Two hundred years ago, before the high-tech giants established themselves in Silicon Valley and the University was just starting out, the Stanford property was an area of foothills, grasslands, oak savanna and seasonal wetlands. In the second half of the 19th century, the rise of cattle and horse ranching and residential development caused the environment to undergo drastic changes, according to the Center for Conservation Biology. Water was collected into lakes and reservoirs, and areas remained either submerged or dry year-round rather than undergoing constant shifts in saturation.

In 2001, restoration ecologist Sean Anderson was recruited to organize the Stanford Foothills Restoration team, created due to pressure by the Stanford community to restore the land that once teemed with biodiversity. People didn't think the University took environmental issues, explained Anderson, so the University action.

"Few people believed the administration, so they decided to put up some major money to show that they were indeed serious about preserving the foothills and doing what they could to restore some of the ecological functioning that had been lost," said Anderson.

The salamanders, frogs and other amphibians that thrived in the safety of the wetlands were exposed to new resident species, making many plants and animals that used to be common rare or endangered.

Most of the plant species found in the foothills today, where many people hike the popular Dish trail, are invasive, non-native species introduced by the Europeans. Deer, elk, bobcats and grizzly bears are of the past. The sporadic mountain lion sightings are regarded as an unwelcome novelty.

The team has taken a novel approach to the restoration. Rather than treating the entire 50 acres of the Dish area at once, they take smaller areas of land and test several interventions. Observing the effects of these test options enables the researchers to try a few variants of the most successful approach, and so forth.

"It takes much longer, but produces a much more biologically successful restoration and yields essential data to know why something worked or didn't work," said Anderson of this approach, which he called "phased, experimental restoration."

Those who spend time on the recreation paths in the foothills near the Dish may have noticed blue tarps along the pathways last winter. The tarps were part of drainage and "yellow sea" restoration, the latter of which refers to the reduction of the yellow mustard plants in favor of reviving native grasses. Despite setbacks from vandalism and logistic problems, tarping has now been shown to be an effective strategy for suppressing non-native species.

"We found that even sub-optimal tarping benefits any remnant native bunch grasses," Anderson said. "In areas where we used no tarps the few native plant survivors are small and sparse. In areas where we tarped thinly, the natives are large, robust, and excluding the [non-native species]."

The wetlands restoration went into effect in August 2003. The plan proceeded in several stages. First, more than 12,000 native plants were removed from the test plots so that the non-native vegetation<\p>--<\p>mostly weeds<\p>--<\p>could be razed, leaving the area open for new growth. Then the topography was shaped so that creeks were wider and shallower. Half-buried logs and other structural additions create places for small animals to live. Finally the area was planted with native grass seeds and the 12,000 plants were replaced.

Anderson considers the wetlands component of the restoration particularly successful.

"We have abundant amphibian, insect, spider, crustacean and plant species," he said. "Bobcats and coyotes frequent the areas. We have a previously unobserved species of clam shrimp in some of the ponds."

The wetlands restoration effort at Stanford is one of the few in the area. In California, and in the Bay Area specifically, the amount of habitat lost is staggering. Wetlands have undergone a 95 percent decrease in area since the early 19th century, followed by decrease of 71 percent of oak woodlands and almost as much grassland in the Bay Area alone. The natural areas that still exist are often in an unhealthy state.

"It is imperative that we figure out how to recover these communities that are going away at a rapid rate," Anderson said.

The task is not straightforward. There is a scarcity of documented research on ecological restorations, and long-term monitoring is very rare. This may be due at least in part to the abundance of private contractors who are involved in restorations. Anderson said he believes that they don't have the money or time to devote to scientific comparisons, and failures often go unreported, making it more likely that those efforts will be repeated in vain by other groups.

Anderson said he hopes the project will act as a model for other areas.

"Time is running out to recover many of these ailing systems," Anderson said. "The foothills are my outdoor laboratory. And as all of our efforts here are voluntary, we have the luxury of taking our time and learning from our successes and failures alike. After all, Einstein said that if we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research."

The future of Stanford's restoration programs is as yet unknown. The University is not funding any more of the Committee's plans, although Anderson praises the abundant funding that was provided for the completed projects. Anderson is leaving to further his ecological restoration efforts at Cal State Channel Islands, where he will be a professor in the Environmental Science and Resource Management program. He plans to return to Stanford periodically to see how the renovated areas are functioning.

However, support for the foothill restoration remains. Biology Profs. Paul Ehrlich, Anderson's post-doctorate advisor, and Hal Mooney, as well as campus biologist Alan Launer were instrumental in urging Stanford to focus on land conservation. Undergraduates, facility Operations staff, full-time technicians and professors and students from various other departments have devoted time and effort to the project.

Anderson said he believes working on this project will prove to be valuable to those who are interested in environmental management.

"It seems that so often here at Stanford students are told they are great and what they are doing is just fabulous," Anderson said. "Working on this project in the 'real' world has really helped to open their eyes to the importance of risking failure and learning from what doesn't work the first time."