Valle de Oro 2020

The NMVFO‘s first project of 2020 was planting saltgrass at Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge, with refuge staff and a couple of other groups.

Unlike last year’s project that harvested native inland saltgrass from Bernardo, plantings this year were started at a nursery and shipped in long narrow conical plastic containers. Refuge staff will compare the growth of native versus nursery plantings.

saltgrass from nursery

The plugs of grass were planted about two or three feet apart. This species is rhizomatic, and will spread. Here was my first planting, named Albert:

By noon we had planted over a thousand plugs of grass, helped by warm weather, low wind, good company, and nature vistas.

Author: Jim, Sagebrush

Jim (trail-name Sagebrush) codes audio software for Windows, Linux, Android, and embedded systems. When not working at sagebrush.com, he enjoys backpacking, which this blog is about.