garter snake

Twisted North Mound — An Outdoor Classroom Wildlife Habitat Installation

Nov 172016

Twisted North Mound is a wildlife habitat installed behind Heron Hall at the Laguna Foundation‘s Laguna Environmental Center, or LEC, located at 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, California, 95401. The installation was an outdoor classroom activity. Date: November 10, 2016. School: Orchard View School, Sebastopol, California. Teacher: Sunny Galbraith. Me: Tony McGuigan, from Spore Lore.

In a nutshell, this wildlife habitat installation is a wad of clay, organic material, topsoil, and new meadow barley plants shoved up against a very large trunk section of a downed oak tree. A large rock slab, hovering off the ground, snugs up to the tree trunk and earthen, cavity-filled mound.

October 2013 (three 3 years ago) Stuart Schroeder, of Stone Horse Farm, uses an “implement carrier” pulled/pushed by a tractor to move West Heron Hall Log into place.

The BEFORE. Heron Hall Logs East (L) and West (R). One goal of Twisted North Mound is to have these large hulks of wood look more naturally placed in the terrain, for instance, as if the tree had fallen on site.

Habitat Installation Day — Prep before students arrive

Habitat Resource Depot (fancy name!) at the Laguna Foundation’s compost (left) and woodchip pile (right). Pulled from the depot for this installation: tree logs and small rootballs, rock slab (center), old surface compost with fresh grass weeds, and under-the-pile compost soil.

Lifting a rock slab for use in the habitat installation, a millipede is disturbed. Note the wisp of spider cob web lower left — a busy underside of the rock that has rested here only a month.

East view of East Heron Hall Log (there are two; the other is West Log), which is next to the habitat installation site. Note the sun-protected trays of meadow barley starts that will be planted. The south face of the log is thick with woodchip mulch to suppress weeds. Lush green grass and weeds in the background — now is the time to plant in Northern California. We can plant native plant starts now and the coming rains will water them, increasing plant survival despite no irrigation used.

Clear the table! Top layer woodchip mulch is scraped away from the work site for 4 reasons: 1) to harvest/collect woodchips that will be under Twisted North Mound (AKA “TNM”), mostly between the 2 large oak tree sections, 2) to access soil from under East Log (foreground), to harvest a thin layer of decayed woodchip-rich topsoil from under the scraped away woodchips, and 4) to keep the woodchips clean and usable as mulch (no soil!) while the habitat site is built.

A western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) is well camouflaged on West Log (center, far edge).

Close-up of wary lizard. Throughout set-up, lizards darted in and out of the Logs’ thick bark layer that has sagged from the harder cambium wood. Perfect habitat for these small creatures.

Gathering organic material to create a planted mound, here includes shovel skimming ALIVE topsoil and fresh weeds from a dormant Compost Cricket Corral bin.

A garter snake escapes from one side of East Log (where I was removing woodchips) to the back side of the log.

Ouch! Now I know these Jerusalem crickets can bite. Allowing this critter to crawl over onto my hand turned out to be a bad idea; luckily the skin of my finger was not broken by the insect’s jaws. Note that topsoil from under East Log is being harvested for use, and thrown on a tarp, for the West Log habitat mound.

Topsoil on a tarp (foreground) has been harvested from under East Log.

Mushroom layer has been exposed as the oak-tree-to-woodchip-mulch interface is exposed (at tip of shovel).

Bucket Man collects fresh compost soil from under compost; note shovel under compost pile in background.

Prep for Twisted North Mound wildlife habitat installation. Starting from west face of West Log, in foreground, moving clockwise: rakes to return woodchip mulch after installation is in, shovels, logs and root pieces (mostly river wood — not salt-cured driftwood), large pond-liner bin of avocado and bamboo leaves, buckets of compost soil, wheelbarrow of old compost and weed surface soil, wheelbarrow of heavy clay soil from under East Log, berm of woodchip mulch, tarp with pile of topsoil from under woodchips, Cold Water Canyon rock slab on rolling cart.

Site scraped and ready for the students to create Twisted North Mound. Note the berm of woodchips on the north side — it will be pushed onto the mound when mulch is called for.

Close-up view of meadow barley plants in waiting. Note the shelf fungus‘ thriving on East Log’s shady side.

Students Arrive

The students have arrived. Their first assignment is to figure which pieces of riverwood/driftwood will create the habitat between East and West Logs. Lots of physics to move the wood around AND not get hurt.

Students deliberate while a great blue heron flies by. Outdoor classrooms rock!

Getting somewhere — this “T-bone” triangular piece of wood will be the habitat’s foundation.

