Podcasts about california native plant society

Ralph welcomes six authors to discuss their books: “Beyond Nuclear” founder Linda Gunter; trial lawyer Sean Simpson; law professor Elizabeth Burch; naturalist David Schmidt; industrial hygienist Marc Axelrod; and educator and advocate Jonathan Kozol.Linda Gunter is the founder of the US-based non-profit Beyond Nuclear and serves as its international specialist. Previously, she was a journalist at USA Network, Reuters, and The Times. She launched, and writes for Beyond Nuclear's online magazine, Beyond Nuclear International. And she is the author of No To Nuclear: Why Nuclear Power Destroys Lives, Derails Climate Progress and Provokes War.We need to reduce the most carbon, the fastest, for the least cost—and that's renewables every time. But it's also an issue of: as we divert funds towards nuclear power (new reactors, which are not here now, they're just aspirational ideas on paper, none of the designs have certifications or licenses yet) as we divert time and our money towards waiting for something that will perhaps take a decade or two (or never) to materialize, and as we squeeze out renewables in the process, what do we do? We continue to burn fossil fuels. So actually, choosing nuclear as an answer to climate makes the climate crisis worse.Linda GunterSean Simpson is an attorney specializing in civil jury trials, representing individuals who have been harmed by someone else's carelessness or intentional wrongdoing. He is the author of Punitive Damages: The Lawyer's Tool for Shaping Society.[Punitive damages are] typically not covered by insurance. But oddly enough, there's a trend coming now where these corporations—because they're in control, we've let them have the reins, and now they're getting insurance companies to sell them coverage to cover their punitive damages, which is totally a 180. If somebody else is going to pay your punishment for you, it's not going to sting your rump if somebody gets spanked on somebody else's behind.Sean SimpsonElizabeth Burch is a professor at the University of Georgia School of Law, and co-author of Perceptions of Justice in Multidistrict Litigation: Voices from the Crowd. She is the author of The Pain Brokers: How Con Men, Call Centers, and Rogue Doctors Fuel America's Lawsuit Factory.Imagine that you are sitting in your kitchen and you get a phone call one night. And you answer, and the person on the other end of the line knows an inordinate amount of information about you—they know your name, they know your birth date, they know the name of your doctor, the name of your hospital, the date and type of medical implant that you had put in you. And then they tell you that you have a ticking time bomb in you. And if you don't have this removed immediately (that in this case was pelvic mesh, which is designed to deal with incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse) that you are going to die. But not to worry, they are setting up appointments down in South Florida to have the mesh removed. What they don't say is all of the important things.Elizabeth BurchDavid Schmidt is lifelong San Francisco Bay Area resident, naturalist, and environmental historian. He worked as a writer in the public affairs office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco from 1991 to 2021, led dozens of hikes for the Greenbelt Alliance in the region's extensive public parklands, and volunteered on habitat restoration projects for the Golden Gate National Parks and the California Native Plant Society. He is the author of San Francisco Bay Area: An Environmental History.I think [the environmental movement in the Bay Area] is the most successful regional environmental movement in US history. Its victories have had a tremendous impact on protecting the natural landscape, the agricultural landscape. And this is a landscape that is famous for its scenic beauty. It's among the world's most biodiverse landscapes with more than a thousand species of plants and wildlife. And persistence pays off. That is the theme that comes across time and again with environmental victories is: persistence pays off.David SchmidtMarc Axelrod is an award-winning front line industrial hygienist and workplace safety professional. He has developed and implemented programs to protect people from industry's most hazardous technologies. He has worked for employers including Boeing, Kaiser Permanente, UCLA and the City of Beverly Hills. He is the author of The Flame Bucket: Adventures in Workplace Safety.You can lie down in the flame bucket and stop a [rocket] launch, but you can only do it once. So I decided that we had a very risky program [at the city of Beverly Hills]. It was for testing our commercial drivers for alcohol and drugs. And somehow they got a big percentage of them, almost a third of them, got left out of the program. And I can see, being backstage, what happens in city government where people leave and people come and how these kinds of things can occur. But when they do happen, what you've got to do is stop everything, blame the people that left, and then fix it right away. But this program—even though people knew that there was a big gap in it, they just didn't want to fix it. But I knew as City Safety Officer, I was responsible. So after months of delay, I said, “Listen, these drivers can't drive anymore. They can't do their safety functions without a clearance test from our drug and alcohol program.” And so that got their attention, and we quickly fixed the program, and I got a lot of thank yous. And then a few days later, I was fired.Marc AxelrodJonathan Kozol is a leading advocate for child-centered learning, equality, and racial justice in our nation's schools, and he travels and lectures about educational inequality and racial injustice. Mr. Kozol is the author of nearly a dozen books about young children and their public schools, including Death at an Early Age, An End to Inequality: Breaking Down the Walls of Apartheid Education in America, and We Shall Not Bow Down: Children of Color Under Siege: An Invocation to Resistance.My book is not simply a polite description of these problems. It's probably the most militant book I've ever written. It's an open call for militant resistance. And, you know, I get condemned for that, but I'm not afraid to say that I'm an unregenerate activist, and I'm too old to change my stripes.Jonathan KozolNews 5/1/26* Perhaps the biggest news of the week is the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais to gut Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which preserved majority-minority congressional districts. In practice, this ruling gives conservative Southern states license to draw these districts out of existence. Jonathan Cervas, a political scientist at Carnegie-Mellon University who has served as a special master in multiple Voting Rights Act cases, is quoted in AP saying “The Voting Rights Act as a means to protect minority voters from vote dilution is essentially dead.” In the Washington Post, NAACP President Derrick Johnson called the decision “a devastating blow to what remains of the Voting Rights Act, and a license for corrupt politicians who want to rig the system by silencing entire communities,” and “a major setback for our nation and…the hard-won victories we've fought, bled, and died for.” In practice, this ruling is sure to set off a new round of redrawing congressional districts, likely resulting in a net gain of 12 seats – half of the Southern Section 2 districts – for the GOP. In Louisiana itself, CNN reports Governor Jeff Landry has halted House primaries, where “Early voting was scheduled to begin Saturday and overseas ballots had already gone out.” Moreover, “Democratic Rep. Cleo Fields, whose district is at the center of the Supreme Court's redistricting decision, said…Landry had told him he anticipated issuing an executive order to suspend the House election and call a new one.”* Speaking of Southern congressional districts, in Florida's 20th district, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick has “defiantly” filed to run again in the special election for her former district, per NOTUS. Cherfilus-McCormick resigned her seat in Congress last week just minutes before the House Ethics Committee was scheduled to “recommend punishment on an array of charges.” She had previously been found guilty of “25 ethics violations, including allegedly stealing $5 million dollars in federal disaster-aid funds used to bolster her 2021 campaign,” following an extensive investigation running for two years and including “issuing 58 subpoenas, interviewing 28 witnesses and reviewing over 33,000 documents.” Elijah Manley, the young progressive running for the seat, is quoted saying “Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigned in disgrace moments before her colleagues were set to expel her from Congress…The last thing our community needs is a second round of chaos and instability. She should focus on her legal troubles.”* In more positive news from Congress, Rep. Greg Casar announced this week that the Congressional Progressive Caucus he chairs is issuing a new Affordability Agenda, bringing together a slew of bills sponsored by progressives – on topics ranging from housing to groceries to prescription drugs and more – into a unified package. In an introduction, the Caucus emphasizes that “Americans are facing a cost-of-living crisis and…At the same time, Democrats are searching for a vision that wins back the trust of working families and provides a mandate to deliver the big changes our country needs in 2026.” The question now is whether the Democratic Party will take up this banner and run with it or once again spurn their progressive base.* Meanwhile, the Trump administration is occupied with their continuing efforts to persecute comedians for anodyne jokes. The latest on this front is the Federal Communications Commission ordering the Walt Disney Company's ABC to seek early broadcast license renewals for the eight TV stations it owns, following a joke about Melania Trump on Jimmy Kimmel's late night show, NPR reports. The joke, a “mock speech for an alternative White House Correspondents' Dinner,” which went “Our first lady Melania is here. So beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” aired three days before the actual White House Correspondents' Dinner and the corresponding security threat. Kimmel has stressed that the joke was about the age difference between the President and First Lady “not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination. And they know that.” FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez, sole Democrat still on the commission, issued a statement calling this “the most egregious action this FCC has taken in violation of the First Amendment to date…As part of its ongoing campaign of censorship and control, the White House called publicly for the silencing of a vocal critic, and this FCC has now answered that call.”* Another scandalous act of corruption from inside the federal government came to light this week with Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a special operations soldier stationed at Fort Bragg being charged with insider trading. Specifically, Van Dyke is charged with three counts of violating the Commodity Exchange Account, one count of wire fraud and one count of an unlawful money transaction for using classified government information to win over $400,000 via prediction betting site Polymarket vis-a-vis the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, per the Hill. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton, also heading up the prosecution of President Maduro, is quoted saying “Prediction markets are not a haven for using misappropriated confidential or classified information for personal gain.” For their part, Polymarket has announced tightened insider trading rules, but continues to insist that “When we identified a user trading on classified government information, we referred the matter to the DOJ & cooperated with their investigation,” and that Van Dyke's arrest is “proof the system works.”* In more news related to Latin America, a new poll shows leftist Senator and presidential candidate Iván Cepeda with a substantial lead, according to the City Paper Bogotá. In polls of the first round, Cepeda drew 44.3%, while his rivals, Abelardo de la Espriella and Paloma Valencia drew 21.5% and 19.8% respectively, an impressive showing for Valencia who has nearly doubled her support since the last poll was taken. In the second round, polling shows Cepeda besting both rivals, 54.6% to 42.6% against de la Espriella and a narrower 51.2% versus 46.6% against Valencia. A Cepeda victory would continue the leftward trend in Colombian politics begun with the election of Gustavo Petro in 2022, a remarkable turnaround for one of the most stalwart conservative countries in the region.* Elsewhere on the globe, a new poll shows Jeremy Corbyn – the British left icon, former Labour Party leader and founder of Your Party – in danger of losing his long-held seat in the riding of Islington North. Corbyn, who was first elected to the seat in 1983, was able to keep his seat as an independent MP even after his expulsion from the Labour Party following the hostile takeover of the party by the centrist Keir Starmer regime. Yet now, with Your Party coming apart at the seams, the Greens look poised to capture the seat. However, the Canary notes that this poll only asked voters about their partisan voting intentions, with no mention of individual candidates. This means even if voters in Islington North are more sympathetic to the Greens overall, they could still return Corbyn himself to Parliament. Nevertheless, this poll gives some indication of how successfully the Greens have outmaneuvered Your Party, even in what should be their most solid riding.* Another iconic British public figure – King Charles III – is in America this week for a royal visit in which he addressed a joint session of Congress, met with President Trump and enjoyed a White House dinner. On Wednesday, the King attended a wreath-laying ceremony at Ground Zero in New York City, along with New York Governor Kathy Hochul, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill and, most strikingly, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. This unlikely pairing has clearly piqued the interest of the press, who asked Mayor Mamdani what he would talk about with the King if they were to have a private moment together. While the duo did not ultimately have a private meeting, Mamdani responded that he would “probably encourage [the King] to return the Kohinoor diamond,” which POLITICO identifies as “an enormous bauble set into a royal crown on display in the Tower of London,” noting that the diamond has “become a point of contention between England and India.”* In more local news, with the protracted California gubernatorial primary on the horizon at last, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees or IATSE, has thrown their weight behind progressive billionaire Tom Steyer, Variety reports. This piece notes Steyer's pledge to keep film and television production in Los Angeles along with his outspoken criticism of the merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. as well as his proposal to levy a tax on AI computations and use the proceeds to “fund training for displaced workers.” IATSE represents around 50,000 workers in California and 130,000 workers nationwide. Steyer has amassed considerable union support in his bid for perhaps the second most powerful political executive position in the country after the presidency, including the California Teachers Association, the California Federation of Teachers, and the California Nurses Association. Steyer's closest Democratic rival in the open primary, former Congressman, state Attorney General and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra is racking up endorsements as well, including from Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California and powerful California politicianss such as Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas. With a close race between the top four leading Democrats and Republicans, the June 2nd primary is sure to conclude with a photo finish.* Finally, in Washington DC, the Democratic Mayoral primary continues to grow more acrimonious. This week, former Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, the candidate backed by corporate donors and the DC political establishment, criticized progressive Councilmember Janeese Lewis-George in a fundraising email for supposedly accepting “dark money from outside interest groups.” Which groups you may ask? Local unions, representing tens of thousands of DC workers, including local branches of the AFL-CIO, UFCW, transit workers, teachers, the building trades and more. In a stinging rebuke, the unions excoriated McDuffie for his “disturbing pattern of anti-union talking points and votes” including opposition to wage increases for DC restaurant and child-care workers – while simultaneously accepting donations from “MAGA developers…[and] utility and energy executives.” Moreover, Axios reports Safe & Affordable DC, a labor-aligned super PAC, is launching a half-million dollar ad blitz attacking McDuffie on his record of favoritism towards the utilities at a moment when bills are higher than ever. Tensions mounted even higher this week, when the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance opened an investigation to determine whether Lewis George's campaign is collaborating too closely with her union allies – an allegation she has dismissed as “baseless.” It is worth noting that DC progressives have had this accusation leveled at them in the past, only for it to indeed prove baseless. Expect this race to get more heated, and more expensive, the closer we get to the June 16th primary.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Murder charges have been filed in relation to deadly fireworks explosion in Yolo County. Also, residents begin the official process to become a town in Eastern Placer County. Finally, learning how to use and care for native plants.

