PIERCE COLLEGE : Volunteers Spruce Up Arboretum
The Arboretum along the Pierce College Braille Trail received a face lift from two local nonprofit environmental groups recently.
About 40 volunteers from the Coalition to Preserve and Revitalize the Pierce College Farm and Rhapsody in Green spent last Saturday morning raking, weeding, spreading mulch and planting daffodil bulbs throughout the four-acre woodland area.
“This is proof-positive that the community can come out and do it,” said Margo Murman, coalition founder and chairwoman. “We want to show the administration that there definitely is a way to do this without costing” the Los Angeles Community College District extra money.
The coalition, based in Woodland Hills, was formed by Murman in March, 1990, to support the Pierce agriculture department, which has faced severe budget cuts and declining student interest in recent years.
“We know that there are problems,” Murman said. “We’ve been hearing about these problems for years, and what we want to do now is start taking action and coming up with solutions.”
Without assistance from the coalition and Rhapsody in Green, the cleanup “wouldn’t get done in a timely manner,” said Malcolm G. Sears, agriculture department chairman, who said funds are not available for such activities.
The coalition has presented a plan to the college administration that combines community participation with the self-supporting operation of both the farm and the agriculture department, Murman said.
The Study City-based Rhapsody in Green, which has between 400 and 500 members, was founded in 1989 by Jon Earl and Ellen Petty.
While the coalition works only with Pierce College, Rhapsody in Green is involved in environmental projects throughout Southern California.
“We do only hands-on projects to restore the environment, and every month it’s something different,” Earl said. “Last month we were planting trees out in Malibu Canyon; this month we’re at Pierce College working in the Arboretum.”
The coalition, in conjunction with the Pierce administration, conducts a campus workday on the third Saturday of every month.
“This is a chance for me to volunteer for something I think is useful,” said Franny Curtis, 73, of Van Nuys as he and another volunteer chopped up a fallen tree branch for mulch.
“I just like the idea of a group that goes out and does things rather than lobbies for money,” said Annie Murphy, 34, of Hollywood, who is affiliated with Rhapsody in Green. “And I enjoy gardening and I don’t get to do that in Hollywood.”
