Sonoma Ecology Center’s new GrizzlyCorps Fellow, Faith Shortridge, at the Kenneth S. Norris Rancho Marino Reserve, a University of California natural reserve on the central coast where she studied Monterey pines.
Sonoma Ecology Center is excited to introduce Faith Shortridge, a new addition to the to the Sonoma Garden Park and Sonoma Native Plant Nursery team who comes to SEC through a one-year GrizzlyCorps Fellowship, a program of AmeriCorps that connects driven, skilled recent college graduates like Faith to work that supports rural communities’ resilience amidst the effects of a changing climate.
I’m Faith, the new GrizzlyCorps Fellow at Sonoma Ecology Center (SEC)! GrizzlyCorps is an Americorps program supporting forestry and agricultural projects in rural California, so as a fellow, I’ll be serving the Sonoma Valley through SEC. I was born and raised in Torrance, a suburb of Los Angeles. I just graduated from my dream school, University of California, Los Angeles, where I studied Environmental Science with minors in Geography and Education. I am excited to be working with SEC through GrizzlyCorps because they focus on involving the community in their work; working towards climate resilience and biodiversity conservation is so much more effective when the local community is actively involved. I really admire how much SEC is able to accomplish in Sonoma between education, research, restoration, and more.
During my service year, my focus is on two main projects: the Sonoma Native Plant Nursery at Sonoma Garden Park, where I will care for the plants and provide maintenance and administrative support, and the Climate Resilient Neighborhoods program, where I will conduct community outreach to implement native plant landscaping in local neighborhoods.
I am excited to be directly increasing the number of native plants in Sonoma through both of my projects. They bring so many benefits to the ecosystem, even when planted in your front yard. They are tolerant to our natural weather cycles and provide critical support for native pollinators. By making native plants more accessible, Sonoma Valley can become more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
I’m really interested in how humans can integrate native species into the built environment and blur the lines between “civilization” and nature. As an intern with UCLA Sustainability, I explored how urban universities around the world are working towards making their campuses more wildlife-friendly.
Faith uses a field microscope to look at zooplankton on a research vessel in Tahoe, California.
I first got interested in environmentalism in high school, where I was involved in the Environmental Club and became inspired to study Environmental Science in college. My passion grew at UCLA where I was able to explore diverse opportunities in the environmental field. I ended up falling in love with conservation biology and botany, and ultimately in the emerging field of urban ecology. I’m really interested in how humans can integrate native species into the built environment and blur the lines between “civilization” and nature. I previously interned with UCLA Sustainability to explore how urban universities around the world are working towards making their campuses more wildlife-friendly. My senior capstone was a full biodiversity audit of the newly acquired UCLA South Bay campus, which involved measuring the number of species of plants, birds, mammals, and invertebrates that lived on the property. I identified hundreds of species, native and non-native, and drafted plans to increase habitat connectivity in the future.
After growing up and going to school in Los Angeles, I am so excited to be immersed in the culture and natural beauty of Sonoma Valley. Through my work at SEC, I get to connect with people one-on-one about their gardens and landscaping projects, which can sometimes get quite personal! This is such a tight-knit and resilient community that I am honored to become a part of during my service year.
Outside of work, you can find me reading at the library, nature journaling on the trails, or enjoying an iced chai latte at the local coffee shops.
Come visit the Sonoma Native Plant Nursery at Sonoma Garden Park! We have plant sales every Friday from 12:00-3:00 pm, or come visit our Fall Plant Sale event on October 25th.
If you’re interested in volunteering with us, please contact the Sonoma Native Plant Nursery Manager, Hannah Aclufi, at [email protected].