This is a very special episode of Unpacked by Afar. This week, we hosted Unpacked Live — a live version of the podcast — in partnership with Visit California in Dallas, Texas. The event celebrated California's extraordinary creative landscape, and today's guest is one of its most original voices. Obi Kaufmann is a naturalist, writer, and illustrator whose California Field Atlas series has redefined what a nature book can be. His books — filled with hand-painted watercolor maps, poetry, and decades of ecological research — don't tell you where to go or what you're looking at. They ask why the landscape works the way it does, and what it means to truly belong to a place. In this episode, Obi talks about growing up exploring Mount Diablo in Northern California, what makes a field atlas, and why he believes the future of California conservation depends on better poetry. On this episode, you'll learn: What a "field atlas" is — and why Obi had to invent the genre himself How Indigenous stewardship and traditional ecological knowledge are reshaping conservation in California Why Obi, one of California's great wilderness writers, is a proud city dweller in Oakland What to expect from his next three books Where to go right now to experience California's wildflower season at its peak Travel Recommendations from Obi: Anza-Borrego Desert State Park — Keep your eye on the California Native Plant Society or CalFlora for super bloom alerts; the window can be as short as a week Death Valley National Park — Another prime super bloom destination; timing is everything Big Sur — Highway 1 is open again; Obi recommends climbing a mountain and watching for California condors, which have rebounded from just 17 individuals in 1987 to over 500 today Pinnacles National Park — The smallest and least visited national park in California, with condor sightings along the High Peaks Trail; Obi calls it "a beautiful gem of wilderness" Mount Diablo — Obi's home mountain, 25 miles east of San Francisco; a lifelong study in ecological wonder Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction 00:02:00 Growing Up on Mount Diablo 00:05:00 Inventing the Field Atlas 00:10:00 Conservation and the Word "Wilderness" 00:30:00 Living as an Urban Naturalist 00:37:00 What's Next: Books 7 Through 10 00:41:00 Where to Experience California Now Resources Obi Kaufmann's website and books Explore the Afar guide to California Watch the live recording of our Dallas event on YouTube Listen to our other Unpacked Live episodes featuring architect Barbara Bestor and landscape designer Roderick Wyllie Be sure to subscribe to the show and sign up for our podcast newsletter, ⁠Behind the Mic⁠, where we share upcoming news and behind-the-scenes details of each episode. And explore our second podcast, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Travel Tales⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, which celebrates first-person narratives about the way travel changes us, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠View From Afar⁠⁠⁠⁠, where we spotlight the people and ideas shaping the future of travel. Unpacked by Afar is part of ⁠Airwave Media⁠'s podcast network. Please contact ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertising@airwavemedia.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ if you would like to advertise on our podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fall is a great time to plant California natives. Brendan Wilce of the California Native Plant Society joins me to give his 10 top favorite natives. This episode is sponsored by BeWaterSmart. The Brendan and the California Native Plant Society can be found at:        Website: calscape.org        Instagram:  @theplanimal Help support feral cat rescue/spay-neuter/finding good homes by contributing at Flower Power Garden Hour Patreon.   To ask questions for future shows, submit them at:        Facebook        Instagram        email Marlene at marlenetheplantlady@gmail.com Find Marlene over on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook

