SER-UW Native Plant Nursery - Cultivating Careers with Supportive Funding

At a glance

Status: Active

The SER-UW Native Plant Nursery provides high-quality, local, sustainably grown native plants to the UW community,… Read full summary

Funding received
2023-2024
Grant type
Large
Awarded
$80,198
Funding partners
  • Student Activities Fee (SAF)

The SER-UW Native Plant Nursery provides high-quality, local, sustainably grown native plants to the UW community, contributing thousands of plants annually for restoration projects on and around campus. The SER-UW Native Plant Nursery also provides invaluable experiences to students' academic journey through programs such as our for-credit undergraduate internship. Our nursery is focused on expanding our ecological and educational impacts while providing affordable native plants for student restoration efforts and thus leans on a variety of grant funding sources to allow us to continue serving our community. More information about our nursery is at https://sites.uw.edu/seruwnursery.

The SER-UW Native Plant Nursery seeks $80,198 in supportive funding to enhance our basic infrastructure and expand our keystone programs. Our nursery provides high-quality, local, sustainably grown native plants to the UW community, contributing thousands of plants annually for restoration projects on and around campus. The SER-UW Native Plant Nursery also provides invaluable experiences to students’ academic journey through programs such as our for-credit undergraduate internship. Our nursery is focused on expanding our ecological and educational impacts while providing affordable native plants for student restoration efforts and thus leans on a variety of grant funding sources to allow us to continue serving our community. To maintain our nursery's operations and outreach, we are seeking support for an hourly summer nursery manager and an hourly undergraduate student assistant. Further, we are seeking to improve our sustainability through infrastructure improvements including the installation of solar panels and our ecological education through internship project funding and navigational/educational signage. The requested funding would be administered over 3 years and stewarded by Jon Bakker's Terrestrial Restoration Ecology Lab, ensuring the SER-UW Native Plant Nursery can maintain and expand these flagship programs. More information about our nursery is at https://sites.uw.edu/seruwnursery.

Projects - Cycle 1

Contact: Lea Dyga (dygalea@uw.edu) or Joshua Kim (jkim07@uw.edu)

Summary of project proposal

The Society for Ecological Restoration-UW Native Plant Nursery provides high-quality, local, sustainably grown native plants to the UW community. We work with UW undergraduate and graduate students in a variety of capacities and provide a unique educational experience that goes beyond the scope of the typical UW experience. The nursery provides an invaluable addition to students’ academic journey through programs such as our for-credit undergraduate internship, our partnerships with the Community Engagement & Leadership Education Center and the UW-Restoration Ecology Network (REN) Capstone program, and by hosting tours and providing resources for UW classes (such as ESRM/ENVIR 362 and ESRM 412).

The SER-UW Native Plant Nursery seeks $66,250 in supportive funding to aid in routine administrative costs and infrastructure repairs, as well as to enhance our basic infrastructure and expand our keystone programs. This funding would be administered over 3 years, ensuring the SER-UW Native Plant Nursery and its flagship programming’s stability and success.

The nursery operations are overseen by a full time AmeriCorps member and a paid, undergraduate student assistant. The AmeriCorps member serves as the Nursery Manager, and is essential to all facets of its success. The undergraduate student assistant gains leadership experience along with professional development as a budding horticulturist. We are requesting $51,000 to provide partial staff funding for these positions. Securing partial support for three years will allow the team to focus their time and energy towards furthering our nursery’s mission and enhancing our students' educational experiences. The remainder of the staff funding will be secured through plant sales, external grants, etc.

Each quarter, the SER-UW Native Plant Nursery hosts at least five UW undergraduate interns. These interns earn credit toward their degree and produce individual, hands-on projects that are published on the nursery website and displayed at the Miller Library Student Plant Research Exhibit. We would like to enhance the intern experience and quality of the projects by providing project/research funding. By providing a $100 project budget to each intern, the scope of each intern’s individual project can be exponentially expanded and those credits will have even more meaning.

We also seek support for a short-list of priority infrastructure improvements and repairs. Our primary facility, an outdoor hoophouse, does not have access to electricity. Solar panels and associated batteries would provide a sustainable source of lighting and enable us to no longer be limited by short winter days. Further, our facilities are largely unmarked and thus underappreciated. We seek funding for navigational and educational signage to support self-guided tours of our facilities. In regards to repairs, we are due to replace our hoophouse polycover (wintertime plant protection) and shade cloth (summertime plant protection). Our facilities also need a handful of general repairs, mainly irrigation hoses and rabbit fencing, which are important to plant production.

