Greetings from the grand canyon

27 May Greetings from the grand canyon

Hello! I’m Sasha Escamilla and I’m from San Diego, California. When I am home, one of my favorite weekend activities is going to the beach with my dog. I graduated from California State University, Dominguez Hills in May 2020 with a BS in Biology with a concentration in Ecology and Environmental Biology. During undergrad, I was the Native Plant intern with the Office of Sustainability at CSUDH and was responsible for maintaining the seven native gardens around campus. This is where I discovered my passion for plants and habitat restoration. To further my knowledge on these topics, I will be attending graduate school this Fall at the University of New Mexico.

In December 2020, I started working as a horticulture intern with the Grand Canyon vegetation team through an American Conservation Experience internship. I was based out of the greenhouse on the South Rim, where our main goal is to grow all the plants for the various restoration projects in the park. As my ACE internship was coming to an end, I was really excited to learn about this internship through Mosaics and at the opportunity to stay at the park for a little bit longer! I will now be working as a botanical resources assistant at the Grand Canyon. There are over 1700 known plant species in the park, and I will be focusing on one special plant in particular, Sentry milk-vetch (SMV). SMV is the only endangered plant species in Grand Canyon National Park and my project will be focused on advancing recovery efforts of this tiny plant (it only grows to be about the size of a quarter!). I’m really looking forward to this internship and sharing my adventures and discoveries with all of you!