Filed under: Uncategorized
On Sunday, January 22 from 10am-2pm, please join Monan’s Rill Institute for an Acorn Planting Day to support the regeneration of oak woodlands following their severe burning in the 2020 Glass Fire.
We will start with a waffle breakfast at our community building (the HUB) from 10:00-10:30am, and then head out from 11:00am-1:30pm to plant acorns in historical oak savanna and oak woodlands where mature oaks were killed by the wildfire. Thanks to volunteers and friends, we have several hundred locally collected native oak acorns ready to plant!
We will work together to identify planting sites, clear grass and weeds around them, dig holes and loosen the soil, plant acorns in the ground, inoculate with soil from below healthy mature oak trees, and install cages to protect sprouting acorns from our animal friends.
At 1:30pm we will return to the HUB to share our successes and learnings, wrapping up our closing circle at 2pm. You are welcome to stay after to eat lunch together with other participants.
We hope you will join us for this opportunity to connect with nature and fellow humans, while contributing to the regeneration of native oak woodlands.
Please bring a filled water bottle, any snacks or lunch you’ll need to sustain you until 2pm (waffle breakfast will be provided at 10am), work gloves, and a mask. We also recommend wearing good hiking shoes, long pants, sun and/or rain protection, and layers for variable weather.
There will be a Monan’s Rill community business meeting from 3-5pm, the first portion of which guests are welcome to attend.
All ages are welcome at this event. Sign up now to secure your spot!
Registration will close at 6pm on January 21, or earlier if all spaces are full.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: acorns, climate resilience, fire recovery, forest health, oak woodlands, stewardship
Many hands are tending this land
In the past few months, the Rill has been blessed with so many caring hands, tending to the land as we recover from the 2020 Glass Fire and nurture a more climate-resilient and wildfire-resilient future.
Acorn planting and oak protecting
Through Monan’s Rill Institute, the community’s educational nonprofit, we hosted two oak restoration events this fall. On a rainy Sunday in September, volunteers joined us to collect acorns for planting and protect oak tree seedlings across the land.
Then in late November, many more joined us for an acorn planting day, finding homes in the ground for the acorns we collected in September as well as black oak acorns generously donated by our neighbors in the watershed Lynn and Claudia.
Together we planted a total of 189 acorns in the span of a few hours, seeding oak trees that will provide food and shade for many residents of the Rill for centuries to come!
We still have more acorns left to plant — please join us for our next acorn planting day on Sunday, January 8th, with waffles!
Good Fire at the Rill
This December, we have also been lucky to host two different groups of good fire practitioners to help us burn piles of woody debris as part of a regional prescribed fire training event, North Bay TREX 2022, organized by Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Fire Forward program.
From November 11 through January 15 professional and volunteer prescribed fire practitioners, landowners, and staff from diverse conservation and land management organizations are taking part in the North Bay TREX, a 10-week window of collaborative burning and training throughout various ecosystems in the North Bay. Goals are specific to each location, and include the reduction and removal of dead vegetation, improving ecosystem health, and boosting resilience against wildfire.
On December 2, the first TREX group came to help us burn 24 large piles of logging slash. After the 2020 wildfire, we decided to conduct salvage logging on 50 of the 414 acres we steward to give fire-killed firs another life as timber, and that left a number of tree tops, limbs, and beetle-infested trees that couldn’t be sold and were piled together by our logger. Burning the slash piles reduces fuels for wildfire resilience and makes space for re-planting oaks and reintroducing regular good fire on the landscape.
A number of volunteers stayed overnight to help us monitor the piles and ensure safe burn down, capturing a gorgeous view from the land at sunset.
Then on December 18, we were honored to host a second prescribed burn day through North Bay TREX — this time entirely in Spanish! Following on their basic wildland firefighter and firelighter training at Audubon Canyon Ranch the previous week, worker leaders with North Bay Jobs With Justice collectively burned 44 piles of woody debris, contributing to stewardship of the land at the Rill while getting hands-on experience with fire tools such as drip torches, backpack pumps, and radios, and practicing fire line leadership.
