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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………….1

List of Illustrations………………………………………………………………………………...2

Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District………………………………………………....……..3

JVWCD Conservation Garden Park....…………………………………………………....…….3.5

Garden and Facilities………………………………………………………………………….......4

Business Operations……………………………………………………………………………....5

Internship Objectives…………………………………………………………………………...…6

Internship Experience…..…………………...…………………………………..……………...…7

BYU-Idaho Education Application……………………………………………………………....10

Works

Cited………………………………………………………………………….……...…....11
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Cover Page

Figure 1. Garden and Facilities

Figure 2. Instagram Story Content

Figure 3. Localscapes Rewards Consultation

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Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District

For my internship, I worked at the Conservation Garden Park in West Jordan, Utah. The garden

is owned and operated by Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District. “Primarily a wholesaler of

water to cities and improvement districts within Salt Lake County, Jordan Valley Water

Conservancy District is a political subdivision of the State of Utah and one of the largest water

districts in the state. It was created in 1951 under the Water Conservancy Act and was called the

Salt Lake County Water Conservancy District until 1999.” The District is governed by a board of

9 trustees. Additionally, there is an executive staff managing the operations of the district.

Richard Bay is the General Manager and Chief Executive Officer.

JVWCD Conservation Garden Park

The Conservation Garden Park is located at 8275 South 1300 West in West Jordan, UT. The

JVWCD administrative building, a water treatment plant, and several maintenance and

operations buildings are located on the premises as well. In its current state, the garden covers

approximately 7 acres. There are 5 paths in the garden, as you can see in the illustration below. A

new exhibit is currently under construction that will add 3 acres to the garden. The pathways are

the Design Path, Example Landscapes, the Planting Path, the Irrigation Path, and the

Maintenance Path. The new section of the garden will have a Park Strip Exhibit, a Localscapes

Demonstration, and a Pollinator and Path Garden. New outdoor classrooms are also a part of the

Localscapes Exhibit. The Education Center is where most of our classes take place currently;

there is also a resource room for the general public.

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Garden and Facilities

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Business Operations

Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District has approximately 145 permanent employees. Among

them are those who manage the garden. Courtney Brown is the Conservation Program

Coordinator. He oversees the conservation program staff as well as the garden staff. Heading up

the residential conservation programs is the Conservation Coordinator, Amanda Strack. Amanda

and Courtney oversee 3 seasonal conservation technicians. The conservation staff evaluate

applications for rebates and rewards programs such as Flip Your Strip and Localscapes Rewards.

Shaun Moser, the Garden Manager, coordinates operations within the garden. The Lead

Horticulturalists are Mike Lorenc and Natalie Boyack; they manage the seasonal horticulturists,

like me.

Each day, when the garden staff arrive, Shaun goes over the task list and the plan for the day.

Lead by Mike and Natalie, we then walk through the garden to check on typical things like our

irrigation assembly display, the children’s sandbox, and our vegetable garden. Following the

same routine at the beginning of each day provides structure and stability to the employees. I

really appreciate knowing what is to be expected at the beginning of each day. Everyone on the

team communicates well to make sure tasks are completed and all other important extras, like

covering the front desk, are taken care of. After the garden walkthrough, we generally go to a

designated area to perform weekly maintenance. This entails tasks such as pruning, weeding, and

deadheading.

The staff at the garden excel at fulfilling their individual roles in order to make everything run

smoothly. Weekly staff meetings are held for all garden staff on Wednesdays at 2 pm. Different
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safety trainings and horticultural practices are covered each week, task lists are reviewed, and

any questions or concerns of the garden staff are addressed.

The Conservation Garden Park is not operated for profit. The success of the garden and the other

conservations programs is measured based on the number of visitors the garden received, in

addition to class attendance and program participation. Many people come to the garden for

ideas for their landscapes. We have a wide variety of perennials, trees, and shrubs in the garden.

All of the plants have identification signs, and they are featured on our plant database online as

well. The plant database is an extremely useful tool for anyone trying to design a landscape.

