Scholarship - CNPS Channel Islands chapter

Student Scholarship Grant Program

In 2019, our chapter established a grant program to encourage college and university students to undertake research and projects on California native plants within Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. You are invited to submit project proposals to the 4th year of our student scholarship program for research or other projects related to the study of California native plants along the central coast of California! Suitable topics include, but are not limited to: the ecology of native plants, plant communities, pollination ecology, seed dispersal, taxonomy, phenology, and more.

See our latest News post for more information about the current scholarship offer and deadline.

This Year’s Recipient – Mary Cadogan

We are pleased to announce our 2022 Scholarship recipient – Mary Cadogan. Mary is originally from Westford, Massachusetts, and is a third year Environmental Studies major with a minor in Spatial Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She currently works as a restoration assistant for UCSB’s Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration, where she also conducted a pollinator monitoring study for the endangered Ventura Marsh Milkvetch (Astragalus lentiginosus var. pycnostachyus). In her free time, she loves doing outside doing activities like snowboarding and hiking.

For her current project, Mary will be investigating seed herbivory on another endangered species, Nipomo lupine (Lupinus nipomensis). She will be setting up motion-sensor cameras adjacent to caged and uncaged plots containing lupine seed, and documenting the range and abundance of insects and small mammals that are eating and/or gathering seed. This information will assist in determining to what extent and what types of seed herbivory are constraining the reproduction of lupine, so that appropriate management measures can be taken. We look forward to hearing about Mary’s work in the year to come!

Previous Grant Recipients

2021: Stephanie Calloway, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; Recruitment limitations of the northern island mallow (Malva assurgentiflora subsp. assurgentiflora) on Anacapa Island

2021: Annie Meeder, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; Analysis of Alternative Post-Eradication Transitions and Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Grasslands on Santa Cruz Island.