KVCR - KVCR's Allison Wang interviews Director of the UCR Botanic Gardens, Jodie Holt. The UCR Botanic Gardens is a 40-acre living museum nestled in the foothills of the Box Springs Mountains.
Allison Wang: With 91.9 KVCR News, I'm Allison Wang. As a UC Riverside student, I have the opportunity to live and study next door to the UCR Botanic Gardens, a 40 acre living museum nestled in the foothills of the Box Springs Mountains. I interviewed Jodi Holt, the director of the Botanic Gardens on the garden's history, goals, and future.
Director Holt: I'm Jodi Holt. I'm a professor emeritus in the Botany and Plant Sciences Department where I worked for a little over 30 years. After I retired, the new dean at the time, Dean Uhrich, asked if I would like to come back to work as director of the Botanic Gardens. This is a great way to, sort of, extend my career and continue being involved in plants and botany and teaching with a lot less of the same kinds of academic pressure, but the ability to have an impact on a lot more people. You know, this last year was our 60th year of operation. The gardens were established in 1963; the first botany faculty needed a place to grow plants that they could study. So the gardens were established with just one director and one staff member for quite a long time.