California Botanic Garden Archives - Office of Communications

Zoë Wong-VanHaren leans over a bush as she cuts a branch of sets with blue scissors. She has long wavy brown hair and wears a pink and maroon tie-dye T-shirt over a long-sleeved black shirt. Behind her is the Outback’s coastal sage scrub and a pale blue sky.

What did Claremont look like 100 years ago? One parcel on Pitzer College’s campus gives us a glimpse: the Outback Preserve. Home to alluvial sage scrub—one of the rarest ecosystems in the world—the Outback is a 3.4-acre living-learning laboratory for students to engage in hands-on science with California’s indigenous plants. Pitzer students and environmental analysis majors Tommy Shenoi ’24 and Zoë Wong-VanHaren ’25 have made the Outback a passion in action with the California Botanic Garden and Pitzer’s Robert Redford Conservancy's help.

Seed by Seed: Pitzer Students Preserve a Rare Ecosystem on Campus