Hey green thumbs! This week Kevin sits down with Lesley Hamamoto, president of the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. Learn why California native plants are so important to local ecosystems and hear Lesley's passion for growing natives at home. She shares her favorite species, practical tips for gardeners, and simple ways you can make a difference by getting involved with CNPS.Learn more and join the movement at: Sacramento Valley CNPSGreen Acres Garden PodcastGreen Acres Nursery & SupplyGreen Acres Garden Podcast GroupIn the greater Sacramento area? Learn how to make your yard Summer Strong and discover water-saving rebates at BeWaterSmart.info.

KVMR's Paul Emery and former Federal Reserve economist Gary Zimmerman navigate the numbers and demystify the current GDP and labor market reports. Al Stahler talks with three members from the Redbud Chapter of the California Native Plant Society to give listeners the lowdown on upcoming events for local gardeners to stock their landscape with native plants. KVMRx's inaugural music festival known as X-Fest is right around the corner and KVMR News Director Cláudio Mendonça finds out everything you need to know from KVMRx Program Director and X-Fest Creator Jai Hanes. Molly Fisk returns for more in her ongoing Observations from a Working Poet series.

Join Laurie McCarty on the Kern County Real Estate Review as she discusses the benefits of native plants with Sabrina Mehtabuddin, President of the California Native Plant Society, Kern Chapter. In this episode, learn how native plants can enhance your home's appeal and promote environmental sustainability in Kern County. Sabrina discusses the society's mission, upcoming events, and ways to get involved. Perfect for homeowners and environmental enthusiasts in Kern County looking to beautify their properties and support local ecosystems. Don't miss out on practical gardening tips and community conservation efforts!

The third week of April is California Native Plant week, this year being celebrated by the California Native Plant Society via 8 days of action in honor and protection of our native plant diversity. Our celebratory action item here at Cultivating Place is being in conversation this week with Aaron Sims, Director of the Rare Plant Program for CNPS. 2024 year marks the 50th anniversary of the CNPS Rare Plant Inventory, tracking and analyzing rare plants and their status across the floristic province to help fight extinction (and subsequent biodiversity loss), to engage citizen scientists, including gardeners, across the state, and to inform land use decisions statewide. Along with the beauty, joy, and life sustaining qualities of our native plant flora whereever we might live and garden, that is all worth celebrating. Happy Native Plant (rare and common) Gardening to you - listen in! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years, and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Google Podcasts. To read more and for many more photos please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! On today's episode, we talk with Renee Murphy, Sales Director and Environmental Scientist for Intrinsyx Environmental about Marketing Yourself, Career Changes, and the Entrepreneurial Mindset.   Read her full bio below.Help us continue to create great content! If you'd like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form Showtimes: 2:46 Nic & Laura discuss yoga benefits8:51 Interview starts9:05 Career Changes18:50 Marketing yourself28:40 Entrepreneurial mindset42:09 Field NotesPlease be sure to ✔️subscribe, ⭐rate and ✍review. This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.Connect with Renee Murphy at https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneepmurphy/Guest Bio:Formerly a business owner in the fashion industry, Renee made a conscious decision to redirect her career towards advocating for positive environmental change. Following her passion for sustainable gardening, Renee earned a master's degree in plant science/agriculture from Cal Poly Pomona and combined that with a bachelor's in entrepreneur business from the University of Southern California, setting off to work in the native nursery and restoration business.  As sales director of a prominent San Diego native plant nursery, Renee observed the need for native plant education to her community. She began presenting and teaching courses independently, through community nurseries and with the California Native Plant Society. In addition, she began an ongoing restoration research with and indigenous tribal land establishing native trees on exposed playa at the Salton Sea.Renee's journey took a captivating turn when her research was noticed by an environmentally focused biotech company in the Bay Area. Her dedication to making a larger impact cleaning up contaminated sites using nature-based solutions and sustainable practices within the remediation industry as an environmental scientist. Renee has served as a project manager on sites implementing innovative nature-based sustainable solutions for contaminated, fire and salt impacted sites, utilizing cutting-edge endophyte-assisted phytotechnology.In her current role as Sales Director of Intrinsyx Environmental, Renee's journey bridges her diverse background with the mission of building an innovative biotech phytoremediation company using nature to heal our environment. Renee has delivered impactful presentations to esteemed audiences, including NASA Ames Green Team, Sustainable Silicon Valley, Alaska Forum for the Environment, National Brownfields Training Conference, and an international keynote at NICOLA.org 2022 Resiliency, Nature & Climate Solutions in South Africa.Renee continues to teach propagation and native plant workshops online and throughout the state of California inspiring people to change their environment starting in their own backyard.  Join Renee on her mission to inspire people to change their environment for the better!Music CreditsIntro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace MesaOutro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs MullerSupport the showThanks for listening! A new episode drops every Friday. Like, share, subscribe, and/or sponsor to help support the continuation of the show. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and all your favorite podcast players.

