Samantha maintains Scrub Oaks at Ballona Discovery Park.

Native plant Mulefat along the Cottonwood Trail at the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve.

I have always loved working with people and plants, but wasn’t sure how to combine my passions. I grew up in a predominantly Latinx and African American community that has always supported and encouraged me to strive for higher education. Hoping to return some of their care, I wanted to find a way to use the skills I’d gained to support them in return. When I looked around our neighborhood, I noticed the lack of public green spaces. Their distribution was inequitable and importance was greater than ever in providing some relief from the increasing Los Angeles heat. Realizing this, I decided I wanted to help build my community’s climate resilience by learning about habitat restoration with a final goal of creating communal green spaces.

With this goal in mind, I became a restoration and education intern with Friends of Ballona Wetlands, where I found a community of passionate people I could learn from. The internship allowed me to learn more about native plants and see them in a place where they thrive, not just an image in my books. Walking through the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve, it felt so thrilling seeing so many new plants and made me think of trips my family would take around Los Angeles. My parents made great efforts so my sisters and I experienced more nature than our neighborhood park. My parents took us on walks in places like Griffith Park and Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area, sparking my curiosity about nature. Coming to Ballona reminded me of my roots and also helped me find my way back to another of my passions, education. As a former pre-school teaching aide, watching the Explore Ballona! education team leading the K-12 field trips reminded me how much I loved seeing students' enthusiasm to learn as they explored the wetlands. Each field trip I felt less nervous teaching again, instead enjoying the happiness of seeing students interact with nature.

Samantha (left) and Mina (right) pose at a Friday Habitat Restoration event.

When I saw that Friends of Ballona Wetlands was becoming a host site for California Climate Action Corps, I applied knowing this was my opportunity to dedicate myself to learning as much as I could. My co-fellow Mina Bedgone and I were selected to begin the fellowship in September and have since assisted with restoration efforts in various ways. One way is by removing invasive species from the reserve to make space for the seedlings we grow to be planted in target areas. Another is by leading the restoration station during field trips with the education team. While leading the restoration station of the fieldtrips I’m always hoping to help students make connections between ecosystem health and the way a difference can be made through community as they remove invasive plants. Recently a third grader caught me off guard when she quickly started connecting the way non-native plants becoming invasive decreases the health of the wetlands by taking space away from native plants. I was deeply impressed by how concisely she articulated her connections and then I was laughing two minutes later when she ran up to the iceplant we’d instructed them to help us remove and started stomping the living daylight out of it chanting “die die die!” It was so unexpected and oddly wholesome that I know I’ll remember this for a long time.

Along with these experiences, one of the most helpful things I’ve gained has been how to structure my goals and create plans to achieve them. This adds fuel to my motivation especially when I see how much I’ve learned through repeating tasks and helping answer questions for interested folks who join us on the reserve. Learning to identify more native plants, how to propagate, and care for them has felt incredibly rewarding. Metaphors, analogies, and activities involving the senses all aid their understanding of the plants and keep me on my toes when I think I’ve got it down. I continue to learn how to implement a variety of learning approaches to fit peoples’ distinct learning styles. I’m grateful to have so much staff support through this opportunity and am excited to see how much more I’ll learn and grow over the course of this year!

Community and Climate Resilience at Ballona: Samantha Perez's California Climate Action Corps Blog