“Wildscaping for Songbirds”

Guest Speaker: Veronica Bowers

Monday, October 9, 2023 7:30 pm

Your garden is your outdoor sanctuary. With some careful plant choices, it can be a haven for native birds as well. Landscaped with native species, your yard, patio, or balcony becomes    vital recharge station for migratory birds passing through and a sanctuary for nesting and overwintering birds.

Each patch of restored native habitat is just that – a patch in the frayed fabric of the ecosystem in which it lies. By landscaping, or wildscaping, with native plants, we can turn a patchwork of green spaces into a quilt of restored habitat. More native plants mean more choices of food and shelter for native birds, native pollinators and other wildlife.

Wildscaping for Songbirds will demonstrate the importance of restoring nature in our communities, one garden patch at a time. From a birds-eye view, learn how to create wildlife-friendly gardens that help combat the loss of open spaces and create green corridors that link your wildscape to larger natural areas by providing habitat for songbirds and supporting biodiversity.

About the speaker:

Veronica Bowers is the director and founder of Native Songbird Care and Conservation(NSCC). Located in Sebastopol, California, NSCC is a state and federally permitted wildlife rehabilitation facility devoted exclusively to the care of native passerines. Native Songbird Care & Conservation cares for approximately 1,000 songbirds each year.

Veronica has a passion for songbirds and has been working exclusively with this diverse and challenging group of wildlife since 1999. Veronica became an accidental gardener nearly 18 years ago when she began learning about the vital connection between our native plants and native songbirds. Since then she has fallen in love with native plants and has created the Songbird Sanctuary Gardens on the grounds of Native Songbird Care & Conservation. The gardens include 1.5 acres of songbird habitat comprised mostly of native plants and support over 70 species of songbirds throughout the year.

“Plant Communities of Marin – Fact or Fiction?”

Guest Speaker: Paul da Silva,  Professor College of Marin, Emeritus

Monday, June 12, 2023 7:30 pm

This will be a historical, philosophical and biological look at groupings of plants in general and at some found in specific locations in Marin.

Paul da Silva has over four decades of teaching experience, including 23 years at College of Marin (COM), where he taught biology, natural history, environmental science and environmental landscaping. He was elected to the Board of COM in 2020. He recognizes our global diversity crisis as the source of important ecological, equity, economic and public health problems.
Paul has been active with Marin Chapter for years, serving on the board and leading field trips.

“Preparing for Sea Level Rise and protecting biodiversity and Chloropyron maritimum populations at Bothin Marsh”

Guest Speakers: Julian Geoghegan, Shelly Benson, Veronica Pearson, & Rob LaPorte

Monday, July 10, 2023, 7:30 pm

Distichlis spicata-Limonium californicum Association at Bothin Marsh

This presentation will give and overview the Evolving Shorelines Project and will focus on the effort to protect tidal wetland habitat and the population of Chloropyron maritimum ssp. palustre at Bothin Marsh Open Space Preserve. Topics will include fine-scale (plant community Association) level mapping, an introduction to the biology of Chloropyron and efforts underway to understand its presence and habitat, and plans for improving marsh habitat and climate change resiliency at Bothin Marsh.

Register for this Zoom meeting. https://cnps-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYkf-itrDIoG9FQvZkr_0hNYor-H_U4EjK6

Join the speakers for a site visit to Bothin Marsh: July 18th, 2023, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm. See Field Trip. (add link)

Biographies

Limonium californicum and Chloropyron maritimum in the foreground, Spartina and Distichlis-annual grass communities in the background.

Julian Geoghegan is the Vegetation Specialist with Marin County Parks, where he started working in 2017. His work focuses on invasive species management and rare plant conservation in the County’s parks and open space preserves. While botany has proven to be his professional calling, in the past he has worked trails in the Klamath National Forest, and monitored wildlife for East Bay Regional Parks. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with a concentration in Ecology and Conservation Biology.

Shelly Benson is an independent biological consultant with over 20 years of botanical experience in the Bay Area.  For the past eight years, she has been creating fine-scale vegetation maps of communities that cannot be accurately mapped using remote sensing methods, namely grasslands and saltmarshes.