Airway health is an important but often overlooked area of medicine, and studies have connected poor airway health to sleep, cognitive, behavioral, and physical problems. Dr. Shereen Lim is breaking new ground in this field with her book Breathe, Sleep, Thrive, a comprehensive guide to breathing and airway development. It covers the issues that can arise from poor airway health to what steps can be taken to prevent and reverse damage, focusing on children's development in particular. Save Our Water is a statewide, water conservation program created in 2009 by the Association of California Water Agencies and the California Department of Water Resources. The program's goal is to make water conservation a daily habit among Californians.The 2023 rains brought a record amount of water to the state, but it will take more than a single wet year for California to fully recover from the three driest years ever recorded in state history.Up to 60% of the water Californians use is outdoors - by cutting back on watering in the yard and planting local water-wise plants, residents can conserve water. Luckily there are water-wise landscapes to fit every style and budget. Dr. Jun Band, Executive Director of the California Native Plant Society and landscape architect Kate Hayes shares easy ways we can conserve.KAIRN: Mates of the Alliance by Fionne Foxxe Farraday wins International Impact Book Award in Romance. At the IIBA Awards, books are not judged against competing titles but are reviewed by the judges and experts based on a scoring system that evaluates the quality of the writing and production of the book.In the wake of an alien invasion that has devastated Earth, disaster and destiny align to bring together a human doctor, Daria, and Kairn, the handsome Luperan military officer serving as ambassador for the Galactic Alliance. KAIRN: Mates of the Alliance, the smart and sexy first novel by Fionne Foxxe Farraday weaves together themes of friendship, environmental care, and commitment against the backdrop of a sweeping intergalactic romance.In today's often hectic lifestyle, it can be hard to find better-for-you options while on the go. Smoothie bowls are an on-trend solution to keep you energized while you tackle the day ahead. Packed with premium ingredients and whole fruits, smoothie bowls can be incredibly nutrient- and protein-dense, especially if they include superfoods like açaí or pitaya, commonly known as dragon fruit.To meet the growing demand for healthier and more satisfying options on-the-go, Smoothie King – the first company to bring smoothies to the masses – launched a new product lineup, the Smoothie Bowl. These bowls are made-to-order and feature fresh ingredients, making them a healthier meal alternative to many fast-food options. All six new Smoothie Bowls contain a daily serving of whole fruits, up to 11 grams of protein and range from 450 - 610 calories, making them a nutritious meal or snack alternative for anyone on the go!

This week we kick off a several-part series looking into the state of seed, specifically wildland seed, for conservation and ecological restoration in our world from various perspectives. We start off in conversation with Andrea Williams, the Director of Biodiversity Initiatives with the California Native Plant Society, and from there, a contributor to both the proposed California Seed Strategy and the National Seed Strategy. Listen in! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Podcast, and Stitcher. To read more and for many more photos please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Here is Edie Tanem and her guest this morning, Maya Argaman of the California Native Plant Society -- on this, the podcast edition of the KSFO Radio show, Bob Tanem In The Garden!  Our subject this morning is, California Native Plants in YOUR garden, though we snuck in a call or two about other plants as well.  As always, musical elements have been edited out of this podcast for legal compliance.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here is Edie Tanem and her guest this morning, Maya Argaman of the California Native Plant Society -- on this, the podcast edition of the KSFO Radio show, Bob Tanem In The Garden!  Our subject this morning is, California Native Plants in YOUR garden, though we snuck in a call or two about other plants as well.  As always, musical elements have been edited out of this podcast for legal compliance.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fueled by influencers, celebrities, and a wellness community, white sage has become a hot commodity from body products to the infamous smudging sticks of bundled dry leaves. However, most people are unaware that most white sage is poached from the wild and sold on the black market. White sage, also known as salvia apiana, only grows naturally from Southern California to Baja Mexico where it is stolen from the wilds and sold all over the world in boutiques, big box stores, and online. But at what cost? White Sage is deeply rooted in the cultures and lifeways of Indigenous communities within its native range. Barbara Drake, a Tongva elder who passed away in 2020, called it a sacred grandmother plant, a relative. Our guest, Deborah Small, along with Rose Ramirez and the California Native Plant Society, have made the award-winning documentary Saging the World [https://www.cnps.org/conservation/white-sage]to raise awareness and call for action around the protection of white sage. Deborah Small [http://deborahsmall.wordpress.com/] is a gardener, artist, writer, and Professor Emerita in the School of Arts at CalState University San Marcos. She is co-writer of The Ethnobotany Project with Rose Ramirez, and Cooking the Native Way with the Chia Cafe Collective. She is Co-Director and Co-Producer of the Saging the World documentary and campaign. Jessica Aldridge, Co-Host and Producer of EcoJustice Radio, is an environmental educator, community organizer, and 15-year waste industry leader. She is a co-founder of SoCal 350, organizer for ReusableLA, and founded Adventures in Waste. She is a former professor of Recycling and Resource Management at Santa Monica College, and an award recipient of the international 2021 Women in Sustainability Leadership and the 2016 inaugural Waste360, 40 Under 40. More Info/Resources: Flora, the White Sage CNPS magazine issue: https://www.cnps.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Flora-v5n3-Spring-LR.pdf Saging the World Trailer: https://vimeo.com/694109001 “Saging the World” article: https://deborahsmall.wordpress.com/2020/07/30/saging-the-world/ Al Jazeera's 13 minute new video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_KvbfczDQk Samantha Morales-Johnson, Gabrielino-Tongva https://www.instagram.com/native.illustrator/?hl=en and How Celebrities Are Causing a Black Market for White Sage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_KvbfczDQk United Plant Savers Species At-Risk Downloadable List (includes White Sage as one of the at-risk plants) https://unitedplantsavers.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/22229-UpS-Species-At-Risk-List-2022-rev-7-22.pdf Related Shows: On Protecting the Joshua Tree and climate change in the desert https://wilderutopia.com/ecojustice-radio/climate-change-in-the-desert-with-ecologist-james-cornett/ Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/ Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/ Support the Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio Guest: Deborah Small Executive Producer: Jack Eidt Host and Producer: Jessica Aldridge Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

