Reducing Wildfire Risk with San Jose Conservation Corps and Charter School

Feb 27

While our community volunteer events don’t involve power tools like chainsaws and weed whackers, some weeding jobs require them. That’s where the San Jose Conservation Corps and Charter School comes in.

San Jose Conservation Corps and Charter School (SJCC+CS) develops young adults to create transformational change for our community and our planet. Corpsmembers receive hands-on job training while gaining natural resource skills by working with land management agencies.

Grassroots Ecology has worked with over 80 teams from the Corps since 2017 to tackle large restoration projects. Thanks to the Corps, we have made huge strides in wildfire resiliency, urban greening, and education at local parks and preserves.

Fuel Reduction for Wildfire Resiliency

Last month, corpsmembers joined us at McClellan Ranch Preserve in Cupertino to remove brush and dead wood as part of a wildfire resilience effort. Although coyote brush is a beneficial native plant that provides important habitat, it can become a ladder fuel—with the potential to spread flames from the understory to tree canopies—if not managed properly. Thanks to their extensive power tool training, corpsmembers had no problem clearing out excess coyote brush using chainsaws, helping to reduce fire risk and make space for a diverse range of other native plants to thrive!

We also hired the Corps to do a similar fuels management project at Redwood Grove Nature Preserve in Los Altos in 2021-2022. Over the course of six workdays, corpsmembers cleared dead wood, took away brush piles, and removed invasive trees such as cotoneaster and privet. In this small preserve tucked into an urban neighborhood, managing fire risk is essential for keeping humans, homes, and wildlife safe.

Before: Coyote brush encroaches on a native planting area in the McClellan meadow.

After: Coyote brush has been pruned back to allow space for native plants like sticky monkeyflower.

Before: Dead tree limbs at McClellan Ranch Preserve create fire risk.

After: Reduced ladder fuel and more space for fire-resilient native plants.

Each year, annual invasive species grow tall and then die back—leaving dry, flammable material throughout local grasslands. At Pearson-Arastradero Preserve, corpsmembers help us mow one of these species, medusahead, a grass far from its home range of Europe and Asia. Corpsmembers join our staff at Arastradero three times each May, using their expertise to cut back the invasive grass before it can set seed.

Corpsmembers have also employed weed whackers to help us reduce annual invasives at Byrne Preserve in Los Altos Hills and Cooley Landing in East Palo Alto, and weed wrenches to remove French broom at Foothills Nature Preserve and Bear Creek Redwoods.

Clockwise from top left: Corpsmembers removing coyote brush at McClellan Ranch Preserve; clearing brush at Redwood Grove Nature Preserve; mowing at Byrne Preserve; trimming trail edges at Cooley Landing.

Urban Greening and Stormwater Infrastructure

The Corps has been instrumental in carrying out flood prevention projects at Grassroots Ecology sites, too! In the Southgate area of Palo Alto, corpsmembers installed irrigation in bioswales, revamping this natural infrastructure to slow and sink stormwater in especially flood prone areas in the neighborhood.

And this spring, Grassroots Ecology Restoration Specialist Brian will work with the Corps to install rain gardens in East Palo Alto, helping homeowners save money on irrigation, reduce damage from stormwater runoff, and beautify their green spaces. (Learn more about rain gardens here.) We’re excited to engage the Corps in this project with community partners Climate Resilient Communities and Fresh Approach.

Corpsmembers installing irrigation around native plants in the Southgate neighborhood bioswales (left), and befriending the local wildlife like this slender salamander (right).

Education

Amidst these jam-packed workdays, Grassroots Ecology staff always ensure there's time to hone corpsmembers' plant identification skills and expound on ecosystem interactions and local wildlife. This greater environmental context is essential for restoration practitioners like the Corps. We’ve also organized field trips for corpsmembers to learn about creek science and botany as part of the California Naturalist Certification.

SJCC+CS California Naturalists studying creek science in Stevens Creek (left); corpsmembers learning about native plants at Byrne Preserve (right).

As spring approaches and weeding season ramps up, we look forward to hosting the Corps across several of our sites! Keep an eye out for hardhats, neon vests, and a serious reduction in flammable invasive weeds at Arastradero, Byrne, Cooley, and more.

This work is possible thanks in part to a three-year grant from the California Coastal Conservancy, awarded to Grassroots Ecology to enhance the ecological health and fire resilience of five city parks throughout the Peninsula and South Bay. We are also grateful to the individual donors who have contributed to support our partnership with SJCC+CS and fire resiliency work at local parks. If you’d like to support this effort, learn about ways to donate here.