As Election Season steamrolls over us, I have to remind myself that, although conservation-minded individuals may not have much sway at the national level, we can still make a big difference at the local level.
A case in point is Ryan Morris, a local habitat restoration specialist with the Western Shasta Resource Conservation District, who is actively working to support monarch butterflies locally by distributing milkweeds and pollinator-friendly native plants. To learn more, join us at our November 21 Chapter Meeting, where Ryan will be our featured speaker.
Photo by Margaret Widdowson.
To find pollinator-friendly native plants for your own backyard, check out the offerings at the Shasta Chapter’s cool season online plant store, which will remain open at least through early December. We still have native milkweeds available, as well as a number of other spectacular native plants!
And if you prefer to appreciate plants in the wild rather than in the garden, join Juliet Malek for a joint CNPS/SEA field trip to the Sloppy Joe Trail on Redding’s west side. In addition to our local botanical wonders, Juliet will help identify birds, insects, and any other animals that may be found, and will give out some tips on using the iNaturalist app as a tool for citizen scientists.
Photo © Doug Mandel.
For those wanting to help fund local environmental education and conservation efforts, North State Giving Tuesday 2024 is coming up on December 3! Last year we received a $1,000 gift from the Community Foundation of the North State, which was a big boost for supporting our plant propagation and scholarship programs. If all goes well, maybe this year we’ll raise funds to replace our undersized and dilapidated plant propagation storage shed at the Shasta College nursery grounds.
There is so much we can still do. Although the political landscape may change, here on our local landscape, we will persist. ~Don Burk, President