This week we continue our multi-part series on the many facets of the global 30 x 30 conservation efforts as they continue across the state of California as just one example of local, state, and national efforts aggregated. We're in conversation with Jun Bando, the new executive director of the California Native Plant Society, and back in conversation with Liv O'Keefe, the senior director of Public Affairs for the Society. CNPS is an important agency in a larger coalition of agencies and groups contributing to California's planning, assessment, and projects meeting the goals of 30 x 30 in this one large biodiverse state. A good portion of this broader coalition took part in CNPS's 2022 conservation conference, entitled Rooting together: restoring connections to plants, place, and people, at which one whole learning track was dedicated to conservation via the 30 x 30 framework and funding as we look ahead.  Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Podcast, and Stitcher. To read more and for many more photos please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Cris Sarabia is the conservation director of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy. He is also a dedicated and active member of many local land and conservation organizations in his home region of North Long Beach, in Southern California, including GreyWater Action Network, the California Native Plant Society, Pelecanus, and Puente Latino, a grassroots non-profit art, culture, and ecology organization serving the North Long beach community since 2019. At this time of year, post-Solstice, in the midst of Hanukkah, pre-Christmas, Kwanzaa, and the New Year – I think many of us try to center ideals of clarity, connection, caring, and community. This week we have a conversation with a human whose work caring for lives out these very ideals within his many land, water, plant, and human communities. This to me, is what truly good gardening is all about in so many ways. Many listeners will remember an earlier conversation I had with Cris on Cultivating Place in April of 2021 when Cris was the Board Chair of the California Native Plant Society and their decolonizing work. I am so pleased to be chatting more fully with Cris this week about all that he cultivates in his community-based life. Listen in - and Happy Holidays! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Podcast, and Stitcher. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! On today's episode, we talk with Sunny Fleming, National Solutions Engineer at ESRI about Getting the Most out of Conferences, ESRI Updates, and get her Latest Thoughts on the Infrastructure Bill.  Read her full bio below.Help us continue to create great content! If you'd like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form Showtimes: 2:15 Nic & Laura talk about getting the most out of conferences13:03  Interview with Sunny Fleming Starts15:15  Benefits of attending conferences23:31  ESRI updates40:08  Sunny's thoughts on the Infrastructure Bill after reading it word for wordPlease be sure to ✔️subscribe, ⭐rate and ✍review. This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.Connect with Sunny Fleming at https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunny-esriGuest Bio:As the National Solution Engineer for state environmental agencies, Sunny is responsible for supporting some of Esri's longest-standing customers: fish and wildlife agencies, environmental regulation, agriculture, state parks, historical preservation, and natural heritage programs. She loves helping our customers shape their vision and innovate to meet their business challenges.Music CreditsIntro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace MesaOutro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs MullerSupport the show

Horticulture Program Senior Coordinator for the California Native Plant Society, Maya Argaman chats with us about the organization's work to protect California's native ecosystems. https://www.cnps.org/ https://bloomcalifornia.org/ https://calscape.org/  

In the first half of the show, Tiokasin welcomes back longtime friend of “First Voices Radio” Gregg Deal, (Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe). Gregg is a multi-disciplinary artist, activist, and "disruptor." His work is informed by his Native identity and includes exhaustive critiques of American society, politics, popular culture and history. Through paintings, murals, performance work, filmmaking, spoken word, and more, Gregg invites the viewer to confront these issues both in the present and the past tense. In a 2018 TED Talk, Greg described his work as “honoring Indigenous experiences, challenging stereotypes, and pushing for accurate representations of Indigenous people in art.” It is in these "disruptions" of stereotypes and ahistorical representations which Gregg uses the term to describe his work. Gregg has exhibited his work at notable institutions both locally, nationally, and internationally including the Denver Art Museum, RedLine Gallery, and The Smithsonian Institution. The artist currently lives with his wife and five children along the Front Range of Colorado. Gregg's current exhibit, “End of Silence,” is on view through October 12th at RedLine Contemporary Art Center in Denver, Colorado. A major review in The Denver Post on September 19, called the exhibit, “loud in every way,” and also said it is “one of the best, and most ambitious, exhibitions this year in the region. It has a lot to say, as much about painting and pop culture as it does the politics of convenience, human mistreatment and oppression — and in that way it lives up to its title.” More information about Gregg is at greggdeal.com. In the second half, we feature a discussion about “Saging the World,” a 20-minute documentary which is the focal point of a campaign to deter the global rush on white sage (Salvia apiana), driven by widespread cultural appropriation of smudging. Tiokasin's guests are Co-Directors Rose Ramirez and Deborah Small. The film was created by Rose and Deborah in partnership with the California Native Plant Society. More information: https://www.cnps.org/conservation/white-sage. Production Credits: Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), Host and Executive Producer Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), Producer Malcolm Burn, Studio Engineer, Radio Kingston, WKNY 1490 AM and 107.9 FM, Kingston, NY Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Audio Editor  Music Selections: 1. Song Title: Tahi Roots Mix (First Voices Radio Theme Song) Artist: Moana and the Moa Hunters Album: Tahi (1993) Label: Southside Records (Australia and New Zealand) (00:00:22)  2. Song Title: The Path Artist: Vince Fontaine's Indian City Album: Code Red (2021); Released on September 30, 2022 Label: Rising Sun Productions, Winnipeg (2021); Warner Canada (2022) (00:27:46)  Akantu Institute Visit Akantu Institute, an institute that Tiokasin founded with a mission of contextualizing original wisdom for troubled times. Go to https://akantuinstitute.org/ to find out more and consider joining his Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/Ghosthorse. 

One out of three people purchasing plants last year actually purchased native plants. We can be empowered and make a difference by what we choose to plant by impacting the climate and ecosystem. Native plants can generate oxygen, sequester carbon, filter pollutants from water, and improve the soil. The California Native Plant Society is a great resource for California plant lists which you can find at https://www.cnps.org/helpful-tools Connect with Mary Phillips: Mary Phillips is the head of Garden for Wildlife™ at National Wildlife Federation. Mary will share about why it's vital to grow native species, reveal the perfect plants for every region, and provide tips on how to cultivate the optimal home for local pollinators. Garden For Wildlife National Wildlife Federation Code GARDEN22 - 20% off wildlife sign and certification Code EPIC22 - 20% off plants and pollinator packages Shop the Store As an exclusive for listeners, use code EPICPODCAST for 5% off your entire first order on our store, featuring our flagship Birdies Raised Beds. These are the original metal raised beds, lasting up to 5-10x longer than wooden beds, are ethically made in Australia, and have a customizable modular design.   Shop now and get 5% off your first order. Get Our Books Looking for a beginner's guide to growing food in small spaces? Kevin's book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening, explains the core, essential information that you'll need to grow plants, no matter where you live! He also wrote Grow Bag Gardening to provide you with specialized knowledge that can bring you success when growing in fabric pots. Order signed copies of Kevin's books, plus more of his favorite titles in our store. More Resources Looking for more information? Follow us: Our Blog YouTube (Including our Epic Homesteading and Jacques in the Garden channels) Instagram (Including Epic Homesteading, Jacques, and Chris) TikTok Facebook Facebook Group Discord Server  

