Final Culminating Blog Reflection

Blog Post #11
4/25/2016

Before I volunteered at San Bruno Mountain Watch, I already knew a lot about gardening because my dad is a gardener. However, once I started volunteering, I learned all about the maintenance on the mountain, why it is important to get rid of all the invasive species, and why replanting more native plants on the mountain was significant. This volunteer program further motivates me to better the Earth's environment. As a volunteer at the nursery, I helped maintain plants, by weeding and sometimes watering. The majority of plants grown in the nursery will be planted back onto the mountain to create more habitats for animals, such as the Mission Blue Butterfly. As a stewardship volunteer, I learned how to get rid of invasive species using a weed wrench, which got rid of the whole plant, including the root. By doing this, I was preventing more invasive species from growing in that area, allowing native plants to grow, and making it a better place for the animals to live in.

On the mountain, the other volunteers and I would talk about the importance of native plants on the mountain such as Lupine, the home of the Mission Blue Butterfly. We always talk about the history of the mountain as a way to spread awareness of what we do. We talk about continuing to prevent human activity such as building homes on the mountain to preserve biodiversity. Communication is key where I volunteer. If you need help with replanting a seedling into the ground or if you want to know more about the history of the mountain, all you have to do is ask. We use our website, Facebook, and Twitter to spread awareness of what we do,

I work very well with others. Everyone who volunteers at San Bruno Mountain Watch are very enthusiastic about helping out. We all work together to get rid of invasive species so that native plants will flourish. In the nursery, we all work towards a goal so that we are able to replant these native seedlings back onto the mountain. The other volunteers and I work together to protect and preserve biodiversity on San Bruno Mountain.

I didn't face any personal challenges, however volunteering at San Bruno Mountain Watch, not only taught me more about the importance of preserving biodiversity, but I also learned more about the challenges San Bruno Mountain Watch faces just to protect the mountain from human activity. Learning about this makes me want to preserve more places similar to San Bruno Mountain. Personally, I gained more knowledge on what I can do to help better the world. I learned more about what an effect global warming has on nature. Socially I gained more communication skills. Intellectually I learned more about the significance of protecting biodiversity, not just on San Bruno Mountain, but the whole world as well. There is so much we as people can do together to help the world today.

The Native Plant Sale- Febuary 20, 2016

Blog Post #10
2/20/16(10 am-12 pm)

Today is the plant sale at the Mission Blue Nursery! San Bruno Mountains Watch's plant sales occur quarterly. I was really excited that I could participate! I arrived at the Mission Blue Nursery at 10 a.m. I helped some volunteers trim various native grass seedlings from the mountain, grown in the nursery. After that I listened to someone talk about rare species of plants found only on San Bruno Mountain! It was so cool to see beautiful pictures of these rare plants. After that I went inside to the nursery and bought some fiesta flowers. I listened to another speaker talk about the butterflies on the mountain. After his presentation, the two hours ended.

Time logged for session: 2 hours
Total time logged: 30 hours and 20 minutes

The Stewardship Volunteer Program- January 16,2016

Blog Post #9 
1/16/16 (9:20am-12:40)

I met Ariel and the other volunteers in the office at 9:20 in the morning. I was so excited! We were going to be planting more seedlings on the mountain. Today, students from my school, in the SIA (students in action) club joined us! I was thrilled, I was able to work with my friends on the mountain. We headed off to Bukeye Canyon around 9:30 a.m. When we got to Buckeye Canyon we hiked up a little and we started planting various species of grasses and lupin. It began to rain right before our break! It was so pretty. After our break, the rain stopped and we continued planting. The soil was so much softer compared to the way it was in November. It was a lot easier to dig holes this time around. At 12:30 p.m. we started cleaning up and headed back to the office.

Time logged for session: 3 hours
Total time: 28 hours 20 minutes

Here are some pictures of the Lupin I planted on the mountain.

Here is a picture of the mountain before it rained.

