Oak Woodland Monitoring — Abstract of Paper


Collaborative Monitoring in Walnut Creek, California
Heidi Ballard,¹ Ralph Kraetsch,² and Lynn Huntsinger¹


In 1995 and 2000, a monitoring program was designed and implemented to track oak regeneration and native grass populations in target management areas in the four Open Space Preserves of the City of Walnut Creek, California. The program resulted from a collaboration of scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, a group of interested citizens known as the Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation, and the city of Walnut Creek. The goals of the monitoring project were determined by the City and the Foundation, as were the study site locations. The Foundation members volunteered and were trained to collect field data in both the 1995 and 2000 studies. All parties believe that they benefited from this collaboration, sometimes in unexpected ways. The volunteers stated that they learned where they might need to target their oak restoration efforts, and got a better idea of the value and limitations of a scientific monitoring program. The scientists found that they learned about the goals and abilities of local citizens and had to re-examine some of their own assumptions. The City of Walnut Creek managers stated that they gained insight into priorities of Preserve users and knowledge of areas that might require new management efforts.