Our Center has never been busier than during this past month of April. We led off co-hosting a presentation on the effects of historic redlining, “”Historical and Contemporary Drivers of Urban Avifauna in a California Megacity”, by Dr. Eric Wood, Associate Professor of Biology and Co-Director of the newly established Urban Ecology Center at Cal State LA, on Friday, April 5th. LMU Students and faculty both were able to connect the dots of urban sprawl as it relates to wealth and green scape coverage and howour avian friends fare in those environments – and as strikingly, our human neighbors.
Thanks to the CSJ Center for Reconciliation and Justice and the Biology Department for co-sponsoring this event with CURes!
On Tuesday, April 10th new LMU Assistant Professor Emma Shaw Crane, brought her Urban & Environmental Studies class to Ballona Discovery Park for a tour, specifically focusing on medicinal plants and Indigenous ways. LMU graduating Senior Nico Gentile, who has worked with CURes for several years now as a Student Intern, shared his experience conducting an Oak Tree Survey earlier in the semester with other students, and has participated in many events held at the Park, including meeting Gabrielino Tongva Elder Robert Dorame, who’s beautiful Tongva Monument is a highlight of the Park tour, and was that day.
The students were also impressed by the Swimmer Medicinal Garden, which showcases 27 native plants historically used by the Gabrielino Tongva, Chumash, and Cahuilla Indians to treat medical issues even today. Many of the plants were either in bloom or just coming into bloom, which is always nice to see and smell. The fragrance in the air was intoxicating!
On Saturday, April 13th LMU graduating Senior Nico Gentile again joined Lisa Fimiani, who was volunteering in the Gottlieb Native Garden as a Greeter for the 21st Annual Theodore Payne Native Plant Garden Tour, and was dazzled by the beauty of the garden, showing Susan Gottlieb drawings in his nature journal inspired by gardens like hers.
In fact, the Gottlieb Native Garden has been the inspiration for many CURes projects on and off Campus, from the flora and fauna celebrated in the 12 year old Ballona Discovery Park, to the Osprey Pole erected on Campus in 2019, to the Garden Ecology module created as part of CURes Urban EcoLab curriculum (available here) and we are so grateful to Susan and her late husband Dan for their support of our programs over the years.
As we prepared for Earth Week at LMU, April 15-19, our Drollinger Environmental Fellow Lisa Fimiani was leading three 5th grade field trips in partnership with Friends of Ballona Wetlands staff on the 16th, 18th and 25th.
Victor Elementary in Torrance has an awesome garden and explorer program called Victor Elementary School’s Victor Elementary Environmental Engineering Club (VEEEC), led by Tim Magnus and the other 5th grade teachers, and for the 4th year in a row we were able to bring the entire 5th grade class out to “Experience Ballona!” through the generous funding of Edison International. The students started their field trip experience in Ballona Discovery Park, at the gateway to the Ballona Wetlands, explored the birds of the Freshwater Marsh nearby, and then got a birds-eye view of the Watershed up on Cabora Drive West. The native plant flora was just starting to peak in beautiful blossoms of color, and the students made many observations of critters other than just birds, such as caterpillars, butterflies, spiders, bumblebees, a Gopher Snake and a Red-eared Slider Turtle. Many of the students knew the name of the Indigenous people who historically called Ballona and the Torrance area their home, and we studied Lemonade Berry and Elderberry bushes along the way that the Gabrielino Tongva Indians have taught us about, discussing their use as food and medicine We are so grateful for Edison’s support of our programs that immerse students in nature and give them the opportunity to explore and expand their experiences outside of school and home in the Ballona Watershed.
For the first time in the decade the nest boxes along the back of the Riparian Corridor trail behind the Park and Playa Vista Elementary School have been up, we witnessed Tree Swallows going in and out of some boxes, and a pair of Western Bluebirds! House Wrens have been the only occupants sporadically over the years, so this was really special!
As part of Wellness Wednesday on April 17, a former student of Dr. Strauss’ came back to LMU to share her experiences on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, with her boyfriend who is also in the ranch business. Savana and Max shared fun swag to promote their food products and methodology of farming, and Savana was also a guest lecturer in one of Dr. Strauss’ classes.
Both Savana and Max came back on Friday, April 19th to table the Sustainable Sounds Fair, reaching even more students as Earth Week wrapped up.
Thursday, April 18th gave students wanting to get their hands dirty a chance to plant native plants at two sites on Campus: the Twin Oaks area, adjacent to the Del Rey Theatre, and the Tongva Memorial site. Both projects were supported by CURes, ASLMU, Green LMU, the Center for Service and Action, and Facilities Management, and we were able to put in over 20 plants at the Twin Oaks and 16 at the Tongva site. The 20 plants at the Twin Oaks were the last batch of plants added to this area of Campus, joining 60 other plants that were added earlier in the semester by this team on a project that’s planning started way back in December of 2023.
And much to our amazement, students who helped weed the area in the afternoon were treated to a show by Monarch caterpillars who had already found the Narrow-leaf Milkweed planted weeks before.
While students were working at the Twin Oaks site, we had another group of students start planting at the Tongva Memorial site. 16 new plants were to join a previous successful planting two years ago by students showcasing some spectacular White Sage plants overlooking the Bluff.
