NEWS

Kaweah Oaks Preserve gets 22-acre expansion

Stephanie Weldy
sweldy@visaliatimesdelta.com
Jennifer Malone, left, and Marie Wilcox, both of the Wukchumni tribe, sing a song Thursday morning and bless 22 acres of land that was recently added to the Kaweah Oaks Preserve.

Jennifer Malone clutched her mother's arm Thursday morning as she guided her into a sprawling expanse of land thick with weeds.

Malone, 64, and her mother, Marie Wilcox, 80, both of Woodlake, were followed by an intimate gathering of people onto the land.

As the pair found level footing on the ridged terrain, the women lit a bundle of sage, held it out above the ground and began to chant as followers looked on.

The chant recited was in a language few have heard or would understand. The mother and daughter, members of the Wukchumni tribe, blessed the land in their nearly extinct tribal language. It's a language that Wilcox is the last fluent speaker of, and that The New York Times chronicled last month in a documentary.

And the land blessed is a recent 22-acre addition to Kaweah Oaks Preserve, located halfway between Visalia and Exeter, just north of Highway 198.

With the newly acquired land, purchased by Sequoia Riverlands Trust mid-August, it looks as though the restoration of Kaweah Oaks Preserve to its former state — with meandering streams and abundant biological life with frogs, birds and wildflowers — is closer to becoming a reality.

A map shows the slice of land restored to Kaweah Oaks Preserve earlier this month.

Kaweah Oaks turns 30

The expansion is happening just as the nature preserve reaches its 30th year of formation.

The 22 acres obtained was previously owned by a farming family and was a triangular slice missing from Kaweah Oaks Preserve. Members of Sequoia Riverlands Trust said they knew long ago they needed that slice to make the preserve whole.

For years, the trust worked at acquiring the land, according to Aaron Collins, director of communications and community relations at the nonprofit organization.

"It's like when you finish a puzzle and you can't find that last piece," said Sequoia Riverlands Trust Stewardship Director Ann Huber.

Now that the land has been restored to the nature preserve, the Sequoia Riverlands Trust has big plans to bring both ecological and recreational improvements to Kaweah Oaks in upcoming years.

Because the missing parcel was used for farming, it's land doesn't quite match the rest of the preserve.

Dezaraye Bagalayos and Eleanor Berdahl, 1, watch as Marie Wilcox and Jennifer Malone, both of the Wukchumni tribe, sing a song Thursday morning and bless 22 acres of land that was recently added to the Kaweah Oaks Preserve.

Back to nature

Sequoia Riverlands is hoping to conform the land to the surrounding preserve by planting riparian, or creek side plants, along the parcel that runs aside Deep Creek.

"You can see [the Cotton Woods and Sycamores and Valley Oaks] come along here, it stops, and then it starts up again," Huber said, pointing along the treeless gap at the preserve. "We'd like to bring the riparian area back and make it whole again."

Members of the Trust also are looking at trailing streams through the land, which will not only bring back animal and plant life to the area, but will also one day, when water comes flooding back into the area, capture water and prevent flooding to neighboring farms.

"We'd like to create some meandering streams perhaps, and some gentle basins that would in a heavy rain event, capture water," said Andrew Glazier, Sequoia Riverlands Trust stewardship technician and nursery manager.

The organization will work with the local water district and biologists to bring this together, he said.

And to attract not only locals but tourists, Sequoia Riverlands Trust has hopes of improving signage along Highway 198 to create more awareness of the preserve. Also, they are planning to build restrooms and add trails and recreational components.

"We'd like to build a trail," Huber said. "It's to get people out on the preserve. So part of our restoration design is to build a trail throughout there. And we're thinking it might include an exercise trail with push-up and pull-up stations and will connect to the other trails to encourage people to get outside for both their physical and mental health."

Community contributions

The restoration of Kaweah Oaks has been a huge effort possible because of contributions from community members, local corporations and state grants, Collins said.

Within two years, $552,000 was raised in the campaign for Kaweah Oaks Preserve. That amount was 98 percent of the group's goal.

Members of the trust are grateful for the community's help and they said that with the donations, the missing land plot was able to be purchased and the restoration process can begin. They are hoping to raise the last 2 percent and begin the renovations this year.

Wilcox and Malone are looking forward to the land being restored to its former self.

Wilcox, born at the Tule River Indian Reservation, often returns to Kaweah Oaks as her people did before her, to gather white root for baskets, soap roots for medicine and other natural resources for everyday use.

Following their blessing ceremony Thursday, the two women had tobacco pressed into the palms of those who gathered and went on to sing a tribal offering to the land.

When the song was over, Wilcox explained what she and her daughter said in their nearly vanished language.

"We said thanks for the animals and flowers," she explained. "Our ancestors walked all over this land a long time ago to gather their materials."

Sequoia Riverlands Trust will hold a celebration in honor of their recent land acquisition and as a celebration of Kaweah Oaks Preserve celebrating 30 years.

The Oct. 1 event will include live music, catered food from The Vintage Press and Café 225, a presentation from the Raven Lady and more.

The public is invited to attend. Tickets cost $35 per person.

For more information: 738-0211 or sequoiariverlands.org

Online

To view a New York Times video about Marie Wilcox and ability to speak Wukchumni, go to http://vtd-tar.co/1B1VDWQ.