As I enter my second week of internship I am feeling really good and enjoying my time at Cabrillo. I have learned so much about the native and invasive plant life such as what their names are, the scientific codenames, and how to identify and remove them. I also have learned a ton about the different areas of the park, how to interact with my fellow volunteers, and all the guests that come to visit the park. One of my favorite parts about my internship is the incredible views throughout the park. No matter where you are you can see all of San Diego whether it be the ocean, Downtown, or even the harbor and the military base. It is so awesome to be working outside in nature and get the opportunity to see the scenery every day.
Blog Prompt 1:
For my internship project, I will be creating some sort of infographic that will be informing people on what plant restoration is. A lot of people think that plant restoration is just planting more native plants to balance out the invasive plants, but this is incorrect. You cannot add more native plants when the issue, invasive plants, are still present. They would just further takeover the natives and make the situation worse. Therefore, plant restoration is actually removing the invasive plants so the native plants can thrive in their environment without any threats from invasives. The park has over 90 invasive species' and the process is very long, but day by day we are making an effort to remove the invasive plants to help the natives. For my final product, I plant to make a visual roughly the size of a piece of paper talking all about restoration and proper restoration techniques. I will use information that I researched as well as visuals and pictures that I have taken in the field. I believe this will allow for a professional final product with detailed content while still maintaining an aesthetically pleasing design. The skills I will be using include my academic strength in creating a high quality project, my creativity in making a project that is original using my ideas and concepts, and the technicality of being in the field and gathering firsthand research. Overall I hope my project will benefit the organization because guests can read it and become more aware about the mission at Cabrillo and the fight against invasive species'. Spreading awareness is really important and the more people that know, the more they can inform others and help improve the situation!
Blog Prompt 2:
The thing that has surprised me most since working at my internship is the satisfaction that I have found with pulling weeds. Weeding can be a very tedious and tiring task, but I try to look at it from a positive perspective. This helps me pass the time during the day as well as make significant progress on the sections I am in charge of weeding. I make sure I am thoroughly clearing my section and getting all the weeds and roots. It is pretty awesome to see the before and after results and is a type of work where I feel instant gratification afterward. Everyday I take before and after pictures of my area because it is crazy to see how much better it looks once I have put in hours of work to make it look perfect. I used to not like weeding as a kid, but I have come to find it peaceful especially when it is in such a beautiful place. Below is a before and after picture of a section that I worked on with my coworker Julian, he is also one of my mentor's interns.