VOLUME 28, NUMBER 2
WINTER 2020
The Membership Magazine of the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
Weathering the Storm BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION ON SAN NICOLAS ISLAND
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DESIGN YOUR OWN NATIVE PLANT GARDEN
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A GARDEN FOR THE PEOPLE
IRONWOOD Volume 28, Number 2 | Winter 2020 ISSN 1068-4026 Editorial Team: Rita Boss, Rebecca Curtis, Taylor Keefer, Heidi Whitman Designer: Kathleen Kennedy Contributors: Rita Boss, Michelle Cyr, Jessica Fernandez, C. Matt Guilliams, Kristen HasenstabLehman, Ph.D., Caitlin Lam, Rikke Reese Naesborg, Ph.D., Scot Pipkin, Casey Richart, Ph.D., Joe Rothleutner, Steve Windhager, Ph.D.
CONTENTS
Ironwood is published biannually by the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, a private nonprofit institution founded in 1926. The Garden conserves California native plants and habitats for the health and well-being of people and the planet. The Garden is a member of the American Public Gardens Association, the American Alliance of Museums, the California Association of Museums, and the American Horticultural Society. Š2020 Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. All rights reserved.
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Letter from the Executive Director
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Biodiversity Conservation on San Nicolas Island
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Design Your Own Native Plant Garden
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden 1212 Mission Canyon Road Santa Barbara, CA 93105 sbbg.org
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A Garden for the People
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Winter Birds and Where to Find Them
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Budding Botanists
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Garden Family
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Rare and Endangered
GARDEN HOURS 10am - 5pm Daily Members Only 9am - 10am PHONE (805) 682-4726 DEVELOPMENT EXT. 133 EDUCATION EXT. 160 GARDEN NURSERY EXT. 112 MEMBERSHIP EXT. 110 REGISTRATION EXT. 102 VOLUNTEER OFFICE EXT. 119 BOARD OF TRUSTEES Tom Craveiro, Chair Valerie Hoffman, Vice Chair Kathy Scroggs, Secretary Mark Funk, Treasurer John Gabbert Elaine Gibson
Sarah Berkus Gower William Murdoch Gerry Rubin Warren Schultheis Jesse Smith Ann Steinmetz
LEADERSHIP TEAM Steve Windhager, Ph.D., Executive Director Heidi Whitman, CFRE, Director of Development & Communications Joe Rothleutner, Director of Horticulture & Facilities Denise Knapp, Ph.D., Director of Conservation & Research Scot Pipkin, Director of Education & Engagement Kathy Castaneda, Manager of Volunteer Programs
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Need more Garden news? Sign up for our biweekly Garden Gazette e-newsletter at sbbg.org and follow us on social media for the latest updates from the Garden. @sbgarden @sbbotanicgarden
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
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ON THE COVER (L-R) William Hoyer, Matt Guilliams, and Benjamin Carter examine the route down the eroded slopes of San Nicolas Island during specimen collections. Most collections required hiking into rugged canyons far off the typical routes used on San Nicolas.
DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE Disaster is an inextricable part of the Californian experience. But whether it’s fire, earthquake, mudslide, drought, or more human adversities, California rises to meet each challenge laid before us. Our chaparral heals, our forests regenerate. Our communities come together to weather the storm and we help our neighbors rebuild what was lost. That’s what it is to be Californian. We are resilient, adaptive, diverse, and strong, just like the ecosystems we rely on every day. When I arrived at the Garden as the Executive Director ten years ago, the Jesusita Fire had ripped through our garden and our hearts. It took years to rebuild, but with fortitude, foresight, and the massive support of our Garden communit y, we rebuilt strategically with the future in mind. The result today is a rebuilt and expanded garden collection and a thriving and growing conservation and research program, housed in our state-of-the-art Pritzlaff Conservation Center, which serves as base camp for the protection of native plants and ecosystems throughout California. I’m proud to say we are now serving our mission in ways we only dreamed of a decade ago. We’re continually digging deeper into our own understanding of the beautiful complexities of California’s environs and what it will take to ensure their continued survival. As you’ll read in this issue, this year we’ve made remarkable progress on biological inventories of San Nicolas Island including 1,468 museum collections, 181 organisms documented for the first time on the island, as well as the discovery of four species not known to science (pgs. 4-7). One of our many ongoing conservation and research projects, this study uses innovative techniques to help us understand and protect fragile ecosystems. I’m proud of all the ways the Garden is serving our communit y, especially this year. We’re an essential space to spend time in nature, safely hosting over 26,000 visitors since we reopened our Garden gates this July with communit y and staff health top of mind. While most of our onsite tours and classes have taken a necessary pause, we’ve found new ways to inspire connections with our visitors and members (pgs. 12-13). As always, we’re happy to share our expert garden skills and help you find just the right native plant to adopt for your own home from our newly reopened Nursery (pg. 11). And the Garden couldn’t be any of these without the support of our Garden family (pg. 18), including YOU. Thank you for helping us weather the storm so that we can continue to bloom! With gratitude,
Steve Windhager, Ph.D. Executive Director
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BIO DIVERSITY
CONSERVATION on
San Nicolas Island By Kristen Hasenstab-Lehman, C. Matt Guilliams, Rikke Reese Naesborg, and Casey Richart
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s the most remote of the California Channel Islands, San Nicolas has the reputation of being a mysterious, wind-swept place. Known popularly as the Island of the Blue Dolphins from the 1960 Scott O’Dell novel, this place served as the setting for the tale, which was inspired by the real-life events of the Lone Woman. She was the last of the original human inhabitants who called San Nicolas home for thousands of years. The original residents were massacred by sea otter hunters in 1811, and the remaining people were removed from the island in 1835. The only exception was the Lone Woman who remained on the island for 18 years. Beginning in 1853, San Nicolas was used by a series of sheep ranchers before final transfer of the land to the U.S. Navy in 1947, when it became part of the Naval Air Station at Point Mugu. There are few records of what the vegetation looked like prior to the ranching period, during which native shrubs were nearly eliminated due to grazing and lichen crusts were severely damaged due to trampling.
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In 2019, we partnered with the Naval Base Ventura Count y, San Nicolas Island natural resources managers to document the biodiversit y of the island, especially focused on historically undercollected groups like lichens and fungi. Using what we learned, we are applying genetic tools to increase ecological knowledge of the charismatic endemic foxes and snails. We are doing this in three parts: 1) Documenting biodiversit y through surveys and collection of specimens that are placed in natural history museums, 2) Building a DNA reference library using tissues associated with these museum specimens, 3) Diet analysis of the San Nicolas Island fox (Urocyon littoralis dickeryi) and San Nicolas Island snail (Micrarionta feralis).
Photo above: Dune habitat, impacted by development on the mainland, are often dominated by native plants and animals on the California Channel Islands. Photo: Kristen Hasenstab-Lehman
This project began with assembling a team of biodiversit y specialists. The group’s goal was to make a new suite of natural history collections along with tissue samples for concurrent genetics work. The team of taxonomists included the Garden’s Tucker Plant Systematist and Herbarium Curator Dr. C. Matt Guilliams and Conservation Geneticist Dr. Kristen Hasenstab-Lehman for vascular plants, Dr. Benjamin Carter, Assistant Professor at San Jose State Universit y for mosses and liverworts, the Garden’s Tucker Lichenologist Dr. Rikke Reese Naesborg for lichens, Christian Schwarz, Research Associate at Universit y of Santa Cruz for macrofungi, and the Garden’s Conservation Technician Stephanie Calloway and Invertebrate Biodiversit y Postdoctoral Scholar Dr. Casey Richart for terrestrial invertebrates. Once assembled, the team headed out for several surveys throughout the year and made many discoveries along the way. Our surveys resulted in: • 405 new vascular plant specimens, eight of which are new records for the island • 80 bryophytes, adding eight new species and one new family of liverworts for San Nicolas • 610 collections of lichens, 48 of which were new island records; one is new to science • 113 macrofungi collections, representing the first ever collected on San Nicolas; two collections are new species to science • Over 340 collections of over 100 species of invertebrates, including what appears to be a new millipede to science
Herbarium Curator Dr. Matt Guilliams collecting a particularly tall bluedick (Dipterostemon capitatum). This specimen was pressed flat between cardboards and dried to transform it into a museum specimen at the Garden.
