Mavis Henson Field - Woodland (original) (raw)

Mavis Henson Field is on Poleline Road (County Road 102), just south of County Road 25.

It was long leased from the City of Woodland by the Woodland-Davis Aeromodelers, Inc. The Aeromodelers used the site to pilot their miniature aircraft.

Ove the years, the Aeromodelers maintained the field by mowing the plants. This was great for the native plants, and the site is now one of the only places left in California where you can see at least two rare species, alkali milk vetch (Astragalus tener var. tener), and San Joaquin Saltbush (Atriplex joaquiniana.) There are many other lovely native plants there, too. The 20-acre lake is also an excellent place to see native birds.

However, the Aeromodelers have since gone, and Woodland is deciding what to do now with the property. The site is at great risk of being developed and turned into a solar panel park. This would represent the loss of the single best hardpan flowering site left in Yolo County (the self-proclaimed "green" city of Davis has already squandered its native flowering sites). Woodland has three other sites it could use for the solar panel park; let us hope that the city leaders do the sensible thing and do not destroy this unique and irreplaceable site!