Monan’s Rill member and Fire Forward Fellow Thea Maria Carlson led the burn in partnership with Hannah Lopez from Fire Forward and Andrea Bustos and Jose Luis Duce from The Watershed Center. At the end of the day, gratitude flowed in every direction, as we all appreciated so much this opportunity to learn and burn together.
Soil health research with CoRenewal
Building on our partnership with CoRenewal in 2020 with experiments on mycoremediation after wildfire, we are participating in a new multi-year research project studying the effects of post-fire microbial inoculation to catalyze ecological renewal. Project coordinator Taye Bright recently installed a number of inoculated wattles on the land and will be monitoring and sampling the research sites regularly over the next few years. We’re excited to see the results!
Home rebuilding continues
The process of rebuilding Rill community homes is continuing under the leadership of Dustin Deason with Brandywine Builders, with excellent site work being completed by Carl Burchfiel of Stillpoint Engineering. Recent rains have slowed down the timeline for construction, but we are grateful for much-needed water on the landscape!
After a week of drying since the most recent rains, the septic tank has been installed for Bluebird house and foundation forms are being created. We can’t wait for our community members to be able to move into the rebuilt homes in 2023.
Join us on the land in the New Year!
For the first few months of 2023, we will be hosting workdays (and sometimes educational events) on second and fourth Sundays, starting with an Acorn Planting Day on January 8th. Waffles at 10am, workday from 11am-2pm, and community meeting (most of which guests are welcome to attend) from 3-5pm. Sign up here to join us. We hope to see you out on the land in the new year!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: community, fire recovery, forest health, oak woodlands, stewardship
Help us Regenerate
Oak Woodlands at Monan’s Rill
Connect, Collect, and Protect at our Spring Oak Blitz –
May 7, 10am-2pm
What makes an oak ecosystem healthy?
How can we heal from centuries of fire suppression and regenerate healthy forests?
In this family-friendly event on Saturday, May 7, you will have the opportunity to support the regeneration of our oak woodlands following their severe burning in the 2020 Glass Fire, and to explore the above questions, in good company!
We will go out in small groups to particular areas on the land where we have identified oak trees that have potential for producing healthy seedlings, and each group will begin in a circle to connect with the place and each other. Then, using the smart phone app iNaturalist as well as paper maps and notebooks we will collect and record observations of the oak trees and associated flora and fauna. We will also look for young oak seedlings and install chicken wire cages to protect them so they can grow into healthy mature trees.
We hope you will join us for this opportunity to connect with nature and fellow humans, while contributing to science and to the regeneration of native oak woodlands.
Please bring a packed lunch that you can carry with you, a filled water bottle, work gloves, and a smart phone with iNaturalist installed and/or a notebook or journal. We also recommend wearing good hiking shoes, long pants, sun protection, and layers for variable weather.Space is limited and advance registration is required—sign up now to secure your spot!
To learn more about oaks and their importance, read the promise of oak restoration on our website, and watch the recording of Clint McKay’s webinar through Pepperwood: Black Oaks Revealed: Their cultural significance for Indigenous Communities.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: community garden, intentional community, workday
Build a Greenhouse With Us!
Tuesday 2/1 and Saturday 2/5
| At long last, 15 months after the Glass Fire, we are ready to rebuild our first building at Monan’s Rill — a greenhouse — and you’re invited to help. We’ve got all the parts ready to build a new 12’x24′ greenhouse to replace (and upgrade) our decades-old community greenhouse that burned along with our barn and homes in September 2020. The greenhouse will enable us to begin growing more food and pollinator habitat plants, both for the land and people of Monan’s Rill and to share with our wider Sonoma County and Bay Area communities. We’re especially excited that this year we will be able to grow produce for the Cultural Conservancy’s Native Foodways Program as well as seedlings for urban farms through Celebrating Womxn’s Leadership in Food’s Plants to the People Initiative. Two special workdays to build the greenhouse are coming up this week: sign up for one or both shifts either day. |
Tuesday, February 1st
from 9am-12pm and 12:30-3:30pm
Saturday, February 5th
from 9am-12pm and 12:30-3:30pm
| Please sign up at least 24 hours in advance. Volunteer spots are limited and COVID precautions are in place to keep everyone safe and healthy. |
We also want to express our gratitude to January’s workday volunteers.
