Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration

UC Santa Barbara’s Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (Cheadle Center) began working with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to plan for the introduction of the federally-endangered Ventura marsh milk-vetch (Astragalus pycnostachyus var. lanosissimus) at UCSB’s North Campus Open Space (NCOS) in 2018. The first individuals were planted in a sandy site with high sub-surface soil moisture on the upper edge of the highwater mark of the newly restored upper arm of Devereux Slough in November 2019. These individuals were grown from seed collected from the original rediscovered population in Oxnard courtesy of Mary Carroll, the senior ecologist managing the site. In an effort to protect plants from inundation during times when the slough is fully ponded and to mimic conditions that may be related to success at planted locations in Ventura, five east-west trending berms approximately 1.5 meters wide, 0.5 meters tall, and 10 meters long were constructed with a small tractor. These were also designed to test the effect of subtle differences between north and south facing slopes as was observed in Ventura. The orientation of the berms later appeared to be unimportant at this site. At the same time, 6 milk-vetch were outplanted in the EEM Swale, a willow woodland with sandy soils near an ephemeral stream. In November 2019, 237 ten-month-old plants, grown at the Cheadle Center nursery, were planted on the site – 231 in the primary site “sandy zone” and six in the EEM Swale. Subsequently, more adults were planted on adjacent sandy mounds in the sandy zone in September 2020 (55) and October 2020 (46) and seeds were broadcast sown at several other sites at NCOS. In late 2022, 9 experimental seeding sites were established at Coal Oil Point Reserve adjacent to NCOS, as well as 2 seeding sites at the UCSB Campus Lagoon. This report summarizes the 2024 monitoring results and management efforts at all three project sites on UCSB property.