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Big Chico Creek passes through the center of the CSU Chico Campus, being bordered by campus for 3750 feet. While university policy has been largely to keep the riparian zone natural, the combination of exotic seed sources and overspray from lawn irrigation resulted over the years in a "natural" riparian zone dominated by exotic plants. Volunteers from of our campus community have been working for at least 20 years to maintain native riparian vegetation along the creek. The general procedure involved removing or killing invasive, non-native trees and allowing natural reproduction of native riparian species. This limited volunteer work was insufficient to hold the line against invasive exotics because of several factors:

1. campus seed sources are scarce or lacking for some native riparian species.
2. Many native species don't reproduce effectively in the stabilized stream banks characteristic of our campus.
3. Exotic seed sources were abundant and the continuing watering of the riparian zone favored their rapid growth.

In the last five years our efforts have become more effective. We got the campus to approve in principle that the riparian zone should contain native plants. We persuaded the grounds department to turn off or remove irrigation in the riparian zone. We began a publicity campaign to enlist volunteers and donations of plants or money to buy plants. We began removing both exotic ground cover and trees and immediately replanting native species. The resulting visible progress attracted attention and got the project written up in the campus newspaper, furthering our publicity campaign and volunteer drive.

Need: The riparian strip is an important part of our beautiful campus. It provides an outdoor laboratory for classes in biology, geoscience and art, as well as a visual and psychological escape from academic life. Restoration of its natural flora will provide for the needs of a greater variety of native animals, increasing educational and esthetic value. The natural riparian and creek community will provide an outdoor extension of the Natural History Museum, facilitating teaching CSUC students and the annual thousands of campus visitors. The restoration process, involving volunteer labor from student and community members, is providing both a learning laboratory for involved students and a model of ecological stewardship for our campus and our watershed.

Procedure:

Our plan ideally calls for the following steps:

1. Prepare a list of potential native riparian plants including their location relative to the creek.
2. Locate existing but uncommon native shrubs and patches of groundcover (Santa Barbara sedge, Woodwardia, California blackberry, mugwort, spicebush, elderberry, pipevine, buttonbush, etc.)
   1. Remove competing exotic groundcover and enlarge the area occupied by the native by dispersing or planting additional plants.
   2. Plant more of the native to create some additional large patches and numerous scattered small patches.
3. Girdle exotic trees less than 1 ft. diameter in the heart of the riparian zone, where the potential of falling limbs poses no danger and plant natives to replace them. The dying and dead trees provide woodpecker habitat and raptor perches, then contribute to woody debris for cover both in the stream and on its banks. (We are working with Plant Operations for the removal of exotic trees larger than one foot basal diameter or located in areas where limb drop constitutes a hazard.)
4. Plant additional native shrubs and trees in the lawn area adjacent to the riparian zone to integrate with campus landscaping. Natives with obvious landscape potential such as western redbud, toyon, Calif. rose, coffee berry, Calif. dogwood, buckeye, valley oak, interior live oak, gray pine, and Calif. bay are selected for this zone.
5. Clear remaining exotic groundcover and plant selected patches of natives
6. Repeatedly revisit restored areas, removing root-sprouting or seedling exotics and replanting native plants which failed to survive.
   

   We have been working on all of the steps simultaneously, driven mostly by the availability of native plant starts. From time to time community people donated plants or nurseries offered us super discounts. When we had plants, we planted them, sometimes just clearing a sufficient space in the exotic "jungle" for an individual plant. When we didn't have plants on hand, we cleared exotics, emphasizing enlargement of the spaces we had hastily cleared to permit planting.

   Weeding became a much bigger component than originally anticipated. All sorts of seedlings came up in cleared areas, including many native plants, some of which had been extremely uncommon on campus, but also including incredible numbers of exotics, particularly privet, hackberry, and Himalayan blackberry. Our current policy is to let the first wave of seedlings emerge, eliminate those we don't want (often including a lot of natives which simply came up too thick) then mulch to reduce further emergence.

   Useful Web Sites

   Dr. Shigo's arboriculture info
   The Restoration Shuffle
   Tree Autopsy
   Society for Ecological Restoration
   Bibliography for Ecological Restoration
   Watershed Restoration