Deep gratitude to all of our January workday volunteers: Brooke, Bill, Avinelle, Leyla, Ursa, Ramona, Rigby, Hannah, Red, Jay, Kendal, Amanda, Arden, Matt, Lisa, Juniper, and Leo!
Together we prepared the pad for our new greenhouse, cut dead limbs from oak trees, burned brush, made biochar, pulled invasive plants, prepared garden beds for spring planting, fertilized the raspberry patch, made and shoveled compost, fixed a broken water pipe, snuggled with goats, and had great conversations and fun.
Thank you all for bringing your hearts and hands and questions and laughter to this place.
| Our regular community workdays are generally the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month, from 9am-12pm. Community workdays are followed by optional bring-your-own lunch and visiting, and then our community business meeting at 1pm, the first part of which is open to guests. The next opportunities to join us after the greenhouse build will be: |
Saturday, February 12th
from 9am-12pm (followed by 1pm meeting)
Saturday, February 26th
from 9am-12pm (followed by 1pm meeting)
| Feel free to pass along the invitation to friends — we welcome new folks to join us! Children are welcome as well. |
The community that we call Monan’s Rill is on the traditional territory and homelands of the Wappo people. We honor their story and this beautiful place through deep listening and gratitude, and a commitment to learning from the Wappo community as we steward the land.
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Welcoming Winter at the Rill
Happy winter solstice from all of us at Monan’s Rill. With snow last week and plenty of cold and stormy weather, we are welcoming this December transition to winter after abundant October rain and November warmth and sunshine.
In this solstice season, we are deeply grateful for all the support that our wider community has offered in the past year as we have been recovering from wildfire, regenerating the land, and reimagining and rebuilding our future together. Thank you for walking with us on this journey of renewal!
A Monan’s Rill Solstice Tradition
Every December for at least 35 years (nobody quite remembers when it started), the Monan’s Rill community has gathered to celebrate the winter solstice, bringing together past, present, and future members, as well as a few of our neighbors and loved ones. This year and last year, due to the pandemic (and rain), we held the gathering on Zoom rather than inside our community building, but still carried many of our solstice traditions.
Winter solstice at the Rill includes: demonstrating the science behind the solstice and the Earth’s seasons with a globe and a flashlight (or this year, computer graphics), learning about traditions and celebrations across different cultures at this time of year, reading and acting out a solstice story play (this year The Solstice Badger by Robin McFadden), and lighting candles to welcome the return of the light after the darkest night of the year.
Another key element of our solstice celebration is singing traditional carols with new lyrics created by Monan’s Rill members to reflect this landscape.
One of the original Quaker founding members of Monan’s Rill, Madeline Stevenson, wrote new words to the tune of the British folk carol “The Holly and the Ivy”, which former member Joan Linney found, edited, and typed up after we thought they might have been lost in the wildfire:
The Joy of Solstice Here
Oh the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
Sweet singing in our common hall
The joy of Solstice here
The Fir tree and Madrona
When they are both full grown
Of all the trees that are in the wood
These tall ones wear the crown
The toyon is our holly
And wears its berries red
They brighten all our hearths and homes
And the wintering birds are fed
The manzanita blossom
In bells of pink and white
Like scattering snow they softly glow
In the morning’s graying light
The live oak leaves have prickles
Sharp as any thorn
And softly shed the silvery mist
On a winter’s day in the morn
Oh the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
Sweet singing in our common hall
The joy of Solstice here
Another solstice carol unique to the Rill has words adapted by member Amy Robinson to the music of “O Holy Night” by Adolphe Adam. These posters were part of our most recent in-person solstice celebration in 2019, and although the paper versions burned, the photos lived on to accompany us in our Zoom celebrations in 2020 and 2021.