Each of the items listed in our budget will increase our ability to meaningfully engage UW students in ecological horticulture, supporting their environmental education and building tangible horticultural career skills.

Sustainable impact

Projects must improve the sustainability of UW’s campus and/or operations. Sustainable impact encompasses both social sustainability - cultural awareness & preservation, representation or engagement of underrepresented communities, diverse and interdisciplinary collaboration – and environmental sustainability – reducing carbon emissions, energy use, water use, waste, pollutants, and toxins, as well as improving living systems, biodiversity, environmental justice and equity. Projects focused on social sustainability should also include an environmentally sustainable component, although this part does not have to be the project’s focus.

Our student assistant and AmeriCorps member are critical to the nursery’s keystone role in ecological restoration on the university campus. Our nursery leads the production and procurement of native plants for contracts and orders with the SER-UW student organization and REN Capstone restoration sites, and supports UW Grounds. Nursery practices, including sexual propagation and integrated pest management, support principles of ecological horticulture, preserving biodiversity and fostering plant-wildlife interactions on campus. These practices cannot be sustained without relationships built with the broader restoration community on campus and in King County, including student organizations, student volunteers, faculty, other nurseries, and interested community members. These relationships are primarily and critically supported by, and cannot be expanded without funding longevity and staff stability through our student assistant and AmeriCorps member.

Leadership & student involvement

Staff and student roles must be clearly outlined and reflected in the proposed project budget. Projects must demonstrate some substantial degree of student leadership or student involvement throughout the application and implementation process to be considered for funding. Additionally, projects initiated by students will be prioritized.

The nursery provides multiple avenues for student leadership and development. Our internship intentionally fosters leadership, with each intern undertaking a project of a topic of their own initiative, often having interns reaching out and collaborating or networking with, for example, other labs for guidance on research focused projects, or other nurseries for industry knowledge. Often, interns will stay for multiple quarters, allowing for expansion of responsibilities and peer teaching–a cornerstone to maintaining operations. Our student assistant position provides an opportunity for high-level student involvement and leadership on grant-funded research, horticultural operations, key partnerships with other organizations, and management of interns and volunteers.

Education, outreach, & behavior change

Projects must include educational and outreach components that help cultivate an aware and engaged campus community.

Our Nursery Internship offers UW undergraduates the opportunity to gain hands-on horticultural education while earning credit towards their degree. This unique experience is supported by our AmeriCorps member, who acts both as a nursery manager and an environmental educator. For several of our current/recent interns, their Nursery Internship project is their first experience with leading a research initiative. The requested funding for individual projects will also enhance the internship program by expanding the scope of the research interns may pursue.

Feasibility & accountability

Applicants must demonstrate that they have or can attain the technical knowledge, necessary approvals, and project management skills to complete projects successfully. The Fund encourages the use of a faculty or staff mentor, appropriate department support, and/or a line item in the budget for project management.  CSF monies must be used in a socially responsible manner—to be determined by the Committee.  Projects requiring ongoing maintenance or staffing not funded by the CSF should demonstrate a plan to meet long-term needs.

The SER-UW Native Plant Nursery’s success and longevity is stewarded by SEFS professor Jon Bakker and is supported by the UW Botanic Gardens. Project management is the responsibility of the full time AmeriCorps member and is supported by the student assistant. The nursery can seek further technical knowledge and necessary approvals through existing communication channels at the Center for Urban Horticulture, including the UW Farm, or within the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. Upon approval of the LOI, we intend to seek technical support for UW Solar as well. Our nursery has successfully completed three large CSF projects in the past and our key stakeholders are familiar with the process via other CSF funded projects.

Core project team

Key stakeholders

  • Society for Ecological Restoration UW Student Organization
  • UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
  • UW Terrestrial Restoration Ecology Lab
  • UW Restoration Ecology Network Capstone Class
  • UW Botanic Gardens
  • UW Solar (upon successful LOI)

Itemized budget - initial estimation

Item Cost per Item Quantity Total
AmeriCorps Member (Full Time, 1700 hours/year) - Staff $9,000 3 years $27,000
Student Assistant (Part Time, 3 quarters/year) - Staff $8,000 3 years $24,000
Internship Project Funding (5 interns/quarter @ $100 each) $500 10 quarters $5,000
Hoophouse Lighting (Solar Panels, Batteries, Lights) - Infrastructure Improvement     $8,500
Navigational/ Educational Signage - Infrastructure Improvement     $750
Hoophouse Polycover + Shade Cloth - Infrastructure Repair     $500
General Repair Supplies -  Infrastructure Repair     $500
TOTAL     $66,250

Timeline for project completion

[Spring 2024 through Spring 2027]

