Making America Beautiful - Local Scouts helping to restore Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge habitat.

Fremont, Dec 22nd 2015: In the heart of California’s high-tech industry, the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge is a 30,000-acre oasis for millions of migratory birds and endangered species. The Refuge was created in 1974 to preserve and restore the San Francisco Bay ecosystem.

To support the Refuge’s restoration mission, on Sept 12th 2015, a group of local volunteers from Troop 125 of SFBAC council, BSA, worked with volunteer run Native Plant Nursery to restore upland habitat at the Don Edward SF Bay Nat’l Wildlife Refuge. This group was led by Ankur Samanta to help uproot invasive species like Black Wood Acacia to protect endangered native plants like Toyon, California Coffee Berry etc. Mrs June Smith, a volunteer Advisor from the Nursery said “Ankur Samanta convinced members of Troop 125 to give up a Saturday morning to chop down nonnative invasive acacia to make room for planting California native plants. They did a fantastic job removing the acacia saplings. Groups such as the Scouts help the Native Plant Nursery get large projects done in one day that would usually take several weeks.”

This group has committed to return in 2016 for planting native plants as part of their Make America Beautiful mission to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the City of Fremont, CA.