A tiny sliver of really hard rock on an otherwise highly erosive island offers a stable surface for lichens. Here, Tucker Lichenologist Dr. Rikke Reese Naesborg hopes to discover species that are new additions to the island’s biodiversit y checklist. Photo: Dr. Cameron B. Williams
Christian Schwarz collecting tissue samples for DNA work.
Dr. Casey Richart, Invertebrate Biodiversit y Postdoctoral Scholar.
Photo: William Hoyer, US Navy
Conservation Technician Stephanie Calloway.
Above: Project partner Dr. Benjamin Carter examines diminutive soil mosses. W INT ER 2 0 2 0 Ironwood
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During the second phase of this project we are constructing a DNA reference library for San Nicolas Island that consists of barcode markers from the tissues collected during surveys. These are small portions of the genome unique for different t ypes of plants, fungi, and animals. Reference libraries, backed up with the museum specimen and expert determination of that collection, can be used as a carefully curated database to search against when trying to identify species using DNA. In the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden’s genetics lab, we are taking samples provided by collectors, isolating DNA, and sequencing barcode markers. We place both the barcode markers and associated specimen information in online platforms so that it can be used as a resource, both in our studies as well as by researchers from across the globe. Photo: Lichens are important part of soil stabilization on San Nicolas Island; in many places on this island no vascular plants grow and the landscape is dominated by these organisms. Photo: Kristen Hasenstab-Lehman Late nights are spent processing specimens long after the sun goes down and surveys end. While macrofungi fruiting bodies are fresh, collaborator Christian Schwarz painstakingly removes reproductive structures and stores them in buffer for genetic work, and photo documents parts of the mushroom that are lost in the drying process.
Lichens contain many secondary chemicals that are used to identify species. During DNA extraction we get to see the many beautiful colors they produce, before washing away everything but the clear DNA molecules.
In the third part of this study we are using DNA barcodes to increase the understanding of diet of both San Nicolas Island Foxes and Islandsnails. Previous studies have used physical assessment of scat to understand and assess food sources of Island foxes. However, these methods usually cannot detect soft-bodied organisms such as terrestrial invertebrates, fungi, lichens, and green plants. All of these groups could be resources
San Nicolas Island snail.
San Nicolas Island Fox with Island Night Lizard
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Photo: William Hoyer, US Navy
Photo: William Hoyer, US Navy
in an omnivore diet, but we don’t know which species might be important in supporting a healthy population of foxes on San Nicolas. DNA sequences found in their scat can be compared against the DNA reference library to know which potential food items are important in this intricate food web. This same method can be applied to the extremely rare San Nicolas Islandsnail, for which physical examination of the scat leaves more questions than answers. This snail is thought to be an herbivore, but whether it is eating green plants, lichens, or fungi is unknown. Additional threats for these snails include carnivorous land snails, introduced to the island in the twentieth century. Assessing whether the endangered snails are a component of the predatory snail’s diet will allow Navy biologists to take conservation action if needed to reduce the chance of extinction of an island endemic.
We are using traditional, boots on the ground biodiversity inventories to increase our understanding of organisms on San Nicolas Island, which has resulted in 1,468 museum collections, 181 organisms documented for the first time on the island, as well as the discovery of four species not known to science.
