October 11, 2024 at 12:38 pm by Yaati Sureka / Daily Nexus
The Isla Vista Recreation & Park District held the first ‘Stewardship Saturday’ of the 2024-25 school year on Oct. 5. ‘Stewardship Saturday’ is a weekly series where volunteers can learn tips and tricks about sustainable gardening.
Volunteers gathered at Estero Community Gardens on Sept. 21 to plant fall veggies at the IVRPD’s Stewardship Saturday event. It’s the first of several volunteer stewardship events the IVRPD will host for the rest of the year. Yaati Sureka / Daily Nexus
The volunteer event is held every week on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Estero Community Gardens in Isla Vista. Volunteers help prepare the fall veggie garden using tools, compost and seeds provided by the Isla Vista Recreation & Park District (IVRPD).
Stewardship is about ensuring that parks, trails and recreational areas remain clean, safe, and accessible for everyone in the community to enjoy, according to IVRPD members. IVRPD also plans to host several stewardship volunteer opportunities including preparation for Halloween and painting signs.
Stewardship Saturday has remained a consistent volunteering event “where anyone’s welcome to attend,” according to IVRPD Stewardship Coordinator Thea Winterich. 10 volunteers participated in the Estero Community Gardens event, preparing the plot by clearing the trash and planting flower seeds in two groups.
Yaati Sureka / Daily Nexus
“IVRPD has 25 parks in Isla Vista, and our volunteer events, for the most part, involve all of them. We really just want to get people aware of the spaces that we have and let them know that they have open access… Also some people who have never experienced outdoor work before, we want to get them outside and get them excited about what’s here,” Winterich said.
Before the start of the event, Winterich provided volunteers with gloves, shovels and rakes. They were free to help themselves to water and snacks during the event. She also gave demonstrations of turning the soil and preparing it with compost.
Winterich said the preparation required to host the event required collaboration with a grounds crew and promotion for the event.
“We work with our grounds crew to see what parks need more weeding, trash cleanup and maybe need some plantings. Other than that, it’s a lot of promotional work. So promoting our events through a bunch of organizations on UCSB campus, flyers and Instagram posts,” Winterich said.
Volunteers prepared the Demonstration Plot for planting different types of kale, broccoli, carrots, radishes, beets, spinach and lettuce. They also prepared for flowers such as matilija poppies, forage plants and some wildflowers.
“Our last event this quarter is a harvest of this plot,” Winterich said. “So everyone that comes out for that event gets to take home everything that is ready to harvest.”
Vanessa Makhlouf, fourth-year environmental studies major, said that she had prior knowledge about gardening from her ES150 Agroecology class — which focuses on “indigenous land stewardship and food production practices” — but considers the volunteer event as “actually doing something.”
October 11, 2024 at 12:38 pm by Yaati Sureka / Daily Nexus
