Stewardship Home
Acterra Stewardship restores damaged natural habitats to become fully functioning healthy ecosystems and uses habitat restoration as a vehicle to educate and inspire adults and youth to understand and appreciate the natural world - both its beauty and the important services it provides.
The main elements of our Stewardship Program are the Arastradero Preserve Stewardship Project, the San Francisquito Watershed Project and our Native Plant Nursery. Each of these projects has both a habitat restoration and an educational component. All three projects depend heavily upon volunteers from the community to accomplish their work. And each provides many volunteer opportunities for individuals and groups - from involvement in regularly scheduled or specially arranged restoration workdays to more in-depth long-term experiences as assistants in our native plant nursery, streamkeepers in the watershed or docents at the Arastradero Preserve. In the process of volunteering in our Stewardship Program, volunteers provide a valuable community service and also become educated about our native ecosystem and the importance of restoring it to health.
Arastradero Preserve Stewardship Project - Involves hundreds of individual volunteers and members of groups each year to restore damaged habitat on this nature preserve owned by the City of Palo Alto.
San Francisquito Watershed Project - Engages hundreds of volunteers each year in restoring damaged riparian areas in the creek and its tributaries in the 47.5 square mile watershed extending from Skyline Boulevard to the San Francisco Bay
Redwood Grove Restoration Project - Our newest project will engage community volunteers to improve ecosystem health of the 5.7-acre Redwood Grove Nature Preserve owned by the City of Los Altos by removing invasive plants, installing natives, and creating habitat for native wildlife.
Young Earth Stewards - Uses habitat restoration as the vehicle for educating youth from underserved communities about our local ecosystem and inspires them to develop a lifelong appreciation of and love for the natural world.
Native Plant Nursery - Involves dedicated volunteers in propagating over 20,000 native plants each year for use in the above-mentioned projects and in educating the public about the important role of native plants in a healthy ecosystem.