In the spring of 2010, I began an internship with the Riverside Corona Resource
Conservation District (RCRCD) as partial fulfillment for a Masters degree in
environmental science from the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Miami University.
The RCRCD is sponsoring a two-year project that is focused on building a genetically
appropriate plant species palette to be used in the restoration of the alluvial scrub habitat,
a threatened habitat found in southern California. The plant palette will be based on data
obtained from vegetation sampling, and appropriate species will be selected for
propagation by local farmers. This project is in line with the conservation goals of the
RCRCD, and is being implemented as a model for building genetically appropriate plant
material for restoration in alluvial scrub habitats.
This report will describe my activities and responsibilities during my internship
with the RCRCD, focusing primarily on my participation in the Alluvial Scrub Project.
As a member of the field team I attended workshops and training as they related to the
project, and spent time working in the field performing assessments, gathering and
entering data, and gathering and processing seeds that will be used in another phase of the
project.