California Naturalists
Certification Program for California Environmental Stewards
SAMO Fund, in partnership with University of California’s Environmental Stewards program, is offering a certification course designed for adults wanting to develop a sense of place and participate in service learning and stewardship of natural resources in the State of California.
This season’s California Naturalist cohort have been chosen. Applications are now closed and the new cohort will be notified via email by dec 10th.
Keep an eye out for the next season’s application. If you’d like to be notified, please sign up for the wait list. Thank you for your interest.
Featured Stewardship Projects
Take a look at what the past graduates of the certification program have done with their new knowledge
"Minimum That I Can Do"
A short film by Certified California Naturalist, Tara Lynn Wagner.
"Heartbeat of Our Restoration Program"
A short film by Certified California Naturalist, Tara Lynn Wagner.
"Moving Forward Together"
A short film by Certified California Naturalist, Tara Lynn Wagner.
"That Rare and That Unique"
A short film by Certified California Naturalist, Tara Lynn Wagner.
Highlights from the California Naturalist program
SAMO fund celebrates 28 New stewards for the mountains
With the support of NPS Rangers Cathy Schoonmaker, Preston DeCorte, Ken Lowe and Kalli Martinez, SAMO Fund’s inaugural California Naturalist…Exploring the SMMNRA: California Naturalists Visit the Rancho Sierra Vista Native Plant Nursery
When it’s time to talk about SAMO Fund’s active role in the restoration of native plants, the native plant nursery…Exploring the SMMNRA: California Naturalists and Paramount Ranch
Paramount Ranch and a tour around the worldRetired NPS Ranger Mike Malone hosted the California Naturalist group at Paramount Ranch…Exploring the SMMNRA: California Naturalists and Turret bees
Turret Bees At Rancho Sierra Vista SatwiwaLast weekend the California Naturalists attended a session at Rancho Sierra Vista Satwiwa, where…
Join a community of over 4,000 certified naturalists around the state
Our vision
is to create an engaging naturalist program that will help you
Connect to others and to your own innate love for Nature
Discover the chaparral ecosystem and meet the species that call it home
Engage in meaningful conversations
Share your love and understanding of the natural world with others using compassion and logical thought
About the Program
Introduction
A statewide program of the University of California´s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, our courses are designed for adults including teachers, docents, land stewards, natural resource professionals, and nature enthusiasts wanting to develop a sense of place and participate in service learning and stewardship of natural resources.
Course Syllabus
The course will take place in 8 Sessions over Zoom and 7 in-person field trips.
Syllabus will be available once the course is underway
Overview of Curriculum
courses are subject to change for 2025 session
WILDLIFE
Become familiar with the local wildlife and techniques for wildlife research.
Learn about the current wildlife research being conducted in the Santa Monica Mountains, by NPS Biologists.
Learn about carnivore ecology and the challenges carnivores face when living in the Santa Monica Mountains (e.g. habitat fragmentation, habitat loss, urbanization, poisons and depredation).
Understand the need to restore habitat connectivity and genetic diversity, and the methods to restore connectivity.
Be able to describe the human impacts and discuss opportunities for environmental steward ship.
INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES FOR ECOLOGICAL RENEWAL
-Understand the role of mycorrhizal fungi and other microbes play in plant health and habitat restoration
-Learn the basics of the “micro forest” method of ecological restoration and its benefits in urban environments
-Understand the mechanics behind ecological succession as applied through the “micro forest” restoration methodology
-Practice how to design and install a micro forest
-Identify challenges faced in ecological restoration work, and brainstorm solutions
RESTORATION AND INVASIVE SPECIES
-Become familiar with common management components of restoration including general practices (e.g., native plant nurseries, seed production programs, invasive plant control, etc.).
-Learn some of the common dominant native species used in restoration projects.
-Be able to describe the major ecological principles underlying the successful restoration of ecosystems and ways of measuring success (e.g., vegetation and wildlife surveys).
-Be able to describe the mitigating role that the principals of restoration can play in response to human impacts in a changing environment in natural and urban areas (e.g., carbon sequestration, watershed health, fire suppression, etc.).
-Practice restoration design using reference sites.
-Understand common impacts of invasive species on native ecosystems (e.g., displacement by competition, increased wildfire, legacy effects, etc.).
CLIMATE CHANGE AND FIRE ECOLOGY
-Discuss climate change impacts and how it is affecting the southern California region (e.g., prolonged drought, changing phenology, etc.).
-Be able to describe how human activity has influenced fire regimes (e.g., increased ignitions, high fire frequency, etc.).
-Understand the threats of wildfire in the southern California region (e.g., santa ana winds, climate change, embers, human activity, etc.).
-Understand the impacts of excessive wildlife on local ecosystems (e.g., type conversions, weed-fire cycle, etc.)
-Describe the benefits of fire and fire-adapted plants (e.g., fire followers, modes of post-fire regrowth, succession, etc.).
INTRODUCTION TO INTERPRETATION
-Students will be introduced to the basic foundations of Interpretation.
-Students will learn how to build a program using Themes, Goals and Objectives (TGOs).
-Students will be learning several Facilitated Dialogue methods and techniques to incorporate throughout their programs.
