Public Forum at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden: Elings Park Landscape Transformation Project with the Garden

The public is invited to learn about – and comment on – a new project by Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and Elings Park in a series of meetings held in August and September 2023.

The Landscape Transformation Project is a collaborative effort between the two partners and the public to transform an acre of the Park from invasive to entirely California-native plants and document the effects.

The free meetings are led by Denise Knapp, Ph.D., the Garden’s director of conservation and research, and Scot Pipkin, their director of education.

Participants are invited to share what they love about Elings, learn about the project, offer feedback, and find out how to help.

Registration is not required, but can be made at https://bit.ly/44bH6dP.

The final Forum is held on Wednesday, September 13, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden’s Blakesley Library.

About Landscape Transformation at Elings Park

The project began with a Bioblitz on May 11 in which participants used the iNaturalist smartphone app to record birds, bugs, plants, and more that they discovered at Elings Park’s South Bluffs. Several native California plant species identified on that day will be planted in the new area, along with others, including those suggested during the public meetings.

The project’s one-acre location on the South Bluffs has been selected and staff and project volunteers will clear the plot of invasive plant species, prepare the soil, then plant and monitor the native species. Earlier this spring, Garden staff began monitoring plants, birds, pollinators, and other bugs and will be following up after planting to gather additional data on the site’s vitality. Data before and after the transformation will be compared, and both will be compared to an adjacent invaded area.