately 12,000 individual plants being pulled!  This amount of energy and tenacity is what stops millions of non-native seeds from being released into the park.  What a successful first step in the eradication of this invasive species! The President of the Board of Pinnacles Partnership, Tim Regan, extends a special recognition and thanks to PIPA members Dan & Denise Wright, Tom & Maria Terry, David Cole, Nick Peters and his Paicines Clovers 4-H Club, Laurel Rupp and all of the Pinnacles employees (most of whom are members in PIPA) for coming out to make this a most successful event.

 

For more information how you or your organization can become involved in the Adopt-a-Site, e-mail Tim Regan at tim_regan60@hotmail.com or call Brent Johnson at (831) 389-4486 ext. 259. 

 

 

THE NEXT WEED PULL PARTY AT THE PINNACLES IS SCHEDULED FOR 9:00 A.M. SATURDAY, MAY 22, 2010.  THIS PARTY IS THE KICK-OFF EVENT FOR THE 4TH ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP PICNIC AND IS A GREAT WAY TO WORK UP AN APPETITE FOR THE WONDERFUL BBQ WE HAVE PLANNED FOR YOU!!!