Land Restoration

If you look past this picture to the hillside on your right, you can see stairs coming down.  This is a site of recent restoration and its success.  This is Newport Valley and eighteen years ago, it was covered with invasive Ice Plant (Carpobrotus edulis).  The California Coastal Commission, Project Grow, and thousand of volunteers removed Ice Plant and replanted the area with native plants grown in the nursery behind you.  Since that time, the area has become a dynamic ecosystem and seen the return of the endangered California Gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica) and some reptiles that have not been seen in the estuary in over twenty years!