Wildflowers in Carrizo Plain National Monument and Nearby Areas
Carrizo Plain National Monument is the largest native grassland in California, a remnant of the Central California grasslands of 300-plus years ago. It is also one of author Robin Mitchell’s favorite places to visit in the spring, when the wildflowers can be exquisite. She has visited during a few spectacular wildflower displays over the past 20 years, including the spring of 2019 and the spring of this year, which offered breathtaking fields of color. Photo ©Robin Mitchell.
Spectacular Hidden Eden in Jenner Headlands Preserve
Jenner Headlands Preserve is one of California’s most diverse and magnificent wild places, with spring meadow superblooms, chaparral-covered hillsides, and a forest wonderland that shelters rare species of native plants and animals year-round. To read about the many and varied species and ecosystems in the preserve’s 5,600 acres is to be inspired to visit this jewel on the Sonoma Coast. Photo ©Kimberly Moses.
The LIRA Times, Fourth Edition
Sustained volunteer effort can work wonders. In marshes along the Richmond bayshore, Greens at Work volunteers have removed hundreds of thousands of invasive nonnative Algerian sea lavender (LIRA) plants as well as mountains of trash. Three years into the project, they share their impressive results and some significant lessons they have learned through the effort. Photo ©Tom Kelly.
Stinkwort Season Begins—All Aboard!
Removing highly invasive stinkwort (Dittrichia graveolens) is rewarding work: you make the East Bay a better place for plants and wildlife and get to know your local environment in a new way while meeting and working with great people and getting as much exercise as a trip to the gym. What more could a native plant lover want? Join our stinkwort removal efforts this summer!
Reflecting on East Bay Plants in the Wake of Winter Storms
The rainy storms of this past winter and spring were great for drought-parched plants, but the wind was hard on trees. Our chapter’s Field Trips Committee Chair and restoration crew coordinator, Janet Gawthrop, was curious to see how plants in nearby parks and streets fared in comparison with the mudslides and tree crashes that made the news, and she shares her findings in words and illustrations. Painting ©Janet Gawthrop.
