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I recently had the opportunity to attend the annual National Meeting of the Conifer Society. It is not often I get to be surrounded by such a large group of people as equally passionate about trees as I am! There were people from around the world at the conference, as well as a near complete collection of California conifer specimens. Highlights include a talk by Stephen Sillett, a researcher from Humboldt State who studies old growth redwood canopy ecosystems, and tours of Quaryhill Botanical Garden, Circle Oak Ranch, San Francisco Botanic Garden, and Hog Hill. The San Francisco Botanic Garden created an interactive map of the conifers housed at their site specifically for our group. It is a very thorough and interesting project and definitely worth checking out. They also developed an app for smartphones to find their conifers. The collection there is expansive and includes one of the few known albino redwoods. Definitely worth checking out! See their website to explore the map and download the app: http://www.sfbotanicalgarden.org/garden/conifers.html
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 We are always striving to encourage and increase biodiversity in the work that we do. At our own home, we have been planting California native and drought tolerant plantings around the yard. It has been a fun process to experiment with what does best in our particular microclimate. We have also been watching an increase in bird and insect species all over the property as we increase habitat. Our most exciting addition is monarch butterflies! We sowed three species of native milkweeds (Asclepias eriocarpa, Asclepias fascicularis, and Asclepias speciosa) in our nursery and have planted a few around the yard. Within a few months of plantings, we began seeing monarchs around the plants. We currently have a plethora of caterpillars eating the plants! Milkweeds are the required host plant for monarch butterflies and are essential to their survival.
To learn more about monarchs and milkweed: http://www.xerces.org/milkweed/ |
Merlin
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Merlin arborist group
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Telephone707-504-9223
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