Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

MRCD removes trees, plans demonstration garden

FALLBROOK – Mission Resource Conservation District would like to celebrate the 66 years of service that its two iconic liquid amber trees in front of its building on Alvarado Street gave to the Fallbrook Community. One of their toughest decisions was to remove these trees, according to the district.

The district said the age and size of the trees had become a safety issue for the community and maintaining these towering trees had become an expensive challenge.

Every type of tree has a productive and safe lifetime. When they grow beyond that lifetime, they become expensive to maintain and keep safe. The height of the trees made them effective at capturing the wind, further increasing the risk that just below the soil, the surface root system would fail and allow the trees to blow over in a windstorm.

After days of rain, the chance that they would fall onto one of the surrounding buildings and put motorists on the surrounding streets at great risk increased.

There were other safety issues with the trees, such as roots growing into the gas lines and approaching the building’s exterior brick walls and sidewalks. The county building is 66 years old, and the trees were planted when the building was newly constructed. Before the district purchased the building, the trees in the front were not properly cared for, thus increasing the height of the branches and creating further instability.

The district did not make this decision lightly, they said. In addition to its final decision, the district followed the necessary process and procedure in working with both the county and the local planning commission to address the entire project.

Since the district has occupied the building, the staff has received many comments about the building's appearance. The district has an average annual tax base of $30,000 and remains consistent in leveraging that base by up to 48% each year.

Mission Resource Conservation District relies almost entirely on contracts, grants and cooperative agreements whereby almost all funds are restricted for specified purpose. The district is always looking for access to unrestricted funding. Through conservative savings over the years, the district was able to purchase the building, update the inside and bring it up to code.

In mid-2018, the district’s executive director of 25-plus years retired and a replacement was hired. Courtney Provo was appointed as the new district manager; she is a local Fallbrook resident and both understands and appreciates the rural small town feel of her community.

Since this change, she continues to support the district in moving forward with progress both internally and externally. She prides herself on being community oriented, whereby increasing local connections, networking, program and service offerings, as well as promoting the district and its mission.

Mission Resource Conservation District continues to provide much needed services, most at no cost, while also diversifying services to address unmet needs within the community. The district has various departments, including landscape, agriculture and native restoration and weed management.

The landscape department provides irrigation services to help citizens reduce water use and increase plant health. Its agricultural program provides irrigation water management services to assist growers in lowering water consumption while increasing agricultural production. In addition, the agricultural program also provides rebate incentives through cooperative contracts and agreements, to assist in funding equipment upgrades for the same purposes of water conservation and improved crop yield.

The district also maintains a native restoration/weed management department, which helps to address the eradication of noxious weeds that negatively affect watersheds and riparian habitats. The most recent addition to its departments is fire prevention, whereby the district will be introducing a new program that aims to address the home ignition zone and how to decrease the risk of residential structure fires.

Through its varied departments, the district is able to provide myriad services all supporting the efforts to conserve water, promote fire safety as well as endorse actions in the preservation of agriculture. The district also collaborates with many local community members and organizations to offer free educational workshops covering a wide-range of topics from fire safety, septic care and maintenance, low-fuel gardens, water conservation and so many more.

Around September 2018, the district received an award of its Neighborhood Reinvestment Grant application for the implementation of a demonstration garden landscape. The county awarded the grant to the district for the garden, rooftop solar and community required fencing.

The goal remains to promote the conservation practices through its various departments and the illustrative demonstrations will support the district’s mission of conservation through best management practices. Inclusive to the overall design, which will use some of the repurposed tree materials in various ways in potential woodwork, plaques and mulch application.

The goal of the demonstration site is to exhibit how conservation practices can be utilized to increase soil health, irrigation efficiency and ecosystem functions. The site will be transformed from a dead site to a fully functioning pollinator habitat and demonstration site that uses an ecosystem based management approach.

The project seeks to educate agricultural producers and property owners on the importance of improved soil health, irrigation efficiency and the benefits of incorporating native plants for pollination and soil health improvement. The visual and demonstrative native landscape, inclusive of rain gardens, bio-filtration systems and pollinator gardens visualizes how to capture, conserve and treat water, in various ways, while making use of water resources more effectively for humans, native flora and fauna and habitat health.

The district would like to formally invite all members of the community to stop by its office to learn more about the district’s work for the Fallbrook community, the demonstration landscape project, the necessary removal of the liquid amber trees as well as the services of the district and all it has done through its 75 years of history in service to the community.

Submitted by Mission Resource Conservation District.

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 
Rendered 03/06/2024 02:17