Oct 2: (@ Madrona Marsh) Urban Ecologist Joanna Tang on Vernal Pools and Community Engagement
After the Madrona Marsh walk at 5:30 PM on Oct 2, join us at 7:00 PM at the Madrona Marsh Nature Center for a talk by Joanna Tang and sale pricing on remaining native plants from Saturday’s sale.
This meeting was recorded on Zoom and is available on YouTube at https://youtu.be/OKH7x-SybFs
I recently viewed a short video of Ms. Tang presenting a synopsis of her research and I was left smiling at her bountiful energy and enthusiasm. I think you’ll like her too!
Joanna Tang (she/her) is a PhD student at UC Santa Barbara studying restoration ecology under Dr. Carla D’Antonio. She is California born-and-bred, growing up in the Bay Area and going to UC Davis as an undergraduate. It was at UC Davis that she was first introduced to vernal pool wetlands — she instantly fell in love with the unique floral displays ringing the pools. She believes they epitomize the rich biodiversity that California has to offer. Now, in her graduate studies, she is researching how to best restore and steward these understudied and fast-disappearing wetlands.
Joanna has always loved plants and gardening, and she sees habitat restoration as an important opportunity to reconnect people with plants and stewardship. As an aspiring restoration practitioner, her graduate studies center around solving real-world problems associated with threats to vernal pool wetlands and translating that science into tools for restoration practitioners to use. Currently, she is testing strategies for weeding out non-native annual grasses that can invade vernal pools and designing a native species palette that can ensure restored vernal pools maintain high native species diversity in the long run. She is also an urban ecologist, because she sees the value of small greenspaces within urban landscapes that can both harbor biodiverse ecosystems and provide ecosystem services to the community. She believes that engaging the local community in habitat restoration work is a key component in reversing the damages to nature done by humans and establishing a positive relationship between humans and nature.