This species, Plantago erecta, represented one of several species that were documented on San Nicolas for the first time during our surveys. Photo: Kristen Hasenstab-Lehman
Winter rains bring a spectacular bloom of Giant Coreopsis (Leptosyne gigantea)
Photo: Kristen Hasenstab-Lehman
The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and its partners on this project are using modern approaches to build a reference library that will serve as the basis for species identification using DNA in samples, such as scat, that are not readily determined in other ways. This knowledge will aid land managers from the Navy in understanding ecosystem level interactions that support survival for all branches of the tree of life on San Nicolas, and will help land managers make science-based natural resource decisions for species from the well-known island fox, to the lesserknown but equally interesting San Nicolas Islandsnail. This blending of traditional and cutting-edge collaborative biodiversit y research is what allows the Garden to be a leader in California conservation and research. Dr. Kristen Hasenstab-Lehman preparing specimens in the field.
Photo: William Hoyer, US Navy
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esign
your own
Native Plant
Garden
By Joe Rothleutner, Director of Horticulture & Facilities
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Identify what you want
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he first step in a good garden design is to understand what you want to get back from your garden. Do you enjoy wandering around garden paths drinking coffee in the morning? Do you want a space for outdoor entertaining? Or, is your top priorit y low water and low maintenance to help cut back on monthly bills? A home for wildlife? Color and beaut y year-round? A native plant garden can fill more than one of these goals, but identifying and ranking your motivation for designing and investing in your garden can give clarit y when you have to make some choices along the way. If you start to get nervous about questions and decisions later on in the process, just remind yourself of why you took on this gardening challenge. Remember the big picture of what you want and ask yourself how this decision will help get you closer to the goal.
Evaluate what you have The next step in designing your garden is to look over the existing landscape and evaluate what you have. Nothing is set in stone and existing paths and patios, sheds, or pergolas all are components of the hardscape that could be changed if desired. Some hardscape components can be labor intensive and expensive to remove or install so think about these carefully. Other areas like gravel patios or mulched paths are easier to edit in or out along the way. Other big questions are if mature trees and shrubs can be integrated into the design. Mature specimens can act as anchors and help a young garden feel established, but a poorly placed, overgrown shrub can also interfere with design or in the case of some weedy exotic species, work against the goals of a native plant garden.
Draw some doodles and make some notes Pick up your pencil and start to draw your yard from a bird’s eye view. It doesn’t have to be to scale and don’t get frustrated if you aren’t an artist. Some simple shapes can spark creativit y and help understand your garden. Start with those hardscape elements and the existing plants that you want to keep. Add in new paths, seating areas, or other ideas that you want to explore. Paths should be wide enough so that you can easily access important nodes in the garden. Four feet may seem overly generous, but is comfortable for pushing a wheelbarrow or walking two people side by side. Straight paths are efficient for high traffic areas like
from your front door to your driveway, but a bit of a curve can soften a path and generally look better when the garden has grown in. Draw in a hedge or shrubs to obstruct the view of air conditioner units or other less desirable features. Also, make some observations and notes about the conditions of the yard; look at light availabilit y, where slopes exist, and soil conditions: if the soil drains freely or if water tends to puddle before slowly being absorbed into the ground. These notes will be helpful when you go to choose plants at the nursery. W INT ER 2 0 2 0 Ironwood
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Build a plant palette With your goal and site specifics in mind, it’s time to choose a palette of plants. Starting with a simplified primary palette of around 5-7 different t ypes of perennials and small-medium sized shrubs can be a great place to start. Clumps of these can be repeated through the landscape or grouped together to create impactful sweeps of color and texture. A common mistake may be to plant too many different plants in small patches which may be perceived as busy or messy. If you are looking for some readymade plant palettes, visit sbbg.org/plant-natives or ask about our plant lists at our retail nursery. We have several lists of plants for specific applications (for example hummingbird gardens, under oaks and dry shade, groundcovers). On top of these primary palette plants that are repeated, additional species can be added for varying interests or color at different times of the year.
