Article by Haley Grant

Grassroots Ecology

Haley Grant

It was nighttime, twilight to be specific, as a soft purple glow cast over the rolling hills of Byrne Preserve.

Her long auburn hair blew in the breeze as she laced up her boots for the hike. Emily was surrounded by a community of people, some faces vibrant and young and some aged yet determined. There was a taste of excitement and anticipation in the air, everyone curious as to what they would see that night. Emily was excited about what she would see too, as she was used to early mornings and busy afternoons full of manual labor. They made their way down a winding dirt trail, moving down into the valley. Emily stopped them and pointed out one of their restoration sites they were working on, and as she was describing the work they had done, a coyote walked by! Everyone was paying attention now, amazed and frightened by the presence. Emily led everyone back into the woods, continuing on the path she had walked so many times before. However, this time it was different as Emily zoned in on her surroundings. She noticed as the smells of the oak trees and bay leaves, and the dull buzz of insects around her were amplified in the dark. With just a small flashlight to light the way, she led her group to look for bioluminescent organisms on the ground. Everyone was straining their eyes, flashlights in hand, squatting and pointing at different wonders on the ground. Once they emerged from the woods there was a blanket full of stars in the sky to soak in. Emily led everyone to the highest point in Byrne Preserve, proudly marked by two large oaks. As Emily tilted her head back and took in the view, she felt magic in that moment. For as long as she had been working with nature, that night opened her heart to not only bond with others, but to bond with the world and all of its beauty.

Since that night, Emily is always conscious of taking leisurely walks throughout the day, enjoying the time to

fully observe everything and engage her senses. Emily works with Grassroots Ecology, whose mission is to “engage and educate the public to restore local ecosystems�. Grassroots Ecology is a non-profit organization that works with local corporations and institutions as well as schools and other nonprofits to restore and further preserve land in Silicon Valley. Grassroots Ecology was founded by people living in Silicon Valley, and it is considered a biodiversity hotspot, only one of about thirty in the entire world! However, since it is an intersection of urban living, big tech corporations and nature, there has been a lot of damage done to the natural environment that thousands of animals, plants and insects consider home. Issues such as pollution, deforestation, and even salinization, which is when soil turns unusable, are all outcomes of human impact. Grassroots Ecology focuses on those issues in communities, and works with over 12,000 people of all ages every year to rehabilitate land, specifically through habitat restoration. Simultaneously, they also offer programs educating volunteers and bringing people together, allowing for others to experience and use

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E M I L Y their senses to fully take in the beauty of the world as Emily did.

Emily’s role with Grassroots Ecology is

a Restoration Specialist. Emily joined the Grassroots Ecology organi-

zation back in 2019, and holds a degree in Earth and Environmental Sciences from Vanderbilt University. She works at two different sites with a team of people, all of whom have different jobs, but all working together to manage the preserves. Her job requires long hours of physical labor but also entails managing and organizing different volunteer and educational events. Emily loves spending time outside, and feels rewarded knowing she is doing the best she can to help. She stated, “I have a particular interest in land conservation and resource management because in the fight against climate change I think land doesn’t get the attention that it deserves a lot of times,” (Sharp). She is referring to most people’s main focus regarding climate change, lowering the amount of greenhouse gases that are produced by humans. This includes anything from factories to driving a non-electric car. Emily stresses the importance of land use, and how that influences the amount of carbon that is coming and leaving the Earth. According to the environmental non-profit American Forests, “The need to reduce C02 means that natural solutions to the climate need to be part of the equation.” When land is degraded or deforested it affects the strength of their habitat and the carbon that was held in that land is then discharged into the air which in turn furthers the decline of climate change. Earth will become unfit for survival of life in the future, if people don’t do something to help restore the lands now.

The Grassroots Ecology team is full of dedicated and heartfull employees. Siena Watson started with Grassroots Ecology back in 2018, where she began as a summer intern. She chose to intern at the organization because she wanted to increase her learning in ecological restoration by working with hands-on development. In her time as an

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intern she had the opportunity to learn a lot about habitat restoration with “passionate staff members” which solidified her decision to work towards a career in ecological restoration. She currently works in a Watershed Stewards Program with Grassroots Ecology. Siena graduated in 2018 from UC Davis holding a B.S. in Marine and Coastal Science as well as a music minor. She works with her “San-Stevens” pod which includes four other employees who work together to create and lead field trips and volunteer events. They also “I have a particular interest in land conservation have an Earth Stewards program where high against climate change I think land doesn’t get school students work and learn about their local watershed. Additionthe attention that it deserves a lot of times.” ally, they hold programs with younger kids at elementary schools, making sure that everyone is involved. Siena often switches between two or three sites throughout the week and usually works in an office for half a day and out in the field the other half of the day. Siena is a firm believer in not just doing the work but being educated about it. When I asked her why she thought it was important, she said, “I think it is important to educate people about how their actions are impacting the environment because it gives people a sense of purpose and direction in their work,” (Watson). Going into further detail, she explained that when one is weeding a plant, they are actually removing an invasive species that in turn helps the neighboring plants get nutrients, and gives animals a clearing where they can walk. Every action that takes place in the field has a long chain reaction in helping natural animals found at the site.

