Tejon Mountain Village Project

In 2007, as an on-call employee with a larger consulting firm, Balk Biological biologist Michelle Balk co-led botanical surveys and vegetation mapping efforts for the 28,000-acre Tejon Mountain Village Project in the southern Tehachapi Mountains, an extremely diverse and unexplored area . Ms. Balk reviewed multiple literature sources prior to and during vegetation mapping and characterized vegetation according to the California Manual of Vegetation using a modified California Native Plant Society relevé protocol. She assisted in the training of junior staff and directed and reviewed their work. Ms. Balk also monitored reference populations of rare plants to assist with determining timing of surveys.