If you need help choosing the right California native plants for your home garden, bring a photo of your yard, sketches, and notes and our nursery team of staff and volunteers will be happy to share some advice.
Jessica Fernandez is the Garden’s Propagator, managing the day-to-day operations of the Living Collections Nursery and Horticulture Unit, which is responsible for the production of California native plants for our living collections, the Conservation & Research team, and contracts focused on restoration efforts.
Dr. Matt Guilliams, Systematist and Herbarium Curator, collects Dudleya tissue.
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A plant can start its lifecycle here as either a seed or cutting (vegetative, or asexual propagation). We strive to create and mimic environmental conditions the plants would be adapted to in the wild. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to be in rhythm with the natural world when it comes to propagation. We collect, clean, and treat seeds according to their specific environmental and seasonal needs. As the seedlings or cuttings continue to grow, they will be transplanted, fertilized, pruned, and watered. We continue to tend the plants until they’ve reached the end of their growing cycle at the nursery and are ready for outplanting! All of this propagation work takes place on the east side of the Garden, on the hill overlooking the Pritzlaff Conservation Center.
Retail Nursery at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Now Open 7 days a week! Visit our nursery for expert advice this planting season and shop the largest selection of California natives on the Central Coast. Members shop early from 9-10 am every day and get 10% off every purchase!
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at t
St r
a k a,
R e t ai l N urser y
na Ma
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A Garden for THE PEOPLE
T
here is no doubt that living and working in the time of COVID-19 has changed our priorities and made us all adapt in ways we couldn’t have imagined. But the Garden’s mission has proven to be more urgent than ever, and our communit y has made it clear that having the Garden as a space for outdoor recreation and education has provided much-needed relief. While we had no choice but to pause classes and most in-person tours since March of this year, the Garden has been able to showcase our collections to record numbers of members, local families looking for ways to spend time outside, and brand-new audiences stopping by on road-trips across the state. The Garden’s Education department has taken this opportunit y to engage a broader audience in our mission by increasing onsite opportunities for learning. Caitlin Lam, Lifelong Learning Coordinator & Registrar, is improving and adding to the Garden’s interpretive signs that complement our living collections and challenge visitors to take a closer look at what surrounds them. This gives us a chance to communicate with people throughout the grounds, pointing out seasonal standouts, the phenomena of California plants, and the big picture of the work that the Garden does that could otherwise be missed. Caitlin seeks to orient new visitors to what they are seeing perhaps for the first time and share new insights with longtime visitors and members. After all, the Garden’s guests should have the right to be informed, engaged, and also challenged by their experiences here.
As an accredited living museum and model botanic garden, we document our plant collections for research and conservation, and present them to the public to educate and further their understanding of our work. One of the Garden’s driving motivations is to inspire the next generation of conservationists and protectors of our environment. Education that reaches people where they are and connects them to a larger purpose is how we make that vision a realit y. Over our nearly 95-year history, we have grown and diversified our gardens to be a resource for people of all ages, backgrounds, and experiences. Caitlin has added new display labels, some with common and scientific names of plants and others with text describing interesting or distinctive aspects of the plant. The goal of these additions and updates is to provide educational information that will speak to a broad audience, including children, people who are new to thinking about the world of plants or are unfamiliar with California natives, and plant enthusiasts always looking for more information. The Education department hopes that the display labels will spark an interest or deepen a fascination with plants that encourages a personal relationship with the natural world. This t ype of passive, didactic information may be commonly seen in art or science museums, but there is an important balance to be reached at a botanic garden where the beaut y of natural spaces is so prized.
