Project Clearinghouse

Site Stewardship Program

Sustainability Problem and Proposed Solution: 

We hope to mitigate ecological stress on campus by preserving the land from human damage, promoting land and habitat restoration by removal of invasive species, and working on reducing soil erosion from ad-hoc paths that would otherwise pollute our waterways. Many students are unaware of the ecological damage the campus mitigates to sustain biodiversity, limit invasive plants, and decrease pollution so our goal is to increase campus awareness of Site Stewardship in hopes they aid in the efforts.

Jump to: Contact | Project Description | Funding Sources | Metrics for Success | Results
Project Categories: 
Land, Habitat, Watershed
Project Status: 
Completed
Campus Organization: 
Provost's Sustainability Internship Program
Sustainability Office
UCSC Campus Natural Reserve
Affiliated Department, Unit or College: 
Grounds Service, Provost Sustainability Internship
Project Location: 
Both on and off campus


Antonelli Pond work day Flyer


Stakeholder Contacts: 
Contact NameEmail AddressContact NumberDepartment
Dave Roe
jdroe@ucsc.edu
(831) 212-0656
Grounds Service
Bill Reid
billreid@ucsc.edu
(831) 818-3895
Grounds Service
Gabriella Alvarez
gcalvare@ucsc.edu
(925) 446-0015
Provost Sustainability Intern
Funding Sources: 
UCSC Grounds Department
Provost Sustainability Internship Program

Project Description: 

Site Stewardship aims to outreach to students in effort to increase awareness of stewardship efforts.
This was done through mini movies that educate on invasive species, ad hoc (or shortcut) paths and ways to be stewards on campus; creation of media for education such as flyers and interactive signs that are specific to restoration projects; use of social media to reach a large group of students and engage them in efforts for Site Stewardship and awareness;and facilitating volunteer days that aim to bring students and faculty into the ecological restoration process by invasive plant removal and education.
Site Stewardship is known for its signage and their efforts to decrease ad hoc path usage so educating the students on the reasons behind these efforts is important and makes them more likely to notice their ecological damage on the campus.

Metrics for Success: 

Site Sustainability will measure their outreach by:
* amount of “likes” on Facebook and amount of people the posts have reached using the FB page insights
* number of hours of volunteer work in total put into UCSC’s ecological restoration.
* number of volunteers attending the work days and amount of sign ups for the mailing list from events.
* number of events SSP tables at

Result Categories: 
Education/Outreach
Data Collection & Analysis
Results: 

*Interactive Sign Project was completed: A 4 panel turning sign that details the Cowell Meadow Restoration Project was put up by 2017 graduation
*4 open-to-all volunteer days: 2 Volunteer day efforts at the Antonelli Pond and 2 volunteer days at the Pogonip overlook, both involved invasive weed removal
* ____ hours of invasive weed removal by ___ volunteers
*112 likes on Facebook with work day fliers reaching 1.2-1.4K Facebook users.
*4 tabling events including Earth Day and Hummingbird day in the arboretum.

Resources
AttachmentSize
PDF icon FinalpaperPSI.pdf1.1 MB