Making a Difference in the Face of Climate Change |
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“I grew up on the Russian River and after seeing my home degraded and polluted, I was driven to do anything I could to take care of and steward it. The Laguna Foundation does meaningful environmental work, and I want to be a part of that.” - Asa Voight, Restoration Field Supervisor
There’s no denying that climate change is impacting us all.
In Sonoma County, we are experiencing a new era of extremes: droughts, floods, wildfires, and record-breaking temperatures. It’s hard to wrap our heads around these unwelcome yet real possibilities.
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What is welcome and genuine is the unwavering dedication and commitment of the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation, sustaining its 30+ year legacy of restoring imperiled habitats and inspiring generations to learn how to care for our unique wetland ecosystem. As we tackle the negative impacts created in the Laguna by activities in the past, we are also developing strategies that address the future needs of wildlife and their habitat in a changing climate.
It’s challenging to our hearts and minds to focus on the problems, but we find the strength in knowing that we have already come a long way—thanks to you!
And now a group of visionary community leaders have come together to create a $100,000 Challenge to ensure our continued success. We are halfway toward meeting this challenge!
If you have already made a gift toward the Challenge, THANK YOU! If you've yet to make a gift and are in a position to make a donation to help Sonoma County in the face of climate change, know that each dollar you give today will be doubled dollar-for-dollar up to $100,000!
To learn more about the impact in the Laguna de Santa Rosa watershed you make possible, continue reading here.
Thank you,
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Anne Morkill
Executive Director
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Donate to protect the Laguna de Santa Rosa |
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Cordage-Making Materials and Techniques
Workshop with Charlie Kennard
Saturday, December 11. 9:30 am – 3:30 pm.
Spend a day working with your hands and learning one of the fundamental skills in basketry and other fiber arts in the peaceful setting at the Laguna Environmental Center.
New Art Exhibit in Heron Hall! Opening Reception
“Conservation in Biodiversity” Photography by Joshua Asel
Saturday, January 15, 2022. 3:00-5:00pm
Location: Laguna Environmental Center, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Since 2012, Joshua Asel has been working as an advocate to create visual communication stories that cover Threatened, Endangered, keystone, and bellwether species. California Condors, rare marine mammals, and coastal landscapes are all part of this small cross-section of Joshua's larger volume of internationally-recognized photographic work. All of the wildlife featured in this exhibit are benefactors of successful conservation efforts.
Winter Color: Branches, Leaves and Winter Fruit
Colored Pencil Techniques workshop with Nina Antze
Saturday, January 29, 2022. 10:00am- 2:00pm
Location: Heron Hall, Laguna Environmental Center
Practice drawing with colored pencils to explore the textures, markings, and colors of winter branches, dying leaves, acorns and dried berries.
This workshop makes the perfect holiday gift for the artists on your list!
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Over 80 professional biologists and resource managers attended our Amphibians of the San Francisco Bay Area Workshop with Dave Cook and Jeff Alvarez on November 19-21. This workshop provided practical knowledge, including identification features, range and distribution, habitat requirements, and behavior of these 16 species: American Bullfrog, Arboreal salamander, Black salamander, California giant salamander, California newt, California red-legged frog, California slender salamander, California tiger salamander, Foothill yellow-legged frog, Northwestern salamander, Pacific chorus frog, Red-bellied newt, Rough-skinned newt, Western spadefoot, Western toad, Yellow-eyed salamander.
Since the best time to find amphibians is after a substantial rain, conditions were perfect on workshop day and participants found many of the local frogs, toads, salamanders and newts at the field trip sites! They conducted surveys at Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Bouverie Preserve in Glen Ellen and Sonoma State University’s Fairfield Osborn Preserve in Rohnert Park.
Instructors Dave Cook and Jeff Alvarez are both experts on amphibian ecology and conservation, and conduct herpetological research in the San Francisco Bay Area. They have been offering workshops in partnership with the Laguna Foundation for over 15 years!
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Stewardship Day at Irwin Creek |
We had a great stewardship day at Irwin Creek on Saturday, November 13th. The restoration planting work began in the 1990’s and continued in phases for 30 years with the final tree planting in 2015. Flash forward to the end of 2021, and it is starting to feel like a forest now, and wildlife use the creek as a corridor to move through the watershed. Our creek side wildlife cameras have spotted everything from badgers, mink, and coyotes, to herons and owls. As an added bonus, these trees now provide a canopy of shade for our campers to play underneath on warm summer days.
Our main focus today is expanding the native plantings and keeping invasive species under control. On Saturday, we divided into two groups - one group chopped blackberry and another replaced invasive grasses with native grasses and sedges. Both groups made amazing progress! It was a lovely sunny day and we had a great mix of Rotary volunteers, loyal returning volunteers, and new friends. It was great to be together again making a difference for the Laguna.
Thanks to all of our amazing Laguna volunteers!
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There are smiles under those masks! Our staff is glad to be meeting in person again (we resumed in September), especially since our last staff meeting included a pie party! It was a wonderful way to celebrate the month of November and gratitude for our coworkers.
We'd love to see you too! We are currently open to the public by appointment. Our office will be closed beginning Friday, December 24th through Friday, December 31st. We will resume office hours by appointment on Monday, January 3rd, 2022.
Happy Holidays from all of us to all of you!
Front row: Kira Rowan, Elif Myers, Sarah Gordon, Anne Morkill, Maggie Hart, Wendy Trowbridge. Back row: Brent Reed, Christine Fontaine, Asa Voight, Sierra Castillo, Heather Baggett, Adrienne Gause, Ben Holman, Ayla Mills. Not pictured: Annie Madden, Chris Kline and Debra Wright.
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