Internship Objectives

My main objectives for this internship experience were to understand and practice maintenance,

planning, and planting practices in order to be a better landscape designer. I was delighted to also

be able to practice my plant identification skills in the garden when visitors had questions. I

learned a lot about irrigation and drip line installation, as well as water-wise landscaping

principles and practices.

Though it has been difficult for me to adjust to the heat out in the garden, the experience I have

had has been very rewarding, and I know it will absolutely be valuable to me life-long and in my

future career path.

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Internship Experience

All of the workers at the garden were very kind and positive influences. I was never worried

about coming to work. The other seasonal horticulturalists and I got along well, and even spent

time together outside of work. It was a great work environment.

During the month of May, there were many school tours for children around 9 or 10 years old

mostly. I have loved giving these tours because I love teaching, and I’m passionate about

water-wise landscaping! I have also given tours to several elderly groups who have come for

visits from a retirement home. Talking with and teaching the children, elderly, and really anyone

who comes to the garden gives me a great feeling of success and satisfaction. Making a

difference happens just a little bit at a time.

Cynthia Bee is over all of the advertising and social media marketing. Her job is to get the public

involved in our water conservation programs. She does a great job of posting to the Conservation

Garden Park and Localscapes Blog, Facebook pages, and Instagram accounts. The garden staff

take many pictures in the garden throughout the year, and Mike, our Lead Horticulturalist, posts

these to Conservation Garden Park Instagram. During my internship, I posed the idea of posting

to our Instagram Story to help the public see what was going on in the garden on a daily basis.

Mike and Cynthia decided to let me go forward with that, and I think they have been pleased

with the content I have created, as well as the increased interactions.

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Here is an example of a series of images that I posted to the Conservation Garden Park’s

Instagram story. These images are viewed consecutively on Instagram.

One of the experiences I really enjoyed was going out with the Conservation team to do some

consultations. I think that what they’re doing is important and making a difference in Utah’s

water use. For my first visit, we did two landscape consultations and a completed Flip Your Strip

visit. Homeowners in the Salt Lake County can schedule a landscape consultation for a private

visit to their home, where we will answer any questions they may have about their sprinkler

system, our conservation programs, or anything related to that. During these consultations we

have them turn on their current sprinkler system zone by zone. We take notes of any problems,

like having drip irrigation and sprinkler heads on the same zone, and email them a summary with

suggested improvements they could make. For a completed Flip Your Strip visit, we evaluate

whether or not a homeowner has successfully flipped their parking strip from grass into 60%

plants and 40% mulch and hardscapes. They must also install drip irrigation that is on its own
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zone. If they have followed all of the guidelines they are eligible for a rebate based on the square

footage of the project.

Earlier this week I was asked to go on a few more consultation visits with Taylor, one of the

conservation technicians. The coordinator, Amanda Strack was out of the office because her

daughter was sick, so this was a great opportunity for me to have more experience with the

conservation programs. I was very happy that Courtney and Shaun asked me to go, and I hope

that means they are confident in my abilities and happy with my work and attitude at the garden.

Taylor and I in front of the UP House after we completed their Localscapes Rewards final visit.
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BYU-Idaho Education Application

I have been grateful that principles, like head to head coverage for irrigation, planting design,

and water-wise landscaping were introduced to me at BYU-Idaho. Additionally, the plant

identification skills that I learned from my woody plant identification class, and the knowledge I

had of these plants from studying them for the Woody Ornamental Plant Identification event at

NCLC, was a great help and joy to me as I worked in the garden.

I would love to work at the Conservation Garden Park in the future. My ideal position would be

a Conservation Coordinator. Courtney Brown, the Lead Conservation Program Coordinator, has

told me that they will likely be opening another Conservation Coordinator position in July of

2020. Lucky for me, I will be graduated by this time, and I will definitely be applying for the

position. If I were to work in this position, I would need some more practice with bidding and

estimating, as well as a better familiarity with sprinklers, so that I could work quickly and

efficiently. I think my time working at the garden this summer for my internship could give me

an advantage if I do apply for the position.

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Works Cited

“About Jordan Valley Water.” ​About JVWCD,​ 2019, jvwcd.org/about.