UCSB Coastal Service Program At GS This Fall

Growing Solutions' staff would like to thank UCSB Coastal Service Program and the two student groups that joined us this fall in working towards a healthy environment. This quarter students from the Muslim Student Association and Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers joined us in propagating native plants for a Gaviota Coast restoration project. The students divided and repotted Disticlis spicata a.k.a. salt grass that is used in local restoration projects among the dunes in and around Isla Vista. These students are enrolled in a wide range of majors at UCSB, including some that one would assume have nothing to do with ecological restoration. The beauty of this program, however, is that young people get to experience scenarios outside of their comfort zone and get a glimpse of how connected everything is in the natural world. While propagating plants students learn the attributes of the plant species they are working with, how it fits into the habitat it belongs to, and what benefit (ecosystem service) it provides for the environment.