Rose Ramirez is a California native plant gardener, basketweaver, photographer, and educator of Chumash descent; Deborah Small is an artist, photographer, and professor at the School of the Arts at California State University, San Marcos.  In preparation for California Native Plant Week 2022 (April 16 - 23), celebrating the botanical biodiversity of the California Floristic Region, Rose and Deborah join Cultivating Place to share more about their new educational and advocacy initiative, Saging the World, on behalf of California's iconic native white sage, Saliva apiana, sacred to the Indigenous cultures of what is now Southern California and Baja California, Mexico. As part of Saging the World, Rose and Deborah, along with David Bryant of the California Native Plant Society, have coproduced a documentary of the same name, which premieres in LA county on Earth Day, and to which all are invited (tickets required): Saging the World Premiere, Earth Day, Friday, April 22 7 pm - 9 pm, Warner Grande Theatre, 78 W 6th St, San Pedro, CA 90731  The film, created to foster awareness and inspire action for white sage, spotlights the ecological and cultural issues intertwined with white sage, centering the voices of Native advocates who have long protected and cherished this plant. “Saging” has become common in movies, TV shows, social media, and cleansing rituals –people burning sage bundles in the hope of purifying space and clearing bad energy. Instead of healing, the appropriated use of saging in popular culture is having a harmful effect. Indigenous communities have tended a relationship with white sage for thousands of generations. White sage (Salvia apiana) only occurs in southern California and northern Baja California, Mexico. Today, poachers are stealing metric tons of this plant from the wild to supply international demand. The screening will include a panel discussion with Native advocates from the film, as well as a white sage plant giveaway. This Earth Day, go from smudging to seeding as we come together to see plants not just as “resources,” but as “relationships.” The event is sponsored by the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy. Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Podcast, and Stitcher. To read more and for many more photos please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

August 13, 2021 — With fire season and drought well underway, PG&E is hard at work on the 1800 miles of enhanced vegetation management it plans to finish by the end of the year. The company is responding to wildfire threat by limbing and cutting down trees and any other vegetation its arborists deem present a possible danger to its infrastructure. Cathy Monroe of Redwood Valley is a long-time member of the California Native Plant Society and an original member of the Mendocino County Climate Action Advisory Committee. She's also a fire survivor who understands the need to take preventive measures. Electricity, she acknowledges, is key to getting away from fossil fuels. This week, Monroe and Eileen Mitro, a fellow member of the CNPS and co-founder of Climate Action Mendocino, looked out over an area near the intersection of Road A and Highway 20 in Redwood Valley, which was cleared in May. Some willow remained along a small seasonal tributary to the Russian River, but now, with the heat and the drought and the absence of shade, that willow is dying. With it, protection from sediment and the force of heavy rain also disappears. In June, PG&E spokeswoman Deanna Contreras said that “A substantial amount of vegetation was left near the waterways to help protect water resources in the area,” and that “the protection measures we applied precluded the need for a water quality permit.” Mitro and Monroe worry about erosion damage from upcoming winter floods and the loss of the carbon-sequestering blue oaks that once provided habitat and held the slopes together.

In this episode of Conservation Conversations we talk to Cris Sarabia, the President of the California Native Plant Society(www.CNPS.org) and an inspiring community leader in southern California. California is one of the world's 36 biodiversity hotspots. It has more native plant species than any other state in the U.S., and an entire web of life depends on those plants. It has something really special that is worth our protection and love. So, CNPS is dedicated to that. They do their work through conservation, education, gardening, plant science, and even a publishing arm. They have more than 10,000 members and 35 volunteer chapters across the state and Baja, so wherever you live, you can get involved locally in issues that truly matter globally. Native plant conservation is directly tied to and impacted by some of the biggest environmental issues of our time: the extinction crisis, climate change, wildfire... It's a really exciting way to make a difference. Enjoy our conversation with Cris! Special thanks to Liv O’keefe from CNPS Especially if you’re in CA, please look into CNPS’s programs if you’re looking to get involved in your natural community. www.CNPS.org This episode is brought to you in part by our sponsor Tidal Influence, a Californian ecological consulting firm who proudly supports environmental education and all of the diverse conservation efforts that Pelecanus works to highlight. Visit their website at www.tidalinfluence.com to learn more about what they do to conserve our coastal resources and how you can get involved All podcasts can be found at www.Pelecanus.org, Soundcloud, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. Producers on this episode are Austin and Taylor Parker Music for this episode was provided by A Picture Book Studios Please like, comment, and subscribe if you haven’t already and thank you again for tuning in, we’ll talk to you next time.

April 17 through 24th 2021 is California Native Week, designated by the California State Legislature in 2010 as an annual celebration of the fantastic diversity of plants on whom this large expanse of unique and uniquely beautiful land and history rests in so many ways. The California Floristic Province is one of the Biodiversity Hot Spots on Earth and as the most populous state in the US, California also has an incredible diversity of humans making their lives here as well. In honor of these plants and their communities, Cultivating Place speaks this week with members of the California Native Plant Society community to chat about what CNPS is, and what it is striving to grow into more fully. It is a small, candid look into how the environmental conservation world generally is meeting this moment in time through the lens of one organization. In looking back over the course of this last year, and many years and decades prior, there is renewed clarity and urgency around the environmental world generally having quite a bit of acknowledging and resetting to do for itself and for the greater benefit of the human and greater than the human world around us. It is in that spirit that I am joined today by CNPS staff member Liv O’Keefe, Senior Director of Public Affairs; by Cris Sarabia, Conservation Director of the Palos Verdes Peninsula land Conservancy and the chair of the board of CNPS, a volunteer position; and finally, by John L. Sanders, Founder, and Director of the Delphinus School of Natural History, who is a CNPS community member and volunteer consultant for the society. Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Podcast, and Stitcher. To read more and for many more photos please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.

April 1, 2021 — Spring is here, and new growth is everywhere. But unlike the fields of yellow mustard that signal the beginning of the short season, some of that growth is old and slow. Like an 18-inch diameter, breast-height scrub oak, which could have been on the landscape since your great-great-great grandmother was born. Jennifer Riddell and Andrea Davis, fellow co-presidents of the Sanhedrin Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, recently encouraged the Board of Supervisors to adopt an ordinance to protect oak woodlands, which was originally supposed to be part of the Phase III cannabis ordinance. Their letter to the board cites a study estimating that Mendocino County oak forests store more than 28 and half million tons of carbon. They asked for strong protections for rangelands, because those areas contain the bulk of our oak woodlands and upland watersheds. But now, with Phase III coming before the board next month with recommendations from the Planning Commission, the oak woodlands ordinance has been sent to committee and is waiting on an inventory of the trees. That inventory isn’t likely to include a lot of young trees, which are out-competed by fast-growing non-native grasses and devoured by other non-native species like turkeys and pigs. Riddell believes that, with all the complicated pressures oak woodlands already face, they need as much protection as they can get. We’ll hear why oak trees matter, some of the pressures they face, and some ideas for protecting them.