  • Spring 2024
    • Fund 5 Nursery Intern projects ($500)
    • Hire 2024/25 AmeriCorps Member ($9,000)
    • Hire 2024/25 Student Assistant ($8,000)
  • Summer 2024
    • Complete Hoophouse Shade Cloth Infrastructure Repair ($250)
    • Complete General Infrastructure Repair ($500)
  • Fall 2024
    • Fund 5 Nursery Intern projects ($500)
    • Research hoophouse lighting (ask UW Solar & UW Farm)
    • Begin drafting Navigational/ Educational Signage
  • Winter 2025
    • Fund 5 Nursery Intern projects ($500)
    • Finalize Educational Signage
  • Spring 2025
    • Fund 5 Nursery Intern projects ($500)
    • Finalize hoophouse lighting plan
    • Print + Instal Navigational/ Educational Signage ($750)
    • Hire 2025/26 AmeriCorps Member ($9,000)
    • Hire 2025/26 Student Assistant ($8,000)
  • Summer 2025
    • Begin installing Hoophouse Lighting Infrastructure Improvement ($8,500)
  • Fall 2025
    • Fund 5 Nursery Intern projects ($500)
    • Finalize Hoophouse Lighting Infrastructure Improvement
  • Winter 2026
    • Fund 5 Nursery Intern projects ($500)
    • Complete Hoophouse Polycover Infrastructure Repair ($250)
  • Spring 2026
    • Fund 5 Nursery Intern projects ($500)
    • Hire 2026/27 AmeriCorps Member ($9,000)
    • Hire 2026/27 Student Assistant ($8,000)
  • Summer 2026
    • --
  • Fall 2026
    • Fund 5 Nursery Intern projects ($500)
  • Winter 2027
    • Fund 5 Nursery Intern projects ($500)
  • Spring 2027
    • Fund 5 Nursery Intern projects ($500)

Request amount and budget

Total amount requested: $80,198
Budget administrator: See attached AAR form

How the project will react to funding reductions

The ability to fulfill our initiatives with reduced funding depends on the specific line item. With reduced funding (of any percent) for our AmeriCorps Member or Student Assistant, we would seek funding from other sources but would attempt to continue to operate at current levels. Similarly, a reduction in funding for Internship Project Funding would not impact the current levels of operations, but would restrict us from increasing the quality of this program unless we were able to find other funding. We would not be able to pursue the Infrastructure Improvements if they were not funded.

Plans for financial longevity

The SER-UW Native Plant Nursery's success and longevity is stewarded by SEFS professor Jon Bakker and is supported by the UW Botanic Gardens. Project management is the responsibility of the Nursery Manager and is supported by the student assistant. The nursery can seek further technical knowledge and necessary approvals through existing communication channels at the Center for Urban Horticulture, including the UW Farm, or within the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. We intend to seek technical support for UW Solar as well. Our nursery has successfully completed three large CSF projects in the past and our key stakeholders are familiar with the process via other CSF funded projects. The SER-UW Native Plant Nursery plans to continue operations beyond the life of this project. Nursery activities are also supported by activities such as retail plant sales, contracts to produce plants, and research grants.

Problem statement

The United Nations has named 2021-2030 as the "Decade of Ecosystem Restoration." There is global recognition of the role of ecological restoration in combating climate change and empowering environmental justice. The fuel for ecological restoration is plant material, especially plants native to a region. However, restoration agencies and landscape designers routinely identify a lack of native plant availability as a significant barrier to their restoration initiatives (https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/26618/chapter/1). The SER-UW Native Plant Nursery meets this immediate issue by annually providing thousands of plants of about 100 different native species at affordable rates to restoration efforts at and around UW. Our nursery also provides a unique and hands-on horticultural education experience that allows UW students to gain knowledge and skill in native plant production. Equipped with this experience, our interns and volunteers bring native plant expertise into their careers, advancing restoration efforts wherever they land. The quality and reach of both our educational programming and our native plant production are reliant on stable funding for our staff and adequate infrastructure.

As we look to expand our operation and its impacts, the implementation of sustainably minded infrastructure improvements are at the top of our list. In this proposal, we are seeking funding for solar panels and associated equipment to electrify our hoophouse. Our outdoor facilities currently lack any electricity. By bringing solar power to our hoophouse, we not only mitigate this barrier, but provide a learning opportunity for our staff and students.

Measure the impacts

The impact of these initiatives will be measured through a combination of metrics including plant material output, education hours and credits awarded, students reached, and volunteer hours recorded. Each metric is recorded quarterly and compiled annually. Successful implementation of these initiatives would mean these metrics increase annually.

