Blow Sand Habitat
The Blow Sand Habitat
The church is built within what was once 270 square miles of blowing sand dunes. There is now just 5% of it is conserved. Most of the church grounds is now stabilized sand but there is one section where the wind blows around the building and maintains a small blow sand system. In that little area, the endangered Coachella Valley milkvetch lives and even thrives.
Creating the Garden
We have kept the blow sand area free of people or development for years. We want to open it up so people can see our little beauties, but it is critical to not harm the blow sand system. The sand is like a river, with sand flowing into and out of the area. As surrounding land is developed we are trying to maintain the river of sand that feeds this living system.
With an extremely light touch we are creating a simple rock lined path through the area. We will do minimal planting.
Nearly Completed!
We created 500 feet of path through the Habitat, gently lined with small stones. The trail invites you to come in and experience the land of the milkvetch.
We placed over thirty small plant ID tags on the perennial vegetation, and will add tags for the annuals when they appear. Larger interpretive signs introducing the Habitat and the milkvetch will appear in January.
There are several non-native, ornamental plants in the area. Do we keep them? What about the California Fan Palm that sprouted when we had an undetected irrigation leak?
Will the small stones be enough to mark the trail given the high winds? We will see. We start with as small of impact as we can.
