Jon Hill started his journey with OVLC in 2021 and has quickly become an essential part of our volunteer community, contributing over 400 hours of service. He’s done 200 of those hours in the past year alone. Jon’s dedication to trail work, combined with his background in construction and aerospace, has made a significant impact, especially with projects like the rock check step on John’s Fox Canyon Trail. Jon’s love for the outdoors, active lifestyle, and ability to build cross-generational friendships have elevated the volunteer experience for all involved. In this interview, Preserve Manager Linda Wilkin sits down with Jon to discuss his motivations for volunteering, his favorite projects, and the sense of community he’s found through OVLC. Join us as we explore the stories and connections that make Jon’s contributions so valuable to our mission.

If you have been following the story of the OVLC Nursery and Rewild Ojai, no doubt you have heard the phrases “seed collecting season” or “watershed local genetics”. If you have read plant newsletters, there is not a mention of a plant without referencing the seed bank, or the implications of future seeded generations. And if you are my friend, I am sure you have heard me trail off while unlacing a boot, thinking about a species of native plant I have dived into that particular week, drifting off into the world of ancient phenologies.

A vast, complex system of water cuts through the Ojai Valley like a kingsnake through a bunchgrass meadow. Meandering and weaving through the hillsides, its channels are both shaped and guided by the land. Sediment grains, too small and irrelevant to notice, drift through the system, their individual destinies adding to the personality of the watershed. This dance between water and sediment embodies the river’s character, almost artful in its innumerable expressions. What does it mean for a small granule to rely on the drifts of such incomprehensible power as moving water? What is it like to witness the cyclical, meandering nature of a river from inside the river itself? It isn’t a linear answer, but a kaleidoscope of possibilities in which energies are converging. To envision the watershed as a vivid quilt sown with patchworks of textured grains, that are individually brilliant and yet cohesively lush, is to understand life as a tessellation with layers of beauty.