Possibilities in Restoration

Jun 13

This spring, our Habitat Restoration Intern, Ruby, was invited to share her “story of possibilities” with hundreds of people as a closing speaker at the TOGETHER Bay Area annual conference. This event connects nonprofits, public agencies, local Tribes, and other organizations that work to conserve and steward land in the nine-county Bay Area region.

I first met Ruby in 2023 when she was volunteering at Pearson-Arastradero Preserve. Ruby shared that she enjoyed volunteering with us and was interested in applying for our Habitat Restoration internship; however, she was concerned that she didn’t have enough experience. I reassured her that that was what the internship was for: people interested in the environment, working with people, and learning.

What started as Ruby helping the environment to get service hours for school turned into working with us as an intern for nearly two years, first through the California Youth Leadership Corps, then through our paid Habitat Restoration Internship.

As Ruby’s supervisor, I have had the honor of working with her endless positivity while we weed invasive grasses in the hot summer sun to leading groups of high schoolers on field trips, teaching them about fire fuel management and climate change. Though Ruby will complete her internship soon, she will be continuing on as an environmental steward as she pursues her degree in Environmental Studies. Read her speech on possibilities in hands-on habitat restoration below!

I’m standing in the middle of an undergrowth of English ivy; gloves on, sleeves rolled up, ready to support any way I can. Around me are a group of high school boys, all laughing and complaining about the thorns on the Himalayan blackberry. We are pulling out ivy from the banks of a tributary that goes into Arroyo Ojo de Agua at Stulsaft Park while avoiding the sea of poison oak. One of them calls my name and asks, dead serious, ‘So what happens if nobody does this anymore?’’

That question stops me. Not because I don’t know the answer, I do, but because I realize: they’re really thinking about it. They’re paying attention.

I’m an intern in habitat restoration with Grassroots Ecology in Redwood City. That means I spend a lot of time with weeds. I pull invasive plants, plant native ones, and do what I can to help bring ecosystems back to life. But the work isn’t just with plants. It’s also with people.

When I’m not in the field, I’m helping host our high school youth stewards, leading field trips for K-12 students, or tabling at schools and events. I’m also a college student at Cal State San Jose, studying to one day become a park interpreter. My goal is to help people feel a sense of belonging in nature and a sense of responsibility to it.

Ruby speaking at the TOGETHER Bay Area conference. (photo credit: Jennifer Hale)

I didn’t grow up thinking I’d end up here. I just knew I wanted to do something real. Something that made a difference. I didn’t realize how much that “something” would involve handing a kid a digging tool and watching them learn what care looks like. And what I’ve learned is that restoration is just as much about people as it is about the land.

Truthfully, I began volunteering to fulfill community service hours, that was it, but somewhere in between pulling weeds and working alongside strangers, I got a first hand look on what it means to build power through people. I was later offered an internship that changed the trajectory of my life.

I was part of a program my first year as an intern with Grassroots Ecology where I received mentorship designed to empower individuals from diverse and non-traditional backgrounds to drive social change.

Redwood City interns Ruby, Anna Maria, and Kapewa in the field.

But it wasn't just the mentorship I received, it was what I learned from being a mentee, from seeing what it feels like to be supported, to be heard, to be seen in spaces where you are not always represented.

That day in the ivy patch, I explained that not all plants belong where they grow. Some take over, crowding out others and hurting the balance of the ecosystem. I told the kids that restoration means healing, and healing sometimes looks like pulling.

We spent the rest of our time finding invasive species and monitoring native plants we planted.And for the first time, I saw what possibility actually looks like not just in the ground, but in them. They weren’t just learning facts about the forest. They were learning how to care for something. Together.

Since then, I’ve watched students return to sites they helped restore. I’ve seen middle schoolers bring their parents to weekend work days. I’ve had high schoolers tell me they want to study ecology or start their own community gardens.The land heals slowly, but the people? Sometimes they light up instantly.

Like at a recent community workday, a family with 3 young kids came out to volunteer and in that moment while we planted, dirt covered and smiling, the kids scouting for any sign of movement from grubs and bugs. At one point we realized we were all covered in mud and laughing about it. I saw the sense of purpose that can only come from connection.

This work taught me that the future isn’t a big, faraway thing. It’s something we plant in each other through stories, through connection, through digging side by side in the dirt.

I’m still early in my journey. Still pulling thorns. Still figuring things out. But I know I want to keep showing people what’s possible in the land and in themselves.

One day, I’ll be a park interpreter, helping others see the stories living in the trees, the moss, the soil. But today, I’m already part of something bigger. Because change isn’t one person doing everything, it’s all of us doing what we can, where we are, together.

And sometimes, it starts with a kid asking the right question... in the middle of an ivy patch.