"Weighing in at approximately 4.4 ounces and 490 pounds, respectively, a California tiger salamander and a Royal Bengal tiger seemingly have little if anything in common. The former lives in the Santa Rosa Plain’s vernal pools in the Laguna de Santa Rosa watershed and the latter in the largest remaining contiguous mangrove forest in the world, the Great Sundarbans in India; but, their fate is intertwined. For both of these endangered species, survival is dependent on wetlands. And, their wetland homes have been recognized by the global community as Wetlands of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands treaty" Read more in our latest issue of Meanderings here.

Calling all 6-11 year old explorers… come to Camp Tule! Choose from one of three camp sessions:

Spend time with friends and discover new ones as you explore the plants and animals of the Laguna! Click here for details and registration information.

After a year of online school, now more than ever our children need to be together outdoors and have their curiosity stimulated. Support the children of our community and the families facing financial hardship by contributing to the Camp Tule Fund.

This past March, with the Laguna Foundation’s support, we were accepted into Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Fire Forward Fellowship Program. This opportunity will allow us to continue our journey as fire practitioners, while partnering with a strong team of prescribed burn leaders.

Find a Prescribed Burn Association near you: https://calpba.org/

With California’s record drought this spring, it is easy to become disheartened with the reality of climate change. Low rainfall has been hard on local wetlands; in fact, some vernal pools did not pond water at all this year. Years like this demonstrate how important it is to have heathy diverse wetland communities that are able to hang on through the tough times. Our restoration work in the Laguna de Santa Rosa Trail Regional Park came just in time to save a dwindling population of rare Sebastopol meadowfoam along the Laguna main channel and create a resilient plant community.

Over the last several years in partnership with Sonoma County Regional Parks and funded by Sonoma Water, the Laguna Foundation has been carefully stewarding the wet meadow complex in Balletto Field, just below Kelly Marsh. Working with devoted community volunteers and students, we introduced beneficial disturbance through hand raking and sheep grazing; targeted invasive species management; and plant propagation in our own nursery followed by planting in the Balletto Field to increase diversity. We also spread Sebastopol meadowfoam seeds back into vernal pools where it had been lost. This stewardship was all in an effort to create a resilient plant community that could thrive through all kinds of climate uncertainty.

This spring all efforts paid off! The Sebastopol meadowfoam population—that two years ago was down to only a handful of plants—weathered the drought and is still persisting in the pools this year, an encouraging sign of the progress we made in stabilizing this fragile population. Moreover, other native meadow species have been planted along the footpath. We will continue to monitor this population and many other vernal pools around the Santa Rosa Plain to ensure that these species remain stout, resilient, and in a good position to weather the erratic climate of the future. A couple of weeks ago, a few lucky participants even got to go out on our first in-person event to see and hear first-hand about the restoration. Check our Community Education page for future events or learn more about our vernal pool conservation program by visiting our website and watching past webinars.

We are excited to welcome Sarah Labberton to our ecology team as a Restoration Field Technician. Sarah has been drawn to the outdoors since she was a little girl traveling around California with her family. After graduating from the University of Montana with a B.S. in Wildlife Biology, she has spent the last few years working as a field technician and environmental educator for various agencies in the North Bay, including with the Marin Municipal Water District and Point Blue Conservation Science's Students and Teachers Restoring Watersheds (STRAW). She is a certified CA Naturalist with a passion for expanding native habitats and reconnecting the community to the natural world. In her free time, Sarah enjoys singing, hiking, and competing in triathlons.