Three positions are available for our 2015/2016 Vol-unteer Council. The two year commitment involves quarterly meetings where you will discuss volunteer programs, address volunteer concerns, and work to promote the Garden in the community. Recent council projects include Aqueduct Clean-Up Project, assisting the Guild with Holiday Marketplace, and initiating the creation of a sensory garden at the SB Braille Institute. Current members include: Corrine Gallagher, Betsy Thies, Joy Porter, Bill Lewis, Linda Van Buren, and Carol Weingartner. The former three will be stepping down in June. Please send your nomination to Kathy by Friday, 5/8. All nomi-nees will be introduced at the Volunteer Apprecia-tion Luncheon on Tuesday, 5/12 and an online voting survey will be open 5/13—5/20.

FEATURE

ARTICLES

Volunteer Council Nominations

1

Volunteer Travelogue

1

National Wildflower Week

1

Docent Corner

2

May Calendar 2

In case you missed it...

3

Spotlight on Volunteer

3

Guild Item of the Month

5

California Endangered Species

5

V O L U M E 1 6 N U M B E R 1 6 M A Y 2 0 1 5

Island Renewal By Carrie Mullen

I’m sure most SBBG volunteers are very familiar with Channel Islands Restoration. For many years they have worked to re-store unique and sensitive natural areas in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties and the Channel Islands. continued on page 4

New Members for 2015/2016 Volunteer Council

National Wildflower Week The first National Wildflower Week was launched in 1988 and it’s aim is to encourage the public to get outside to explore, enjoy, and appreciate na-tive wildflowers. California boasts a particularly rich diversity of plants which are extremely important for sustaining healthy ecosystems. continued on page 5

C a p i t a l C a m p a i g n To u r s

P a g e 2

ONGOING VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES: Garden Gift Shop: morning & afternoons, weekdays and weekends Herbarium: one 3 hour shift/week– 9:30a to 12:30p Wednesday/Thursday/Friday Weekend Gardening Crew: 2nd & 4th Saturday every month from 9:30a to 11:30a

VOLUNTEER EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Volunteer Orientation: Monday, 5/4 from 5pm to 6:30pm in the Blaksley Library Citizen Science Club: Tuesday, 5/5 from 5pm to 7pm in the Blaksley Library National Public Gardens Day: Friday, 5/8 Volunteer Luncheon: Tuesday, 5/12 from 12p to 2p in the Meadow Oaks Docent Meeting: Wednesday. 5/13 from 9:30am to 12p in Blaskley Library Bonsai Exhibition: Saturday, 5/16 & Sunday, 5/17– Demonstration each day at 1pm Blaksley Bliss Society Luncheon: Tuesday, 5/19 11:30am to 1:30pm in the Blaksley Library Senior’s Free Day: Wednesday, 5/20 sponsored by Welch-Ryce-Haider Funeral Chapels– 60+ admitted free CNPS Meeting: Thursday, 5/21 from 6:30p to 8:30p in the Blaksley Library

Contact Kathy for more information and to sign-up!

May Calendar

Docent Meeting: Join us for our next docent meeting on Wednesday, May 13th in the library. We will observe a mo-ment of silence in honor of long-time volunteers John Carson and Pam Dahl at the meeting, pri-or to the break at elev-en. A garden walk will follow the break. Guest speaker to be an-nounced.

Vacations: Please let us know if you are going on

vacation! Email your team leads or Kelsy any dates you plan be away and/or unavailable for tours.

Docent Handbook: A draft of the docent pro-cedure handbook is now in the Docent Corner of the website. Check it out here!

Please contact Kelsy Wakefield, Education Office

Assistant for more information

Docent Corner

Volunteer Orientation 1st Monday of Every Month

Come learn about the diverse volun-teer opportunities, emergency proce-dures, and volun-

teer benefits at the Garden and get a behind the scenes tour of the facili-ties. Meet in the

Blaksley Library from

5:00pm to 6:30pm.

SAVE THE DATE

Bumble Bee Workshop: Saturday, June 27 with the Xerces Society

Docent Field Trip: In April, a large group of docents and staff visited the native garden at Melissa & Christian Stepian’s home. The 3.5 acre garden was designed by Carol Bornstein and features a large meadow and a view of the Pritzlaff research & Conservation Center.

Thank You! Garden Tour & Earth Day Festival Volunteers

extinction is forever

P a g e 3

SPOTLIGHT on VOLUNTEERS: Question of the Month– National Endangered Species Day is observed on

the third Friday in May; What is a CA Endangered Species that you feel deeply about and would hate to see moved to the extinction list?

Sage Remarks is a monthly volunteer newsletter produced by the Volunteer Office. If you have questions or if you are interest-

ed in contributing to the newsletter, please contact Kathy Castaneda at kcastaneda@sbbg.org or call (805) 682-4726 x119.

In Case You Missed It…

————————

Follow these links for articles about native plant and animal species:

From Wired Maga-zine an article about native bees: You’re Worrying About the Wrong Bees

From the National Wildlife Federation: Redefining Curb Appeal

From KSBY Face-book page: Parks change to natives in face of drought

From the Santa Fe New Mexican: Rare Condor Spotted in Los Ala-mos

Michele Hoffman, Garden Grower

“The CA Condor. As a member of the Kern Kaweah Audubon chapter I watched the last wild condor cap-

tured at Mt. Pinos to be included in the breeding program. Years later, I was there to see the release of the first condor with a radio transmitter.”

