Native Plant Apprentice: Shandelle Clifton

(Left to right) Deanna, Shandelle, and Emma worked closely together over the summer in native plant management and land conservation

Interning at Reflection Riding this summer was an enjoyable experience. The staff were all very friendly and had a lot of good information to share. Having previously had nursery experience, I came into this internship with the expectation of hard and hot work, but the nursery staff, volunteers, and other interns helped make that work seem more like a fun pastime. 

Experiencing a native plant nursery compared to the ornamental nursery I previously worked at gave me an appreciation for some plants I had previously considered weeds. During part of this internship, I worked with a crew up in the gardens by the welcome center to reestablish the gardens that had been planted there previously. We thinned them out and took out invasives that had popped up and grew large over time. Reestablishing the gardens helped me see how a native plant garden can look like an actual garden and how some of those plants that I considered weeds have pretty flowers or seeds that are unique and can complement each other. I had always been taught that pollinators are more active in areas with their native vegetation, but experiencing it firsthand in these gardens was a delight. 

From the submersion in native plants on the property to the mentality that the staff brought, I found myself liking more and more natives and I have accumulated several in my yard since. I have been told that planting native plants in your yard is better for other native species, but this crew really drives that idealism home, and as an environmental science major I was more than willing to jump on board. There aren’t too many places that a person can go to be around such a passionate group when it comes to planting natives, but this mentality is shared among staff as well as many of the volunteers who spend endless hours trying to remove invasives and keep the natives looking happy and healthy. 

Shandelle identifies a plant by the Welcome Center using iNaturalist

Collecting and sowing native seeds in the nursery was an activity that I had very little experience in doing. I enjoyed hiking and/or canoeing out to locations to get seeds and/or cuttings to propagate in the nursery. It was rewarding to see the seeds that we sowed sprout and grow a bit before the end of the internship and interesting to see some of the methods used to stratify the seeds before they could be planted. Since starting this internship, I have become comfortable doing this and have since purchased rooting hormone to attempt to get some cuttings going myself to put around my yard. 

Initially having contacted Reflection to do a land conservation internship, I was also involved in the weekly invasive species removal. The crew was a fun bunch to be around and working alongside the Bridge Outdoors group for several of these excursions was gratifying. I don’t care much about working with children, but working with these teens and seeing the effort they put in to clear an area was cathartic. I enjoyed seeing the work they put in, answering their questions, and hearing the little insights they gave to each other while they were working; it made me feel a sense of hope for environmental consciousness in future generations. As an environmental science major who is surrounded by talk of doom and gloom for the future of our environment, it was refreshing to see these kids asking meaningful questions, using the information that we gave them as they were working, spreading it amongst the group as others asked the same questions, and growing as environmental stewards. I would have liked to have learned a little more about land conservation during this internship, but given the current state of affairs, and that I was technically interning in the nursery and not a land conservation intern, I would say the experience was a good introduction. I look forward to spending more time on the property as a volunteer learning more about native plants and continuing my education on land conservation.