March 18, 2021 — The Board of Supervisors decoupled a proposed oak woodlands ordinance from the proposed Phase III cannabis ordinance last week and sent it to committee, pending an inventory of the oak woodlands in the county. Michael Jones, the UC Cooperative Extension Forest Advisor for Mendocino, Lake and Sonoma Counties, said the most recent data puts the local acres of oak woodlands and mixed hardwood canopy at 650,000, which is one of the highest percentages of such coverage in the state. But, with historically poor land management practices, fire suppression, climate change, and a host of other complications, local oaks also face a wide variety of pressures. Initially, the oak woodlands ordinance was supposed to be adopted prior to or at the same time as the Phase III cannabis ordinance. But Assistant Director of Planning and Building Julia Krog said that Phase III, which is coming before the Planning Commission tomorrow, proposes that every cannabis grow will be subject to a site-specific discretionary review process. This would presumably include rigorous environmental reviews for every proposed project. Jones referred to a study led by his predecessor, Greg Giusti, saying that there are many elements to a successful oak woodland protection program, including a voluntary program and general plan amendments. He cited “A Planner’s Guide to Oak Woodlands,” which advises forest and resource managers to assess what they have, determine what they want, how to get it, and how to get the desired results. The Sanhedrin Chapter of the California Native Plant Society sent a letter to the board saying that “Data are needed to make good policy, but any attempt to improve the available data should not preclude immediate oak protections in Mendocino County.” But Farm Bureau Executive Director Devon Jones echoed the call for an assessment of the oak baseline. She was also concerned with replanting requirements and regulatory redundancy. “The State Board and other governing documents do exist in precedent to oak tree removal connected to cannabis,” she pointed out. “So I’m just interested to see what sort of cohesion is going to take place in moving through the discretionary review process.” She and Michael Jones are likely to work with Supervisors Glenn McGourty and John Haschak, the supervisorial ad hoc committee charged with assessing the woodlands. Phase III is not popular, judging from the 100 or so public comments that had come into the Planning Commission as of yesterday afternoon. Haschak, who serves on the cannabis ad hoc committee with Supervisor Ted Williams, has come out against a proposal that would allow property owners to apply for a permit to grow cannabis on ten percent of their land. And he, like many environmentalists, is concerned about the possibility that Rangeland could be deemed agriculturally appropriate for growing cannabis. And a lot of people have an eye on ever-lowering aquifers. But Kristin Nevedal, the county’s new cannabis program manager, does not expect more water use with the possible upcoming changes. She spoke earlier this week at a town hall hosted by the Cannabis Business Association of Mendocino County, moderated by Kate Maxwell of The Mendocino Voice. She said the state regulates water rigorously, from discharge requirements to rules around wells and storing surface water during the dry season. “And then the local jurisdiction also has the ability to further restrict water hauling,” she added. “So I think if we move into a more heavily regulated program where folks aren’t cultivating before they’ve gone through the local approval and the state approval and obtained all of their permits, we shouldn’t see expansion of surface water draws and more water consumption.” Wiliams, who has championed the discretionary permit approach, argues that the process would allow for more overall environmental and neighborhood protections; and that the changes are the only way to align the county’s rules with the state rules, thus creating a pathway to state licensure by January. But Patrick Sellers, board chair of the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance, doesn’t believe Phase III will help the Phase I growers who are stuck in a years’-long limbo. And he thinks the environmental regulations under the proposed changes are overly onerous. “I think what this does is really just provide a narrow pathway for a limited number of well capitalized businesses who can handle the rigorous discretionary review process that’s being proposed, which is more than is necessary and is more than is done in other jurisdictions and essentially leaves the existing tax-paying operator in the dust, potentially cutting them out for good.” He also worried that, with CEQA considering cumulative environmental impacts, one large farm could create as much of an impact as several small farms, thus reducing the likelihood that the small farms would be approved. The Planning Commission will take up the cultivation ordinance and a facilities ordinance at 9am on Friday, March 19. You can view the full town hall on understanding Phase III at The Mendocino Voice Facebook page.

March 9, 2021--On this episode of the Fire Safe Council Radio show, get tips to help you preserve the natural environment while creating your wildfire defensible space. You chose to live here for the natural beauty. Now it seems like you may need to turn your home into a moonscape to keep it safe from wildfire. Host Scott Cratty talks with Jim Xerogeanes from the Mendocino College Agriculture Department and Andrea Davis from the Sanhedrin Chapter of the California Native Plant Society.

Jolie Elan shares her experience of tapping into the wisdom of the oaks for guidance in hard times.Many Indigenous people say that plants reveal their medicine via dreams and visions. What if these types of relationships are within everyone’s reach? How do we go about building mutually beneficial relationships? On a decade long adventure to eat acorn food, ethnobotanist Jolie Elan became so intertwined within the oak web of life that the oaks began to reveal myths and medicines in dreams and visions. Join Ethnobotanist and oak lover Jolie Elan as she tells her ethnobotanical love story that discusses the ecology, botany, medicine, myth, spirit, and food of the mighty oak.Jolie Elan, M.S. is the Founding Director of Go Wild Institute. She is a deep ecologist, ethnobotanist, consulting botanist, and educator. She has inspired thousands of people to deepen their relationship with nature. Jolie has worked with ethnobotanical projects on four continents including restoring sacred forest groves in India and developing the herbal medicine sector in war-torn Kosovo. Jolie is also a certified permaculture designer and a seasoned environmental advocate with twenty years of experience building diverse networks, especially with Indigenous groups focused on protecting sacred sites. Combining her love for the earth and spirit, Jolie completed her training as a Spiritual Director and acts as a spiritual companion for those who wish to increase their intimacy with the divine, especially through the natural world. Jolie is adjunct faculty at the College of Marin and regularly teaches at Point Reyes Field Institute, the San Francisco State University’s Sierra Nevada Field Campus, as well as a large variety of herbal medicine schools, and environmental and spiritual organizations throughout the west. She works with Jewish organizations, like Hazon, Wilderness Torah, Temple Emek Shalom and the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco to offer eco- Jewish classes that ground Jewish practices and teachings in the Earth. Jolie received her B.A. from the Evergreen State College in Environmental Studies, her Master’s degree in Natural Resources from Humboldt State University, and her certification in Spiritual Direction from the Chaplaincy Institute. She has served as the President of the Marin Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. Jolie can often be found foraging wild foods and medicines and hanging out with oak trees. To learn more about Jolie’s work visit the Go Wild Institute website.Support the show (https://www.natureevolutionaries.com/donations)

