TECHNIQUES FOR CREATING SALT MARSHES 

 ALONG THE CALIFORNIA COAST 



Herbert L. Mason 



1190 Sterling Avenue 

 Berkeley, California 93306 



Five or six researchers attempted 

 to germinate Spartina on the West coast 

 but could not find seed, and one of the 

 investigators concluded that Spartina 

 only reproduced vegetatively. Conse- 

 quently, the U.S. Army Corps of Engi- 

 neers requested that I plant a dredge 

 spoil area and financed my efforts to 

 learn how to propagate Spartina . I dis- 

 covered a good key to locating Spartina 

 seed. I looked for a patch that was in- 

 fested with ergot because there had to 

 be an embryo present before the ergot 

 would become established. Our salt 

 marshes are on mucky soils that are not 

 consolidated uniformly over the whole 

 area, so machinery could not be used. I 

 believe machinery could be adapted to 

 the mucky soils, but engineering facili- 

 ties and continuity to the research re- 

 sources were lacking. 



A harvest technique that proved 

 very satisfactory required a team of two 

 men in a boat, one with a pole, and the 

 other with a pair of hedge pruning 

 shears. The man with the pole pushed 

 the plant over the boat, and the other 

 man snipped off the seed heads. In 2 

 days, we harvested enough seed to fill 

 three 55-gal (208-liter) drums. 



By accident I discovered how to 

 store these seeds. I just looked at the 

 situation and said, "Well, these drop 

 into the water so they must require 

 water"--and so we transferred them to 

 gallon jars and put them in the refrig- 

 erator. After about a month, I decided 

 to flush the seeds because they smelled 

 bad. We took the seeds out every 2 or 3 

 weeks, flushed the old water out, and 

 put in fresh water. Then I noticed that 

 the seeds were germinating in the 

 refrigerator about March. I examined 

 the Salicornia seed that we had saved 

 the same way and it was also germinat- 

 ing. 



We tried many fertilizers and 

 different methods of achieving germina- 

 tion. We discovered that there was some 

 germination right in the spikes. Some 

 of the seeds were bright green with the 

 radical already showing on the seeds and 

 these germinated immediately. There is 

 a differential of germination that is 

 characteristic of the seed. Some of the 

 Spartina germinated immediately. A few 

 weeks later a few more germinated and 

 this continued until March when the rest 

 came up. If all plants in arid regions 

 germinated at once with the first rain, 

 the history of vegetation would be one 

 of extinction. I suspect that is also 

 true with aquatic plants. 



We also tried cuttings and based 

 our efforts on the experience of people 

 on the East coast. Some people say that 

 our cordgrass is also S_^ al term" flora 

 but we learned from experience that it 

 makes no difference; the least important 

 thing about a plant is its name. There 

 is enough variation within a given 

 species so that similar techniques do 

 not quarantee success. We made cuttings 

 from the rhizomes and fall buds and had 

 good success with both. In the long 

 run, it did not make much difference 

 whether we used rhizomes or fall buds. 



But our problems with salt marsh 

 construction are of three types: (1) 

 areas that were reclaimed in San Fran- 

 cisco Bay that had approximately 97% of 

 the original salt marsh destroyed by 

 diking; (2) some beautiful marshes 

 outside of these dikes that have come in 

 since the diking. We can learn a lot 

 about the recovery of marshes by study- 

 ing these areas; and (3) land that not 

 much has happened to; it has only been 

 used for grazing. In the latter case we 

 can remove the dike and let nature take 

 its course. But the first example is a 

 very serious problem. I doubt if the 



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