Chapter Meeting,
January 16, 2025

Posted onAnnouncements
Battle Creek. Courtesy of River Partners.
Battle Creek is the largest Sacramento River tributary north of the Feather River, with a watershed that covers approximately 360 square miles. The Rancho Breisgau unit is one of the last remaining parcels needed to connect a wildlife corridor of continuous riparian habitat that stretches from the Sacramento River up to the headwaters of Battle Creek in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Photo courtesy of River Partners.

For our first Chapter meeting of 2025—Thursday, January 16, 2025—we are delighted to host River Partners staff April Damanti and Kyler Stassi, who will provide a presentation about riparian restoration on the Rancho Breisgau Unit, part of the Bureau of Land Management’s 18,000-acre Sacramento River Bend Area of Critical Environmental Concern.

River Partners’ mission is to bring life back to rivers by creating wildlife habitat for the benefit of people and the environment. This organization represents a new approach to protecting the environment, with a focus on implementing on-the-ground river restoration projects ranging from revegetation to channel reconstruction to levee breaching. Their goal is to balance the basic requirements of wildlife populations with the economic and recreational needs of local citizens.

Planting event at Rancho Breisgau. MA. McCrary.
Restoration planting event on BLM’s Rancho Breisgau Unit, on the Shasta-Tehama County line.
Photo taken October 12, 2024, by MaryAnn McCrary.

April Damanti serves as a Restoration Science Ecologist and Project Manager at River Partners. She specializes in side-channel and floodplain restoration and reconnection projects along the Sacramento River. Her work emphasizes restoring riparian habitats for native species, enhancing habitat connectivity, promoting carbon sequestration and aquifer recharge, supporting natural river processes on restored floodplains, managing invasive species, and conducting site monitoring. Ms. Damanti holds a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from California State University, Chico.

Kyler Stassi is a Restoration Field Manager at River Partners, where he oversees the implementation of riparian habitat restoration projects in the Sacramento Valley. In this role, he manages field technicians, subcontractors, and labor crews, coordinating tasks such as planting, irrigation, spraying, and other agricultural operations. His responsibilities also include preparing budget updates, reports, and project timelines, operating equipment, and ensuring compliance with health and safety plans and procedures. Mr. Stassi holds a B.S. in Agricultural Science from the University of Nevada, Reno.

April Damanti. Photo courtesy of River Partners.
April Damanti, Restoration Science Ecologist and Project Manager at River Partners.
Kyler Stassi. Photo courtesy of River Partners.
Kyler Stassi, Restoration Field Manager at River Partners. Photos courtesy of River Partners.

Come help us kick off a whole new year of great Chapter presentations! That’s 5:30 or 6 PM on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Venue and time details are below. See you there! ~Shasta Chapter CNPS

The new meeting venue

With sincere gratitude to McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens, we are delighted to announce that Shasta Chapter CNPS is now meeting in the brand new Turtle Bay Nursery Classroom, 1125 Arboretum Drive, Redding. There is lots of free, paved parking just steps away from the classroom building, and nice, curbed sidewalks. To get to the new venue, from South Market Street, turn east onto Arboretum Drive. Veer right at the first opportunity (so you don’t end up at Turtle Bay Elementary School!), and drive a short way to the “curvy” parking lot to the east of Arboretum Drive.

Map to classroom. Google Maps.
From South Market Street in Redding (upper left corner), follow the blue arrows to the parking area outside the gates of the new Turtle Bay Nursery Classroom, marked with a blue X (not yet built in this image!). Screenshot from Google Maps.

The Nursery Classroom is just inside a large wrought-iron double gate, which is just north of the entrance to the botanical gardens proper.

Classroom and gates. D. Burk.
The new Turtle Bay Nursery Classroom behind the McConnell Arboretum & Botanic Gardens Nursery gates at Turtle Bay Exploration Park, 1125 Arboretum Drive, Redding. Doors to the classroom are on the sides in the back. We will have bright yellow signs posted to help you find your way!
Photo taken August 30, 2024, by Don Burk.

The new meeting time

We will get the show on the road a little earlier than in the past. Please be ready to go no later than 6 PM for our short Chapter meeting and announcements, followed by our speaker’s presentation. Or come as early as 5:30 PM to socialize and see what sort of pre-meeting activity or display we might have for you!