County Seeks Input on Storm Water Resources Plan
Residents of Sonoma Valley now have a chance to weigh in on a plan to help us manage the coming rains – which bring with them the possibility of floods. Called the Storm Water Resources Plan, its intent is to manage flooding, recharge groundwater, reduce soil erosion,...
Summer Science Campers Spent Their Days Outside
Sonoma Ecology Center’s educators are wowed by the huge success of this year’s Summer Science Camps. An outpouring of positive feedback from campers and parents alike has confirmed for us that we are on the right track. “He had the most wonderful time at Creek Camp,”...
VIDEO: The Sugarloaf Bears Are Back
Our motion-activated cameras caught this beautiful black bear nosing its way around Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, not far from the Red Barn, in mid-July. This is the first bear seen in the park since the October 2017 wildfires, which burned more than 28 percent of...
Traveling the Electric Highway: Part III
Sonoma Ecology Center Executive Director Richard Dale and his family are enjoying a road trip to British Columbia – and they’re making the drive in their all-electric Chevrolet Bolt EV. What follows is part three of Richard’s chronicle of the highs and lows of taking...
Traveling the Electric Highway: Part II
Sonoma Ecology Center Executive Director Richard Dale and his family are enjoying a road trip to British Columbia – and they’re making the drive in their all-electric Chevrolet Bolt EV. What follows is part two of Richard’s chronicle of the highs and lows of taking...
A Summer to Remember at Sugarloaf
July is a time for hiking, camping and enjoying the great outdoors – all things that Sugarloaf Ridge State Park was made for. On July 4, park leaders put the summer season into full gear with our Fourth of July Fireworks Hike, a perennial favorite for locals of all...
Traveling the Electric Highway: from Sonoma to BC in an EV
Sonoma Ecology Center Executive Director Richard Dale and his family are enjoying a road trip to British Columbia – and they’re making the drive in their all-electric Chevrolet Bolt EV. What follows is Richard’s chronicle of the highs and lows of taking the so-called...
SDC’s Future Is Sonoma Valley’s Future
It is no small thing to close a 135-year-old, 860-acre facility. The closure of Sonoma Developmental Center is a complex, multi-layered process with many stakeholders. Sonoma Ecology Center has taken a keen interest in this process. The majority of this land is...
Sonoma Overlook Trail Gets a Makeover
One of the Valley's favorite hiking trails, Sonoma Overlook Trail, is currently getting some important work done to protect it from soil erosion and other hazards. The Overlook Trail is a collaborative project of Sonoma Ecology Center and the City of Sonoma and is...
The Right Path for Sonoma Valley
As the grass turns brown and the days get warmer, some may be glancing nervously at the hills with a thought to last fall’s wildfires. The question asked many times since those fires, which burned nearly a quarter of a million acres including 28 percent of Sonoma...
Three Ways You Can Help Fight Invasive Weeds
Every spring, your local ecologists at Sonoma Ecology Center take on a persistent problem that threatens native species throughout Sonoma Valley and California: invasive weeds From French broom to yellow star-thistle, these non-natives displace California’s native...
Sustainable Sonoma Honored with $10K Impact100 Grant
One of Sonoma Ecology Center’s proudest achievements over the past few years is spearheading Sustainable Sonoma, which innovates the way local business and health organizations, nonprofits, labor groups, government agencies and other stakeholders work together in...
Spring Gleaming
Poppies are popping and lupines are leaping at the Nathanson Creek Preserve Flood Plain, located on East MacArthur Street near Broadway. This Sonoma Ecology Center project demonstrates how California cities can create multiple benefits along waterways, like terraces...
Sustainable Sonoma Adds New Listening Session
In its quest for a new and collaborative way of tackling Sonoma Valley’s biggest problems, Sustainable Sonoma is continuing its listening tour of interest groups throughout the Valley, with the next listening session scheduled for the evening of June 1 at the Sonoma...
Doug McConnell Turns Camera on Valley’s Post-Fire Landscape
We love Doug McConnell, and not just because he once visited us at Sonoma Garden Park. For decades McConnell has been the Bay Area’s tour guide, showing generations of viewers all the people and places – especially natural places – that make the Bay Area great. His...
SEC’s John Roney Honored by State for Heroism
We’re very proud to announce that John Roney, park manager at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park and a Sonoma Ecology Center employee, was honored with a California State Senate resolution at the Capitol on May 7 by state senators Mike McGuire and Bill Dodd for his heroic...
Valley Forum: Toward a Sustainable Future
The warmth of spring is finally reaching out across Sonoma, bringing with it impossibly green fields and bursts of color as wildflowers show up in quantities we haven’t seen in years. It’s a stark counterpoint to the bleak landscapes of last winter after the fires, a...
Sonoma Valley Wildlife Corridor Continues to Expand
Recently, our friends at Sonoma Land Trust announced acquisition of a 40-acre property near Hood Mountain Regional Park. The rugged and undeveloped canyon land, home to breeding steelhead and “the last stand of redwoods in the upper Santa Rosa Creek watershed,”...
Earth Week 2018 a Celebration of Spring
Spring is all about renewal, a theme near and dear to the hearts of Sonoma Valley residents these days as they recover from last October’s wildfires. Maybe that’s why they’ve been so appreciative of our fire recovery work of recent months, and why our Fire Recovery...
Sign Up Now for Summer (and Spring) Camps
Sonoma Ecology Center educators are proud to announce our upcoming Summer Science Camps, replete with the outdoor adventure, scientific enrichment and fun themes that Sonoma Valley families have come to expect. This summer, in addition to the backpacking camps, creek...
