Restore and monitor the Valley Life Science Building pollinator garden
Cynthia Looy, Professor
Integrative Biology
Applications for Spring 2024 are closed for this project.
The goal of our project is to restore the student-run pre-pandemic pollinator gardens around the Valley Life Science Building (VLSB) that support native arthropods (e.g. insects and spiders) and other wildlife, and will function as an environmental education resource for students. We plan to engage students both inside and outside the classroom by creating a constant, high visibility demonstration landscape around VLSB. URAP students will participate in planning, implementing, and monitoring the installation of locally-adapted plants that will attract native insects and other wildlife, as well as learning valuable concepts in conservation and wildlife interactions.
We expect these landscapes to be utilized by several courses and workshops on the UCB campus related to conservation, natural history, landscape design, entomology, ornithology, botany, and ethnobotany. Eventually, Herbicide-free Berkeley will take ownership of this endeavor as a club focal project, with initial assistance from the URAP students, at a later stage DeCal students, and local community members, under the guidance of undergraduate student Tanmayi Patharkar, graduate student Jenn Wagner, and Dr. Cindy Looy, in collaboration with Dr. Peter Oboyski (Essig Museum).
Role: We are looking for 2-3 URAP students to help with garden maintenance, pollinator surveillance, data analysis, and website development for the garden. These tasks will be split or shared among the URAP students and require 3-5 hours per week out of their schedule.
1) Garden maintenance (2-3 hours per week)
2) Pollinator surveillance (2-3 hours per week)
3) Website development (2-3 hours per week)
4) Data analysis (1 hour per week)
Qualifications: Qualifications: Interest in gardening and natural history observations, excitement for being outside, desire to make a space for native plants and increase pollinator diversity around the Valley Life Sciences building. Outreach or website building experience is welcome.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Tanmayi Patharkar (undergraduate student) and Jennifer Wagner, Graduate Student
Hours: 3-5 hrs
Related website: http://www.looylab.org/
Environmental Issues Biological & Health Sciences