My first day of Internship was awesome! I arrived onsite 15 minutes early just to give myself some extra time and to make sure that I was super punctual. My mentor Lonie, then picked me and her other two interns up at around 8, and we began driving around the park doing something called Ocular Surveying. This is a term used to describe using your eyes to scan or search for something. On that morning we were looking for a very invasive plant species known as Russian Thistle. It came from Eurasia in the late 1800s in cattle feed and then it spread from the NorthWest of the United States to all across the country. Russian Thistle is also commonly known as the tumbleweed! There is a ton of it at Cabrillo and it is really bad for the environment and the native plants in San Diego. After that we met up with some volunteers and participated in a program called Weed Warriors. Weed Warriors is an organization that my mentor set up in order to maintain the weeds and invasive species in the park while utilizing the help from volunteers looking to make a change. They get together twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays and work from 8:45 to 11:45. I was assigned a few different sections, but I was mainly focused on pulling Foxtails and Clover. Foxtails start as a short little blade of grass and then they turn into long strands of grass with a pointy burr at the top. Clover starts as a 3 or 4 leaf clover and also grows to be a long strand where it eventually dies and turns black and gray. It can be easily identified by the color as well as the hollow stem that has a squishy branch. After Weed Warriors, I got to explore the park with my fellow high school intern Jesse, and we went to look at some of the views and take some pictures of the beautiful scenery. Towards the end of the day I went with my mentor to put away all of our tools and supplies, and then she gave me a detailed tour of some parts of the park I had not seen yet. Overall my first week was amazing and I really look forward to more time at Cabrillo as well as further working with Lonie to help remove invasive species' of our city.
Blog Prompt:
I think the services that the Cabrillo National Monument provides to the community is really important. After just two days I understand how they help and benefit the community of San Diego. Cabrillo is one of the most beautiful places in San Diego and is a perfect example of our Mediterranean climate. They work to preserve the native plant life of our city by removing the invasive species' and preventing them from taking over the soil and habitat. Their services are crucial because without them our lovely native plans would be killed and extinct. There are over 90 invasive plant species' in the park, so restoration and plant removal is necessary in order to keep our ecosystem thriving. A lot of people within the organization have responsibilities, but when it comes to the plant life it is the job of me and my mentor as well as the help from the Weed Warriors to maintain the good health of the native plants because the abundance of plant life at Cabrillo is one of the parks best attributes!