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As a conservation organization, we need to inform and inspire our community to take action and support the conservation of our native plants and habitats. A personal connection to nature may be the first step towards a lifelong passion for conservation, and for people who don’t have extensive experience in the outdoors, the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden can be where they take that very first step. Visitors immediately recognize our iconic California poppies and Coast redwoods, but with over 1,000 different plant taxa (groups of organisms) displayed in distinct habitats, the Garden is home to both common and unique specimens. We seek to improve to the public’s understanding of the incredible biodiversit y of the California Floristic Province with some help from these onsite education opportunities. Communicating the basics about our collection can allow visitors to feel more comfortable before taking a next step like registering for a class or looking up more information on their own. Moving people from a general awareness to a personal commitment to conserving native plants can make a real impact. “I’m trying to create an opportunity for anyone at any phase in their plant love journey to go deeper and to spark more interest or curiosity,” says Caitlin. Species that are rare, endangered, and endemic to the Channel Islands are displayed along the sides of the Pritzlaff Conservation Center. Here visitors can enjoy sweeping views of Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands, learn about the many threats to these special plants, and take a peek inside the labs where our Conservation & Research team works to protect them. Our collections act as insurance against extinction while informing visitors about what threatens native plants and how we can all help. To help Education best serve visitors, take a survey on your experiences in the Garden by contacting Caitlin Lam at clam@sbbg.org
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Investments of any size directly support our efforts in conservation, education, and research. If you would like to fund a wish list item, direct a gift to the Garden through your Donor Advised Fund, or make sure your gift will help us meet our match, please contact Heidi Whitman, Director of Development & Communications at hwhitman@sbbg.org or (805) 682-4726, ext. 133.
Babs the Botany Truck in the Sierra Nevada
Help us Meet our Match!
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You Make It Possible Your passion for the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and California’s native plants is helping us weather the storm of this challenging year. Many ambitious projects have been possible - all thanks to your investment in the Garden! We need your help to keep the momentum going forward. Your year-end donation to the Garden will support: • Maintenance of the Garden grounds as an inspirational, educational, scientific, and historic resource • Rare plant research in the field and in the lab to help us understand and apply how to best protect and restore California’s unique diversit y of native plants • Curation of our herbarium collection and seed bank of critically endangered plant species, and so much more! DOUBLE THE IMPACT OF YOUR GIFT! Your gift will be matched dollar for dollar up to $150,000 thanks to a generous donor. Use the return envelope in the middle of this issue to send a gift by mail, or visit sbbg.org/give to donate online now.
Donate through your Donor Advised Fund Many of our donors provide support for the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden through Donor Advised Funds (DAF). To support us through your DAF, please contact your adviser at your DAF sponsoring organization. Santa Barbara Botanic Garden’s Tax ID is 95-1644628. DAF sponsors should make checks payable to the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and mail to: Santa Barbara Botanic Garden 1212 Mission Canyon Road Santa Barbara, CA 93105
Thank you for your support!
same solemn procession that northern latitudes or landscapes further east experience. In large part, this is due to California’s Mediterranean climate, where the most stressful time of year is during our long, dry summer as opposed to an icy winter. However, a keen eye and an appreciation for shifts at an ecosystem level reveal major seasonal transitions beyond just shorter days and cooler temperatures.
WINTER BIRDS and Where to Find Them
One of the best indicators of seasonalit y in our region, especially at this time of year, is the local avifauna. By paying attention to which birds are and are not present in our yards, Gardens, and open spaces, we can build our seasonal fluency in southern California. For much of North America, winter is a season of sparrows. These seed eaters form large flocks across the continent and there are a few species that will be present in our Garden and your neighborhoods throughout the winter.
