“To start the year, Test Plot board members Jenny Jones and Max Kanter attended with Jenny key noting at the “Beyond Maintenance” Conference at ETH, Switzerland, which brought Landscape designers and gardeners from Europe, South Asia, South America and North America together to explore the relationship between the design and maintenance of living systems. Test Plot was presented as a clear and cutting edge example of community land stewardship shaping urban landscape.” — Max Kanter

“To kickoff our ethnobotany plot at La Esquinita, we hosted an elderberry tea meditation with Herb Club LA, an oak gall dye workshop with Berbo Studio, and a food and medicine demonstration with Laboratory for Indigenous Knowledge Systems. Thank you to the volunteers who have come out to help with the park maintenance!“ 
— Vanessa Alonzo, MRCA

“The Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook Test Plot has become a thriving habitat for a prominent Anna's hummingbird, a nesting mother field mouse, and Western fence lizards basking on rocks & California buckwheat. The plot serves as a valuable resource for teaching our students during field trips and provides a beautiful environment for volunteers.”
— Arely Mendia Perez, Nature Nexus Institute

“At Rainbow Canyon, USC students hosted a site sensory workshop, where they guided community members to tune into the canyon. We documented it with an oral history on the LOG. It was the first of 4 workshops supporting LA’s Safe Clean Water Program.” — Alex Robinson, USC

“This year, Elephant Hill was featured in the Theodore Payne Foundation Native Plant Garden Tour, and had a spread in Flora magazine! We also got a trail with steps, and hosted numerous educational workshops and work days. A special shout out to super stewards Naomi Guevara & Ben Oswald.” — Will Hourigan, local steward

“In Berkeley we started our first propagation effort, collecting seed and growing clarkia, poppies, gilia, yampah and more for the Ohlone hillside project. We are lucky to collaborate with a nearby restoration site, Skyline Gardens, that shares the same volcanic ridge geology.” — Jen Toy + Evita Rodriguez, Test Plot + Terremoto

“This winter, we’re trying a new iteration of the Rainbow River, in a larger area named “the blob”, and with fencing to protect it. We plan to use this plot for experiments with seed only, with a focus on wildflowers. Special thanks to Noah Aldonas, Dante Iñiguez, and Sam Richman.”
— Jenny Jones, Terremoto

Metrics from the Field, a workbook for local land stewards 

We have a new zine, this time focused on metrics for community scale projects. From tracking weedy natives, to monitoring keystone species, to quantifying economic value — the zine features handy worksheets and beautiful hand drawn illustrations. View the PDF or purchase your copy here.