Old Peak Meadow Restoration
What is Old Peak Meadow?
Old peak meadow is a mid-elevation, remnant meadow located in the Rock Creek watershed and owned by the City. Historically, Old Peak was part of a 160-acre homestead (Esterson 2018), but due to decades of conifer encroachment, the open habitat was reduced to about a one-acre meadow. Between 2009 and 2013, the City removed 100 Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) trees, increasing the size of the meadow to approximately three acres. Songbird surveys completed between 2011 and 2013 indicated Old Peak was attracting fewer songbirds than expected, most likely a result of minimal floristic diversity and structure (Vesely 2013). In 2014, the City, along with three other partners including Institute for Applied Ecology (IAE), received a $43,000 grant from the Coast Range Stewardship Fund to improve wildlife habitat at Old Peak by diversifying plant species composition and vegetation structure of the meadow. Since 2014, IAE has been undertaking restoration activities in the meadow.
Restoration activities include:
- Controlling invasive species with herbicide and mowing.
- Increasing native species diversity and abundance via seeding and planting.
- Creating structural diversity within the meadow and along the meadow/forest ecotone
- Seeding with a variety of native forbs and grasses.
- Planting shrubs on the eastern and northern edges of the meadow.
- Conducting plant community surveys
For 2025:
IAE did spring weed treatments, and late spring/summer plan community monitoring. They also did fall/winter weed treatments and native planning and seeding. They are also working on planting a native woody shrub barrier to help reduce invasive plants from the roadway.
