“Hardcorps” Volunteers: Contributing Labor
 for over 15 Years to
California's Cosumnes River Preserve

Near Sacramento, along the lower Cosumnes River in California’s Central Valley, a dedicated group of BLM volunteers is leading others to restore riverside forests and wetlands in the 45,000-acre Cosumnes River Preserve.   Since its establishment in 1984, the Preserve has relied heavily on teams of volunteers to take on a variety of tasks.  The volunteers are dedicated to restoring and creating freshwater wetlands to increase the Pacific Flyway’s population of migratory waterfowl.  The Cosumnes floodplain is a haven for tens of thousands of migratory waterfowl, songbirds, and raptors, for a large portion of the Central Valley's population of greater sandhill cranes, and for rare reptiles and mammals such as the endangered giant garter snake and the elusive river otter.  Chinook salmon and Pacific lamprey still swim upstream to spawn, and native delta fish breed and rear young in the wetland’s shallow waters.   The Preserve’s volunteers work to safeguard and restore the finest remaining example of the California valley oak woodland/riparian forest ecosystem and its surrounding habitats.  One volunteer team in particular, the Habitat Restoration Team (HRT), takes on a significant portion of the restoration and stewardship projects that the Preserve tackles on an annual basis.  Within this team is a cadre of “hard-core” volunteers known as “Hardcorps,” many of whom have been coming to the Preserve for over 15 years. The Hardcorps volunteers not only implement projects, but they also play a critical role in training, recruiting, and supervising new volunteers. In one year alone, their projects included restoring 50 acres of riparian habitat, eradicating invasive tree species on nearly 500 acres of riparian forest, monitoring a 90-acre native grassland restoration site, and assisting with a controlled experiment on the highly invasive plant species Lepidium latifolium (broadleaved pepperweed). Not only are the volunteers doing their part to protect critical habitat contained in the Preserve, but they are also leading nature walks and river tours to help educate others about the wonders of this special place.

Program Summary Name: Consumes River Preserve's "Hardcorps" Volunteers Location: California Contact: Amber Veseika, Outreach Coordinator, Cosumnes River Preserve Phone: (916) 683-1700 email: sveseika@sacparks.org   Click here  more information about the Cosumnes River Preserve or visit  BLM's Watchable Wildlife Site   In addition to restoring habitat, the Cosumnes River Preserve’s Hardcorps volunteers have raised a barn and renovated two buildings used by Preserve staff, volunteers, and researchers. Only 80 miles long, the Cosumnes River is the last remaining unregulated river on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.