Connecting the Community to Conservation

BTN’s service learning volunteers gave over 4200 hours of their time last year!

As a Life Long Girl Scout I learned that leadership begins at a young age. To encourage the next generation(s) of leaders, I help provide programs that attract more and more young women to the role of biological and environmental sciences. Many also go on to higher education in marketing and advertising to help other non-profits and give back to their community.

I facilitate volunteerism through coordination of BTN's volunteer habitat restoration program which features projects in the Santiago Creek Nature Reserve in Santa Ana and in the Cleveland National Forest Trabuco Ranger District. The Back to Natives Restoration volunteer habitat restoration projects serve California wildlands by training volunteers how to properly eradicate nonnative invasive species of plants without harming or disrupting the natural ecology of the area the project serves.

We reach hundreds of volunteers a year and tens of thousands of community members with the need for habitat restoration and sustainable life choices. Back to Natives teaches our program participants 'Why" we do what we do, not just how to do what we do. We connect the community to habitat restoration through service learning and native plant education.

Funded by Los Angeles, CA (September 2014)