Other Projects

On Saturday July 30th, 2011 the Inland Empire Resource Conservation District (IERCD) hosted a mustard removal volunteer event at the North Etiwanda Preserve in Rancho Cucamonga. Staff from IERCD and the San Bernardino County Special Districts Department worked alongside volunteers from the community, Circle K International and Bass Pro Shop. Together, staff and volunteers removed enough invasive mustard plants by hand to fill up a 20yard bin.

Volunteers learned about the problems associated with invasive plants, specifically mustard. If left undisturbed, mustard can crowd out other native plants and negatively impact the habitat for plants and animals that are native to the area. By removing the mustard, volunteers assisted in valuable habitat restoration at the Preserve.

IERCD would like to extend a big thank you to our volunteers who made this mustard removal event a big success.  If you are interested in volunteering with Inland Empire Resource Conservation District, please contact us by emailing info@iercd.org or by calling the District Office.

In the beginning of 2008, the Inland Empire RCD began participating in the Lytle Creek Watershed Action Project, an effort involving several non-profits, special districts, and other conservation organizations in attempting to increase both water quality and quantity in this sub-region of the Santa Ana Watershed. Lytle Creek’s water quality is thought to be compromised both by the aging septic systems of local homes, and also by the influx of recreational day-users who frequent the area on the weekends and holidays. 

As the creek is in the upper watershed, consistent level and cleanliness are imperative for health of the remainder of the Santa Ana Region. For this reason, the California Department of Water Resources contributed to the effort with significant grant funding, and the District was able to provide matching funds in the form of staff services. Other participating agencies also provided matches in terms of in-kind services.

As part of the Action Project, the board and staff of the IERCD began working on the creation and implementation of a water-wise demonstration garden on the campus of the Provisional Accelerated Learning (PAL) Center in the Muscoy regional of San Bernardino County. The demonstration garden will benefit PAL Center students, and serve as an educational tool for area residents interested in converting traditional sod landscapes to drought-tolerant plants. 

Planting of the garden took place on November 4th, 2010 after many months of planning.  The IERCD hired a native plant landscape consultant, Rob Moore of California Native Landscape Design, to help with the garden’s plans and design.  With the combined effort of PAL Center students, IERCD staff, and Rob Moore the garden was completely planted in one full day of hard work.  Over 80 plants and 14 different native species were used to cover the roughly 3,000 square foot garden area.  Through the course of the work day, loads of river rock, mulch, and sand were delivered to the site. 

First, the work group installed a dry creek bed feature into the center of the garden that will accumulate any excess water in the garden and act as a natural riparian area.  To install, they dug a trench in the existing garden space, lined it with weed control cloth, and then filled it with river cobble.  Around this feature, native plants that are accustomed to more water were planted and surrounded by mulch.  On the outer edge of the garden, more California native plants were placed in a natural pattern.  Through these processes, a cohesive, natural space was created. 

This project has provided a large variety of benefits to all species dependent upon Lytle Creek for some form of sustenance, including fish, wildlife, vegetation, and human residents as well. The inter-agency collaboration and support has allowed this program to achieve success on multiple levels including elevated local stewardship and functionality of the Creek. In addition, the District is planning on conducting continuing education programs with students at the PAL Center, and using the native plant garden as a learning tool.

The IERCD hosted its annual fall clean-up that took place on October 9th, 2010 at an illegal dump site near the North Etiwanda Preserve in the City of Rancho Cucamonga. The IERCD and Hands On Inland Empire collaborated on nearly all aspects of the clean-up in order to make this event possible.  The high school and college students as well as members of the community that volunteered worked hard to fill up a 40 yard trash bin, resulting in 2.70 tons of trash collected. In addition to the trash bin, a 10 yard bin for recyclable rock, concrete, and cement was also filled and resulted in 6.98 tons of this material being removed from the site. The IERCD would like to thank Scripps College, the Rialto High School Key Club, Los Osos High School, and the San Bernardino County Special Districts Office for their participation in the clean up.

Following the clean up, the volunteers enjoyed pizza, which was generously donated by Gourmet Pizza in the City of Redlands. In addition to the pizza, coffee was donated from Starbucks, muffins were donated from Mimi’s Café and apples were donated from Laws Cider Mill and Ranch in the community of Oak Glen. The raffle prizes included a pie donated by Law’s Coffee Shop, movie tickets from AMC Movie Theater, and IERCD reusable water and chico bags.

National Public Lands Day was held at the Mary Vagle Nature Center on September 25, 2010.  This event was sponsored by the Inland Empire Resource Conservation District and the Mary Vagle Nature Center. National Public Lands Day is the nation’s largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve and enhance the public lands Americans Enjoy. Volunteers gathered at the Mary Vagle Nature Center to install a native plant garden on two areas near the parking lot. The volunteers transformed these areas into beautiful demonstration gardens which will continue to grow and flourish throughout the seasons.

During the afternoon, the public was invited to take part in an environmental fair which featured agency and craft booths for kids and adults to enjoy. The event was a great success.  

On May 8th, 2010, the IERCD partnered once again with the Hands-On Inland Empire (HOIE) and the County of San Bernardino to conduct a second clean-up of the North Etiwanda Preserve (NEP). Due to the remote location of the Preserve, illegally dumped trash is a near-constant feature of the site. This hazardous material poses a threat to the endangered, threatened, and/or sensitive species for which the Preserve is supposed to provide sustenance, as well as human visitors to the NEP. For this most recent clean-up, however, refuse presence was on the decline, so IERCD staff planned for additiuonal activities other than trash pick-up; these included invasive species’ removal and building barriers to entry for illegal off-road enthusiasts.

