By Chloe Ney, Hogan Fenster, Kyle Crowley, Jeonghyun Lee, Mike Peters, Lea Le Rouzo, and Audrey Salinger. Edited by Melissa Ikeda.
The 2018 Sustainability Action Research Native Landscaping team has a lot of ground to cover as they analyze ways to make UCLA’s campus more native plant friendly. Catch up with what the team has been up to during the first few weeks of their project!
Week 2: Getting Started
Native Landscaping’s first team meeting marks the beginning of the productive quarter that lies ahead.
Week 3: Getting Inspiration
Pictured is the plaque at the Sue Young Rose Garden outside of Haines Hall. It is an example of the type of small landscaping project we are hoping to carry out with native plants.
The Native Landscaping Team had its second meeting at the Young Research Library. At this meeting, we cemented what we all wanted the goal of our project to be.
Week 4: Taking a Closer Look
The Native Landscaping SAR team inspect recent landscaping changes in the study area in front of Bunche Hall, taking special notice of non-native plants and their ecological effects and ground cover plants that are too close together.
The area in front of Bunche Hall was recently redone by UCLA facilities with a focus on the removal of water-hogging ornamental grass vegetation and replacing it with drought tolerant plants to create a biophilic study and community space for students.
Week 5: Team Work
The Native Landscaping team discussing our project objectives and writing our team contract during the weekly team meeting.
Working together and communicating to build a spaghetti tower with tape and a marshmallow during activity of the week in lecture.
Week 6: Meetings
The Native Landscaping team members actively discuss their plans and agenda for their upcoming meeting with Bonny, our stakeholder, and Chris, a guest from the UCLA Maintenance Department.
The Native Landscaping Team led the in-class activity during lecture this week with a fun game testing SAR’s knowledge of native plants using Kahoot!
Week 7: New Landscaping
Drought tolerant plants being planted in the new outdoor MS study space!
Week 8: Discussing Power Dynamics
Native Landscaping members Peter and Lea discuss power dynamics, and how it fits into our small and large group dynamics, with fellow SAR members during our weekly class meeting
The sunken gardens stand as a reminder of spaces that still boast large expanses of grass requiring unsustainable amounts of watering and don’t harbor biodiversity the way alternative and/or native landscaping could.
The new construction outside of MS obviously requires new landscaping, and its projects like this that our team hopes to be able to influence in the future with our guidelines, ensuring any new construction and associated landscaping is biophilic, sustainable, and as native as possible.
Week 9: Inspired by International Womyn’s Day!
Inspired by International Womyn’s Day and Grad Housing’s creative vigor for altering the stigma around trash, team members Lea and Peter endeavor to create and contribute to the vast SAR collection of SAR trash art pieces dedicated to womyn today. This is Untitled # 6, and she is an accomplished researcher working towards enhancing sustainability at UCLA–she exists to honor all of the wonderful womyn in SAR, from students to directors to staff. Thank you for making the planet better for for everyone, including all of the womyn in our lives and for turning trash into treasure! <3
Week 10: Midterm Report
The team presents their midterm report to the class and stakeholders!
Read more about the Native Landscaping Team’s mission on their Project Page. To check out other current and past SAR teams, visit the “Our Work” page, and don’t forget to give our Facebook page a “like” to keep up to date with what we’re up to!
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