Pando is the largest and heaviest living organism in the world: a clonal colony of 40,000 quaking aspen trees in Utah, all interconnected by a massive underground root system. Pando
@pandopopulus is also an educational collaborative that Test Plot has participated in for the last 3 years. We’re excited to announce that USC’s work on the Rainbow Canyon Test Plot has won the Pando 2025 Earth Hero Award. Last week we celebrated at Cal Tech’s Resnick Sustainabiltiy Center and gathered with universities across LA.
This marks the 6th year of collaboration (and 6th plot!) between Test Plot and USC’s Landscape Urbanism program
@uscmlau . The class initially began in 2020 as a landscape architecture studio taught by Jen Toy and has since evolved into an elective course open to the entire university led by Professor Alex Robinson. Each fall, the class centers around a Test Plot, connecting students to a community and specific landscape in Los Angeles. Through this hands-in-the-soil project, the course introduces students to themes such as land stewardship in service of fire, water and community resiliency, biodiversity, site analysis through deep listening, engaging with community, designing through time, and monitoring and tracking metrics.
Repping Test Plot at the Pando Awards: Professor Alex Robinson,
@aquercus , former student Mark Reid
@maarkreid , Test Plot Director Jen Toy and current Test Plot intern Kaitlyn Ray, in her senior year at Cal Poly SLO
@kaitlynrayy @calpolylarc
PS. Check out our latest LOG post, which features an oral history of our “Deep Looking, Listening and Sensing” community workshop on October 4th, run by this year’s class and Pando Day participants.
🙏 to partners
@communitynatureconnection @mrcaparks @mtwashingtonalliance 
