Something to Celebrate: Beavers Return to Sonoma Creek
It’s been a long summer of extreme drought conditions in Sonoma Valley. In what seems like a steady stream of dire news for our watershed one glimmer of good news stands out: beavers are moving back into Sonoma Creek.The return of these charming dam builders isn’t...
From August to September: An Update on our Watershed
Over the course of just one month we're observing intensifying conditions in our creeks. As we enter the month of September we’re feeling that familiar warm weather typical of late summer in the San Francisco Bay Area. These hot end of season days are making their...
Update on the Endangered Kenwood Marsh Checkerbloom
We are excited to share an update on the endangered Kenwood Marsh Checkerbloom from Ayla Mills, Nursery Propagation Manager of our Native Plant Nursery at Sonoma Garden Park. Ayla graduated from Chico State University with a M.S. in biology with a focus in botany. She...
Fire-wise and Resilient Landscape Resources For a Safer Fire Season
An example of a local home following fire smart, water wise and wildlife friendly principles. It is hard to believe that we’re only part way through the 2021 fire season. In years past we’ve seen smoky skies come our way as late as October or November (or not at all)...
Another successful prescribed burn in the books!
Mother Nature’s gift of a cool morning, relative humidity, low wind plus our technically capable team and preparedness allowed Sonoma Ecology Center and our partners the right weather conditions to conduct another successful prescribed burn at Van Hoosear Wildflower...
Some Cool Finds During City Nature Challenge
City Nature Challenge is an international event that takes place on the same weekend each year to encourage scientists and citizen scientists to document on the iNaturalist app any and all species they see in nature. Team Sugarloaf has participated in it for the past...
Defend Your Home With Resilient Landscaping
By Ellie Insley, Vice President of the Board of Directors of Sonoma Ecology Center. Ellie is a Landscape Architect; Natural Habitat Restoration Specialist; Life Coach; and Equine Guided Educator. Fire-resilient landscaping may be more important now than ever given the...
George Ranch neighbors join together for a biochar event
A group of George Ranch homeowners worked with the Grove Street Fire Safe Council and Sonoma Ecology Center’s Biochar Initiative program to conduct a biochar burn demonstration last month at George Ranch. Homeowners cleared undergrowth on their property, which helps...
This Drought is as Bad as the 1976 Drought
We are now in the worst drought in more than four decades. Mature oak trees are cracking and falling over, and reservoirs are drying up. Water agencies throughout Sonoma County have, or are considering water rationing. It’s time to rethink how we use water, especially...
How COVID-19 Relates to Our Ecology
By Nancy Padian, board member. Nancy is a medical researcher, epidemiologist, and former executive director of the Women's Global Health Imperitave. She is among the world's foremost experts on AIDS, and worked in Southern Africa for the last 35 years.The global...
Meet Our Volunteer Photographer Kristen Russell
Sonoma Ecology Center is blessed to have many fabulous volunteers without whom we could not accomplish so much. This month we focus our lens on a tremendously talented volunteer whose work you see in our newsletters, emails and social media posts on a regular basis....
A Message From Our Executive Director, Richard Dale
It’s been a shocking year for the planet that supports us, hidden from many of us because our attention has been absorbed by dealing with a global pandemic and a social fabric worn thin from centuries of injustice. But life on earth is in crisis all over. Just...
Prescribed Burn Planned for Van Hoosear
Controlled or “prescribed” burns were used by indigenous people for centuries before Europeans arrived here. It is an effective ancient art and science that promotes both fire resiliency and biodiversity. Last year’s prescribed burn of about 30 acres at Van Hoosear...
Honoring Earth, Honoring Volunteers
Sonoma Ecology Center and our illustrious, dedicated volunteers help us honor Earth every day, and we’d like to thank them for helping us take care of little patches of our planet right here in Sonoma Valley. In partnership with One Tree Planted and Simply Solar,...
Another Dry Year
The warm, sunny days we have been enjoying the last several weeks are delightful, but we shouldn’t be enjoying so many of them at this point in what should be our rainy season. “This year is shaping up to be one of the driest on record in our region, with over 50% of...
Harvest Market is Open
The Harvest Market at Sonoma Garden Park is open and selling fresh, organically-grown produce and olive oil again. There is not much better than eating food that comes from the land where you live, and that’s just what we offer every Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon in...
A message from NEST student, Alexandra Huerta
As someone who has always admired the grandeur of the outdoors and has an ever-present curiosity for exploring, understanding and preserving our natural world, studying environmental science just made sense. As a Southern California native, my summer days as a youth...
Support These Intersectional Environmental Organizations for Black History Month
Image souce @outdoorafro This Black History Month, we invite you to learn more about and support intersectional environmentalism through the work of Black-led environmental organizations that address issues of transportation, housing, pollution in BIPOC (Black...
Can Sonoma Valley Save the Kenwood Marsh Checkerbloom?
In the summer of 2018, right after his job interview at Sonoma Ecology Center, botanist and ecologist Jason Mills drove north up Sonoma Valley to Kenwood in search of a plant on the brink of extinction. After a little poking around he found it: a handful of Kenwood...
How Kenwood Marsh Turned Sonoma Valley into a ‘Fountain of Fountains’
“Sonoma is a fountain of fountains.” So wrote Father Jose Altimira in 1823, while seeking the ideal location for Mission San Francisco Solano, California’s northernmost mission and Sonoma’s founding edifice. In writing those words—Sonoma es un manantial a...