<![CDATA[SRJC CAMPUS BIODIVERSITY INITIATIVE - Blog]]>Wed, 15 Apr 2026 03:16:00 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[first planting day]]>Fri, 12 Dec 2025 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.srjcbiodiversity.org/blog/first-planting-dayOn Friday December 12 around 50 community members gathered to honor the site of our newest native plant garden on campus and begin planting. Approximately 1500 plants were planted over the course of three hours.

See some pictures and videos here

Blue Wildrye (200)
California Melicgrass (200)
California Oatgrass (100)
Purple Needlegrass (100)
California Fescue (100)
Bolander's Phacelia (100
Idaho Fescue (80)
Seaside Daisy (75)
Cobweb Thistle (50)
Foothill Penstemon (50)
California Poppy (50)
Dot-seed plantain (50)
California Buttercup (50)
Silver Lupine (40)

and many more!
]]><![CDATA[September Workday]]>Fri, 26 Sep 2025 20:05:15 GMThttps://www.srjcbiodiversity.org/blog/september-workday
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Thanks to the over 30 students, staff, faculty and community members who came together on September 12 to steward the native garden at Baker Hall and begin installation of irrigation for the new garden we'll be planting later this year near the Bech parking lot! Check out the pictures below for some highlights of what was accomplished and mark your calendars for out next workday on October 10 from 9-11.
]]><![CDATA[first year review!]]>Thu, 08 May 2025 18:45:11 GMThttps://www.srjcbiodiversity.org/blog/what-weve-doneWe are approaching the final weeks of the semester and the end of the first year of the SRJC Campus Biodiversity Initiative - a good time to reflect on all that we and our partners have accomplished! Here are some highlights:
  • We organized 8 stewardship days, which brought together over 120 students, staff and faculty to work in native gardens on campus, including weeding and planting local native species new to the SRJC campus
  • We've added almost 40 species to native gardens on campus, including 20 species of native annuals that were not found on campus
  • Students from seven classes participated in course-based campus biodiversity research or stewardship work: Bio 10, Bio 12, Bio 16, Botany 10, Botany 60, Bio 2.3 and Hort 12. Projects included journaling, writing, invasive species management, native plant propagation, planting, pollinator surveys, and estimating population sizes of native bees.
  • With support from Avanzando, we supported two Campus Biodiversity Interns who helped with stewardship work and completed independent research projects
  • Finally, we were awarded a $5000 Randolph Newman Cultural Enrichment Grant to create a new native garden on campus in the area formerly occupied by Bech Hall in 2025/2026.
]]><![CDATA[APRIL workday]]>Thu, 08 May 2025 18:33:39 GMThttps://www.srjcbiodiversity.org/blog/april-workdayFirst work on a new garden!
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This was our first day working in what will soon be the newest native plant garden on campus. We were thrilled to be awarded a Randolph Newman Cultural Enrichment grant to hold a series of culturally- and sustainability-focused events through which we hope to transform a bare, mulched area of campus (the former Bech building site) into a thriving ecosystem, the foundation of which will be culturally relevant and ecologically important California native plants. 

We began some work prepping the site by pulling out bur clover (Medicago polymorpha) and ripgut brome (Bromus diandrus) before they released this year's seeds. This will help with future weed control in the site so that the native plants we add will have the best possible chance of thriving. While we didn't finish the whole area, we accomplished a lot! 

Thanks to all who came out for the morning! 
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]]><![CDATA[March Workday]]>Mon, 14 Apr 2025 18:19:32 GMThttps://www.srjcbiodiversity.org/blog/march-workdayWe had over 20 volunteers help out at our March workday. We had a great time, despite the drizzle of rain! We completed some important tasks like weeding in our new native chaparral garden, removing an invasive onion from an area that we aim to transform into an oak woodland understory community, and we planted some native annuals around Baker Hall. 

Check out some of the images from the day. Thank you to Tina Mills for the great photos!
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]]><![CDATA[More Annuals blooming]]>Thu, 27 Feb 2025 22:01:46 GMThttps://www.srjcbiodiversity.org/blog/more-annuals-bloomingTwo more of the 10 annual species planted by students in November have begun to flower! These are Baby Blue Eyes (Nemophila menziesii) and Lacy Phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia). That's half of the species now in bloom. We invite you to walk over to Baker 1805 to see the flowers in person.

​The warm weather this week should be waking up our native bees soon, so we'll hope to start seeing some pollinators out there in the next week or two!
]]><![CDATA[First Annual Flowers!]]>Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:40:03 GMThttps://www.srjcbiodiversity.org/blog/february-18th-2025First Spring Annuals Begin to Flower!
During our second campus stewardship workday in November 2025, volunteers participated in an act of hope for the future, the sowing of seeds. On an overcast and chilly morning, we planted seeds of 12 California native annuals in the native garden by Baker Hall. 

The first of those have just begun to flower! The early bloomers are:
  • California Goldfields, Lasthenia californica, shown below, top row
  • Tidy Tips, Layia platyglossa, bottom row
  • Yellow Rayed Lasthenia, Lasthenia glabrata, not pictured
Come on over to Baker Hall from time-to-time this spring to check in on these and the other 9 species that are yet to bloom this spring.

Students in SRJC's botany courses will be collecting seed from these flowers to sow next winter. The 2024/25 SRJC Bee Team will monitor the native bees that visit these flowers over the course of the spring to better understand the plant-pollinator network on our campus in hopes of informing effective landscaping for pollinators in the future. 

Most of these species do not occur elsewhere on campus and would not occur here without the help of our community of campus stewardship volunteers. Thank you! 
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