Earlier this month, interns from Antioch High School and Pittsburg High School gathered at the Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge for an event in partnership with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. First established in 1980 as part of the greater National Wildlife Refuge system, the Antioch Dunes site was chosen because it provides a critical habitat for key endemic species. More specifically, the riverine sand dune ecosystem is home to “the last known populations of the endangered Antioch Dunes evening primrose, the Contra Costa wallflower, and the Lange’s metalmark butterfly.” You can read more about the history of this refuge on the official website: https://www.fws.gov/refuge/antioch-dunes.
Despite facing severe threats from sand mining and invasive plant growth across many decades, the Antioch Dunes remains one of the last riverine sand dune environments in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Not only did the interns learn about this history of this Wildlife Refuge, but they also had the chance to discuss its continuous ecological importance in their community. Eager to keep their local environment healthy and resilient, Earth Team interns spent the Saturday morning restoring the habitat.
Moving from one grassy field to the next along the delta coast, the interns worked together to gently remove vetch from native buckwheat plants. This was not your typical weeding process as the vetch releases vines that wind themselves around nearby structures and plants. In order to properly remove the vetch, the interns had to be very careful not to accidentally pull out the surrounding native vegetation that was entangled in the vines.
At their peak growth, vetch can smother entire groves of the buckwheat plants, which are a critical part of the habitat for the Lange’s metalmark butterfly. Without access to naked-stemmed buckwheat, this endemic and endangered butterfly species has much less successful incubation and hatching periods. This is because these butterflies prefer to lay their eggs in the buckwheat, using it as a source of food and shelter throughout the larval phases. With that said, buckwheat is also important to the Lange’s metalmark butterfly at other stages in its life cycle, like when adult butterflies return to it as their primary nectar source.
After removing as much vetch as they could from the areas surrounding native buckwheat plants, the interns regrouped to help consolidate the green waste into larger bins that would be properly disposed of off-site.
In the last hour of the event, the interns were guided along a main trail through the Antioch Dunes site, looking for birds while sharing binoculars. The interns also had the chance to identify nearby birds by taking audio recordings of birdsong through the Merlin ID app on their phones. Ultimately, they identified 10 unique bird species that they recorded in their data sheet, including the Belted Kingfisher, American Bushtit, Song Sparrow, Orange-crowned Warbler, and California Scrub Jay. The interns even observed a pair of raptors perched atop a nearby cell tower, which their guide later helped identify as two Red-tailed Hawks.
Huge thank you to the US Fish and Wildlife Service for inviting Earth Team out to help restore the Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge. We also greatly appreciate the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for supporting Earth Team’s environmental education efforts.
