Los Medanos College Hyphae club members, accompanying students and faculty gathered in the nature preserve Thursday, Nov. 14 from 2 to 4 p.m. to plant flora native to the preserve. LMC alumnus Ricardo Black led the event, sharing important information about the plants and their benefits to our local natural community.
The LMC nature preserve has been a target of theft and vandalism in recent years so the main objective of Hyphae is to reverse the damage done, as well as grow the area and help it thrive.
“Native plants are important and are essential to restoring the land that surrounds us. Anyone considering [buying] plants for their garden or front yard, should consider getting natives,” Hyphae club President Jenica Perez said, highlighting the importance of native plants to our ecosystem.
Hyphae club do weekly restoration work within the nature preserve on Saturdays from 9 to 11 a.m. Volunteering with the club helps its members to learn and appreciate more of their surrounding nature, as well as beautifies the campus for all who enter.
“We need all the help we could get,” Perez said. “It takes time to maintain and clean things around the preserve, but the more people we have volunteering, the more we’ll be able to move on to planting more things and other fun projects.”
Student Emersyn Jureidini, unaffiliated with Hyphae club, joined in to help out.
“I just really enjoy nature, and with all of the environmental stuff going on, like climate change and the president, I just thought it’d be nice to do something that could actually help the earth in some way,” Jureidini said.
Hyphae club students have a true passion for the environment, and their main goal is to educate those on campus about its nature along with the evolving climate around us, more specifically the flora we have on campus.
The native plant planting event not only nurtured the habitual nature on campus but also brought the community together to learn more about the most beneficial plants for our Northern California climate and environment.
Perez recommends the website calscapes.org to anyone who wishes to help their local gardens prosper.
“Natives are easy to take care of compared to other species, since they evolved to easily adapt to the local soil, it’s their home after all,” Perez said.
