we are project invigorate
Project Invigorate is a student-initiated ecological design group. Our team redesigns landscapes alongside community partners, transforming spaces into ecological hotspots using climate-adapted and ecologically beneficial species. In doing this work, our goals are threefold: to design and install beautiful ecological spaces, to strengthen the community’s ties to their landscapes & urban ecosystem, and to provide our students exposure & practical experience in these sustainability efforts.
The work Project Invigorate has planned will ultimately reduce water and energy consumption, decrease runoff, reduce maintenance requirements, provide a food source and habitat for local pollinator populations, improve soil conditions, create microclimates that support plant communities, and become beautiful ecological hotspots.
How we work
Our design and installation work takes place over the course of the academic year, aligning with the university’s fall-winter-spring quarters. This ensures our interns have ample time to familiarize themselves with each part of the process before they proceed to the next phase of the project.
fall QUARTER
Introduction to Design:
A Crash Course
Interns are introduced to the science and process of our work through a mix of lectures, workshops, and exercises. Topics include community-based projects, urban ecology, and the process & concepts of design.
WINTER QUARTER
Community Design:
The Design Process
Interns are introduced to the project sites and goals for the space. From there, they are guided through the process of creating a series of design proposals, working to finalizing the design for our partner.
SPRING QUARTER
Project Implementation:
Site Preparation & Installation
Once the design is approved, tools, materials, and other resources are ordered or organized in preparation for project implementation. Interns move forward with site preparation and installation, which include weeding, planting, mulching, and watering.
SUMMER months
Stewardship:
Maintenance & Establishment
A watering schedule is set in place for our partner to ensure survival through the establishment period. Interns who are interested may continue their work with us as a site steward, looking after our sites and tracking vegetative health & survival.
As an NGO, we’ve developed an unconventional approach to our partnerships and project work. The nature of our relationship with community partners is multifaceted and the finer details of each often vary from partner to partner, though each have been mutually rewarding. Partners are clients, hosts to the organization, collaborators of the project, and stewards of our work. We collaborate with partners to plan and perform community organizing, define goals, design, fundraise, implement, and steward our projects. As an organization comprised of young professionals, recent graduates, and university students, our range of backgrounds builds into the collective
knowledge & experience we use in executing this ecological design work.
Fundraising is often a collaborative effort. Alone, we are an organization without an official tax status, and so, are severely limited to the types of grants we are eligible to apply for. However, if partners have a tax-exempt status, we are able to work with them to utilize that status to apply for funds as collaborators of the project. Historically, we’ve funded projects through grants supplied by the University, funds from our partners and their supporters, private gifts & donations, and other grant types.
Meet the Team
Our team of student interns is led by a group of experienced coordinators and program directors—all coming from a range of backgrounds in horticulture, environmental design, and landscape architecture.
Terence Wu
Co-Founder & Program Director
Sustainable Environmental Design / Landscape Restoration
Why Terence joined Project Invigorate:
“After learning so much from my many teachers at the UC Davis Arboretum, Project Invigorate was a way for me to give back to the community. It is designed to be a learning opportunity for the University students and a way to connect them to the greater Davis community while being a catalyst to initiate some small-scale revegetation efforts. Although we do not work strictly on- or off-campus, we use what we’ve learned from our coursework at UC Davis and the Arboretum to create community-oriented and ecologically beneficial spaces.”
nicole limesand
Education Director
Landscape Architecture
Why Nicole joined Project Invigorate:
"I joined Project Invigorate in its second year to pay forward the knowledge I gained as a landscape architecture student at UC Davis and as a designer in the field since graduation. The gratification each year of ideas connected, designs manifested, intern experience gained, ecosystem services grown, and community relationships developed continue to drive our work."