Katy Zappala, Garden Gift Shop “The Southern Sea Otter, they are such industrious animals, working so hard to stay warm in the cold water (they have no blubber) and females take great

care of their ba-bies. It would be great to see them return to our near shore waters.

Cathy Rose, Docent

“Two wonderful plants unique to Death Valley– Gil-mania luteola “Goldcarpet” and Salvia funereal “death Valley Sage”-

are particularly dear to me since I began my botanical life there. I would be sad to be in a world without them.“

Andrea Adams-Morton, Docent

Chloropyron mariti-mum subsp. mariti-

mum Salt Marsh Bird's-Beak

“It only grows on the edges of the wet portion of the salt marsh. It is becoming a rarity as salt marshes are being destroyed by filling and other development. When you look down at the

flower head, it sort of looks like little bird's beaks as the babies are looking up out of a nest. They bloom from May to October.

Page 4

But since I spent the better part of the past twenty years moving back and forth across the country, I only recently came to know CIR. The first volunteer opportunity that came across my email was a full five-day project at one of their most remote sites: San Nicolas Island. A trial by fire—or more accurately trial by cactus—why not? What an amazing experience! The Navy recently installed a small wind farm on San Nicolas and CIR was asked to design plantings at three sites where placement of the windmill pads left steep slopes that would easily erode. A “fun” note here: CIR’s call of volunteers described the sites as “modestly uneven with eroded (but not steep) slopes.” No. It was steep. I lived in West Virginia for several years—I know steep! And talk about difficult soil—I gained a new appreciation for my Thousand Oaks’ clay. Shovels, picks, pulaski, a gas auger—no hand or power equipment was spared. But this really is a very happy story…

CIR’s island nursery grew several thousand plants for this and other SNI projects. Our group alone planted 1,019 Cholla, Opuntia, Isocoma, Calystegia, yarrow, and various native grasses on the slopes. Plantings were specifically selected to provide habitat for the endemic Island Night Lizard. Thickets of cactus and shrubs protect the lizards from predators. Our plantings were designed to link to other CIR planting sites creating a large, lizard Habitrail, encouraging their populations to grow and spread across the island (the Island Night Lizard was recently taken off the endangered species list largely because of conservation efforts).

We worked from 8 am until about 3 each day truly loving every minute. Before returning Nick Town for the night, we were able to tour parts of the island, inspecting other CIR plantings, finding various other species of native plants, walking the beach and tidal areas, bird watching, and viewing elephant seals and California sea lions, along with the amazingly-cute island fox (actually, we saw most of them in Nick Town where some people feed them—tsk, tsk).

As if the work weren’t rewarding enough, getting to know my twelve unique, fun, thick-gloved and knee-padded comrades in restoration was the icing on the cake. For anyone not already taking the opportunity to work with Channel Islands Restoration, I can’t recommend it enough.

CA Native Plant Society

Meeting & Lecture Thursday, 5/21

6:30pm to 8:30pm

The Channel Island Chapter of the CNPS welcomes Matt Guillams, SBBG’s new Systematist. Come hear his presentation on “Baja Vernal Pools.”

Board Meeting at 6pm

General Announcements at 7pm

Lecture at 7:15pm

All volunteers are welcome to attend

this FREE event.

Continued from page 1 Island Renewal By Carrie Mullen

Page 5

CA Endangered & Threatened Species

Forever in our Hearts

The Garden remembers two

very dear and dedicated volun-teers who passed

away April.

John Carson– Docent

Pam Dahl– Garden Gift Shop

GUILD ITEM OF THE MONTH

Find a special gift for Mom in our Gift Shop! Items hand-made from natural materials by our Guild volunteers with prices starting as low as $7.00. Choose from mini dried flower arrangements, unique jewelry, and pressed floral book marks.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) defines an endangered species as "any species which is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range." Endangered species are automatically protected by prohibitions of several types of "take," including harming, harassing, collecting, or killing, under Section 9 of the ESA.

The ESA defines a threatened species as "any species which is likely to become an en-dangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range." Threatened species receive protections through separate regulations issued under Section 4(d) of the ESA. These regulations occur separately from the listing and detail what take prohibitions are in effect. Also called 4(d) rules, they can include the same prohibitions under Section 9.

Click here for a recent survey of STATE AND FEDERALLY LISTED ENDANGERED,

THREATENED, AND RARE PLANTS OF CALIFORNIA

Click her for a recent survey of STATE & FEDERALLY LISTED ENDANGERED & THREAT-

ENED ANIMALS OF CALIFORNIA

Do’s &Don’t of Wildflower Appreciation Conservation & Etiquette

The first step in appreciating native wildflowers is to explore public lands. Wildflowers are easy to spot and identification guidebook and trail maps are available in the Gar-den Gift Shop, at the public library, and online. Wildflowers are jewels of our public lands, and like all treasures must be protected. Here are some basic rules that you can follow to be a steward of these priceless resources:

Take a hike and stop to smell the fragrant blooms

Take only photographs and leave only footprints

Please don’t pick the flowers!

Tread lightly and stay on the trail

Visit Santa Barbara Hikes for information on local hikes and a wildflower database.