Education and outreach goals

The SER-UW Native Plant Nursery engages in a variety of education and outreach initiatives. In the 2022-23 academic year, we hosted nearly 600 students and recorded over 1,800 volunteer hours by hosting volunteer work parties, online native plant classes, class tours, and more. Of these programs, our for-credit undergraduate internship denominates our focus. In the 2022-23 academic year, we awarded 40 credits (ESRM/BIOL 399) to 13 undergraduate students for a total of 1,200 hours of horticultural education. Currently, our nursery utilizes an AmeriCorps service member to oversee our nursery, including education and outreach, for a 10.5-month term from September through June. Although this system works well for the school year, we are left with a gap in managerial support during the summer. Our nursery is seeking administrative support for an hourly summer nursery manager so we can maintain operations through the summer by, for example, hosting our for-credit internship during the summer quarter. Further, our requested internship project funding would enhance the quality of our intern's experience. Internship project funding allows interns to expand the scope of projects they take on during their time at the nursery, making their experience even more meaningful. Specific examples on project items we've needed in the past include specific plants and seeds, mycorrhizal inoculant, gibberellic acid, or building materials such as lumber and fencing.

The SER-UW Native Plant Nursery seeks to engage with the UW community through a variety of in-person and digital outreach events. Firstly, our nursery maintains both a social media presence (instagram: @sernursery) and a website (https://sites.uw.edu/seruwnursery/). Due to our location at the Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH), we must actively work to bring students to our facilities. Our request for navigational/educational signage funding is part of our campaign to make the CUH more navigable to UW students and increase awareness of our nursery as a resource to students. Further, our nursery makes efforts to attend on campus tabling events, such as the RSO fairs or the UW Sustainability Fair. We also host at least one on-campus plant sale each year in addition to our two public plant sales that take place at the CUH.

Student involvement

Our nursery provides high-quality, local, sustainably grown native plants to the UW community. Our nursery grows and procures native plants for groups like the SER-UW RSO and the UW-Restoration Ecology Network (REN) Capstone program, contributing thousands of plants annually for restoration projects on and around campus. The SER-UW Native Plant Nursery also provides invaluable experiences to students' academic journey through programs such as our for-credit undergraduate internship, our partnerships with the Community Engagement & Leadership Education (CELE) Center, and by hosting tours and providing resources for UW classes (such as ESRM/ENVIR 362 and ESRM 412). In the 2022-23 school year, we hosted nearly 600 students and recorded over 1,800 volunteer hours.

Student involvement is fundamental to nursery operations and provides opportunities for engagement on all levels. Our internship program, which takes on a cohort of four to eight interns per quarter, provides a combination of education and hands-on experience. Interns receive training through a curriculum developed by the nursery manager and student assistant on horticultural topics and native plant identification. This training is directly applied to nursery work, providing robust professional development in the field of horticulture. Interns are able to further apply training through an individual project, which allows interns to tailor their internship to their own professional goals. Projects result in high-impact deliverables that are incorporated into nursery operations, including, but not limited to, infrastructure design, experimental design and execution resulting in original research, and recommendations for future growth and direction. Project funding would result in increased project impact that would maximize student initiative and creativity, as costs of materials limit the scope of projects. Also, funding for infrastructure improvements would create additional structured avenues for interns to take on and execute high-impact projects.

Our student assistant position is critical to the regular operation of the nursery. This position offers a unique opportunity for students to guide an organization at a high level, through tasks including, but not limited to, long-term project management for research and contract-grows, training and management of interns and volunteers, ideating and executing improvements to nursery workflow, steering future growth of the nursery, and fundraising. Continued funding of this position would foster student leadership at the nursery, as well as provide administrative support to sustain and expand keystone programs like the internship. Additionally, as candidates for this position are routinely drawn from former interns, this role provides a professional development ladder that is a valuable stepping stone to a full-time career in a related field upon graduation.

The nursery offers a variety of volunteer opportunities. Through our partnership with the CELE Center, we regularly host two to three CELE volunteers per quarter, who participate in nursery activities under the guidance of the nursery manager and/or student assistant. This service learning experience through the CELE Center is a requirement for many introductory courses at UW, and provides an entry way for volunteers into the fields of horticulture and restoration. The nursery also holds biweekly work parties, facilitated and advertised by the nursery manager, student assistant, and intern team, where we engage with volunteers by demonstrating and applying basic nursery tasks.

The requested funding in this proposal would support critical staff members that run these programs as well as provide an opportunity to enhance program quality.

Project lead

Lea Dyga

dygalea@uw.edu

Affiliation

Staff

Categories

  • Biodiversity and Living Systems