By Scot Pipkin, Director of Education & Engagement
I WINTER BIRDS n southern California, the shift between seasons can be subtle. With freezing temperatures and snow limited to high elevations and an abundance of evergreen trees/shrubs in the dominant plant communities of the lower elevations (oak woodland, chaparral, coastal sage scrub, etc.), the arrival of fall and its transition into winter don’t seem to follow the
White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia) – These large sparrows in the genus Zonotrichia are t ypical of that group in that they are relatively large-bodied and have long tails. Adults will have strong black and white patterning on their head, while juveniles will favor a reddish crown/eyeline combo. Being seed eaters, they are attracted to plants such as buckwheats (Eriogonum sp.), goldenrod (Solidago sp.), and other members of the sunflower family (Asteraceae). Look for them in the groundcover display near the Garden entrance, in the meadow, and around the Porter Trail. Ph
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Den
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ewire
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Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca) – A third winter sparrow that we are likely to encounter in the Garden, our neighborhoods, or in open spaces, is the Fox Sparrow. These are also large sparrows that sport a densely spotted breast. They prefer dense, thicketlike habitat, so places like the Meadow View, Porter Trail, or Woodland Trail, or even in the Canyon are good bets to spot this bird. They will likely be digging in the leaf litter, looking for insects and seeds to eat.
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Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia) – These cousins to the more-ubiquitous White-crowned Sparrow share the same body proportions, but have different plumage overall. Golden-crowneds are t ypically darker brown with a black and yellow pattern on their head. Juveniles will have less bold head patterning, but yellow should be present near the eye. They are a bit more shy than white-crowned sparrows and are more likely to be encountered on the Porter Trail and east slope of the Garden, also feeding on seeds. You may see them in mixed flocks with the Whiter crowned sparrows. Listen for their plaintive song that e ier chm is often transcribed as, “OOOh Deeear Meeeeee.” S n o: Ala
ewire
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Budding Botanists W
inter is here! Although the days become cooler and shorter, winter is a great time to find animal homes among our native plant habitats. Falling leaves reveal nests that are normally hidden behind a cover of green. The coming of rain means lots of happy plants and animals, especially for our amphibian neighbors. In Santa Barbara, you can find a variet y of amphibians, including newts, frogs and salamanders.
Here are a few examples of plant homes to look for this winter with your family: Look up high for bird nests. Do you think they were made last spring or are they older? Notice the variety of birds who make Santa Barbara their winter home.
Look at the base of trees and shrubs, like California Bay, for Woodrat homes. Woodrats oftentimes live in colonies, so if you find one, there’s a good chance there are more around!
Flip over logs after rain to see if you can find salamanders. Black-bellied Slender Salamanders are often mistaken for worms, since they like to lie down curled up. Look for their tiny legs and small face to tell the difference.
Don’t forget to be a thoughtful neighbor! If you flip over a log, please return it to its original position. Too much disturbance to a nest and the animals may not return, so make sure you give them plenty of space.
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CARS
Working from home means less driving. Your car can be used as a tax-deductible donation for the Garden! Our partner, CARS, handles the pick-up and sale of your vehicle, plus all the associated paperwork. Donate today at careasy.org
Gifts that Give Back • Gifts of Membership can be purchased at any of our membership levels. Find the perfect Garden Membership for your loved one at sbbg.org/membership. • Donate to the Garden annually using your IRA to make a Qualified Charitable Distribution. • Give appreciated stocks, securities, or real estate to avoid paying capital gains tax.
Blaksley Bliss Society Make a lasting impact and leave a legacy to be remembered. Include the Garden in your will or estate plans today and you’ll be invited to join your peers in the Blaksley Bliss Society. Learn more about making a planned gift at sbbglegacy.org or notify us of your existing plans by contacting Rita Boss, Membership & Planned Giving Manager at rboss@sbbg.org or (805) 682-4726, ext. 110 today.
Thank you TO OUR AMAZING
Garden Volunteers! Your commitment and enthusiasm makes the Garden a better place. We can’t wait to see you in 2021!
