Inland Empire Resource Conservation District
Grants
SEMPRA After School Program Grant
One of the main functions of the Inland Empire Resource Conservation District is to provide environmental education at no cost to children and adults within the District’s service area. This outreach has typically been implemented in the form of free conservation-themed educational programs, presented on school campuses, libraries, and other community facilities, in addition to appearances at environmental fairs and events. The IERCD education department has augmented its reach over the years, with the total number of programs performed on topics including the importance of recycling and the dangers of stormwater pollution increasing each year since 2004.
In addition to these functions, recently the District has began working to extend its outreach to school campus childcare programs including the Creative Afterschool Programs for Success (CAPS), a low-cost daycare option for students in traditionally low-income, underserved communities. Staffing constraints at CAPS have resulted in a lack of activities for participating students, and the District has sought to remedy this by having its educators presenting IERCD conservation education programs to CAPS’ kids. In order to maintain and even increase District presence at CAPS, in 2009 the IERCD successfully applied for a grant from the Sempra Energy Foundation. The total awarded to the District was $25,000.00, and it will go toward the planning and presentation of IERCD programs to CAPS students in area participating schools.
This grant has provided multiple benefits to both the District and the students in the CAPS program, and will continue to do so, pending exhaustion of funds predicted by spring 2011. The ability to increase outreach to students at CAPS assists the District in fulfilling its mission to provide environmental education to all residents of the IERCD service area; conversely, CAPS’ kids receive standards-correlated environmental education programs in place of television viewing or non-educational game playing. The District will continue to pursue these funding sources, in order to maintain enough educational staff to perform ever-increasing outreach to all residents within IERCD boundaries.
North Etiwanda Preserve
The North Etiwanda Preserve (NEP) is an approximately 1,200-acre site, located north of the City of Rancho Cucamonga, at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. Originally set aside as mitigation for the completion of the 210 freeway, the NEP has become a culturally and biologically valuable parcel of land, due to its historical significance and presence of endangered and/or threatened species of wildlife and vegetation. The Preserve provides outdoor passive recreation for area residents, including a walking trail with stops for bird watching and nature photography, and will serve to showcase the valuable local natural resources in an effort to encourage conservation awareness among visitors. It is also very beneficial to local wildlife and vegetation, as its highly functioning vegetation communities provide foraging and shelter opportunities
In 2009, the IERCD began working with the County of San Bernardino on a public outreach and education program, to be paid for using Habitat Conservation Fund grant money received by the County. The District’s mission to educate all service-area residents is one the County felt would work well with the goals of the NEP, in that conservation education combined with awareness of sensitive species’ needs would likely result in better public stewardship of the property. Currently, District staff are working with County staff to outline respective tasks, with the County working to manage the preserve and the District working to establish a functional, free series of environmental education programs for area students. These programs will be performed by District educators, and will feature instruction on native vegetation and wildlife at the Preserve in combination with nature hikes and use of GPS handheld devices.
The grant is providing for a five-year partnership between the District and the County, with the District providing a percentage of matching funds in the form of in-kind services. The relatively obscure location of the property has made the Preserve somewhat of a local secret. This grant project is seeking to change that by making the preserve more well-known, in combination with educating potential users to ensure stewardship of all of the precious resources that make the preserve such a biologically valuable resources.
Alluvial Fan Sage Scrub Propogation
In March of 2010, the Inland Empire Resource Conservation District received news of the District’s inclusion in a grant application submitted by Dr. Arlee Montalvo, botanist for the Riverside-Corona Resource Conservation District. The project for which the monies were applied for was conceptualized in response to the threats to the continued existence of Alluvial fan sage scrub (AFSS), an endangered native plant community in the Inland Empire region. AFSS is a Mediterranean shrubland found in washes and alluvial fans, and characterized by white sage (Salvia apiana), buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum), cholla (Opuntia spp.) and scalebroom (Lepidospartum squamatum), among others. Urbanization has significantly decreased the presence of AFSS, resulting in this grant which aims to document AFSS in its native state for the purposes of propagation and distribution to users of member species in local restoration projects. The grant was subsequently approved, and Phase I of the project involving studying AFSS in the field began in May of 2010.
The second phase of the project will begin in September, and involves evaluation of data gathered during field reconnaissance in Phase I. Based on the analysis, Dr. Montalvo will direct project partners regarding future work, including propagation of RASS species determined to be most suitable for commercial distribution, connecting users of native plants with growers, and potentially expanding the effort to include seed banking. The project will serve as a pilot effort in determining the viability of local agency collaboration in surveying, propagating, and arranging for the distribution of species and/or entire plant communities determine to be threatened and/or endangered.
The purpose of grants such as this is to fund projects seeking to stabilize native species that are currently disappearing due to urbanization and invasion by non-native species. This work is projected to retain local genetics which are critical to target species’ survival; this survival, will in turn provide benefit to the local natural world including erosion control, increased biodiversity, and sustenance for species of native wildlife. Pending the outcome of this project, the RCRCD and its partners including the IERCD will likely engage in similar undertakings with other local native species thought to be threatened and/or endangered due to the aforementioned environmental factors and human activities.