April 11-19 is Native Plant Week! We are celebrating a bit differently during these challenging times by taking a moment each day to appreciate the fabulous native plants that live right next door. On this week's episode, Native Plants Next Door, we're partnering with the fabulous California Native Plant Society to discuss the local plants that live in our communities and the actions we can take to care for these botanical neighbors. Across California, our communities are associated with distinctive native plants - plants that provide vital resources for the wildlife that depend on and love them. In our neighborhoods, native plants are often right in front of our eyes, right under - or over! - our noses. From the stately coast live oak on the street corner, to a flourish of wildflowers in a roadway median, to the chaparral that brushes up against the backyard. For many of us, our home gardens also contribute native plant neighbors. Whether in small or large patches, these native plants contribute to improve environmental quality for all of us and are intrinsic to what makes California, California.This Native Plant Week, please consider supporting our mission to safeguard, research and showcase the native plants next door. Your contribution will help our native plant neighbors flourish as California Botanic Garden works at the forefront of native plant research, conservation, horticulture and public engagement.DonateSupport the show (https://11213.blackbaudhosting.com/11213/Garden-Fund-General-Donations)

Today is the 10th anniversary of the rediscovery of the Franciscan manzanita! To celebrate, we're re-releasing this episode from Season 1. What do you do when you find the last individual of a species previously thought to be extinct? The two rarest plants on earth both live in the Presidio of San Francisco, they’re both in the same genus, and there’s only one left of each. Is there a future for these species, and if so, what does it look like? And what can species on the brink tell us about ourselves and the future of our ecosystems? An update from Dan Glusenkamp: “Today the mother plant is thriving, hundreds of clones are growing in dozens of botanic gardens across California, and baby plants are being reintroduced to their ancestral home in the Presidio. What’s more, the project inspired even more ambitious work –for example, Newsome Administration recently budgeted funds to enable scientists to collect seeds from all California’s rare plants, so they can be placed in long term storage toward ending extinction.” Click here to learn more about the California Native Plant Society (https://www.cnps.org/) Music for this episode was produced by Sunfish Moon Light (https://sunfishmoonlight.bandcamp.com/) . Support this podcast

Just three months since California’s November 2018 Fires made global headlines, the great winter greening of our state is underway and with it the urge to GROW - in humans as in plants. On the opposite side of the globe from us are holding their breath for the first rains of late autumn and an end to their annual fire season. Fire is fact of life – this week on Cultivating Place we’re joined by Julie Evens,Vegetation Specialist and Greg Suba, Conservation Director with expertise in forestry management and fire, both of the California Native Plant Society to explore facts about fire and fire recovery. Join us! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. For photos visit www.cultivatingplace.com. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher.

Tejon Ranch Centennial Specific Plan (or Centennial) is a massive planned city in a unique, rare, fire-prone wilderness of grasslands and mountains, a residential and commercial development in LA County. Nick Jensen from the California Native Plant Society, and Jack Eidt from Wild Heritage Planners and SoCal 350, discuss the dangers to urban sustainability, fiscal health of LA County and the impacts on wild and endangered plants and animals with host Jessica Aldridge. Located 70 miles NW of DTLA, Centennial would be accessed by Hwy 138 near Interstate 5, close to Gorman a small town with limited amenities. The project sits upon 270,000 acres of private property where they want to build 20K homes and 10 million sf of commercial and retail space (although a hospital does not exist in the current plan). The planning of Centennial began 20 years ago, but its approval is due for vote by the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors on Dec 11th. Sign the Petition: http://biodiv.us/keepcaliforniawild More information: http://cnps.org/centennial Check out this op-ed by Jack Eidt: https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php/2016-01-01-13-17-00/los-angeles/16717-tejon-ranch-s-centennial-a-fiscal-and-fire-disaster-waiting-to-happen-for-la-county Interview by Jack Eidt from SoCal 350 and WilderUtopia. Host and Engineer: JP Morris Executive Producer: Mark Morris Music: Javier Kadry Episode 24 Image of Tejon Ranch from Kyle Hanson, SoCal 360.

Fall is for planting. But how do you plant? Debbie Flower offers tips for getting your new plant in the ground successfully. Christine Lewis talks about today's California Native Plant Society's plant sale. Upcoming garden events.

No matter where you live, the native plants of that area help define the beauty, history and meaning of all life there – from the soil, to the birds and bugs and mammals – four legged and two legged. On Cultivating Place this week we’re joined by the California Native Plant Society to hear more about the state of our native plants and their upcoming Conservation Conference Jan. 30-Feb. 3, 2018. Join us! Read more and see additional photos at CultivatingPlace.com.

Marcia and Grey interview Mike Splain in the Ventana Wilderness Alliance office in downtown Santa Cruz, California.   Mike Spain's Bio: A native of Maryland, Mike Splain relocated to California in the 1990s and has since pursued wild lands conservation as a supporter, volunteer or staff member for various advocacy organizations, including Forests Forever, Sierra Club and the California Native Plant Society. He holds a BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz and currently serves as Wilderness Chair of the Sierra Club, Ventana Chapter. Mike began volunteering with the Ventana Wilderness Alliance in 2003 and became the organization’s second Executive Director in 2012. He lives with his wife Gabrielle and dog Pepper in the mixed evergreen forest of Bonny Doon, CA. VWA website:http://www.ventanawild.org How to support VWA: http://www.ventanawild.org/join-vwa/join-renew-donate

In this season of the winter solstice — marked by the beauty and appreciative contemplation that mark the celebrations of winter holidays the world around, I very much wanted this week's Cultivating Place to acknowledge the diversity, value and fragility of our native plants and their communities. No matter where you garden or cultivate place now, or where you might have done so throughout your life, the native plants of any place are what signify, identify and root that place as its own. Native plants — ornamental, edible or useful, common, rare or endangered — all cultivation and gardening is based upon the native plants of somewhere. This week, I honor the native plants of my place — the native plants of California, one of the world's biodiveristy hotspots, with more native and endemic plants than certainly anywhere I've lived or gardened before now. To help me in this celebration of the plants of our own places, my guest today is Michael Kauffmann, editor-in-chief of Backcountry Press and author of several books exploring the natural history of some signature plants of the western forest, including — so seasonally appropriate — "Conifer Country, Conifers of the Pacific Slope" and "A Field Guide to Manzanitas,” one of our native broadleaved evergreens. As of January 2017, Michael is also the editor of Fremontia, the journal of the California Native Plant Society.

It is California Native Plant Week this week. Officially designated by the California Native Plant Society in 2010, this year the festivities and educational and awareness activities are scheduled all week April 15–23. In celebration of this and in honor of the many native landscapes I love, and native plants that bring beauty, life and a deep sense of place to my home garden, this week I am pleased to welcome Dennis Mudd to Cultivating Place. Dennis is a retired tech industry CEO and developer of such things as MusicMatch and Slacker Radio. He is also an avid native plant home gardener in Poway – near San Diego. In an effort to improve his own native plant home gardening efforts, five years ago now Dennis teamed up with the California Native Plant Society and The Jepson Herbarium to create the now extensive easy to use, online gardening resource known as Calscape. Join us to hear more!

Pt Molate has been described as an “undiscovered natural gem” in the East Bay, with splendid views, rare native plants, and unique natural history. Terra Verde speaks with representatives of the California Native Plant Society and the Richmond City Planning Commission about controversial plans to turn Pt Molate into a Vegas-style casino. The post Terra Verde – Pt Molate appeared first on KPFA.