Image
Image
Zoo InternQuest is a seven-week career exploration program for San Diego County high school juniors and seniors. Students have the unique opportunity to meet professionals working for the San Diego Zoo, Safari Park, and Institute for Conservation Research, learn about their jobs, and then blog about their experience online. Follow their adventure here on the Zoo’s website!
This week, interns were able to work with the wonderful Emily Howe from 
the Plant Conservation division of the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research. Ms. Howe is a research coordinator, and is currently rehabilitating the area around Lake Hodges located in San Diego County.
Ms. Howe works to ensure that San Diego native ecosystems are able to thrive. San Diego is mostly Coastal Sage Scrub. This unique habitat, found only throughout Southern California, is made of many types of sages and sage brushes as well as many different types of cacti. However, this habitat has been diminishing rapidly. Over the past ten years, the region Ms. Howe has been working to restore has been plagued with wildfires. Even though, this ecosystem has adapted to wild fires when multiple wildfires occur in succession, the plants have difficulties recolonizing the area. It’s like losing your home, twice, and trying to rebuild. What’s even worse is that the native plant species are having to compete with invasive species. When there’s a “break” in ecology, such as a fire or a storm, invasive plants move in, and they can quickly take advantage of an area.
Unfortunately, San Diego has a very mild climate, which allows many invasive plant species to thrive. However, they often serve as host for disaster. When the dry season hits, the invasive species die and dry out, serving as an endless source of fuel for wildfires. Invasive plants also serve as homes for invasive pest, which historically, have wreaked havoc on our local ecosystems and agricultural industries. Native plants grow in ways that minimize the effect of wildfires, some are even fire resistant. Additionally, they provide homes for displaced wildlife.
In a lot of ways, restoration is like working in a backyard garden. Workers and volunteers get their seeds or cuttings, plant them and water them diligently. Unlike garden plants, which are taken care of for as long as they live, restoration plants are only “babied” for the first year. Ms. Howe and her volunteers water through the dry season but after that, the plants live or die by their own will. There’s no pruning, no fertilizing… as Ms. Howe put it, “what makes it, makes it.”
However, don’t get the wrong message; conservationist don’t just stick plants in the ground and leave them. Ms. Howe says that she does a lot of weeding to keep the invasive species from taking over. Due to extensive development and fires in Southern California, swaths of coastal cacti were destroyed. These man made problems destroyed the homes of many species, namely the coastal cactus wren. However, lucky for Ms. Howe cacti are easy to propagate and grow. If you cut off a cactus pad, it could eventually grow into a full size plant. So in order to provide enough plants to make better homes for species that depend on cacti, Ms. Howe has readied some cacti pads for the interns to plant. We took cactus pads and planted them into pots so that they could root and be planted later. Opportunities like this exist for almost all volunteers. According to Ms. Howe, she sometimes gets offered help by hikers when she’s planting on the side of trails. And that’s very important; hikers are one of the biggest groups of volunteers.
Baba Dioum, a famous Senegalese conservationist said that, "In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught." Outreach and education on the importance of native habitats is one of the most important ways to save native habitats. So take my advice, spread the word and plant some natives.
Ahmad, Real World
Week Three, Winter Session 2016
the Plant Conservation division of the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research. Ms. Howe is a research coordinator, and is currently rehabilitating the area around Lake Hodges located in San Diego County.
Ms. Howe works to ensure that San Diego native ecosystems are able to thrive. San Diego is mostly Coastal Sage Scrub. This unique habitat, found only throughout Southern California, is made of many types of sages and sage brushes as well as many different types of cacti. However, this habitat has been diminishing rapidly. Over the past ten years, the region Ms. Howe has been working to restore has been plagued with wildfires. Even though, this ecosystem has adapted to wild fires when multiple wildfires occur in succession, the plants have difficulties recolonizing the area. It’s like losing your home, twice, and trying to rebuild. What’s even worse is that the native plant species are having to compete with invasive species. When there’s a “break” in ecology, such as a fire or a storm, invasive plants move in, and they can quickly take advantage of an area.
Unfortunately, San Diego has a very mild climate, which allows many invasive plant species to thrive. However, they often serve as host for disaster. When the dry season hits, the invasive species die and dry out, serving as an endless source of fuel for wildfires. Invasive plants also serve as homes for invasive pest, which historically, have wreaked havoc on our local ecosystems and agricultural industries. Native plants grow in ways that minimize the effect of wildfires, some are even fire resistant. Additionally, they provide homes for displaced wildlife.
In a lot of ways, restoration is like working in a backyard garden. Workers and volunteers get their seeds or cuttings, plant them and water them diligently. Unlike garden plants, which are taken care of for as long as they live, restoration plants are only “babied” for the first year. Ms. Howe and her volunteers water through the dry season but after that, the plants live or die by their own will. There’s no pruning, no fertilizing… as Ms. Howe put it, “what makes it, makes it.”
However, don’t get the wrong message; conservationist don’t just stick plants in the ground and leave them. Ms. Howe says that she does a lot of weeding to keep the invasive species from taking over. Due to extensive development and fires in Southern California, swaths of coastal cacti were destroyed. These man made problems destroyed the homes of many species, namely the coastal cactus wren. However, lucky for Ms. Howe cacti are easy to propagate and grow. If you cut off a cactus pad, it could eventually grow into a full size plant. So in order to provide enough plants to make better homes for species that depend on cacti, Ms. Howe has readied some cacti pads for the interns to plant. We took cactus pads and planted them into pots so that they could root and be planted later. Opportunities like this exist for almost all volunteers. According to Ms. Howe, she sometimes gets offered help by hikers when she’s planting on the side of trails. And that’s very important; hikers are one of the biggest groups of volunteers.
Baba Dioum, a famous Senegalese conservationist said that, "In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught." Outreach and education on the importance of native habitats is one of the most important ways to save native habitats. So take my advice, spread the word and plant some natives.
Ahmad, Real World
Week Three, Winter Session 2016