It was great having Ian McKeown, Campus Sustainability Officer, lend a hand in digging holes for our new plants, joined by Lucy Renfrow, Sustainability Coordinator, who carried the heavy load of organizing and planning Earth Week along with Josh Petteruti, VP of Sustainability at LMU.
Some students from Agape Service Organization came as part of Service and Action’s outreach, and we were delighted to have them help us plant in the Tongva Memorial garden.
Speaking of White Sage, during the late afternoon of April 18th we co-hosted a screening of the 2022 documentary Saging the World, and attendees not only got to watch a very important film about the plight of White Sage in the wild, but also could go home with their own White Sage plants, a sticker designed by Elena Rios, a Chumash Cultural Practitioner, and a flyer providing details about the plant and what students could do to help save this plant from extinction. White Sage is used medicinally, in sacred indigenous rituals, teachings, and ceremonies, as well as being an important food source for bees, butterflies, birds, deer, rabbit, and other wildlife, and we are proud to showcase this beautiful plant on Campus at several sites, honoring indigenous traditions and teachings.
We also partnered with a local plant nursery, International Garden Center and they provided us with 4” White Sage Plants at a discount to give out to students attending the film. Thank you Deno for your generosity and willingness to be part of our efforts to inform students about White Sage.
This year our Western Bluebird bonded pair, Blue Ivy Carter and Sage, has successfully hatched babies for the 3rd year in a row, thanks to the diligent nest box tending of Bluebird Swami Ian Kimbrey, and CURes staff and students filling mealworm trays to keep them well fed. Through continued support from the Stern Memorial Trust Ian was able to put up a 3rd box on Campus in February, and it didn’t take long for a new pair to take up residence this Spring!
Noah Cuevas Kraft, an LMU student assisting CURes in the maintenance of bird feeders across Campus, named the new pair Alex and Casey, and they had 4 eggs the last time Ian checked.
The 3rd box over in a pine tree right of the Chapel has been claimed by some House Wrens for the second year in a row. All in all, we are having a very good year for Bluebirds on Campus! A culminating event that rounded out the month of April was the 90th birthday celebration for John Taft on Saturday, April 21th up in Ojai. John’s passion as a conservationist shined through and his love for birds, with the showing of a film about his work in Africa, Montana, and Ojai, as we enjoyed dining on the patio of the Pavilion House at one of his finest achievements, the Taft Gardens and Nature Preserve. CURes is very excited to be part of current efforts to restore an Oak woodland while strengthening the message and opportunity for visitors to experience the magic of the Taft Gardens and Nature Preserve.
On Earth Day, April 22nd, CURes Managing Director Dr. Michele Romolini participated in an Earth Day pop-up hosted by Baltimore City’s GROW Center and The Urban Oasis. Dr. Romolini and CURes are working with The Nature Conservancy’s Baltimore Program on a project called “Healthy Trees Healthy Cities” with the aim of using art, and specifically an animated film with spoken word poetry, as a vehicle to spark conversations and strengthen the voices and diverse perspectives represented in urban forestry in Baltimore. During the Urban Oasis pop-up, we screened a two-minute film, “To The Jungles That Be” written by East Baltimore poet Kondwani Fidel about his experiences with trees in the city. Interested community members came to our table to learn more and were invited fill out a short questionnaire about their experiences with trees. This was the first of several community pop-ups and workshops we plan to hold this summer in partnership with community-based organizations across Baltimore. We got to engage with residents and potential new partners, and were treated to entertainment including several amazing musical and dance performances. It was a wonderful way to launch this new project!
On Tuesday, April 23, LMU Chaplain Father Randy invited folks from LMU to join Dr. Strauss and Drollinger Environmental Fellow Lisa Fimiani for a lunch tour of Ballona Discovery Park. This was the 10th time Father Randy has brought folks from LMU to the Park, 9 times previously as head of the Center for Ignatian Spirituality, and in his new capacity as Chaplain he wanted to keep the tradition going! Dr. Strauss and Lisa commemorated this special anniversary with giving away two Gottlieb Native Garden books provided to our Center for just this purpose by the Gottlieb Family Foundation.
Folks seemed to really appreciate the books on top of a scrumptious lunch from Mendocino Farms and participating in a magical day in the Park, with birds flying and singing, and the fragrance of native sages wafting through the air. We love celebrating these traditions with Father Randy! On behalf of all the staff and students at CURes and LMU, we hope you are experiencing Earth Month every day and every month of the year, in some way. The more we find the balance between nature and urban settings in our day-to-day lives, the better the planet will be.
CURes Restorative Justice Project
As we work to foster a sense of belonging and resolve conflict in our educational settings, the CURes RJ Project continues to empower the administrators, faculty, and staff through Restorative Practices training in April at Riverside Unified School District, Pasadena Unified School District, and New York City Charter Schools. Through comprehensive training in relational strategies and techniques on how to mitigate conflict, these institutions are cultivating inclusive environments to equip their stakeholders with the tools to implement these transformative practices effectively.
The CURes RJ Project is gearing up, for the second year in a row, for a four-day Restorative Practices Implementation Leadership Academy to be held July 15-18. By equipping leaders with the knowledge and strategies necessary for effective implementation of Restorative Practices, these districts are laying the groundwork for sustained positive change. For more information please visit The RJP Implementation Academy Registration Page.
Through ongoing training and commitment to Restorative Practices, these institutions are not only transforming their schools but also paving the way for a brighter future in education.
