Sara Soderberg

Restoration Technician

I’m a Restoration Technician for the STRAW program, working to restore sites on working lands primarily in Marin County.

I started my fieldwork journey on a wilderness trail crew in the middle of Idaho at the age of 19. My appreciation for plants, post-fire ecology, and land stewardship started to blossom.

In the spring of 2023, I graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.S. in Conservation and Resource Studies and a minor in Geospatial Information Science and Technology. After graduating, I worked as a wildlife technician in the Sierras, monitoring owls, eagles, bats, goshawks, and yellow-legged frogs. I then joined the STRAW program as an apprentice, worked as a Park Service vegetation technician at Point Reyes National Seashore, and later returned to Point Blue as a technician!

Every day with STRAW is a little different. Whether it’s educating students, collecting seeds and propagules, maintaining sites in the summer, or lending a hand at the nursery, I’m always eager to work outside on projects that will benefit the local environment.

With a background in ecology, I see plants as the backbone of an ecosystem, providing habitat and resources for all living things. Restoration is a hopeful field, offering tangible results in uncertain times, where students and teachers alike can witness and appreciate a mosaic of freshly planted native species. I love that the STRAW program fosters both scientific curiosity and community-driven action, creating meaningful connections between people and the landscapes they help restore.

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