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Galt school children will be lending a hand to nature by gathering acorns at the Cosumnes River Preserve this autumn. It’s been a banner year for acorns, and the kids play a crucial role in the Conservancy’s restoration efforts by collecting and planting the seeds.
“The younger ones come through first and collect the acorns — only the whole ones,” explains John Durand, the Galt Schools’ service learning coordinator, based at the preserve. “We reject any acorns that are split or cracked.” Kids fill buckets holding up to 2,000 acorns. Anywhere from 10,000 to 12,000 acorns will be collected this season.
The kids then dump their collections into vats of water, a step that serves two purposes — the seeds get rehydrated and the viable acorns sink to the bottom, while the duds float to the top. Next the students bag the good acorns, 200 to a bag, and the bags head to cold storage, where they await the older kids, who’ll do the planting.
Conservancy staff work with the older students, fourth graders through middle schoolers, showing them where and how to plant the acorns.
The Power of 3,000 Students
“If it weren’t for these students, we wouldn’t have the seeds to plant,” says Durand. “Gathering these acorns is critically important for the restoration. The kids really are making a difference.”
Students of all ages get involved with the project, each with a different task. Just recently, 100 third-grade students collected more than 5,000 acorns. The plantings have up to a 90% success rate, meaning these students’ efforts are invaluable. More than 3,000 kids participate each school year.
“The same kids come back year after year,” says Durand. “They see trees that their older siblings have planted. The whole experience instills a strong environmental ethic.” The program is also tied to the school curriculum, he concludes.
Explosive Harvests
As for the oak trees’ banner year, or “mast year” as these plentiful harvests are called, it remains a mystery why some years are more productive than others. Mast years are typically followed by years of few or no acorns. This could be a natural effort to keep the squirrel populations in check, or it could be a strategy to suppress fungal pathogens.
According to Durand the past two years have been mast years, while the two preceding years were dismal. “The mast years are great for our restoration work,” says Durand. With oak trees costing up to $40 each, the kids are indeed making a significant contribution to the preserve.
Nature picture credits (top, left to right): Photo © Sandi Matsumoto/TNC (acorns); Photo © Sandi Matsumoto/TNC (Galt school children collect acorns on the Cosumnes River Preserve).
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