On the day of the clean-up, twenty volunteers worked to remove refuse from the site, as well as to pick and dispose of invasive weeds including mustard (Brassica nigra) and tocalote (Centaurea melitensis). These two species are especially prolific on the NEP, particularly along the entrance to the site as they are both known to colonize disturbed areas and regions adjacent to roadways. In total, volunteers removed twenty-nine full bags of these invasive weeds, which were taken to a greenwaste facility following the clean-up. In addition to the non-native plant eradication, volunteers removed .79-tons of trash present on-site. A small group of volunteers also worked to build rock barriers to entrances to the NEP, in order to discourage access by those on motorized vehicles.

The District will continue to identfy regions within IERCD boundaries upon which to focus efforts to remove illegal waste as well as species of invasive vegetation. The impacts to overall habitat functionality due to the presence of these two environental nuisances is considerable, and is in opposition to the conservation values of the preserved habitats within the District’s service area. Local populations of previously endangered and/or threatened animals that have stabilized have often done so as a result of multiple factors, two of which are habtat restoration in the form of removal of noxious species as well as hazardous, unnatural waste.

In March of 2009, the IERCD began a multi-event partnership with a local community non-profit, Hands-On Inland Empire, a division of the Inland Empire United Way. The general theme of this partnership was “Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle, and Remove” and featured outreach activities for volunteers, including crafting with kids using recycled materials, planting drought-tolerant native plants in biodegradable containers, and touring the Chino Wetlands educational park. Each event reinforced restoration and conservation themes for participating volunteers, and also benefitted the residents and vegetation and wildlife of local communities in which they took place. 

The centerpiece of this partnership, however, was the June 2009 clean-up of the North Etiwanda Preserve (NEP), an approximately 1200 acre parcel of preserved open space located north of the City of Rancho Cucamonga. The Preserve continues to expand as adjacent open space parcels are acquired and made part of the Preserve, making it not only a large conserved natural property, but one that is home to the threatened alluvial fan sage scrub community. The diverse flora of this community in addition to other communities on the site of the preserve attracts and sustains several species of threatened and/or endangered wildlife, including the coastal California gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica californica), the southwestern willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus) and the least Bell’s vireo (Vireo bellii pusillus).

The clean-up involved thirty-five local volunteers who worked together with HOIE and IERCD board and staff to remove refuse from the site that had been illegally dumped there. In total, over 2.56 tons of garbage and 1.4 tons of recyclable rock and concrete were removed and carted away by the local waste and recycling facilities.   Items removed included a significant amount of illegally dumped construction waste, consisting of materials that are hazardous to all species frequenting the Preserve. The removal of this waste from the grounds of the Preserve benefits area residents recreating there, but even more significantly it provides immeasurable value to the species that rely upon the Preserve for survival.

In the month of October, the IERCD planned and carried out two large clean-up efforts, using grant money acquired by the Inland Empire Utilities Agency from the California State Water Resources Control Board. The first clean-up took place on October 16th at an illegal dump site adjacent to Mill Creek in the city of Chino. Over 25 employees from various conservation and regulatory agencies throughout the Santa Ana Watershed region volunteered time to assist with the clean-up effort. The volunteers sorted the garbage at the site according to whether it was composed of recyclables, green waste, tires, concrete, or mixed garbage; following that, volunteers from the Army Corps of Engineers, Responsive Pest Work, and Viramontes Express used tractors to load the garbage into the appropriate bins for removal.

The second clean-up took place at another illegal dump site in the city of Chino, in an area located next to Chino Creek. This clean-up was a larger undertaking than the first, and was executed with the assistance of over 140 volunteers from area schools and service organizations. The protocol for the second cleanup was similar to that of the first; trash was sorted into piles according to whether it was composed of recyclable materials or general garbage before ultimately being removed from the site. The volunteers worked for four hours, assisted in their efforts by the donation of tools and gloves by the Orange County Water District, trash bags and gloves from REI, and trash bags from Trails 4 All. At the end of the event, Tony’s Famous French Dips in Pomona provided lunch, followed by a raffle. Vendors who actively supported the clean-up include Mimi's Cafe, Panera Bread, Starbucks, Cinemark Theatres, the office of Teaman, Ramirez, and Smith, Sierra Nursery, the Inland Orange Conservancy, and Law's Coffee Shop.

Both clean-up efforts were extremely successful, in large part. The following table summarizes the garbage and recyclables removed from both sites, listed in tons.

The total amount of garbage collected from the Mill Creek site filled 11 40-yard roll-off bins and 1 10-yard roll-off bins, while the total collected from the El Prado Road site filled 13 40-yard roll-off bins and 2 10-yard roll-off bins. Removing garbage from both sites has benefits beyond aesthetic improvements; both areas lie in close proximity to creeks that empty into the Santa Ana River. Garbage that migrates into either creek will most likely end up in the river which supports thousand of species of plants and wildlife and provides drinking water for countless southern California residents. The IERCD recognizes the environmental importance of the Santa Ana River and will continue to work toward ensuring its protection against pollutants.