May this solstice season brings you joy, rest, and renewal, and we hope to see you on the land in 2022!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: community, fire recovery, Glass Fire, home, wildfire
One year after the fire
This morning dawned at Monan’s Rill with a few pink clouds in a clear blue sky. As the sun rose, drops of yesterday’s rain still dripped from oak leaves, and clung to the tips of the new green grass that has germinated in the past few days.
It has been one year since the Glass Fire burned through Monan’s Rill with all its fiery force on the morning of September 28, 2020, transforming the land, the community, and all of our lives.
The days surrounding that hot, windy firestorm felt nothing like the pleasant post-rain sunshine and cool autumn breeze that surrounds us today, but the fire is still ever-present around us. The smell of burned wood meets our noses as the sun warms the rain-moistened char of downed limbs and stumps that ignited a year ago, smoldered for days, and continue to litter the ground.
Capacious empty holes yawn where homes once held generations of community members in all the beautiful messiness of their lives. Acres of formerly dense forest have been reduced to swaths of jagged stumps as our logger cuts down Douglas fir trees killed by the fire and hauls them to the mill to be transformed into lumber.
Yet just beyond the salvage logging area, native plants like Yerba Santa, roughleaf aster, and velvety goldenrod are thriving, their seeds, foliage, and blooms brought to life by the rejuvenating force of the fire.
And close to the land’s highest point near Diamond Mountain stands a vibrant living testament to what is possible with caring and appropriate land stewardship: the 6 acres that we burned in a prescribed fire in 2019 stayed healthy and untouched in the wildfire of 2020. The trees, ferns, and native grasses in that area continue to thrive while the heavily-torched, browned and blackened surrounding areas have barely begun to recover.
As all of us who are part of Monan’s Rill reflect on the fire and all that has transpired in the past year, our feelings and experiences are complex and paradoxical. We feel grief and gratitude, anger and sadness, turmoil and peace. We mourn all that can never be replaced, appreciate the ways that we continue to be held by the land and community, and embrace the openings for emergence and transformation that the fire has created.
Though there is so much more experienced and felt than can ever be documented, a few of us offer these words and images to mark this important anniversary:
One year ago today we woke up for the last time in our home. Our homes.
If I had ever replaced my candles I would light one!
Life continues to be grief-stricken, awkward, blessed, tiring, fragmented, and sweet. All of that.
I’m thinking tenderly of the community of people we held dear, who made up our lives and our sense of possibility – those who are by our sides trying to rebuild and those who have moved on. Trying to read the message underneath this sense of painful but also understandable scattering.
Giving thanks to all the helpers and givers and mentors and guides and companions I’ve found over this past year. I don’t see many in person! But I know you are there.
And the deer and the squirrels and the steller’s jays and the acorn woodpeckers and the oaks and the manzanita and the wild grasses are there. Giving thanks to the mountain.
– Amy
A year ago tonight, we had two of three cars
“Go-bags Loaded” and we
Believed our most “precious items”
safely packed, just in case
A year ago, tonight we
Watched the winds and fire cameras on our devices
And began considering the real possibility
That the fire in the Napa Valley might come
Our way….
A year ago, we were “whole”
22 adults living or about to be living in all our homes,
We were on the cusp of agreeing to a new financial structure
And it appeared that we had prepared our homes
So that they could be defended against a fire…
A year ago we had no idea what was coming our way
How each of our lives would be forever changed
Of what was lost that mattered
And what was lost that didn’t mean a thing
A year year later
We are oh so much smarter and wiser,
Oh so much more appreciative of what we had
And so very much reduced in numbers
And yet, something magical has remained
That out of the ashes of what was
Are very real “life nuggets” that remain
And a bond….even between those that left
That no fire could destroy
A year later, the land remains
Scarred but healing
The wildlife is returning
The forests will regenerate
Not as quickly as the grasses did.
