Zoo InternQuest is a career exploration program for high school students. For more information see the Zoo InternQuest Journals. For more photos see the Zoo InternQuest Photo Journal.

What do you do to preserve the flora of the planet? We always hear about the three “R’s” –reduce, reuse, and recycle–which are excellent suggestions for the average person, but Briana Moseley and her colleagues go even more in depth: they revegetate. At the Wild Animal Park’s Seed Bank, Ms. Moseley and her team collect samples from the various plants that are native to the San Diego area. Then the plants are dried and pressed, if they can do so without perishing, in order to get to the seed. The seeds are then extracted and stored in a “bank,” kind of a suspended animation, until they are needed for restoration of native habitats.

The process of collecting the plants is more involved than just going out and picking a few flowers, however. The researchers have to note the direction the plant is facing, the type of soil it is in, how much sunlight it is receiving, the colors of the leaves/flowers/fruit, whether or not the plant is on a slope and if so how steep, and they have to do this with as many plants as possible in order to create the most diverse parental gene pool they can.

The purpose for all of this work is to be able to restore the natural beauty of our county, if need be. The road to this position is not a very difficult one, but certainly requires a passion for plants. A degree in general biology is good, and plant physiology/genetics classes are also helpful, but not necessary. The most productive option is to have an internship of some kind in this field before applying for a job. Though I found this job a little too meticulous for my taste, it was full of surprises, from the level of details that are necessary to the fact that San Diego County has such a variety of habitats and plant species that need to be preserved.

End note: This blog was posted after the San Diego County fires. Now that over 250,000 acres of habitat have been burned, the precious genetically varied seeds in the Seed Bank may be brought out and put into service to restore areas that the fire destroyed. After these events, this job is even more pertinent.

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