What does native plant restoration have to do with MLK Day? Maybe not a whole lot, unless you spend the holiday on MLK Regional Shoreline in Oakland planting seven varieties of wetland species.
Save the Bay rounded up 100 or so volunteers on Monday to help out with planting high transition zone plants, the drought tolerant varieties that are considered “ecosystem engineers.” Not only do they can outcompete the nasty invasives and flourish in disturbed soil close to trails, they provide habitat during high tide events and filter pollutants and trash before they reach the San Francisco Bay.
So with buckets in hand and boots on the ground, volunteers used their day off work to plant more than 700 seedlings of California poppy, purple needle grass, yarrow, mugwart, California buckwheat, and meadow barley. And we all stand to benefit from their effort.
Bay Nature volunteer Paul Epstein was there and captured these photos.
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