We 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.

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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