March Mendocino Monthly

March 2023

MLT

MONTHLY

March brings hope and the determination of the most rugged plants to break through the soil and face the sun. May we all feel that warmth on our faces.

Great Good People of MLT:

Ken Flannell

Is Ken Flannell a whiz with numbers and budgets? Yes, of course: He is the treasurer of the Mendocino Land Trust Board of Trustees, after all. Heidi Sorenson, our Chief Financial Officer, sings his praises all the time and recently showed off a spreadsheet he produced for her that was easy to read, helpful and well-researched. “He does this for us in his spare time!” she said, awestruck. The spreadsheet in question was about responsible investing; he’s a numbers guy with a conscience.

Is Ken Flannell a lifelong and determined outdoors enthusiast? Absolutely.

Read More Here

OUTDOOR SOCIAL CLUB

Earth Day at Noyo Food Forest

Join the MLT Outdoor Social Club as we celebrate Earth Day. Noyo Food Forest hosts an annual Earth Day Celebration that MLT has gratefully been a part of for years. On April 22, stop by our table and talk conservation with MLT staff, and then, if you’d like a little nature time, head over to Otis Johnson Park for a walk in a park we have been helping maintain with our partners at the Anchor Academy.

More Info Here

PROJECT UPDATE

Saving Habitat & Protecting Pollinators

A report from Anna Bride, MLT Conservation Project Coordinator

The Mendocino Land Trust has been a crucial member of a diverse Coastal Mendocino Pollinator working group the last few years. A broad combination of state and federal agencies and local nonprofits, we are all working toward restoring coastal prairie habitats. These restoration projects are aimed at supporting an endemic butterfly that lives on our coast. In fall of 2022, we surveyed for a particular herbaceous flowering perennial at our Navarro Point trail lands. Lucky for us they had just started blooming, and we were able to track the data points with a GPS device. This plant is crucial to the butterfly’s habitat, so augmenting these plant communities is imperative to the butterfly’s survival. Residential development on the coast and invasive grasses on the coastal prairie have greatly reduced the populations of native flowering plants in these habitats.

We used plants donated by California State Parks that were grown by the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation. There were 400 in total that we planted in four different sites at Navarro Point. We also planted native thistles and other nectar plants that Jughandle Farm grew to support the pollinators. Twelve volunteers joined us this winter, and we spent a full day planting! Also, in February of this year, we planted 100 more during a volunteer day organized by Esme Plascencia and the North Coast chapter of Latino Outdoors.

Our pollinator working group keeps gathering momentum. Partnering with U.S. Fish and Wildlife, BLM Stornetta, Manchester State Parks, Conservation Works and the Sequoia Zoo, we are coming up with a restoration master plan on the Mendocino Coast. Look out for new volunteer opportunities to participate in these plantings over the coming years.

DONATE