Instructing that we want to snug T-bone up to West Log and to fill it with soil and to be able to plant meadow barley in the crevice. Note that these pieces of wood between East and West Logs will be completely buried, slated to decompose and ultimately leave organic material in the surrounding soil and to leave cavities for critters to someday take advantage of. Are we talking about next year, 2 years from now, or ten years from now? The answer is yes. Habitat It And They Will Come!

Flipping up T-bone (left) to allow a small piece of old (ready for insects to eat!) wood to snuggle under T-bone.

Back down goes T-bone, over other hulks of wood. Different pieces of wood mean different resources for habitat critters — different food, different water saturation, different decay schedules and by-products. Our aim here is to invite DIFFERENT critters.

Orchard View students and teacher Sunny Galbraith at work. (Foreground) Digging out clay soil from under East Log. East Log is unashamedly laying with its cut end in full view (a problem). Following the permaculture principle “the problem is the solution”, we use clay soil from under East Log to cover West Log’s exposed corner and Twisted North Mound. Stay tuned for what happens to West Log. (Center) Working the clay soil from under East Log in the crevices of TNM. We want to pack in the soil so the plants will have maximum soil, no air pockets that would kill the meadow barley starts roots. (Background) Weeding Torrent Critter Crag, giving the torrent sedge plugs a better chance to survive, thrive.

Twisted North Mound gets avocado tree and bamboo leaves over its clay soil base. The organic layer will break down, while it is eaten by soil microbes and crawly critters, and leave a loose, cavity-filled layer under the barley meadow root canopy.

Covering the leaves with the soil scraped under the woodchips that were pushed back from the habitat site. Buckets of compost soil at the ready; that layer will be the top layer that the meadow barley starts are planted in.

The rock slab is moved into position.

And down, with the tip of the rock resting on a short length of rootwood (hard, long-to-decay wood) and the rest of the rock resting on the pile of small rocks that we collected while digging under East Log. The rocks found while digging, a problem, became a solution when wanting to create a space under the rock slab.

Another organic layer — the old compost and fresh grasses/weeds, complete with thriving soil microbes and crawly critters, will make a rich layer under the compost soil. The goal is to have the compost soil and woodchip mulch kill down any of the grasses/weeds.

Compost soil is sculpted to create a planting mound.

Meadow barley starts are planted. Note the rectangular root form to the plant in the foreground — these start plants were touseled, squeezed, massaged, and even roots ripped free to allow the plant a non-rectangular root spread. Free the roots!

Meadow barley starts planted among woodchip mulch.

And a little water for the meadow barley,

and for rock slab.

Twisted North Mound wildlife habitat installation is in! East view of back side.

North view of habitat’s “front”, that is, the view from behind Heron Hall.Students deliberate, time to talk amongst themselves after a successful work session.

Brent Reed, of the Laguna Foundation, inspects Twisted North Mound on installation day. Good thing this habitat was built to meet or surpass the latest Habitat Building Code.

Thank you, as always, to Sunny Galbraith, teacher at Orchard View School, Sebastopol, and her students. Also, much thanks to the staff and board of the Laguna Foundation, particularly the Restoration and Conservation Science Department: Wendy Trowbridge, Director; Brent Reed, Ecological Program Manager; Aaron Nunez, Ecological Project Manager; and Paul Weber, Restoration Field Supervisor.

Enjoy your wildlife habitat installations. Habitat it!

Tony

Cricket Compost Corral Gets A Habitat Blanket

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Mar 052015

Cricket Compost Corral is a wildlife habitat installation that was installed October 2014 at the Laguna Environmental Center. This post is about moving a garden resource (debris) pile to Cricket Compost Corral. The new compost will help jumpstart the compost pile and the wildlife habitat features of the pile. The new compost will help raise the soil level of the compost so that the compost will drain better, stay warmer, and work more efficiently. Also, the new compost resources will come with a rich biota of fungi, soil microbes, crawly critters, and perhaps animals of higher trophic levels.

The Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation, operates the Laguna Environmental Center, on Stone Farm, at 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, California, 95401. This wildlife habitat installation borders the LEC’s (Laguna Environmental Center’s) Native Plant Nursery, which is used for the Foundation’s Restoration Program.

“Cricket Compost Corral Gets A Habitat Blanket” is an outdoor classroom project — Science is just the beginning! The students of Orchard View School, substitute teacher Alison, and I had fun at this outdoor classroom Biology project. Teacher Sunny Galbraith worked logistics before installation day.

Before the students arrive — fenceline garden resource pile:

Foreground = Veggie Garden at the LEC. The resource debris pile to be moved is in the background, straight back off the garden’s corner, next to the fence, left of the propane tank.

