Members of the campus community have been spending a few hours each week helping beautify CSUDH – as well as creating a healthier, greener, and more resilient campus – by joining the Office of Sustainability’s Campus Tree Planting Volunteer Days.
Every Wednesday at 9 AM, volunteers gather at the Campus Urban Farm, then walk to the area near the Glenn Curtiss entryway on the east side of CSUDH. It offers volunteers a chance to get their hands in the soil, spend some time outdoors, and help leave a greener campus for future generations.
“We’re planting some sage brush and blue sage,” said Climate Action Corps Fellow Deanna ‘D’ Solorzano, a graduate from Mount St. Mary’s University who is spending a year working with the Office of Sustainability. “We’re trying to stay with native plants as much as possible.”
On a recent Wednesday, Solorzano guided a group of volunteers in the planting. She explained how they have put down a thick layer of mulch before planting. “The natural soil here is very clay-heavy and doesn’t retain a ton of water… The mulch helps with water retention and keeps it from running off into the sewers.”
Solorzano showed how to create raised, circular “berms” of mulch around each space where a tree will be planted. “They help pool the water around the roots,” she explained. “In about a year, we’ll come back and destroy those, so that the roots are encouraged to spread further out.”
“This is part of an urban greening project that is transforming the empty land into a thriving, native plant garden through consultations with local Native American tribal partners,” adds Keenan MacInnes of the Office of Sustainability. “It’s an important, if humble, beginning step in our work to honor the Tongva as a living community with enduring connections to the unceded land our campus is on.”
“We wanted to invite students and faculty to participate in cultivating CSUDH into a flourishing campus while also contributing to a cultural partnership with the greater community,” says MacInnes.
This program will continue for the rest of the semester until the space near Glenn Curtiss Road is finished, with the goal of completing it by the end of the year. MacInnes says they hope to bring the program back next semester, “but instead of one big planting site, it will be whichever site on campus needs help next.”
Members of the CSUDH Community are invited to join in, and no experience is necessary. The program takes place every Wednesday morning from 9:00 AM until 11:00 AM for the rest of the semester (except for Nov. 11, Nov. 25, and Dec. 23). Volunteers can check-in at the Campus Urban Farm. For more information, please visit https://torolink.csudh.edu/event/12576622.
