San Diego students create 39 wildlife gardens and restore 25,000 square feet of habitat

Nearly 350 San Diego high-school students have spent the past four years turning school grounds and community spaces into native wildlife gardens. Together, they have helped create or restore almost 25,000 square feet of habitat through 39 gardens.

The work forms part of the Native Biodiversity Corps, a San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance program launched in 2022. Students learn about native plants, wildlife and habitat restoration before designing, planting and maintaining gardens with guidance from conservation professionals.

The program began with funding from San Diego's Level Up program. More than 300 urban high-school students registered within 72 hours, and about 100 joined the inaugural program. During the summer, they visited conservation sites including the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, San Diego Natural History Museum, Living Coast Discovery Center and San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve.

Students then used what they learned to build gardens at Crawford, Hoover and Lincoln high schools. Their work goes beyond planting. They survey potential sites, develop designs, select suitable native plants, help carry out the projects and maintain the finished gardens. The program has also moved beyond school grounds, with students helping convert an unused golf-course space into a native garden.

At Hoover High School, students transformed a tree planter into a pollinator garden containing California poppy, narrowleaf milkweed, showy penstemon and California buckwheat. The gardens use native vegetation to provide food and habitat for pollinators and other wildlife in developed areas, while giving students practical conservation experience.