Who are we
The Big Bear Greenthumbs are a group of volunteers (all ages and
walks of life) who work together monthly assisting the Big Bear
Ranger Station’s Native Plant Nursery and Restoration Program.
Projects include seed collecting, germination, plant
propagation, weed removal, site preparation (sometimes trash
removal), and planting native vegetation on the forest. Open to all interested
public. Over the past 15 years this group has restored hundreds
of acres on the San Bernardino National Forest with native
plants grown from our commercial sized greenhouse.
Our History
The San Bernardino National Forest has been successfully
conducting ecological restoration for over a decade and has a
fully functional, but small native plant nursery with a
greenhouse located on the Mountaintop District. With this
nursery, the Mountaintop District has been able to restore
hundreds of acres of disturbed sites on the Forest all utilizing
locally collected and grown native seeds and plants. It has been
the intent of the Forest to replicate this program, which is
solely funded by grants and managed by volunteer partnerships.
Hundreds of volunteers now
participate in our program every year.
Our Greenhouse Program
The Big Bear Nursery is currently growing hundreds of native
plants for various disturbed areas across the Mountaintop
District. Although we can grow rare species, we prefer to plant
and seed with common species such as native grasses, buckwheat,
rabbit brush, and sage while allowing the rare species to come
back on their own.
Our Planting Program
 Disturbances
can be created by fire, fire suppression, any vehicle (including
mountain bikes) leaving designated roads or trails, fuel salvage
sales, and sometimes even foot traffic. Anytime a Forest visitor
leaves a designated road or trail especially with mechanized
equipment to explore, the visitor can really do some damage to
the countless rare species we have on the San Bernardino
National Forest. It is important that we try to remedy some of
this damage by seeding, planting, or mulching sites to assist
the sites in healing. In a perfect world, time would allow the
land to heal on its own, however, with over 20 million people
within a two hour drive of our Forest, we cannot always afford
the time to let the land heal naturally.
Our approach to restoring the land varies from site to site. We
don’t have the facilities to plant the entire Forest, so we
focus on areas of high potential human interface.
2009 Restoration Projects
Weed Management
Preventing the introduction and spread of noxious weeds is
one objective of Integrated Weed Management Programs on National
Forest System lands throughout the United States.
Development of weed prevention practices is supported by US
Forest Service noxious weed policy and strategy which directs
the US Forest Service to:
Determine the factors that favor establishment and spread of
noxious weeds,
Analyze weed risks in resource management projects
Design management practices to reduce these risks.
The US Forest Service Noxious Weed Strategy identifies
development of practices for prevention and mitigation during
ground-disturbing activities as a long-term emphasis item.
US Forest Service Botanists and Biologists monitor known weed
populations and map new populations yearly
add link to target list used by
Biologists/Botanists: used in the field to look for and map
weeds on SBNF
Native Seed Increase and Maintenance of Seed Increase Sites
The purpose is to develop local supplies of native plant
materials to be used for restoration of disturbed areas on the
Forest
Continue maintenance and harvest of seed increase projects
-add link to poster presented at the
California Native Plant Society (CNPS) Conference January 2009
(on its way from Dev)
Additional 2009 Restoration Projects
Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Route Designation
Restoration involves preparation for restoration of unclassified
routes within the SBNF will include coordinated efforts with
various resource specialists to determine which routes to target
for closure in 2010 which would provide habitat improvement for
sensitive plant and wildlife species in addition to seed
collection efforts for other projects.
Fire Suppression Rehabilitation - Projects include
effectiveness monitoring of Burned Area Emergency Response
(BAER) treatments in recent fire burned areas. Includes
monitoring of sensitive plant species during rehabilitation
activities, patrolling designated and un-rehabbed/rehabbed dozer
lines in addition to access roads in order to deter illegal
motorized vehicle use.
Habitat Management Program - Program objective is to provide
for monitoring of designated OHV areas with potential impacts
and provide follow-up corrective actions to protect the various
sensitive species when needed.
Post-fire Watershed Improvement Projects - Projects involve
restoration of meadow systems where watershed condition and
hydrologic function have been negatively-affected by the 2007
wildfires.
Post-fire Noxious Weed Removal Projects - Projects focus
primarily on removing invasive weeds in order to improve habitat
for sensitive plant and wildlife species. One of the projects
involves a collaborative effort with Caltrans to document, map,
and remove Spanish broom (Spartium junceum) from along highways
within the assistance of Caltrans crews.
Big Bear Plant Grow Project involves growing 1000 containers
of specific native plant species for planting during the month
of April 2010.
Lytle Creek and Big Bear Nursery Management consists of
greenhouse maintenance activities along with preparation for
seed collection, germination trials, and transplanting of native
plant species.
Resource Volunteer Coordination involves coordination between
US NF Biologists and volunteer’s efforts to accomplish on the
ground resource objectives.
US Forest Service Internship Program
Internships are available for students from California State
University San Bernardino, Chaffey College, and Victor Valley
College to work on projects related to ecological restoration.
A limited number of 400-hour internships will be available in the
summer of each year working under the supervision of San
Bernardino National Forest botanists. Interns will work at the
Mountaintop Ranger District Ecological Restoration Facility in
Big Bear City propagating native plants and restoring a variety
of disturbed sites on the National Forest.
Click here to learn
more.
For more information on the Greenthumbs Volunteer Program
Contact:
Ann Wyatt
42300 North Shore Drive
P.O. Box 290
Fawnskin, CA 92333
(909) 382-2837
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