Mission Blue Nursery- December 6, 2015

Blog Post #8
12/6/15 (1pm-4pm)

Today I met up with Ildiko in the Mission Blue Nursery at 1p.m. I cleaned the bottom of my shoes before I entered the nursery and went straight to work. I was given some envelopes with fiesta flower to clean. I started off by cracking the dry flower head. Then, I would shake the seeds out of dry flower head into a bowl. This process took a while, but it was very satisfying to me. After I finished cleaning the seeds out of the flower head, I put them in a sifter and separated the seeds from the excess plant life. Like the mules ear, we will use these seeds to grow plants in the nursery and then we will plant them back onto the mountain. By the time I finished cleaning the seeds it was time for me to go.

Time logged for session: 3 hours
Total time logged: 25 hours

Here is where the dry seed heads are stored.

Here you see dried out flower heads.

This is the sifter I used.

Look at how tiny the flower head is!

After I got the seeds out of the flower head and sifted out the plant life, this was the result.

Mission Blue Nursery- November 22, 2015

Blogpost #7
11/22/15 (1pm-4pm)

Today I met up with Ildiko and the other volunteers at the Mission Blue Nursery at 1 o'clock. We went inside the nursery and talked about what we would do that day. Ildiko led us to this area filled with large orange envelopes. These envelopes contained various native flower heads from San Bruno. Mountain. Ildiko chose a couple of envelopes that were filled with dried out mules ear flower heads. Our job today was to clean the mules ear by opening the dry flower head and finding the seeds. We then put the seeds in bowl. After we finished cleaning the seeds out of the mules ear, we used a sifter to separate the seeds from plant life. These seeds would be used to grow more mules ear in the nursery to plant onto San Bruno Mountain! By the time we finished sifting the mules ear, the 3 hours was up.

Time logged for session: 3 hours
Total time logged: 22 hours

Here is what dried out Mules Ear looks like!

And this is what the seeds look like.

Stewardship Program-November, 21 2015

Blog #6

11/21/15 (9:15AM-12:45PM)

Today I met up with Ariel and the other volunteers in the office at 9:15 in the morning. We then carpooled and went to Owl Canyon! I was really excited because we were going to plant Lupin, California Phacelia, Blue Eyed Grass, Lace parsnip, coast buckwheat and summer lupin. All of the plants I listed are just some of the many plants we grow in the Mission Blue Nursery. When we git ti Owl Canyon we hiked up a little while and started digging holes to put the seedlings in the ground. The ground was clay like and very tough to dig through, however I eventually got the hang of it. Around 11 am we had a break and ate some snacks. We resumed working around 11:20am. We all managed to replant around 300 seedlings on San Bruno Mountain! A lot of these plants will be the Mission Blue Butterfly's (and many other butterfly's) main source of food! It is so cool to know that we're supporting the biodiversity of San Bruno Mountain.

Time logged for session: 3 hours 30 minutes
Total time logged: 19 hours

Here is the spectacular view.

Here is the Lupin I planted.

Mission Blue Nursery- November 15,2015

Blog post #5
11/15/15 (10 AM - 1PM)

Today I met up with Ildiko and the other volunteers at the Mission Blue Nursery around 10AM. We went inside the Nursery to sign in and to get to know each other. Around 10:10, we went to a State park to gather coffee berry seeds! We were having a really hard time looking for coffee berries, but after ten to fifteen minutes we found some. Ildiko showed us various plants to gather seeds from, such as Yaro, California Aster, and Dwarf Coyote Bush. She also showed us a plant called Yerba Buena and told us to smell it. It has such a lovely minty smell. I learned that you could make tea out of it. After about an hour of seed picking, we headed back to the Nursery to sort out the seeds. Once we settled in the Nursery, we began to weed Yaro and Tree Lupin until it was time to go. We got a lot of plants weeded. It made me really happy to see all these seedlings look healthier after weeding them. Ildiko informed me that the plants we weeding were going to be planted onto San Bruno Mountain starting next weekend on Saturday. I'm really looking forward to that.

Time logged for session: 3 hrs
Total time logged: 15 hrs, 30 min

These seeds are Dwarf Coyote bush

These are coffee berries.

This is a before and after picture of the Yaro we weeded.