The Laguna de Santa Rosa is a landscape feature of critical importance to Sonoma County’s water quality and flood control. It provides an important overflow area for the Russian River during periods of heavy winter rain, serving as a natural holding basin which captures and slows floodwaters, easing their impact on lower Russian River communities.
Thank you Scott Hess for sharing this aerial photo of the Laguna!
|
|
Camp Tule Registration is Open! |
|
A joyful summer along the Laguna de Santa Rosa is right around the corner and we can’t wait to meet your young explorers and welcome back our Camp Tule alumni!
Now is the time to get the special kids in your life signed-up for a week of nature explorations, nature crafts, nature games and making more nature friends. Chris-Elderberry, Carlos-Osprey and Julianne-Jackrabbit are already having fun planning exciting new ways to connect children to the environment of the Laguna de Santa Rosa.
|
|
The Wow of Bird Colors with David Lukas
Friday, March 24, 2023. 5:00pm - 6:30pm
Location: This is an ONLINE event
In part two of a four-part series of talks on bird biology, naturalist David Lukas will introduce us to the marvelous world of bird colors and patterns. Do you know how many types of colors there are on birds, and how these colors are produced? Did you know that humans and birds see colors in different ways and that birds use colors and patterns in a wide range of ecological and behavioral contexts? This will be a fun and colorful talk that leaves you never seeing birds the same way again.
Caminata Bilingüe / Bilingual Walk con Laguna Foundation y Ag + Open Space
Saturday, March 25, 2023. 11:30am - 1:30pm.
¡Aprenda de los senderos y sus habitantes de la Laguna de Santa Rosa en Español e Inglés!
Learn about the Laguna de Santa Rosa Trails and their inhabitants in Spanish & English!
|
|
Laguna Watershed Perspectives:
Fairfield Osborn Preserve Hike
Sunday, April 2, 10:00am - 12:30pm
Join SSU naturalists Suzanne DeCoursey (Center for Environmental Inquiry Education Manager) and Christine Anderson (CEI Naturalist and SSU Geology Student) as we explore Sonoma County volcanics, and how the movement of rock and soil down Sonoma Mountain impacts Copeland Creek, Rohnert Park, and the Laguna de Santa Rosa.
This hike will be roughly one mile on a single track with a steep 300-foot elevation gain. Please dress in layers with proper footwear. Also, bring plenty of water.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Sonoma County who fund the work of Ag + Open Space with a quarter-cent sales tax.
Evolve Mourning: A Reading and Discussion with Author Trebbe Johnson
Tuesday, April 4, 2023. 5:30pm – 7:00pm
Join us this evening to hear a reading from Trebbe Johnson’s new book. Afterward, she and Francis Weller, author of the The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief, will engage in a discussion of grief and beauty, focusing on how these emotions affect our love of place.
|
|
Spring Birding Walk with I'm Birding Right Now *Two days to choose from!*
With spring comes an increase in noticeable bird activity as many birds begin to sing and pair up for their breeding cycle. We’ll slowly meander along the mostly flat trail, winding through open oak savannah, grasslands, riparian woodlands, and marshes.
All experience levels are welcome. Beginners are encouraged - don't be shy if you've never birded before, that's what we're here for!
This activity is made possible by the voters of Sonoma County who fund the work of Ag + Open Space with a quarter-cent sales tax.
|
|
Laguna Stewardship Day
Meadowlark Field, Sebastopol Wetlands Preserve
Saturday, April 15, 2023. 9:00am – 12:00pm
We are going back to Meadowlark Field for the second stewardship day! Here we'll enjoy the outdoors along the Laguna de Santa Rosa Trail. Help us continue to steward this amazing site! There will be opportunities to go birding and hiking afterwards.
Bring a friend! Bring the kids! No experience needed. Tools and training provided. Wear clothes and shoes that can get dirty. Please bring a water bottle, a smile and some elbow grease. Only heavy rain cancels.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Sonoma County who fund the work of Ag + Open Space with a quarter-cent sales tax.
|
|
Caring for Laguna de Santa Rosa
Upland Preserve
|
We recently had our annual Valentine's Stewardship Day and shared our love for the Laguna Uplands Preserve. An awesome group of volunteers came out and helped us take care of this natural community oasis.
