Jiho came to Loudoun Wildlife with a curiosity to learn more about our local wildlife and plants.  She volunteered for a few stream monitoring sessions and took part in species walks and counts where she enjoyed the hands-on experience of learning about different species in varying habitats.

Jiho Park

She is excited that she found out about JK Black Oak Wildlife Sanctuary because it involves “working consistently at an actual wildlife sanctuary.”  She goes on to say that “as someone who lives in a suburb devoid of a lot of native species, participating in this conservation effort [helps] me learn more about the land I live on.”

Jiho was recently accepted into the Youth Conservation Leadership Institute (YCLI).  For her project, she plans to plant pollinator gardens throughout her community.  Jiho believes that:

On top of pollinator populations rapidly declining throughout the world, I feel there is a severe lack of native species in the suburb in which I live. Planting native species not only looks nice, but will increase biodiversity in my community. I will start off by requesting to plant a garden in my school courtyard, and I will move on to other places in the community such as parks and will start sending my requests to the town hall. I am thinking of doing a fundraiser to get money for seeds and plan on germinating them at home.

Congratulations on being accepted into the YCLI and thank you for all your help at JK Black Oak.

Original painting by Jiho Park showing trash cleanup near the LeSabre pool.