-Students will be able to identify at least 6 necessities needed to create a successful program.
-Students will be able to describe two different approaches of interpretation.
-Students will be able to describe at least one facilitated dialogue technique.
Session Schedule
The 8 in person classes will take place on Saturday mornings and project to include the following dates:
- February 21 9am-12pm
- February 28 9am-12pm
- March 7 9am-12pm
- March 14 9am-12pm
- March 21 9am-12pm
- March 28 9am-12pm
- April 11 9am-12pm
- April 18 Graduation 9am to 1pm (an hour longer)
*NOTE: Due to limited space, only the accepted certification students can currently attend the in-person events.
The 8 online classes will take place via Zoom on Thursday evenings and project to include the following dates:
- February 19 5pm to 7:30pm (An hour longer)
- February 26 6pm-7:30pm
- March 5 6pm-7:30pm
- March 12 6pm-7:30pm
- March 19 6pm-7:30pm
- March 26 6pm-7:30pm
- April 9 6pm-7:30pm
- April 16 6pm-7:30pm
Stewardship Project
For completion of the course, each student will be required to submit a stewardship project. Below are examples and guidelines of acceptable proposals.
Expert-led field trips and lectures
Virtual lectures and discussions followed by guided field trips in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. Explore the Park through topics related to geology, ecology, water resources, interpretation, and participatory science projects.
Environmental Stewardship
Build environmental literacy and stewardship skills through discovery and action in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, the largest urban National Park in the country. Expand your skills to responsibly manage and protect natural resources to ensure their sustainability for current and future generations.
Practice Interpretive Skills
Become a better communicator of natural history and resources in the Santa Monica Mountains with hands on experience performing service in education and interpretation. You’ll become a Certified California Naturalist!
Meet your instructors
Joey Algiers
Ecologist
Joey Algiers has 17 years of experience working in resource management for Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. As a National Park Service Restoration Ecologist, Joey leads the restoration of damaged and degraded natural areas. This includes returning rare and critical habitat through the rebuilding of native plant communities, and overseeing the invasive plant control program, which includes weed treatments of the park’s most ecologically damaging species. Joey works with the park’s native plant nursery managers where native plants are grown for restoration, education, research, and conservation. For years, Joey has been managing, training, and educating technicians, students, partners, and the public in restoration ecology practice and theory.
Cathy Schoonmaker
Biologist
Cathy Schoonmaker is a Biologist with the National Park Service. She has over 10 years of experience working with California wildlife, studying the ecology of bobcats, coyotes, and mountain lions that are living in the urban fragmentated landscapes of southern California, in the Santa Monica Mountains and nearby habitats.
Katherine Pakradouni
Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing Project Nursery Manager
Katherine is an LA-based native plant horticulturist, urban habitat restoration specialist, consultant, nursery starter, and grower who has worked for such organizations as the Theodore Payne Foundation, Grown in LA, and the LA Parks Foundation. She is currently working for the Santa Monica Mountains Fund as the manager of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing Project Nursery, and also runs her own business, Seed to Landscape, where she designs and installs urban habitat restoration projects in the region. The designer of LA’s first micro-forest and the creator of LAmicroforests.com, she aims to create a world where biodiversity-enhancing, ecologically-sound landscapes become the norm, even in urban spaces.
Razsa Cruz
National Park Service Ranger
Razsa began her National Park Service career in the summer of 2008. She has worked in many branches within the Interpretation division, such as Outreach, Education, Volunteer in Parks Program and Operational services. Razsa has been the main coordinator for the Satwiwa Programming at the park’s Culture Center working closely with the indigenous communities to provide public programming. Razsa enjoys providing programs to the public, such as her popular Tarantula Hikes and Night Sky Festival that is hosted every summer. Currently she is working in the Visitor Resource Protection division leading the Office of Special Park Uses.
Katy Semple Delaney
Wildlife Ecologist
Katy studied biology at University of California at San Diego (B.S.) and ecology and evolutionary biology at University of California at Los Angeles (Ph.D.). Her dissertation work was conducted on the mating system (in collaboration with Charles T. Collins), evolutionary history, and population genetic structure of Island Scrub-Jays. She is a wildlife ecologist for the National Park Service studying long-term trends in population status of reptiles, amphibians, and birds. In addition, she directs the reintroduction of the federally threatened California red-legged frog back to the Santa Monica Mountains.
Deanna Armbruster
Certified California Naturalist Instructor
Deanna is the Executive Director of Santa Monica Mountains Fund. Prior to this, she served as Executive Director, Development Director and Board Member for various non-profit organizations. Her background is in organizational management, governance, grant management, public relations, conflict resolution and fund development.
Return to the Get Involved Main Page
Other Educational Opportunities
Santa Monica Mountains Fund offers many opportunities for members of the community to learn about the environment that they live in
Native Plant Steward Certification
We collect and clean native seeds, ensuring conservation-quality seed samples of over 600 species of the plants native to the Santa Monica Mountains
SAMO Youth
Our SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS FUND Youth program is an award-winning, immersive, paid internship initiative that provides hands-on work experience in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. Each year, we welcome 18 college students and recent graduates for seasonal summer positions, with opportunities for eligible participants to extend their employment.