Restoring our Oak Woodland Understory

By Lora Lyn Junio

(The Philippines, Hawaii)

TEK Urban Forestry Educator/Mentor

Clarkia amoena growing at EWF native plant nursery

The primary ecosystem at Elderberry Wisdom Farm is Oregon white oak woodland. On the property, the Oregon white oak trees tower over our Native American Plant Nursery. They provide shade in the summer, acorns in the fall, insulation from their leaf cover, a place for lichen to grow in the winter, and homes for the fauna, including black tail deer families, in the spring, making them a vital sign of life in our habitat.

Our team cleared a lot of non-native species in the fall to prepare for the planting of our cover crop. We have been spreading native seeds as a cover crop in our back two-acres which was generously funded by our partner, the Dry Farm Institute. We used an Oak Woodland understory seed mixture which contains an abundance of native grasses and pollinators, including Carex pachystachya, Elymus glaucus, Artemisa douglasiana, Achilles millefolium, and other flora native to our Oak ecosystem. Lynda Boyer, Restoration Biologist and Native Plant Manager at Heritage Seedlings helped us plan our process and provided us with seed mixture native to our local oak habitat. She shared additional information from her own experience, including research on restoring habitats.

After preparing the soil and area for planting, we spread the seed mixture with vermiculite and sand to ensure the seed is protected in place where it falls. Then we put a light cover of topsoil and fallen oak leaves in some areas where the seeds were more exposed to divert predation like the mice who also live here. For the last few weeks, the team has been keeping a close eye on the seeds and hand weeding close to the planting areas to ensure the non-native plants won’t outcompete the seedlings. Our Native American organization doesn’t use chemical sprays, so we used hoes, shovels, nippers, and sometimes our own hands to remove invasives.

Planting the first batch of seedlings in the late fall/early winter ensures the seeds have enough time to stratify in the cold, and warm up in the spring to germinate. We are monitoring the seeds until germination and caring for them until the spring when we can begin to identify the species.