Planting Suaeda at Heron’s Head Park
By Nina Omomo, Restoration Coordinator at Literacy for Environmental Justice
[In early July 2021], we planted 60 Suaeda Californica plants in 4 different locations at Heron’s Head Park. It was so wonderful to work with Kathy Boyer of San Francisco State University’s Estuary and Ocean Science Center and her colleague Margot Buchbinder.
For data tracking, Margot GPS-marked each plant, took a picture of it, and took its measurements.
Kathy wanted to plant them in pairs so we can experiment with arboring when they get bigger. This was done so an arbor (they use eucalyptus branches) can be placed between each pair and hopefully grow taller and be used as habitat refuge in the case of high tides and sea-level rise.
Kathy also brought a few buckets of wrack seaweed she collected that morning. She said they found if you use the wrack as a fertilizer when planting, the Suaedas do much better! The planting process was as such: dig the hole, insert big handful of wrack, put the Suaeda in the hole, fill with backfill, and then water.
After we finished, we decided to come back and hand-water the plants, as needed.
We all agreed this was a “test planting” of sorts and the most important aspect to understand was what the Suaeda plants like and don’t like in order to become established. Other factors we recorded were elevation, soil type, plant cover, competition and proximity to tidal action.
The overall Suaeda establishment and collaboration with Kathy will be ongoing and a multi-year project.
This project is fully funded by 2016’s Measure AA, the Clean and Healthy Bay ballot measure, through the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority (SFBRA) and the Port of San Francisco. The SFBRA is a regional agency that funds projects that restore, protect and enhance the wetlands and wildlife habitat in the San Francisco Bay and its shoreline.