Field journal

Manzanita resprouts after the 2022 mastication

Woodland Hilltop

  • Close view of dense manzanita resprouts with red-brown stems and oval gray-green leaves, some tips curled and pinkish, growing through gray wood chips.

    Manzanita (Arctostaphylos sp.) resprouts coming up through gray wood chips on ground masticated in 2022.

  • A low, even cover of pale gray-green manzanita resprouts across the foreground, with taller leafy shrubs and the trunks of pines behind.

    The resprouts form a low, continuous cover below taller shrubs and pines.

Manzanita (Arctostaphylos sp.) is growing back on a slope at Woodland Hilltop Arbory, where the old thicket was masticated in 2022. At midday on July 21, 2026, the resprouts made a low, dense cover over the gray wood chips: clumps of red-brown stems with oval, gray-green leaves, below taller shrubs and pines.

The previous owners had the thicket masticated through a subsidized program, before DeepForest acquired the land, so that unmanaged manzanita would no longer be an impenetrable brush-fire risk next to the homes in the neighborhood beside the hilltop. The aim now is a mixed overstory and understory back in balance: young pines and oak sprouts outgrowing the manzanita, with sections of the sprouts pruned back so it doesn’t close into a thicket again. How fast the manzanita grows back is part of what the Woodland Hilltop restoration follows in repeat photos.

Project Woodland Hilltop restoration

Themes Ecological restoration Wildfire resilience

All field journal entries More from Woodland Hilltop More on Woodland Hilltop restoration More on Ecological restoration

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