Three UCSB Campus Projects Recognized by Goleta Valley Beautiful

Three landscaping and infrastructure projects on the UC Santa Barbara campus have received recognition and awards from Goleta Valley Beautiful, a local nonprofit dedicated to environment, education, and community service.

The three projects are the San Clemente Habitat Restoration and Stormwater Management System at the Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecologic Restoration (CCBER), which was given the Restoration Award; the Chumash Gardens adjacent to the UCSB Student Resources Building, which received the Open Award; and the Library Plaza, which was honored with the Public Building/School Award.

"All of these design efforts are consistent with our Campus Plan and our Long Range Development Plan," said Marc Fisher, senior associate vice chancellor of administrative services and campus architect, who was also in charge of the ambitious Library Plaza project.

"It is very heartening to see yet another component of those plans come to fruition, and to be recognized by Goleta Valley Beautiful in this award for this significant improvement."

The Library Plaza project won a water quality award from the California Higher Education Sustainability Conference in 2011. So far it has reorganized pedestrian circulation and improved the campus's stormwater management system with permeable pavement. The project also included new lighting and replanting.

Meanwhile, CCBER has its own stormwater management project that includes a one-acre system with three basins designed to capture and attenuate the stormwater from the 13-acre San Clemente graduate student housing project. The project also includes restoration of nearby sensitive wetlands, with protection of the Southern Tarplant, a California special status species.

"The whole six-acre area includes a diverse array of plant communities –– including freshwater wetlands, coastal sage scrub, native bunch grasslands, vernal meadows, vernal pools, and oak woodland. These habitats and the matrix of these habitats

support a high diversity of wildlife from insects to raptors," said Lisa Stratton, CCBER natural areas director.

CCBER has also been acknowledged for its work in the Chumash Gardens, a bit of landscaping that, according to CCBER greenhouse manager Wayne Chapman, focuses on the cultural heritage of the Chumash, while bearing in mind the garden's likely visitors.

"We tried to install plants that had significant cultural value, without using those that were spiny, poisonous, or otherwise potentially harmful to the kids who frequent the daycare center adjacent to the garden," he said.

The garden also includes interpretive signage, a small pond, and a simulated bedrock mortar, historically used by the Chumash and other Native Americans to grind grains and nuts.

The recipients of the GVB awards will be honored at an awards ceremony and silent auction fundraiser on May 6, 2012.

"Our campus has a strong vision for its future and each of these incremental improvements helps to move us to the realization of that vision," said Fisher.