Nicodemus Wilderness Project -- Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists

In the changing climate of todayâ€™s environment the increasing concern over endangered animals is beginning to draw bigger media attention, but what about endangered plants? With the threat of greenhouse gases amplifying the harmful effects of global warming on our environment and the constant deforestation within our worldâ€™s largest rainforests, the loss of endangered plants could plunge our environment even deeper into irrevocable damage.
My project , not the typical planting tree and picking up litter initiative, involved the genetic analysis of a indigenous California plant that is currently on the endangered species list . The plant, Eriastrum densifolium, or better known as Woolly Star was under study to see if it is surviving upheavals in its specialized habitat near the Santa Ana River. This project involved collecting samples from the various sites that the Woolly Star plant is found in Southern California (done by my colleagues), and involved me extracting DNA from the plant samples in order for genetic analysis to be performed. Once all the genetic information is collected and categorized, it will be compared to genetic information from the same plants from 15 years ago. As evident this project will take some time to complete, but the goal is to hopefully see that the plant, the Woolly Star, is genetically adapting to its surroundings in order to survive better and hopefully thrive and get off the endangered species list.
My continued involvement within this project has opened my eyes to a whole new biological group that requires our attention and help. After becoming involved I realized that being a conservation biologists and helping preserve plants in the world around us was my goal in life. I take this and try to apply it to my everyday life in the planting of trees in local parks, educating others on how important plants are to our environment and that we need to take an active role in order to preserve them so they can possibly help reverse the harmful effects of greenhouse gases within our atmosphere. My eventual goal is to someday join the Environmental Protection Agency so I will be able to help create policies that protect plants and the world around us.