SAN BRUNO UPDATE
By: Yoni Carnice
DATE: May 01, 2026
TEMP/WEATHER: 50s, Cloudy
It was a welcome return to our San Bruno Mountain Test Plot 1.5 years later. Ariel and his team at SBMW have done a fantastic job with seasonal maintenance work since our last work day on Dec. 15, 2024, when we experimented with planting harvested Arroyo willow (Salix lasiolepis) and dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) stakes along the perimeter of the semi-circle, hoping they would take root and form a living fence. I’m happy to report that all of the stakes, even those hurriedly shoved into the earth, have taken root, thanks in large part to the moisture received and maintained through the fog drip phenomena.
The perimeter continues to be encroached upon by Cape ivy (Delairea odorata) and Himalayan blackberry (Rubus armeniacus), both of which were threatening to swallow the willow and dogwood stakes entirely. Luckily, our team of volunteers, some new and some familiar faces, managed to pull, snip, untangle, and free the fledgling stakes while creating a weeded buffer zone.
Following Ariel and team’s initial winter weeding, what remained in the plot was an array of easy-to-pull annual weeds, including annual grasses, sheep sorrel, chickweed, among others. Both woodland and beach strawberries (Fragaria vesca and Fragaria chiloensis) have created an intricate mat across the plot, providing welcome coverage, though they also required diligent and detailed weeding through the threaded network of native plants. What initially looked like an indecipherable mess of green textures at the beginning of the program became a much more legible native plant garden by the end, with the four distinct planting zones, marsh/wetland, woodland, prairie/grassland, and coastal scrub, clearly present.
The woodland planting scheme, in particular, has truly come into its own, as woodier trees and shrubs like CA buckeye (Aesculus californica), twinberry (Lonicera involucrata), and snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) continue to create structured verticality, complemented by the intriguing white umbelliferous blooms and columnar appeal of cow parsnip (Heracleum maximum). The woodland planting scheme now resembles a fully coordinated planting design that sits comfortably, both aesthetically and functionally, within the eucalyptus understory.
Other notable standouts include hummingbird sage (Salvia spathacea) and CA phacelia (Phacelia californica), both offering much-needed floral interest and groundcover within the prairie/grassland scheme. Interestingly, there appears to be much more visible die-off in the scrub mix. Shrubs and subshrubs like CA sagebrush (Artemisia californica) and monkeyflower (Diplacus aurantiacus) seem to be struggling, potentially due to light conditions and competition from neighboring species. What is most interesting in this section is the welcome encroachment of red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa), which had already been documented in the eucalyptus understory before the Test Plot materialized. Though we hosted a red elderberry workshop, none were formally planted within the plot. These gracious volunteers were likely the result of local birds dispersing seeds throughout the understory. I’d be interested in eventually exploring how coppicing, cutting plants down to ground level to encourage regrowth, might function both as a habitat management practice and as a method of aesthetic and form generation.
We finished the program by planting approximately 50 plugs of seaside daisy (Erigeron glaucus) in a semi-circle, which may provide a beautiful central floral display in seasons to come.
As for the future of the plot, we are collectively discussing intentions and next steps. I’m personally interested in continuing experimentation with new species sourced from Mission Blue Nursery, an effort Ariel and his team are happy to support. Now that we’ve documented which plants have performed well, or in some cases almost too well, it feels important to formulate a series of next steps that account for the complexity of the site and its changing conditions. This could lead to more interesting provocations about the site itself: Will one native species become too aggressive and create a monoculture? What does ongoing maintenance, labor, and accountability look like in this context?
Given that Cal Fire has begun cutting more eucalyptus trees around the site to manage fire risk, conditions are already shifting, with increased sunlight and exposure altering the understory environment. It will be interesting to continue monitoring how these changes affect the plantings in the seasons ahead.