When I looked up “Grassroots” I found this definition, “Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at the local level… [and they] derive their power from the people.”

I shared this definition with both Emily and Siena and asked them how they thought it did or did not apply to their Grassroots organization. They both agreed that this definition is accurate when describing their organization. They also both stressed that Grassroots Ecology has two missions and both are just as important. Their two missions are to bring communities together by educating and having them working to restore places at a local level, and physically restoring the land for the animals and plants that live there. This allows them to have a sense of place in their communities as well as connecting with other people that may share their passion for the environment. Grassroots Ecology knows that different ecosystems need different approaches, but they whole-heartedly believe that by educating and bringing people together to work on local projects, they are creating determined advocates for a healthier world. They

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S I E N A hold nature walks and volunteer events to help build up the community and work at many different sites around the peninsula to restore the habitats of numerous unique plants and animals. It is important that they have several sites that they are working on because with the increasing issue of climate change, animals are starting to move and migrate more when they are forced out of their homes.

Siena works at McClellan Ranch Preserve and San Francisquito Creek sites. At these sites, Siena and her

team usually host volunteer events and educational field trips where they lead people in planting native plants and removing invasive plants. In addition, they teach how to identify benthic macroinvertebrates which are the small animals that one would find under a rock or log. When asked what the most important takeaway is, Siena responded that, “Native plants are the basis of the ecosystem and food web! If they are absent, so are our native insects, birds, and mammals. By adding native plants back into the ecosystem, we are providing the resources the animals need and restoring the ecosystem services that these native plants provide, like cleaning our water.� Siena estimated that there are usually at least ten events or programs in any given month that are jam packed with eager volunteers and children.

McClellan Ranch Preserve is one of the many sites that Grassroots Ecology works on to help restore the

land. Originally this preserve was a historical site of a ranch with a ranch house and barn and other structures.

These structures are now used as office space for Grassroots employees as well as other organizations that work on the land. Since this land used to be a ranch, the land that was used for grazing cattle became overgrown by invasive grasses. Their first step to restoring the land was to create islands around the big space by sheet mulching

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areas, which entails putting down a biodegradable sheet or stripped cardboard to suffocate the invasive plants, and then covering that sheet with about a foot of mulch to give a fresh growing space for planting native plants.

Their goal is to eventually join all of the islands together to restore the whole meadow. They work with the City of Cupertino for this project.

At the Stevens Creek site, things are a lot different. There are multiple sites

making up the Stevens Creek

site that are spread out along the creek. The creek runs through Palo Alto neighborhoods so it is literally right at the intersection of suburban living and wildlife. They work to remove invasive plants along the creek and plant riparian plants that help block trash and pollution from getting into the creek. Emily and her team work at two other sites that Grassroots Ecology helps to restore, and finds that she usually splits her time between the two sites. One of the sites is Redwood Grove, a redwood forest that is manmade. All of the Redwoods were planted here, and it is not a natural occurrence. Since find a Redwood forest they were careful to team to find the best survive. At Redwood habitats as well as

“I think it is important to educate people about how their actions are impacting the environment because it gives people a sense of purpose and direction in their work.�

normally you would not anywhere on the peninsula, do extensive research as a way to manage and help them Grove, they work to restore making the land aesthetically

pleasing for many residents to walk in the little park. Emily also brought up how sometimes they are limited in what they can do depending on their partners in the project and how much money they have to work with. To find the best method, they have ecologists on their team who use scientific literature and research to determine what will work best.

Knowing the land and watching it over many years allows them to see what works well and what doesn’t.

The other place Emily works at is Westwind Open Space Preserve. This preserve is unique in that one part

is open grassland savanna and the other half is oak woodland. The grassland savanna is somewhat of a valley and the barn that lies at the top of the preserve produces runoff of pesticides and fertilizers that makes the soil unusable. They have a similar process to that of the McClellan Ranch Preserve in that they use the same sheet mulching method to start to reintroduce native plants to the area that will actually help redirect and control the runoff from the barn. After watching an informative video created and published by the World Resources Institution, I learned that about 8000 years ago one half of the Earth was covered in agricultural revolution forests, and now over half of those forests are dying and being degraded. However, land restoration serves as a solution to these dying lands as they can develop into forests or agriculture.

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Grassroots Ecology initially started as a different non-profit organization

called Acterra. Acterra was founded by people living in the Silicon Valley and has been around since 2000. Acterra does a wide range of environmental things from rewarding companies who are doing amazing things for the environment, to the branch that became Grassroots Ecology, habitat restoration.

