Students in the Arid Lands Management class conducted exhaustive research on our local watershed, as well as various species of native plants that coexist well together, and then created their individual “guilds” of compatible plants to be included in the restoration site near the school entrance as part of the Conserve 2 Enhance grant project. Then, the class was fortunate enough to spend a rainy day on the lower slopes of the Catalinas observing how our natural watershed works firsthand with Jim Verrier, the Nursery Director at Desert Survivors nursery, and a good friend of the school. With Jim’s expertise, students spent time observing how natural microclimates create unique spaces for different plants to grow and were able to identify many of the plants that they chose to include in their guilds and see how they grew naturally.