Winter rains have greened the grass around the resource pile.

Everyone grab a tool. Let’s move this pile!

“Rusty” will help us move the resource pile across the LEC grounds quickly, saving a lot of wheelbarrow loads.

Gathering organic debris (horse manure and fallen poplar branches) to add to Cricket Compost Corral.

Using the gathered manure/branches to build up a side of CCC.

Farmer Stuart Schroeder, of Stone Farm, lends a tractor to add a layer of wood chips for the students to spread.

Logs are used to frame the new resources added to CCC. The wood frame will help keep the new higher soil level intact, wick water to the Santa Barbara sedge to be planted, and provide habitat for critters.

Moving the resource pile:

Students haul off the resource pile to the truck trailer.

A Pacific Tree Frog (Pseudacris regilla), green phase, hides in the resource pile.

Keep it Science — we listed all the critters we saw. The resource pile is a critter mystery pile.

Adding the resource pile to Cricket Compost Corral:

Wood chips are spread to make a rich base for the resource pile on Cricket Compost Corral.

Foreground, a student plants Santa Barbara sedge, a native, drought-tolerant plant that will hold the compost’s hill in place. Far right (back), students install driftwood to complete the frame of CCC.

Unloading Rusty the Trailer. About this time during unloading, a western fence lizard was found in the trailer and introduced into Cricket Compost Corral. You have a new home!

A bouquet of veggie garden sticks for Cricket Compost Corral.

One garden’s debris is another garden’s treasure.

Securing the end of CCC’s frame with driftwood held in place by palm tree frond wedges.

In goes a palm tree wedge — local, FREE materials!

A sledge to finish CCC’s frame.

Finishing touches on CCC gets a habitat blanket:

The veggie garden resource pile now sits on top of Cricket Compost Corral.

Tree limbs are staked into place to terrace plant Santa Barbara sedge along CCC’s front edge. The compost gets a lot of fuel from keeping the Nursery’s concrete swept.

More stakes.

Cleaning tools before our class is finished. Terrace planting of Santa Barbara sedge to keep the compost’s soil level from eroding. Ultimately, the wood will rot away but the sedge mound will hold the soil in place. The sedge will also provide habitat for the compost’s critters. Close up of sedge planting.A plug of sedge (center) sits in a soil-filled raised bed made by two tree limbs.Weeds in front. Sedge behind the terracing limb.A plug of grass with yarrow plants planted at the base of adjacent Log Pile Apartments.

Watered down and ready to call the job done.

A thank you to the Laguna Foundation’s staff, especially Wendy Trowbridge, Director of Restoration and Conservation Science Programs, and Brent Reed, Restoration Projects Supervisor. Cool project!

Enjoy your wildlife habitat creations. Habitat it!

Tony

Wildlife at Orchard View student-built habitats at the LEC

Western fence lizard in Log Pile Apartments.

Resting bird about to get company. Habitat is Garter Snake Ravine. Bird cam photo.

Violet Green Swallow perching westward. Habitat is Garter Snake Ravine. Bird cam photo.

Caught one! White Short Bill, male, seasonal outfit, unshaven. Bird cam photo.

Garter Snake Ravine — a Wildlife Habitat Installation

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Jan 282015

Students pull up Garter Snake Ravine’s barn owl perch using a block-and-tackle.

Garter Snake Ravine is a wildlife habitat installation that incorporates a deep hole cut into adobe soil, a water reservoir, a large-branches heap (BIG stick pile), a Fungus DreamWorld, and a Science Experiment.

As mentioned in Spore Lore’s post, Prep for Garter Snake Ravine, 1-3-2015, the adobe hole, AKA “Ravine”, was left full of water to soften the hardpan adobe soil in the bottom of the hole. Sure enough, a week later, we were able to dig the hole another foot deeper — that much more space/capacity for the new habitat installation. The deeper hole will also give the owl perch more vertical stability; the upside down poplar tree will be buried deeper.

A long-handled posthole digger at the ready in Garter Snake Ravine after a week of soaking the hole with water.

The dug-out adobe soil was used to raise the compost’s ground level to help keep the compost out of winter’s wet. Garter Snake Ravine is two doors down from Compost Cricket Corral; Log Pile Apartments is between them. So to review, in the photo above, the water is overflowing Garter Snake Ravine, flowing under Log Pile Apartments, and moistening the raised banks of Compost Cricket Corral BUT not saturating the compost pile because of the now raised soil level of the compost piles.

