Students help plant native coastal sage at local preserves

FALLBROOK – Fifth-grade students from local elementary schools recently planted more than 250 native coastal sage plants at Heller’s Bend and Los Jilgueros preserves. The student plantings organized in January and February were coordinated by volunteers of Save Our Forest (SOF), a Fallbrook Land Conservancy committee, as part of the group’s environmental education program.

The hands-on nature program was started in 2005 “to instill in young people the importance of native trees and plants,” said Jackie Heyneman, SOF founder and chair. “Planting natives that are drought tolerant is more important than ever due to the serious drought situation facing all of California.”

The two-year program starts in the fourth grades at La Paloma, Fallbrook Street, Live Oak, and William Frazier schools. Jean Dooley, a retired public school teacher and SOF volunteer, visits the classrooms to talk with students about the need for open space, the importance of planting natives, and the value of community service. Students are then taught how to grow seedlings in pots, which are cared for by SOF volunteers until they are ready to be planted the following year.

As fifth graders, the students travel by bus to the preserves, where they work in groups of two to four with an adult volunteer. Each student is guided through the process of digging a hole, gently removing a young plant from a pot, and correctly setting it into the soil. Ideal months for planting native plants are January through early May.

Volunteers also encourage the students to explore the planting site and view the mature native landscape, the result of previous planting field trips. “We hope the students will be inspired to carry home these ideas to their families so that they, too, will look into using more natives in their home gardens. Natives may well be the garden of our future,” Heyneman said.

Save Our Forest is seeking volunteers. For more information, visit http://www.fallbrooklandconservancy.org.