But this time…we will assist and take
The wisdom that was seared into us…
And share what we’re learning
For future generations in this watershed
How it can be done
With love, sweat, and yes…tears.
– Ken
Most of all I miss the beautiful Tracy Yurt, built with love. A wonderful space to have lived in. Such a calming home on the land I call home, Monan’s Rill.
– Sue
The biggest impact to me was the loss of six people all within a few months of each other. We already knew they were all going to be moving on sometime in the next few years, but having that loss all at the same time on top of the loss of trees, house, and all possessions was a lot. The spirit of the community remained and I felt blessed for the buildings that did not burn because once I knew what had survived I felt pretty certain that the community would survive. I have always believed that the land would call the people together who were meant to be here and I continue to believe that. Although the structure of it changed, I did not lose my home.
— Linda
Today marks the 1 year anniversary of the glass fire. I don’t know how to write about this past year. It is clear that I am still very much in the middle of a story that I don’t really know how to tell. That has always been the purpose of all the photo documentation— it’s the closest to a story that I can share. I took this photo tonight of a volunteer sunflower growing in the footprint of the barn, specifically where the milking room was. And I guess this year has been full of finding beauty, life and hope in the most unexpected, impacted places.This flower still made its way to life after the big equipment came and scooped everything away. Wendell Berry wrote, “There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.” This is a sacred place. This is a place of heartache, of healing, of home. What is clear to me about the story I am in is that the setting is here, on this land. The characters and plot will develop and unravel and change and I will lose my place, reread the same line over and over again, get paper cuts, leave water marks and break in the spine….but the Where is the part of the story that I understand. I feel so lucky to have even one true part revealed.
— e
Throughout my adult life I’ve always tried to remember, appreciate and understand how lucky I have been in this life. Since the fire that appreciation and understanding has only rooted itself more firmly into my existence. I’m thankful and honored to be such a fortunate human being.
— Bill
At the beginning of this anniversary day, several of us gathered on Zoom in the darkness before dawn to sit in silence, together and alone, guided by Amy with a koan and a poem:
____
After the great fire in 1374 at the Engaku-ji Temple, scholars came to see what had happened to the great library. The teacher, standing amidst the ashes and rubble, said that nothing had been destroyed. “What are you talking about?” the scholars and students asked. He held up his hand and said,
“The covers were burned but you can still hold the teachings in your hands.”
____
“The Singing Bowl”
by Malcolm Guite
Begin the song exactly where you are.
Remain within the world of which you’re made.
Call nothing common in the earth or air.
Accept it all and let it be for good.
Start with the very breath you breathe in now.
This moment’s pulse, this rhythm in your blood.
And listen to it, ringing soft and low.
Stay with the music, words will come in time.
Slow down your breathing. Keep it deep and slow.
Become an open singing bowl, whose chime
is richness rising out of emptiness.
And timelessness resounding into time.
And when the heart is full of quietness
Begin the song exactly where you are.
____
We are all so grateful for everyone who has supported and accompanied us on the journey of this past year, and we look forward to continuing to walk with you as we rebuild and reimagine our relationships to each other and the land and the future of this community.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: community, fire recovery, intentional community
One Step Closer to Rebuilding…
Debris removal is complete!
At the end of July, more than ten months after the Glass Fire and three rounds of excavator scraping later, our wildfire debris and ash removal was finally completed!
Crews came to take away stakes and caution tape and then completed the last step in the process: an erosion control mix (mostly wood pulp with a binding agent and some green dye) sprayed on the soil post-scraping, and wattles in some places as well, to mitigate any potential erosion of the bare soil in this winter’s rains.
We are grateful to finally be at this place so we can move forward with septic assessment, site preparation, and civil drawings to support the design and permitting for rebuilding our community homes.
