Staff Highlight: Alma Shaw, Senderos Naturales Project Coordinator
Alma Shaw is Sugarloaf Ridge State Park’s Bilingual Events Coordinator and the Program Lead for the Spanish-speaking hiking and workshop program Senderos Naturales. In her tenure here with us Alma has significantly grown our program to reach widely throughout Sonoma,...
The Project to Uncover SDC’s Biodiversity
When taking a walk through the Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC) campus, one is struck immediately with its striking buildings and the plane trees that arch over this charismatic and much-discussed property. However, there’s much more than first meets the eye in this...
Harnessing the Bounty of the Wet Season
How can we harness the bounty of the wet season all year long? In the middle of California’s rainy season, it’s easy to think that water is abundant. Just a month ago, storms were passing through regularly, creeks were rushing, grassy hills were vibrant green, and...
Staff Highlight: Cali Pearce
Introducing Cali Pearce: AmeriCorps Member for Volunteer Infrastructure ServicesCali Pearce joined our team as our first ever Americorp volunteer to help Sonoma Ecology Center bring it’s volunteer management system into the digital age and shape our volunteer culture....
The Life Cycle of Chinook in Sonoma Creek
The Chinook salmon that have been making their run up the Sonoma Creek watershed are reaching the end of their life cycle. In the video below you can catch a glimpse of changes their bodies undergo as they enter a rapid senescence - a process observed in salmon in...
Department of De-Fence
The Sonoma Ecology Center (SEC) has worked to preserve, protect and improve the Sonoma Valley Wildlife Corridor since we originally identified and championed this critical natural resource component of the Sonoma Valley landscape back in the 1990’s. The initial idea,...
Sonoma Creek Has Salmon Again
We all feel like celebrating over this news: Sonoma Creek has salmon again! Research Program Manager and aquatic scientist Steven Lee assembled this inspiring video of the Chinook (King salmon) as they made their journey upstream and began settling into their spawning...
Something to Celebrate: Beavers Are In 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...