Since the company was founded by locals, they were especially devoted to working with all the land on the peninsula. Acterra kept growing and eventually it made more sense to have the arm of habitat restoration branch off into its own organization which is how Grassroots Ecology came to be their own independent non-profit organization in 2016 . They have worked with many other partnerships throughout each of the sites and now have over twenty six fully functioning restoration sites from San Mateo to Santa Clara Counties and at least twenty full-time staff members. The volunteers for Grassroots Ecology are usually super diverse which is something they stand for as an organization. While discussing how they manage their volunteers, Emily made the point that “clear communication is essential.” As an organization they make sure to show, rather than just tell people, what to do because it has proven to be more effective. Hands on activities have more of an ability to connect the people to the land. As well, all of the staff members work alongside the volunteers to establish a mutual trust and show that they are working together. Even among staff members they make sure to communicate with each other ahead of time, and after, to reflect and debrief each event to determine what they can improve upon for the next event. Emily made a great point as to why they educate their volunteers, stating that, “...we are creating advocates for the work we do who will then go back to their families and own communities and be able to talk knowledgeably about habitat restoration and how important native plants are.” I thought this was really relevant as the organization is spreading the word of land restoration and bringing attention to the issue simply by educating everyone who comes to volunteer with them.

I asked Siena what keeps her motivated in her job, as long hours of manual labor is not always everyone’s first choice. She responded enthusiastically that getting to see the wildlife and native plants everyday makes her work worth it. Especially when people passing by ask about what they are doing on the site or thank them for their work, Siena feels that they really are benefitting not only the wildlife, but the residents that use these sites. “I think we inspire people by breaking down the barrier between humans and nature,” Emily commented during our interview.

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Grassroots Ecology has a goal to create a connection between people and their surroundings. They do this by

making people aware that what they do and the choices that they make does affect the land and scenery that they see and use in their local communities. They find and hope that with this perspective and connection, people will be more conscious of, or even change, their behavior for the better. This can be anything from not littering to planting native plants in their own yards, but most importantly, they become the ones to spread that message to others. Grassroots Ecology has thought about expanding out of the peninsula, but they are leaning toward staying on the peninsula as there is still a lot of potential for more restoration and they have already built relationships with all of the communities they work with. Being part of a community is something that is very important to the organization, and they want to have “roots in the place [they] are working.”

Grassroots Ecology is also working to expand their education programs by holding monthly naturalist walks

and an adult education program. This program allows adults to gain a certification in knowledge about ecology, and the classes have been growing in numbers each year. Overall, they want to meaningfully expand and “create a larger habitat connectivity.” As I already mentioned, land restoration is a huge factor in the fight against climate change. By restoring the land, one is enabling native animals to have their habitat restored and food supply increased. In addition, as Emily pointed out, “Humans are extremely reliant upon insects like bees to pollinate our plants and crops; restoring native plants helps to provide a habitat for these insects that play a critical role in our ecosystems.” So not only are we helping our environment, but we are actually helping ourselves too. Since the degradation of land usually happens when no one is there to see it, it is crucial to focus on these areas to create a healthier environment for the native plants and animals and humans as well. By restoring land, we, in turn, improve the air and water quality which are both vital resources we depend on. There is a huge difference that people can make, and Grassroots Ecology recognizes that for each individual. This is why they provide the tools and education so everyone can be knowledgeable about it.

As UA magazine stated, “Reconnecting individuals to their local environment, reestablishing a link to their natural heritage, is essential to developing a sense of wonder as they move through their lives.”

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Works Cited “Grassroots Ecology.” Grassroots Ecology, Apr. 2020, www.

grassrootsecology.org/.

“Grassroots.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Apr. 2020,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grassroots.

“Land Restoration.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Apr.

2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_restoration.

Porterfield, Andrew. “Why Restoring Habitat Is Important.” UA

Magazine, 7 Dec. 2017, Apr. 2020, www.ua-magazine.

com/why-restoring-habitat-is-import ant/.

Reese, April. “A Natural Alliance.” American Forests, 2020,

www.americanforests.org/magazine/article/a-natural-

alliance/.

Sharp, Emily. Personal interview. 11 March 2020.

Sharp, Emily. Follow-up interview. 14 April 2020.

Watson, Siena. Personal interview. 3 April 2020.

WorldResourceInst. Restoring Degraded Land to Benefit People

and Plants. Youtube, Global Restoration Initiative, Apr.

2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7077absZfg

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Biography

I am Haley Gr ant, and I am currently in my Junior year of highschool. I love expressing myself in every and any creative way possible, and am always open to trying new things. I attend Los Altos High School as well as Freestyle Academy in the mornings where I get to showcase and further develop my skills and methods of digital art and design. I come from a big family with two beloved dogs, and something that is really important to me is appreciation. Not taking things for granted, from the people in your life to your everyday surroundings in the world. I chose to focus my Documentary Project on this non-profit organization, Grassroots Ecology, as I feel it encompasses and supports many of the ideals I have. I found out about Grassroots Ecology through a charity league I am part of, and have volunteered with them several times. I believe people working together to make change is the best way to go about it. In addition, I think learning about your environment and everything it embodies can help improve one’s perspective of their surroundings as well as make them more conscious, understanding, and mindful. All great qualities to have which I think can be simply obtained by allowing oneself to be open and preceptive. I have found and learned through my research and interviews for this project that along with all those things, looking at the world in a positive way makes you an overall happier and successful person. My dream is that everyone sees and respects the world as the natural treasure and allure that it is.

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