At the end of January 2025, we were joined for a stewardship project by fellow volunteer Jim Russell and an amazing crew of graduate students, PhD candidates, and postdoctoral students from UC Berkeley. We headed over to Point Isabel’s South Shore, across from Costco on Central Avenue in Richmond, to remove the first of two huge infestations of French broom (Genista monspessulana) that were already in bloom.
The Cal crew was organized by Grayson Chadwick, assistant researcher in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, and included grad students Maddie Williams and Jin Hee Yoo from Molecular and Cell Biology and Blake Downing from the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology. Returning volunteers were postdoc Usha Lingappa and doctoral students Dimitrios Camacho, Sophia Tang, and Laurie Wang, all from Molecular and Cell Biology.
The invasive broom was smothering mugwort (Artemisia douglasiana) and extending its reach to coyote bush (Baccharis pilularis) and the upper sections of native grasses, coastal gumweed (Grindelia stricta), and California sealavender (Limonium californicum).
Halfway through lopping and weed-wrenching the broom, we asked the crew if they’d like to work for another 30 minutes before calling it a day. Their response was unanimous: let’s keep working until all of the broom has been removed! And that is exactly what they did.
We found two praying mantis egg cases (oothecae) and gently placed them in a safe and secluded spot. The egg cases of the California native praying mantis (Stagmomantis californica) can hold up to a couple of hundred nymphs each, although only a small number of them are said to survive. We also saw a number of shorebirds in this precious shorebird habitat.
Unbeknownst to us, Grayson was videotaping the work party, and he provided us with this video that in just 25 seconds captures the entire three-hour effort.
Our ranger friend Jill Adams viewed the video and said, “I love watching this. If only the work went that quickly!” Crew member Jim said, “It’s like we were an ant colony and we were devouring the broom.”
On February 8, a small crew returned to the site to remove the remaining large infestation of French broom. Underneath the broom, we found a small California sagebrush (Artemisia californica), a patch of mugwort (Artemisia douglasiana), and a soap plant (Chlorogalum pomeridianum). Another exciting three hours in 25 seconds.
We are extremely impressed and grateful for this astonishing work. Kudos, everyone!
—Jane and Tom Kelly, Greens at Work
March 2025