Welcoming pollinators
One of the strangest experiences in the first 6 months after the fire was the near-complete absence of insects from the land. Not a bee nor a mosquito was to be found throughout the fall, winter, and early spring.
Nonetheless, thanks to many generous friends we gathered seedlings and seeds of pollinator favorite flowers like salvias and cosmos and wedding candles, and made space for the many poppies and sunflowers and borage that started themselves from seeds fallen last year.
Lo and behold, as spring turned into summer, pollinators showed up.
Wild honeybee swarms have taken up residence in hollow oak trees once again, bumblebees cover flowers from morning to night, tiny native sweat bees collect pollen on chamomile flowers, hummingbirds zip from the garden to the forest to the feeders we fill for them daily, and we’ve even seen swallowtail butterflies and hummingbird moths among the buddleia bushes that came back from the ground after the fire.
Raspberries return
More good news: although the decades-old raspberry plants in the Monan’s Rill garden burned to the ground during the Glass Fire, they quickly sprouted back from the roots, showing new green leaves as early as October, despite no rain.
Over many community workdays since then they were weeded, mulched, and protected from deer browsing by a new fence, so we are now enjoying bursts of raspberry flavor, while the bees appreciate the pollen and nectar from their flowers.
And a lion (or two)?
We’ve installed a new wildlife camera on the North side of Monan’s Rill and recently caught at least one lion passing by. Can you see that second pair of eyes in the background?
The resilience and regeneration of plant, insect, and animal life — wild and cultivated — at Monan’s Rill has given us all hope in these challenging times.
The smoke in the air from the devastating Dixie and Caldor Fires is challenging our community workdays, but we would still love for you to sign up and stay in touch as we navigate this season.
At workdays over the next few months, we will be tending to the garden, building compost, harvesting azolla, mapping oak trees for oak woodland rejuvenation, and more.
Volunteers are also always welcome to stay into the afternoon for a distanced bring-your-own-lunch picnic with community members and volunteers, take a dip in one or our two ponds, and/or participate in the first portion of our community business meeting to learn more about what we’re up to at Monan’s Rill.
We hope to see you soon!
Post-fire ecology and future prescribed burns: A visit with Fire Forward
We had the good fortune to spend a morning with the team from Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Fire Forward program —Dr. Sasha Berleman, Brian Peterson, and Garrett Gradillas — walking the land to observe post-fire recovery of our diverse ecology, imagine future prescribed burns, and identify fun fire following plants.
Starting at our community building, Rick shared a map of the eastern portion of Monan’s Rill to describe where we would walk, near the east edge of the property to consider where a containment line could be put in for future prescribed fire on the land once the vegetation has grown back enough to warrant prescribed burns. We shuttled up to the top of the land (referred to as Narnia) in the back of the truck, and made our way downhill on foot from there.
As we drove to Narnia, we passed through the 6-acre area that was successfully burned in a prescribed fire led by Sasha in June 2019, fifteen months before the Glass Fire. (Incidentally, our prescribed burn is mentioned in today’s in-depth Living with Fire article in Bay Nature magazine). This area is one of the healthiest among the 414 acres that Monan’s Rill stewards, as the intense flames of the Glass Fire burned all around it but did not enter because of the fuel reduction that was achieved through the prescribed fire. Brian was quick to point out that this is not always the case with land that has had a prescribed burn in advance of a wildfire, but it is a beautiful visual example of one of the beneficial effects that prescribed fire can have.
Outside of those six healthy and green acres, the severity of the Glass Fire is abundantly evident. Fir trees are torched from bottom to top. However, hardwood trees are beginning to sprout back from the bases, and shrubs and herbaceous plants are beginning to germinate an grow on the forest floor, now that they are no longer shaded by firs and the ground is not covered in the thick layer of duff created by fir needles.
As we traversed the contours of the arbitrary linear property-line boundary, we encountered a matrix of different soils and ecologies, evident even through the massive damage of the wildfire.
