Addressing Community Needs through environmental stewardship

I don't know many people that would move, abruptly, from the bustling streets of New York City to a rural farm in the agricultural mecca of California. But having grown up in San Diego, a part of me has always belonged to the warmth of an unblocked sun and land that stretches without interruption. I’ve been shaped by a relationship to the Earth, one I walked away from when I left for New York—with a belly rumbling for change, convinced a different geography might satiate my h

Since childhood, I have countless memories of road trips from the Bay Area to Southern California. I remember staring out the window, looking at the agricultural fields, grasslands, and ranches of I‑5. Most of all, I remember being suddenly struck by the infamous and unavoidable smell of Harris Ranch. This ranch stretches on for what feels like forever, with an unfathomable number of cows packed into the pastures, standing practically body to body. This was the first and only

If you showed a room of Californians a picture of a California poppy, many of them easily identify our state flower. But what about other natives? Who might recognize a picture of a lupine, monkeyflower, or California fuchsia? How many of us can identify a toyon, manzanita, or   coffeeberry? I wasn’t very familiar with native plants until I studied Environmental Science at UCLA. By volunteering at Sage Hill Preserve and the UCLA Botanical Garden, I learned how native species

I grew up in the Salad Bowl of the world and attended elementary school in the outskirts of Salinas, in a farm town named Spreckels. In the late 1800s to the 1900s the town was known for Spreckels Sugar Company, a sugar beet refinery whose old buildings still stand across the street from the town. As part of a field trip one day, we went on a tour around the small town to learn about its history and I was told about the diamond shaped sugar beet design that was placed at the

As a forestry student at UC Berkeley, I spent the vast majority of my time looking up. In the Sierra Nevada, surrounded by towering sugar pine, incense cedar, and Douglas fir, I rarely took a minute to sit on the rich humus of the forest floor and look down. The summer I spent at Forestry Camp, DBH tape in hand, I cored trees, grappled with Latin names, and wrote mock silvicultural prescriptions. But through all the excitement, one of the most memorable moments came the day w

The bolded words "bilingual Spanish speaker preferred" were quite anxiety inducing upon reviewing the job description for my GrizzlyCorps placement. I took Spanish language classes from preschool through my first year of college, all of which were led by older, non-hispanic white ladies with questionable accents. I've since learned these women, and I, are often called gringas. The word gringa, has a neutral connotation and vaguely means white foreigner. Over the years I lear

What do pink glowworms, blue oaks, and kangaroo rats have in common? They all reside at Hastings Reserve, a UC Berkeley Reserve in Monterey county, California. A female California pink glowworm, one of nature’s miracles, outside the office area at Hastings Reserve Each of these species is one I have seen firsthand; a testament to the biodiversity that thrives in an area relatively shielded from anthropogenic influence. People rave about California’s biodiversity, and rightful

In the age of information, it is easy to assume that everyone can conveniently access and react to knowledge relevant to our lives. Our phones light up with flash flood warnings, letting us know to stay indoors. Drivers receive traffic updates and make route changes accordingly. Friends from across the world check in with us about local happenings in our neighborhoods.  On the other hand, there is information that isn’t easily accessed or acted upon by those who need it. Imag

Serving as a Grizzly Corps Fellow has been an educational homecoming. I was born and raised in the Bay Area and have recently moved back out West after several years on the East Coast. Being back here - and working in environmental restoration -has shown me there is so much more to know about California and the communities and ecosystems I hold dear. I am serving at Sustainable Conservation – a nonprofit focused on advancing the stewardship of California’s ecosystems and na

The world around me takes the clearest shape when I am on the back of a horse. It is through the viewfinder of a horse’s ears that I begin to make sense of new experiences, ask questions, and build community where I feel the pull of contention. Four years ago, I took the saying “put yourself in someone else’s shoes” a bit too literally and traded my Doc Martens for cowboy boots to work as a wrangler in rural New Mexico. Since then, I have oscillated between life as a student