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garden
family
F
our generations of t he Margolis family have now walked, played, learned, explored, and celebrated here at t he Garden. Paul and Phyllis have been Members for over 40 years, and t hey say t hat t he Garden is par t of who t hey are and what t hey love about Santa Barbara. Bot h teachers, t hey have always enjoyed learning t hrough a nat ural sense of curiosit y and inquir y. They appreciate t hat t he Garden is a place to learn about t he nat ural histor y of Santa Barbara and to obser ve how t he world works. To t he Margolis family, t he rest of t he world falls away in t he Garden and t hey can experience t he sights, smells, and sounds of nat ure by stopping ever yt hing else to just enjoy where t hey are. Phyllis describes walking up t he meadow and down into t he redwoods as “t ranscendental.” She encourages us to be mindf ul of t he experiences t hat can be lost or diminished when we let t hings like phones dist ract us, and instead allow our senses to open up in nat ural spaces. In t he Garden, she gets a sense of being somewhere special t hat recalls memories of childhood, and of watching children and grandchildren grow up here. Since t hey first moved to t he Mission Creek area in 1972, Paul has removed all t he non-native plants f rom t heir yard. They’ve brought plants home f rom our nurser y over t he years to
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Ironwood WI N TER 2020
Phyllis and Paul Margolis
create a mini botanic garden of t heir own, put ting to work t he lessons learned f rom t he native plants and habitats displayed t hroughout t he Garden grounds. Phyllis says t heir yard now looks a lot like t he Garden. For t heir 25t h wedding anniversar y, Phyllis purchased a bench in t he Garden as a surprise gif t to Paul. She remembers bringing him wit h t heir son and daughter for a walk into t he canyon on t hat day, and as t hey approached t he bench, he noticed t hat it was new. Phyllis asked him to check
t he inscription on t he bench’s plaque and says he “lost it” when he read his own name. They pulled out a bot tle of champagne right t here, taking photos and celebrating in t his place t hat had just been made even more special to t hem. For anot her anniversar y, Paul updated t he plaque to include Phyllis’ name. Af ter t he Jesusita fire came t hrough t he Garden in 2009, t hey worried t hat t he bench might have been lost in t he damage. Phyllis admits t hat she snuck into t he Garden while it was closed to check t hat it was still t here. It was, and still is today, inscribed wit h t heir names and t he phrase f rom t heir wedding invitations, “To love is to be whole.” Phyllis says t hat since t he bench sur vived t he fire, t hey had to stay married. This year t hey are celebrating 50 years of marriage, enjoying peacef ul walks in t he Garden to get away f rom it all, and appreciating t he t ranquilit y of t heir favorite place.
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an Nicolas fog lichen (Niebla ramosissima) is endemic to San Nicolas Island and is different f rom most ot her fog lichens because it grows on soil t hat is rich in t he mineral gypsum. The Garden’s Tucker Lichenologist, R ikke Reese Naesborg, has recently proposed t hat t his lichen be red-listed by t he International Union for Conser vation of Nat ure (IUCN) as ‘vulnerable’, one of t hree categories t hat indicates t hat t he species is t hreatened wit h global extinction. Invasive species and climate change, especially declining fog f requency, are potential t hreats to t he species.
Did you know? A lichen is not one organism. Each individual lichen is actually a little ecosystem. A lichen consists of one or more fungi in symbiosis with one or more green partners that can photosynthesize and therefore provide food for the fungus. Some people say that lichens are fungi that have learned agriculture!
Niebla ramosissima is asexual and spreads by fragmentation. Branches break off easily and scatter around the mother lichen. With a little luck, each branch will be covered with a thin layer of gypsum-rich soil that encourages stabilization and establishment of a new individual. Photo: Rikke Reese Naesborg
Although Niebla ramosissima sometimes covers large local areas, the only place in the world it grows is on San Nicolas Island, where it is threatened by several species of invasive iceplant (Mesembryathemum) that may eventually outcompete it. In this image, small iceplants can be seen as dark green subshrubs here and there between the fog lichens. Photo: Rikke Reese Naesborg W INT ER 2 0 2 0 Ironwood
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