This project will be used to post reports and other materials associated with DFG/Calfed Ecosystem Restoration Program Grant ERP062002.

Perennial pepperweed, Lepidium latifolium, is a highly invasive perennial herb that can thrive in a wide range of habitats including riparian areas, wetlands, marshes, and floodplains (Bossard et at. 2000; Young et al. 1995).

The Center for Watershed Sciences is partnering with The Nature Conservancy in an experimental floodplain restoration on the Cosumnes River. The Center's role in this Department of Fish & Wildlife funded project, "Wildlife And Vegetation Response to Experimental Restoration of Flooded Riparian Forest Habitat for the Cosumnes River Preserve," is intended to conduct biophysical monitoring of an experimental restoration on approximately 800 acres of flooded riparian forest habitat in the Cosumnes River Preserve.

The main objective of this project is to quantitatively assess how changes to the landscape through time will impact Swainson’s Hawk (Buteo swainsoni) habtiat and other potentially beneficial ecosystem services. Accounting for this type of natural capital and how ecosystem services change through time is not well documented in the literature and developing this methodology was a secondary objective for our research group.