Over the 20 years that the Laguna Foundation has owned the Uplands Preserve, it has transitioned from a bare, heavily grazed sheep pasture to a thriving forest of native trees which provide shade and habitat for native understory plants and wildlife. There are even signs of badgers making their way through this part of Sebastopol in the summer, eating gophers as they go.
Volunteers helped us improve the trails, clean, tend, and repair the bird nesting boxes, and planted hundreds of native plant species grown in our Nursery, including field sedge, Santa Barbara sedge, purple needlegrass, California oatgrass, Pacific rush, Gray rush, yarrow, Soaproot lilies, and mugwort.
Thanks to all of our volunteers and donors who support this beautiful land along the Laguna de Santa Rosa, with special gratitude for the Jack and Francine C. Levin Laguna Uplands Preserve Fund.
|
|
Volunteer Spotlight
Jan Lochner
|
|
Jan Lochner is a retired physical therapist turned restoration volunteer extraordinaire! She is an all-star native plant propagator at our native plant nursery, and a powerhouse invasive plant terminator for the California Native Plant Society.
The Laguna de Santa Rosa is right in Jan's backyard. Post-retirement, she realized that the experiences and relationships she gained through volunteering were meaningful and very satisfying. When not volunteering at the Laguna Foundation, Jan leads projects to eliminate ice plant along the coast at California State and Regional Parks, and also volunteers at Willowside School Nursery and LandPaths.
Jan is a Sebastopol resident of over 40 years, and a mother of two. She is also skilled in the art of creative flower pressing. Her pressed flower cards and lanterns have grown into a retirement business including teaching classes at Riley Street Art Supply and the Laguna Environmental Center.
Jan’s energy, positive attitude, and caring nature is contagious and working with her in the nursey is a real joy. She has helped propagate thousands of plants in the nursery and spent countless hours weeding and beautifying our native plant landscaping areas. Over the last year our native plant nursery has grown more plants than ever before and we’d like to give a special thanks to Jan because we know in large part it happened because of her.
|
|
Meet the Learning Laguna Docent Trainees |
|
After a three-year hiatus, we are back, up and running our Learning Laguna docent training! We have 15 new community volunteers who are already bringing enthusiasm, knowledge, passion for teaching about the environment, and a growing appreciation for the Laguna de Santa Rosa. Collectively they have experience in a variety of fields, including: ecology and ecological restoration, affordable housing, technology, program management, teaching English as a Second Language, customer service, medical transcription, woodworking, construction, insurance, film and television, non-profit board of directors management, palliative care nursing, pediatric medicine, web design and development, psychology, art, and elementary school teaching. Plus, they all love kids and the natural world!
These new docents will begin their service to schools in the Laguna watershed right when they complete the training course this spring. Welcome to the Laguna Education circle Ellin Beer, Ariella Ben-David, Stephanie Blumenthal, Robert Brent, Larry Dellard, Silvana Ferreira, Katherine Foster, Bridget McKenna, Craig Palmer, Anne Preciado, Bonnie Raines, Joan Schwan, Nick Stewart, Judi Witwicki, and Deb Wright. We are so happy you are here!
|
|
Restoration on Hood Mountain |
|
The pygmy forest may be diminutive, but our restoration at Hood Mountain Regional Park took a giant leap forward this winter when our team took hundreds of Sargent cypress seedlings and planted them out in the field. While the Sargent cypress trees that make up the pygmy forest are naturally adapted to fire, the Nuns Fire and the Glass Fire, combined with the bulldozing of fire control lines, left the slopes of Hood Mountain bare and exposed. |
|
In the fall of 2021 we collected Sargent cypress cones and other native understory species and propagated them in our nursery to plant out in 2022. At the same time, we broadcast the seed that we had collected before the Glass Fire to begin regenerating the other native plants that make up the understory community. On the steep slopes our partner Hanford Builds installed hundreds of small check dams made from coir logs, burned trees, and rocks. These erosion control structures caught sediment in this winter’s rains and slowed the water down as it rushes down the steep, bare slopes. This will heal the gullies that have begun to form, and create perfect pockets of soil where we can plant our young trees and forbs. Eventually the wood and coir logs will rot away and the tree roots will hold the soil. We look forward to continuing this critical work restoring one of Sonoma County’s many unique plant communities. |
|
The Laguna Environmental Center remains open by appointment to see the gallery and grounds during the weekdays, by contacting Maggie Hart.
We hope to see you soon!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
