Join us in giving a big, warm welcome to Tori! She will also be joining us in removing invasive species and species monitoring while improving her plant ID skills. Get to know a little more about Tori below and say hi next time you're on the mountain!
Hi there! My name is Tori O’Brien, and I’m one of the new conservation interns for the Spring term of 2021. I'm currently a senior at San Francisco State University, earning my B.S in Environmental Studies, with a focus on natural resource management. Most of my classes are focused on conservation, pollution, and environmental politics.
I was born and raised in Oakland California but rarely had the chance to come to this side of the Bay during my adolescence. I’m taking the time to travel around the city and see all the wonderful places it has to offer. I’ve had an interest in learning about the environment and the sciences since a young age. I was always curious about learning about the world around me, what was there, and how everything worked. I’ve especially enjoyed learning about the environmental history of the Bay Area and what naturally occurred before significant development. In my high school years, I recall hearing lots of negativity on the outlook of the environment and our world in the future and I was motivated to enter this field to try my hand at making a difference on at least a small scale.
So far, my work on Mount Sutro has been incredibly informative on restoration of natural environments that are currently dominated by invasive species. I’ve had a lot of fun learning about the various invasive and natural species on the mountain. I hope to use my current knowledge on plant taxonomy to better learn how to identify these species. I’ve also been learning how to better apply knowledge from University into the real world. I’ve seen that Mount Sutro uses goats to clear areas heavily obscured by invasive species and it’s amazing too actually see how quickly they finish their work.
Outside of interning I spend my free time caring for my three dogs, as well as partaking in hobbies such as drawing, reading novels, and embroidery. Some of my favorite classes at University so far has been Environmental Law and Policy and Land Use Planning. Some of my favorite plants that I get to see at Mount Sutro are Twin Berry and California Poppies.