Project Description
The project has three main sections. (1) Part of the grant would go towards covering a portion of the Student Organic Garden Association’s water bill. Currently, the Department of Environmental Sciences, Policy, and Management (ESPM) covers half the bill and Professor Tim Bowles’ Berkeley Agroecology Lab covers the other portion. Having the Agroecology Lab help cover this expense has become a financial burden on them with their increasingly limited budget. Increasing SOGA’s economic self-sufficiency is the only way they can continue to distribute agroecological knowledge, harvest food for the UC Berkeley Food Pantry, and build a stronger student community. (2) Grant funding will support the UC Gill Tract Community Farm (UCGTCF) to maintain a portable ADA accessible toilet on site. (3) TGIF funding would allow for the continuation of this research project on the Gill Tract research field led by Jennifer Sowerwine in the Division of Society and Environment in ESPM, UC Berkeley students, and the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. The project is crucial to understanding how different assemblages of California native nectar plants impact monarch visitation, resulting in valuable knowledge on preserving the monarch species.