The season of broom stewardship is here and you're invited to beautiful Riddell Preserve for the 2024 Broomapullooza kick-off event! Come on out for a day of forest stewardship centered on getting rid of French broom (see why below), delicious snacks, and community! And, in an exciting addition, we're mixing art with stewardship with the chance to participate in a collaborative broom sculpture with Kelsi Anderson. 

Kelsi is an ecological artist who creates large-scale earth murals + site specific art installations. With a kindred relationship with nature and place, Kelsi explores how art can make us feel more connected to ourselves, nature, and a sense of place through facilitating collaborative, community based public artworks. You can see images of her work on her website www.wildearthart.com and www.instagram.com/wildearthart

Thank you to our friends at Sonoma County Ag + Open Space for helping to make this stewardship event possible! 

What is French Broom?  

An invasive plant, French broom was brought to California in the last century for use in decorative gardens. Sadly, it soon took over, growing at fast rates and spreading seeds with abandon, thousands at a time. As a result, it’s taken over spots in the forest, where it crowds out native plants and acts as fuel ladders, allowing wildfire to reach into the canopy of the trees.  

Broom is also toxic to many wildlife species and doesn't make good forage. What these forest creatures do feed on is oak acorns, Douglas fir tips, understory grasses, and young oaks; removing broom helps these essential species to thrive! At Broomapulloza you’ll have a chance to make a difference with a few hours of getting that broom out of the ground and into a burn pile! The more hands we have, the more we can say “BUH-BYE BROOM!” 

What Can I Expect At this Whole Broomapulloza Thing?  

When you arrive at Riddell Preserve with the LandPaths’ car caravan or your carpool, you’ll park in a grassy graveled area. The hike to the cabin is .75 miles on a narrow, well-maintained dirt trail with a 600-foot elevation gain from parking area to cabin. Which is to say, mostly uphill with light curves.  

The predetermined Broomapullooza stewardship sites are located near the cabin and they’ll be broken down by difficulty, so you can choose the level that works for you. For example, sites with younger broom on flat surfaces are considered “easy,” and so on. You'll be able to choose between pulling broom seedlings by hand (we’ll provide the gloves), pulling heftier broom shrubs with a weed wench, and/or cutting them with saws and loppers. The broom will go into piles for either the broom sculpture mentioned above or smaller piles to be burned at a later date.  

We’ll go into more detail on the day of. We’ll also break for snacks provided by LandPaths!  

What is the Art Project? As we work on caring for the land, let's bring our creativity to it! During this year’s Broomapullooza, we will be pulling invasive French Broom. As a way of composting it, we will be using the pulled material to create a large scale, community art installation over the course of the six weeks of volunteer days. Each volunteer day will commence with broom removal + land tending, and then any participants that are interested can spend part of the day co-designing + creating an artistic piece that will grow over each week. Each week we will work on a different component of the installation. On the final volunteer day, we will finish the piece and give thanks with a final “Burning Broom” celebration. 

Where to Meet: Meet LandPaths' staff and other volunteers in the parking lot of the Healdsburg Corporation Yard at 550 Westside Rd, Healdsburg, CA 95448. Once everyone arrives we will caravan to the preserve. Please arrive on time.  
 
Directions: From Highway 101 North, take the Central Healdsburg Exit. and make a slight left on Healdsburg Avenue.  Turn left onto Mill Street.  Continue under the highway overpass as Mill Street turns into Westside Road. The Corporation Yard parking lot will be on the left immediately before the bridge crossing at the intersection of Westside Rd and Lucius Way. There is a "Corporation Yard" sign at the entrance to the parking lot.            
From Highway 101 South, take the Westside Exit and turn right on Westside Rd.  The Corporation Yard parking lot will be on the left immediately before the bridge crossing at the intersection of Westside Rd and Lucius Way.     

About Riddell Preserve: With its magnificent native grasslands, pure madrone stands, redwood fairy rings, and perennial springs, Riddell Preserve is a 400-acre wonderland above Dry Creek Valley in Healdsburg. LandPaths has stewarded the land since 2007 when it was donated by Kay and Bob Riddell. Riddell Preserve is located on the original homeland of the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians.  

Does rain mean the workday is canceled? The stewardship workday will move forward if there is a light drizzle, but a torrential rainstorm will cancel.  Please call 707-544-7284 (then press 1) after 7am the morning of the stewardship day if the weather feels questionable. If you don't hear a notice of cancellation on the outgoing voice message, the stewardship day is moving forward.   

• Plenty of water, extra snacks if you need them, and backpack to hold your gear 
• Sturdy boots or shoes that can get muddy 
• Long pants and long sleeve shirts 
• Your own work gloves if you have them

• Expect to do a 1.5-mile round trip hike up a steep but well-graded trail to the project site.  
• You will be asked to sign a liability waiver
• No pets or smoking

THANK YOU, see you there!