A Second Life for Native Plants

Sometimes conservation means getting creative—like giving native plants destined for destruction a brand-new forever home.

In 2014 and 2015, the Natural Communities Coalition (NCC) partnered with the Irvine Ranch Conservancy, OC Parks, California State Parks, and the Irvine Company to salvage native topsoil and cactus from development sites in Orange County. Instead of being lost to urban construction, these valuable materials were relocated to restoration areas within the Reserve,  helping rebuild precious coastal sage scrub and cactus scrub habitats essential for species like the Cactus Wren.

Salvage work took place in Portola Hills, Portola Center, and Orchard Hills, with topsoil and cactus delivered to areas throughout the NROC. In 2014, 34 cactus clumps and 1,000 pads from Portola Hills were replanted at restoration sites in Irvine Ranch Open Space and Crystal Cove State Park, expanding existing restoration and connecting fragmented cactus scrub. By 2015, 500 mature cactus clumps from Portola Center were replanted near the McFadden Ranch House in Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park to support future restoration across 20 acres. Later that year, partners restored nearly 6 acres of former invasive grassland, transplanting more than 4,000 cactus pads and segments from Orchard Hills. By early 2016, the collaboration expanded again:  4,000 cubic yards of native topsoil and thousands of cactus plants were salvaged from North Irvine for restoration across multiple Reserve sites, from Buck Gully to Limestone Canyon in the Irvine Ranch Open Space.

What began as a rescue effort has become a model for smart, collaborative conservation: with developers and environmental agencies working together, native plants are saved and given a new protected home, where they become the new home for the wildlife species the Reserve exists to protect.