More than 30,000 trees will soon be planted along Battle Creek south of Anderson to help restore more than 150 acres of critical habitat for fish and other wildlife. River Partners and The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are leading the project. Brooke Thompson, ecologist for BLM’s Redding office, said the Sacramento Valley only has 5% of its riparian, or wetland, habitat left.
“Because we've lost so much of our riparian habitat, we have lots of threatened and endangered species that rely on us creating habitat to continue to survive and move up the valley,” she said. “And so this project is going to be planting in riparian habitat.”
Restoration work is taking place at Rancho Breisgau, where there used to be a walnut orchard. The old orchard trees have been pulled up to clear a space to plant native species. Thompson said this will help endangered species and other wildlife.
“We'll be planting lots of native shrubs and trees in the hopes that it will become a nice, fully mature riparian forest someday that many wildlife and plant species can call home.”
River Partners and the Bureau of Land Management are asking for volunteers to help with tree planting this weekend. The planting started today and will continue Saturday from 8:30 a.m. until 2 p.m.
