An interview with EPIC Native Plant Member Lexy Coons who served with the Catalina Island Conservancy.
1) What’s your background coming into your role initially and what’s your current title as an ACE member? Can you explain your start at ACE?
Prior to becoming an ACE technician I received my Bachelor’s degree in Biology and worked as a Physical Therapy technician for 1 year before I moved to Catalina Island to work at the zipline. While working at the zipline I received naturalist training through the Catalina Island Conservancy and I was fascinated with the flora and fauna on the island. I eventually met one of my current coworkers (Lauren R) and she inspired me to apply to work with the Conservancy. I was very fortunate to make it through the interview process with ACE and I am now working as a Native Plant Technician! The start with ACE was a unique experience as my housing is situated 40 minutes outside of the only city on the island. I only have 2 neighbors, if you don’t count the resident bison or the bald eagle nesting in our tree haha, so it’s very quiet out here!
Working with plants was a completely new experience for me and learning the names, let alone the scientific names, for all the plants on the island seemed like an impossible task. However, my manager, Kevin Alison, has truly fostered my growth and development in every capacity and helped me feel confident in my skills.
Lexy in the lab.
2) At your project location, what are you doing week to week to be engaged in conservation efforts of public lands?
I am often working at the Native plant nursery, where we grow thousands of native plants that are to be used for community projects, distributed to camps around the island, and for restoration projects of our own. We also do our best to provide native plants to the local community whenever asked to encourage native planting and hopefully prevent invasive and nonnative species from being brought to the island. We have many of our rare plant species growing at the nursery so that we can collect seeds from them to store in case of island fires, and to develop propagation techniques to continue to have these species represented at the nursery, around the island, and we even have some of our rarest plants represented at botanic gardens and research labs across the country for further research and safe off island storage.
In addition to the nursery, we also have a lab where Kevin Alison has been working on perfecting Plant Tissue Culture techniques on some of our rarest species. Kevin has been an amazing mentor to me and allowed me to assist him in the lab in many ways, including making media for the tissue culture vessels, dissecting the plants grown in test tubes, and we have even begun to practice making synthetic seeds!
Some of the best days are when we get to work out in the field in breathtaking locations all around the island. We go out to collect seeds, take cuttings of plants to propagate at the nursery, do rare plant monitoring as well as fence walking our exclosures located around the island to ensure there have been no breaches.
Every day has something new in store for us but my favorite days are always volunteer Thursdays! Every Thursday we have a group of volunteers, typically island locals, that come out to the nursery and assist us with many different tasks including up potting plants, sowing seeds, planting plants in our restoration sites, collecting seeds and much more. I have been fortunate enough to get to take charge of volunteer days and really get to connect with the volunteers and educate them on the plants and the tasks we’re doing. On such a small island community involvement means everything, and it is so rewarding to be the one to foster these relationships and get the community to really understand the importance of our native plants.
3) What were your goals coming into this position, and how has this position helped shape your future goals? How has it contributed to your current role?
Coming into my position as a native plant technician, I was really excited to get to help restore and care for an island that I love so much. I was hoping to improve my knowledge surrounding the plants that exist on Catalina and do meaningful work that made an impact on the landscape. I also wanted to learn more about conservation and the different fields to gain insight into what I may want to do as a career in the future.
I quickly became passionate about my work and feel lucky every day to get to do something so fulfilling. The work that I have gotten to do here has inspired me to want to continue my career in conservation and continue being a steward of the land.
The importance behind the work I’m doing has motivated me to work as hard as I can to preserve the island and the unique species that exist on it. It has also made me want to get the rest of the community interested in native plants and spread the word about our weekly volunteer day at the nursery to get them engaged in conservation and have an active hand in preserving their home.
Bee pollinating native yarrow on Catalina Island.
4) What is one of the things you reflect on most about your early career in conservation?
Coming into conservation I was nervous that I didn’t know enough to hack it in this field and that I would be intimidated by these stern, serious scientists. I never expected the people I met to be so generous in spreading their knowledge and passion for the field. The individuals I have met during my time working at the Catalina island Conservancy are some of the kindest, funniest, and most caring people I have ever met, and I am so thankful for the patience and support I have received from my coworkers. I realized that they truly want to see me succeed and work collectively to get to the end result we are all working towards.
5) What advice would you have for those who would like to move to a similar role as you have now?
If I were to give advice to someone interested in a role like mine, I would suggest trying to find a location or species that you are particularly passionate about. Truly caring about the work you do will make your work better and your day better! Getting to hike and explore for work, and care for the land is something I never thought would be possible, but here I am getting paid to do it and it’s amazing!
6) Share a book or music/podcast rec for long work days or remote work locations!
Another important thing is music! We always have music playing around the nursery to keep the vibes up and one of my favorite stations to play is Khruangbin radio. One of my favorite songs by them is People Everywhere, give it a listen for a chill, groovy work day 🙂