Veronica Pearson is a Sr. Ecological Restoration Planner with Marin County Parks. She co-manages the Evolving Shorelines Project with Rob LaPorte. Veronica’s educational background is in natural resource management and ecogeomorphology with 15 years of experience working on environmental restoration and planning. She is also a project manager for the Bolinas Lagoon North End Restoration Project, the Aramburu Ecological Restoration Project, and the McInnis Marsh Restoration Project. All of which include wetland enhancement and sea level rise adaptation.

Rob LaPorte is a Project Manager with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and has a background in urban planning. Rob has over 12 years of experience working in park planning, ecological restoration, and trail projects in collaboration with One Tam partner agencies. In addition to Bothin Marsh, Rob is focused on the Roy’s Redwoods Restoration Project, Redwood Creek Habitat Enhancements at Mt. Tam State Park, and several smaller scale projects in the GGNRA.

“Digitizing California Herbarium Specimens at Cal Academy – Implications and Opportunities”

Guest Speaker: Dr. Sarah Jacobs

Monday, August 14, 2023, 7:30 pm

The California Academy of Sciences was recently funded to digitize 1 million California botany specimens from their herbarium. Each specimen in the collection contains valuable data that not only helps us understand California biodiversity as a whole, but also paints a picture of the history of species across the state. That trove of information is invaluable to research and conservation efforts, but right now most of it is only accessible to those who are able to visit our collections in San Francisco. In addition, summarizing information across the entire collection is currently impossible.

Previously estimated to take decades of work, this project will utilize cutting-edge technology (including engagement with community scientists) to perform the project in only a few years. As a result, the project will make the California botany collection accessible to scientists, policymakers, and community members across the state and beyond. It’s a critical step towards supporting botanical exploration and research, and guiding development and management decisions that will help achieve CAS’ Thriving California goal of conserving and regenerating the biodiversity that makes California so unique.

Dr. Sarah Jacobs, curator of the Botany Department at the California Academy of Sciences, is part of a core team of scientists that collectively curates the Academy’s collection of over 2.3 million herbarium specimens. As the Howell Chair of Western North American Botany, she is particularly focused on guiding and shaping the collection of Western North American plants, ensuring their preservation, growth, and relevance into the future.

via Zoom

“The importance of flowering season duration and planting for pollinators”

Speaker: Dr. Rachael L. Olliff-Yang

September 11, 2023 7:30 pm PT

Flowering time in California follows patterns driven by the cool wet winters and hot dry summers of our Mediterranean-type climate. The rapid life cycles of our native invertebrate pollinators (including bees, flies, and butterflies) are tightly in sync with these rhythms. However, climate change is causing shifts in the timing and abundance of plants and pollinators due to changes in temperature and moisture cues. These shifts can strain mutualistic relationships and lead to population decline. Sufficient flowering resources across the season, as well as extended flowering at the beginning and end of the season, may aid in supporting plant-pollinator mutualisms.

In this talk, Rachael will discuss the mechanisms that influence the flowering duration, and how strategic planting to extend flowering time—whether in restorations, hedgerows, or your home garden setting—can support both pollinator and plant populations. She will also discuss how to keep California Biodiversity Day (Sept 7^th!) going all year long, and extend an invitation to the upcoming 30×30 Partnership Gathering in Riverside CA.

Bio: Dr. Rachael Olliff-Yang is a plant ecologist, writer, and educator, and works as a technical science support for California’s 30×30 initiative – conserving 30% of California by 2030. Her research focuses on plant flowering time and management strategies to respond to climate change impacts. She is a resident of Novato, where she teaches nature classes for kids and is an enthusiastic volunteer for the Marin CNPS chapter.

Rachael completed her Masters degree in Biology at Humboldt State University examining the timing of Beach pea (Lathyrus littoralis) flowering and Silver bee (Habropoda miserabilis) nesting in the coastal dunes. After examining the influences of climate change on this mutualism, she was driven to explore potential management techniques to respond to predicted impacts. This led her to her PhD work with David Ackerly at UC Berkeley where she examined the influences of abiotic and biotic drivers of flowering time. She continues her work in conservation by supporting the science and practice behind 30×30. Rachael is passionate about conservation and making science and nature accessible to all.

via Zoom