On our walk, we also stopped to observe and identify many species, including fire-following native flowers like the ground rose and wiry snapdragon.
As we moved from the forest into the chaparral area, we talked about what kind of plan for prescribed burns would best support the ecology and the safety of the community in the face of future wildfires which we know are inevitable. The chaparral likely will not be ready to burn for 5-10 years, depending on how quickly it regenerates. The chamise is vigorously sprouting back, but the manzanita species that is prevalent at Monan’s Rill does not resprout. Its seeds are stimulated to germinate by fire, though the seedlings are only an inch or so tall at this point, so they will take a while to become mature plants. Moving forward, Sasha suggested prescribed burns in this area every 10-15 years. More frequent burns in chaparral can kill the vegetation permanently and convert the area to grassland, often dominated by invasive species.
For a lot of the area we walked, the approach Sasha and Brian recommend is “wait and see” — nobody can say for certain exactly how the landscape will regenerate, what species will show up, and how. In the meantime, we have our work cut out for us reducing the fuel load in the area where our homes once stood (and will eventually be rebuilt) by clearing dead manzanita and other brush that was killed but not consumed by the wildfire. We can also prepare to eventually build control lines for prescribed fire by cutting dead trees near the perimeter of future burn areas so they don’t become hazard trees that are more complicated to remove later. And several of us will continue to participate in prescribed burns on other private and public lands so we have more skills and experience to apply to bringing good fire to this land when the time is right.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: azolla, community workday, compost, cooperation, intentional community
It’s Hot Out! Time to Jump in the Pond!
A few years ago, a little water fern called Azolla filiculoides showed up on the surface of the upper pond at Monan’s Rill. At first just a small patch of green, it quickly grew to cover the whole surface of the pond. The lower pond stayed clear that year, but the following year the azolla made its way over the spillway and down the creek to colonize the lower pond.
To some, this little plant is an annoyance to be rid of. But there are many benefits to azolla as well. It converts nitrogen from the air into a form usable by plants, and in fact is as rich in nitrogen as cow manure. Like all green plants, it also takes carbon out of the atmosphere through its process of photosynthesis. And, as it sits on the surface of the pond it helps prevent evaporation.
If it is allowed to build up for too long, azolla can cause problems as it piles up on itself, then sinks to the bottom, and sucks all the oxygen out of the water of the pond as it decomposes, leading to anaerobic conditions. But if it is regularly harvested and tended, it makes an excellent mulch and compost ingredient, providing nutrients and moisture balance to the soil and plants.
Last year we harvested the full surface of the upper pond (pictured above), but we didn’t make much headway on the lower pond, so the mat of azolla became quite thick. For the past couple months, e has been diligently harvesting loads of azolla from the lower pond nearly every afternoon, throwing a net into the pond, pulling it back to the edge, and scooping piles of azolla on to the shore. e has also brought in some impressive harding grass plants that have taken root on that thick mat of azolla.
Help harvest azolla this Saturday afternoon
This weekend, we have shifted the timing of our community workday to the afternoon. Join us on Saturday, June 5 from 1-4pm to help with azolla harvest and other community fire recovery and resilience projects.
Bring your swim suit (or clothes you don’t mind getting wet) if you want to get the full in-pond harvesting experience. There are also plenty of ways to help with azolla harvest and other projects without jumping in!
You can sign up for our workday here.
Feel free to pass along the invitation to friends — we welcome new folks to join us! Children are welcome as well. We have at least one kid-friendly project every workday.
Advance sign up at least 24 hours in advance is required for all volunteers. Volunteer spots are limited and COVID precautions are in place to keep everyone safe and healthy.
Thanks and we hope to see you here!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: biodynamic, climate resilience, community, fire recovery, intentional community
Community Workdays are Vibrant and Important, Still
Through the wildfire last fall, many of the nutrients in vegetation, trees, and dead leaves and branches were released into the soil, leading to unprecedented growth of plants like wild radish, thistles, malva, and many kinds of grasses this spring.
