Keith Thomas - Lead Horticulturists (Village 1 Team)
My mentor grew up in England and is known to be one of the hardest workers in the Horticulture department. Not only does he work excruciatingly hard but he pushes his team members to work hard as well.
- What are your main duties and responsibilities?
In my Horticulture department I am in charge of the Village 1 landscaping, plant trader sales, nursery/shade house upkeep, as well as plant material for any types of special events. Since most weddings and Safari Park sponsored events often occur in my section (Village 1) I am in charge of ordering, providing, and arranging plant material for the events. - Why did you choose to work here?
Horticulture is interesting in that it changes. It changes with season and it changes with the years. What you design and plant originally and what it looks like 5, 10, 15 years down the line can change so much according to what the animals needs are, the guest experiences, the direction things are going in, the way plants grow, and how they interact. Its very creative process. - What other personality traits, skills, or knowledge are important here?
Having a positive attitude and being flexible are very important in this department. You may start off your morning with certain projects or work orders in mind, but by the end of day you could be pulled into multiple directions all around the park working on everything from irrigation, plant orders, safety meetings, and special event planning.
Commuting to and from my internship is no different from the commute I make everyday to school, but the hours are still taking some adjusting to. For school I usual set the alarm for 5:45, but don't actually roll out of bed until 6. For this internship I set the alarm for 4:15 and roll out of bed by no later than 4:20 and then leave the house no later than 5:10 to make to the Safari Park by 5:50. By today (4th day of internship) I feel like I have successfully reset my circadian rhythm!
Most of daily tasks at the horticulture department are good balance between office paperwork and manual garden labor. Most of the office work I am doing has actually come up in my Biology class; the Bio Blitz of Discovery Lake is almost identical to the plant database I am finishing up. One of the projects that I will be completing throughout these four weeks is plant record keeping; I am inputting current and past plant orders (some dating back to 2008) into a data base and from there separating each order into individual genus and species category. Once I have inputted all the plant orders into the database I will be spending quite sometime out in the field GPS tracking each individual plant and making them with metal rods and name plates. The data base input of information is quite simple, but still very tedious, nevertheless I am learning so much about the biodiversity of the park. Apart from record keeping, I as an individual will be in charge of the plant orders for the Plant Trader shop in the park. As a way for the Horticulture department to self fund programs within the department, we propagate a variety of succulents, cacti, and other "trendy" plants to be sold. I will be in charge of communicating back in forth with the Plant Trader shop, plant invoices, propagation, and delivery; this is one of my favorite projects so far I get to spend a lot of quality time within the nursery and I get to get my hands dirty!
Funny Mentor Story
My mentor earlier this week lost his radio and could not remember where he had last left it, so as we were retracing our steps trying to find his radio he told me that a while back he had lost his radio and few days had gone by without any sign of it showing up. But luckily he had heard it ringing and he had pinpointed it's location, only to find out it was in the green waste bins. Keep in mind the park's green waste bins are about the size of cargo shipping containers and they are filled with tons of plant material (as well as other "organic" material). So once he had realized where his radio was he decided to start digging, he spent an entire day using the skip loader and individual checking each load of green waste until successfully retrieving his radio.