After the Woolsey fire much of the upper hillsides at Zuma Canyon Orchids were scorched and left barren. Annual invasive grasses had already taken a strong hold on these hills, and after the fires, not much else grew back. We began restoring these hillsides to the appropriate native plant community of Coastal Sage Scrub.  

California Coastal Sage scrub is a plant community of mostly fragrant and low growing shrubs that have for millenia adopted to our semi-arid climate. The hillsides were planted with a mixture of Black Sage, White Sage, Ceonothus, Sagebrush, Toyon, Nopales, and native wildflowers. We were blessed with abundant rain during the winter months and our plantings have established themselves well. 

To help our native plantings out-compete the existing weeds, we have been grazing our goats in these areas. The aromatic leaves of many of these plants are unappealing to our livestock so they have been left mostly undamaged by the grazing. We view restoring native habitat as an important part of our holistic land care strategy. 

Native plants provide habitat for a diversity of native fauna. We are also experimenting with distilling the aromatic leaves of Black Sage (saliva mellifera) which we use in our liquid castile soap. Black Sage has a heady sage scent that is both intoxicating and grounding. We are grateful to be in relationship with these plants and hope our restoration efforts will provide abundance for all the creatures who inhabit this land.