Where do all those lush weeds go? We layer them with food scraps, manure and bedding from the goat stalls and chicken coop, and azolla harvested from the surface of our pond, to make a compost pile, then add the biodynamic compost preparations (also lovingly donated by friends to replace those burned in the fire) and wait for the magical alchemy of composting to transform it all into powerful fertility for the garden soil and the crops it will grow.
During recent community workdays many helping hands have cleared these weeds from garden beds to make space for spring vegetable starts, lovingly donated by several of our farmer and gardener friends since we have not yet been able to rebuild our greenhouse.
Sadly, we have to report that an unexpected day of cold winds brought frost to our garden last night. This morning Thea wrote on Instagram: “After weeks of heat, last night brought strong winds and frost which damaged a large portion of the crops in the garden, beautiful peppers and cucumbers and basil and tomatoes and squash and flowers all of which were grown by friends and given to us to revitalize this garden that is the heart of our community after the fire. Most of the seedlings sat in their pots longer than I would have liked waiting for bed preparation and irrigation to catch up with them, but after a super productive workday a couple weeks ago we finally got everything into the ground, watered, and mulched. We were all astounded by how much food and flowers would be forthcoming. Bringing this garden back to life has been a big project for me since I left my full time job and moved back to the land, something tangible I could contribute to renewal after destruction, and so even though I’m used to the ups and downs of farming it is particularly painful to see so much of this new life killed today. Seems like more row covers and low tunnels will be in our future if we want to keep growing food in this increasingly unpredictable climate.”
Our GoFundMe is still open – if you can contribute to our ongoing garden recovery – including new starts and a start on our greenhouse, too – we will deeply appreciate the help. Thank you!
Join Us for Community Workdays:
Star Thistle and the Weed Whip Challenge
Although fire can disrupt the life cycle of some invasive species, it can create more space for others to come in, such as the Harding grass and spurge we have shared about in earlier newsletters. Now that we are into May, another invasive has arrived on the scene: Star Thistle. We are lucky to only have it on the western edge of Monan’s Rill land, but it is already flowering so the time to clear it is now. Join us for upcoming workdays to see this rarely-visited corner of the land with some beautiful westward views and keep the Star Thistle in check by pulling it before it goes to seed.
Many people have the misconception that once land burns in a wildfire, it is immune from burning again. As a sobering article in the Press Democrat this week emphasized, that is far from the truth — in fact, without careful post-fire stewardship, fire-scarred landscapes can be ripe to burn again quite soon after the initial blaze.
Here at Monan’s Rill, we see the greatest risk this year from the potential of a grass fire, as the wild oats and other grasses are taller than we have ever seen them, and are already becoming golden and brittle from the hot and dry spring we are experiencing.
Do you have a weed whip/weed whacker/string trimmer? If so, please join our weed whip challenge and help us clear around our remaining buildings, travel trailers and roads to make sure Monan’s Rill is safe this fire season. You can sign up for one of our upcoming workdays, or contact us to arrange another time to come and help out.
Our next volunteer workdays will be Saturdays, May 22 and June 12 and we invite you to sign up to help with one of several projects including pulling star thistle, weed whipping grass and tall weeds for fire safety, tending to the garden, and more projects to be determined.
Feel free to pass along the invitation to friends — we welcome new folks to join us! Children are welcome as well. We have at least one kid-friendly project every workday.
Advance sign up at least 24 hours in advance is required for all volunteers. Volunteer spots are limited and COVID precautions are in place to keep everyone safe and healthy.
And if you can’t make it this month or next, please do sign up for our newsletter so you can keep up to date with how we are moving forward!
Our deep gratitude goes out to everyone who has been supporting us through this challenging time of devastation and renewal through your financial gifts, your participation in workdays, and your companionship, whether near or far. This greater web of support helps us continue to build toward a healthy and resilient future together!