Knoxville WA Native Grassland Restoration
Knoxville Wildlife Area consists of 21,000 acres dominated by oak woodlands with expansive stands of chaparral and is a very popular wildlife area for hunters targeting upland game birds. Several valleys lie throughout the wildlife area providing open grasslands. Under natural conditions these grasslands provide critical nesting, brooding, and foraging habitat for several upland game bird species including valley quail and wild turkeys. The tall grass also serves as forage and much needed fawning cover for the resident black-tailed deer herd. Unfortunately, as with many of California’s rural lands, the majority of these valley’s no longer contain natural grasslands, but instead are infested with invasive exotic plant species including yellow star-thistle (Centaurea solstitialis) and medusa head (Taeniatherum caputmedusae).
The specific goals and objectives of this project are to convert current unproductive and weed-infested public lands back into productive native grasslands for the benefit of upland game birds and upland game bird hunters.