Restoration / spring 2024

Sun shifts through the colossal skeletons of cottonwoods, leaves awaken, erupt. Like ancient text upon crisp paper, soil horizons inches thick enclose seed. Encoded within their furrowed coats are spirits with knowledge deeper than Miocene kelp forests. Piercing light through translucent green foliage greets the soil, welcoming emerging seedlings who carpet the brambled floor. The air thick with the scent of emergence, the anticipation of spring within lignin. We may have never walked across the silty lakeshores of the Pliocene; however, our footsteps make indentations within the Earth in an everlasting, parallel manner. 

As our restoration team studies the complex entanglements of nature, the endless web of life reveals itself. Our footprints become visible. It is within the floral arrangement of an inflorescence we bide our time, chatting like towhees under toyon about the behaviors and cycles of vegetation. We often ponder how we can integrate our human hands into the ancient pendulums of nature, how to aid in its stability. Restoration at OVLC relies on the deep understanding of succession, how environments intricately react to disturbance. These stages of growth, each individual and unique, work together to build highly productive ecosystems. Even though these complex webs have evolved through incredible challenges throughout geologic time, modern societal demands have accelerated disturbance and heightened its magnitude in ways that nature has not adapted to compete with. 

In this niche is where we spend energy. Where nature is at its tipping point. By strategically and thoughtfully splicing certain plants into an environment that is degraded, we can shift the tides of ecological stability into an equilibrium. The balance of nature is what we strive for at OVLC. 

Martin Schenker, Restoration Field Crew Manager