A tree has fallen! No one was there to hear it but the crushed fence leaves a reminder. The poplar tree split at its crown with the snapped-off trunk landing into the adjacent horse corral. Problem: tree in corral. Solution: we just found ourselves an owl perch.

A 16-foot section of this poplar tree trunk will become an owl perch in Garter Snake Ravine wildlife habitat.

Because the tree is a poplar, we want to use it in a way that it will not sprout, thrive, and eventually shade the compost piles which are west (shady side) of Garter Snake Ravine. Poplar (Populus) trees are similar to willow trees in that they are both riparian species widely used for stream/watershed restoration. Both Poplar and willow have high levels of rooting hormone. And that’s a problem here — the Ravine habitat will be a water-/moisture-filled vase, like that for table flowers, during the coming wet months. Solution: “plant”, or install, the poplar tree upside down to prevent the rooting process. And don’t forget the trunk stump. This hulk of poplar wood will add to the habitat’s hugelkultur mass. Also, heavy, bulky pieces of wood like this one and others will help stabilize the owl perch, keep it from falling. Note how a staircase of skids was used to roll the stump into the bed trunk. Great to have a helping hand.

The poplar trunk stump waits on the sidelines until the owl perch is placed into the Ravine.

Our initial desire was to raise an owl perch high in the sky to encourage barn owls to hunt and feed at the compost pile. A perch that the barn owls that live on Stone Farm can use. That pair of barn owls (Tyto alba) can sometimes be seen in the palm trees below the Office’s front porch. Hoo called in Rodent Management?

IPM, a Permaculture term, stands for Integrated Pest Management. Rodents can be pests around a farm and Stone Farm is no exception. IPM is a way to handle one of Nature’s jobs by Nature. Traditionally, by introducing, a cure animal. Problems arise when the cure-all species becomes a problem — no other species is well suited to control the alien plant or animal. Such is part of the reason that Native Plants and IPM are considered solutions to removing pests ecologically. Palm fronds are not accepted in the local Resource Center, which makes soil additives from the garden debris (resource!) brought to it. But the fronds will be an asset in the hugelkultur — critters will seek the nooks and crannies between the slowly decomposing fronds.

A bird cam is installed — the camera will be trained on the perch to view owls hunting and eating their meals.

Students create a small retaining wall made from stones and heavy clay removed from the Ravine’s hole. This berm will direct runoff water under the adjacent wildlife habitat installation.

The poplar owl perch is here! Students walk the perch up the woodchip pile to gain height advantage for installing the perch into Ravine’s hole.

Here comes the perch, heading for Ravine’s hole. Note the thinner tree limbs in the foreground; the tree section is being flipped upside down.

The poplar tree section’s thinner branches are tied together to better fit the upside down tree into the Ravine. Note the green rope crossing back and forth — the block and tackle is being threaded for pulling the tree vertical.

Students, on top of the woodchip pile, wait for the signal to assist the block-and-tackle’s raising of the owl perch.

Signaling to the rope puller, “Pull in the slack, batten down the hatches.”

“Pull!”, and up the perch goes with a little help from the top of the woodchip pile. Two safety lines were used in case the perch was accidently pulled past vertical. Note the safety line from the right-most student (right of the woodchip pile). The left-sided safety line is being held by a student standing behind and to the left of the woodchip pile.

The owl perch is edged into place. The poplar tree section has been up-ended.

Students stuff driftwood logs, the poplar stump, palm fronds, and smaller poplar braches (upside down) around the perch to stabilize it. Plenty for all hands to do now; we want to vertically secure the perch and remove the block-and-tackle lines and safety ropes.

Safety check! Lookin’ good; keep packing the hole around the perch.

Still more materials to pack around the perch as it approaches standing on its own, without stabilizing lines.

A breather while the owl perch is finalized. This outdoor classroom rocks!

Students are busy planting Santa Barbara sedge (Carex barbarae), programming the bird cam, and packing the Ravine.

Garter Snake Ravine wildlife habitat installation is completed. Note that the habitat has three major elements: a deep moist adobe hole that will fill to a small pond during the rains, a pile of branches and sticks, and an owl perch. That’s a lot of nooks and crannies for critters to hunt, hide, cool-down, and LIVE! in. First will come the wood-eating fungi and decomposer microbes, then higher trophic critters, then perhaps a mammal (an even higher trophic animal), like a skunk or a possum, that wants to reign over the habitat.

Garter Snake Ravine waits for a perching barn owl throughout the dark night.

Thank you for the wonderful pictures, Jenna.

The students of Orchard View School, teacher Sunny Galbraith, and Cordy and David and I had fun at this outdoor classroom Biology project. A thank you also to the Laguna Foundation’s staff, especially Wendy Trowbridge, Director of Restoration and Conservation Science Programs, and Brent Reed, Restoration Projects Supervisor. Cool project!

Enjoy your wildlife habitat creations. Habitat it!

Tony

Prep for Garter Snake Ravine

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Jan 032015

A garter snake soaks up the sun while Garter Snake Ravine is dug. I worked not more than ten feet from this snake, banging and chopping at the rock/stone/gravel hardpan surface for a couple of hours till I spied it under the coyote brush.

This month’s project with Orchard View School at the Laguna Foundation’s property, the Laguna Environmental Center, is called Garter Snake Ravine. The name was inspired by the many garter snakes that have been seen at this wildlife installation’s site.

The wood chip pile to be moved/shaved off a dozen feet or so to create space for Garter Snake Ravine. View from behind Compost Cricket Corral, looking past Log Pile Apartments. Habitat it! Note the coyote brush at the pile’s left edge. Coyote brush is a very important native, drought tolerant habitat shrub in our environs of Northern California. The coiled garter snake in the first picture was basking under that shrub while I worked.

Front view of the wood chip pile to be moved away from Log Pile Apartments to make way for the new wildlife habitat installation, Garter Snake Ravine. Note the coyote brush (large shrub, right) and the ceanothus (smaller, left) behind the wood chip pile. Those native plants will be good habitat components of the adjacent Garter Snake Ravine. Ultimately, the wood chip pile will work together with (right to left) Garter Snake Ravine, Log Pile Apartments, and Compost Cricket Corral to support wildlife habitat — food, water, shelter, and a place to raise young. As for water alone, the wood chip pile will store moisture and wick it to the habitats’ grateful critters during the long, dry summer months. Critters feeding daily/nightly in the compost will seek refuge in the many (too many to count!) nooks and crannies of these habitats. Microbe- and nutrient-rich soil amendments will made by those willing habitat critters.

There’s a wood chip pile to be moved! Note the Laguna de Santa Rosa is cresting in the background. By tomorrow it will flood Sanford Road (the white station wagon, top left, is heading south on Sanford). This is tree frog, salamander, and newt weather. Rain, rain, rain! The Laguna floods its banks every year, providing the services of the wonderful watershed it is — to allow water to spread out and return to the land before rushing down river and out to the sea. A great place to kayak!

Stuart from Stone Horse Farm gave the pile a shove and scrapped the top soil layer off to one side. Thanks for the tractor (top right) work, Stuart! Note the packed gravel and stone soil base that was uncovered from under the wood chip pile. Unlucky for us and the critters, the small area seems to have been a road surface debris pile at one time. Lucky for us and the critters, the habitat microbiome will eat up the asphalt debris.

The coyote brush, a sacred plant (especially to the snake living under it), is roped off to protect it during the wildlife habitat installation.

Holes are dug into the packed gravel, hardpan adobe clay, and stone surface. Water soaking in the holes will soften the surrounding ground to allow faster digging progress.

Looking south to the Hop Barn, with manure pile on concrete slab. The Foundation’s Native Plant Nursery is off to the right. Currently, the manure is too wet because water from the road (left and alongside the barn) runs downhill, past the barn, and onto the concrete slab. The soaking water displaces oxygen in the manure pile; an anaerobic, poorly composting pile results.

Note the grass swath behind the wheelbarrow that runs up to the barn. SOME DAY a ditch might run along the concrete slab, diverting the road runoff away from it. Garter Snake Ravine, a pond (during winter rains) and deep hugelkultur (during dry months) habitat is designed to make use of the ditch water before leaving the immediate area. The deep-hole and bermed soil landscape will also help keep Compost Cricket Corral dry and maximize its aerobic composting function. The deep hole of Garter Snake Ravine will be underneath the wheelbarrow in the above photo.

I like this wildlife habitat installation design!

A hole is dug and filled with water for further digging.

Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam come to mind as water fills Garter Snake Ravine.

Garter Snake Ravine, using hose water during this installation trial run, drains into and under Log Pile Apartments. Good thing that the Apartments’ rents are stabilized now that the habitat installation will have running water.

I will be back to finalize the prep for Garter Snake Ravine next week. Please do not fall in!

Sunny Galbraith’s Biology students from Orchard View School will be here in two weeks to complete the wildlife habitat installation. At that time, we will install an owl perch, a hugelkultur, a water-collecting soil berm, and a many headed creature writhing out of Garter Snake Ravine.

Enjoy your habitat installations and outdoor classrooms. Habitat it!

Tony