Community Events 2019

June | July | August | September | October

Click here to review our cancellation policy

The Laguna Foundation is proud to collaborate with local biologists, artists, educators, herbalists, naturalists, and partner organizations to offer a wide range of natural and cultural history workshops, walks, presentations, and classes all year long. Whether you’d like to learn a new skill, enjoy the beautiful Laguna scenery, or attend a fun event with your family, the Laguna Foundation has a variety of offerings to deepen your appreciation for the Laguna de Santa Rosa, connect with nature, and inspire a vibrant community dedicated to lifelong learning.

PLEASE NOTE:

• Events take place at, or start from, the Laguna Environmental Center, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95401, unless otherwise noted.
• Most events require a registration fee. These fees cover the cost of our instructors' time, workshop materials, and directly support the Community Education program and the work of the Laguna Foundation.
• All events require pre-registration to secure your place, unless noted otherwise. To register for an event, click on the “Register Now” button below or call our office at (707) 527-9277 xt 110.
• We frequently post new events, so check our website again soon!

 

June

	Nature Journaling at the Laguna with Marley Peifer Workshop and field trip with Laguna Foundation and LandPaths Saturday, June 22 1:00pm - 5:00pm FREE. Pre-registration required with LandPaths. **Location: Begin at the Laguna Foundation Heron Hall and end at the Kelly Ponds/Kelly Farm ~This workshop is full. Click the "Register Now" button below to join the waitlist ~ Do you want to experience nature with fresh eyes? Do you want to notice, understand, and remember more of the vibrant world around you? This fun class will teach you the tools used by the greatest naturalists of all time. Using pencils, ink, and watercolors, we will create sketches and take notes of our encounters with the fascinating biodiversity of the Laguna de Santa Rosa. In this class, we will assemble one of the most powerful tool-kits for learning about Nature. Following in the footsteps of Audubon, Humboldt, and Darwin, we will reunite art and science in a creative synthesis that is fun, functional, and aesthetically engaging. By the end of the class you will have sharper eyes, better nature awareness, and a beautiful journal documenting your experience. You will also possess the tools and mindset necessary to pursue a life-long learning adventure. Beginning and ending at Heron Hall, most of this workshop will take place outdoors at the Laguna Environmental Center and carpooling to nearby Kelly Farm along the Laguna. Total walking will be 1-2 miles on mostly flat but uneven terrain. Snacks and hot drinks will be provided in the morning. Participants bring their own lunch. A complete list of supplies to bring will be sent upon registration, including sketchbook and watercolor field palette. This workshop is suitable for adults, but open to families with children 10 years and above, if the children are comfortable outdoors and self-motivated and focused around learning in nature. Rain cancels. Marley Peifer lives in Sebastopol where he practices gardening, wildlife tracking, and painting. He longs for a reintegration of art with science and words with images, a synthesis that he develops in his journaling. Nature journaling has been a fundamental practice for Marley ever since he discovered how it ignited his other interests and accelerated his learning. This free program is made possible through a partnership between the Laguna Foundation, LandPaths and the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District. The District permanently protects the diverse agricultural, natural resource and scenic open space lands of Sonoma County for future generations. It is funded through a quarter-cent sales tax that was voted in by the residents of Sonoma County.
	Coloring the Summer Garden Colored Pencil Techniques workshop with Nina Antze Saturday, June 29, 10:00am - 3:00pm $95. Pre-registration required. Summer is the time for warmth, exuberance, relaxation, and working in the garden. Come explore and draw the beautiful plants of the summer at the Laguna- Clarkia, Nigella, wild roses, California poppies, penstemon, or favorite flowers from your own garden. We will explore a variety of colored pencil techniques and learn how to blend, burnish and create new colors while incorporating the techniques of botanical drawing, color theory, value and form. All levels welcome. Suitable for 12 year olds and up (children under 15 must be accompanied by a parent). Participants bring their own lunch and art supplies (a supply list will be provided). Hot drinks and light snacks will be provided throughout the day. Nina Antze is a Sonoma County botanical artist and quiltmaker. She has a degree in Fine Art from San Francisco State and a Certificate in Botanical Illustration from the New York Botanical Gardens. She teaches colored pencil and botanical workshops throughout the Bay Area. Learn more about Nina at her website.

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July

	Restoration, Biodiversity, and Our New Role in 21st Century California Presentation by Dan Gluesenkamp, Executive Director of the California Native Plant Society Thursday, July 18, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm $14 (non-refundable). Pre-registration required. For over 50 years, our community has worked to save and restore California’s celebrated wild gardens, from Joshua Tree to Point Reyes to our Laguna de Santa Rosa. During those decades, the human population has doubled and biodiversity conservation in California has been dramatically transformed. Against all odds, using a growing diversity of conceptual and technical approaches, we have somehow managed to save most of what makes California special. As we look ahead, we see new threats and wonder how to save California for the future. Dan Gluesenkamp will speak about places, priorities, and projects, and how new generations of Californians, with new ideas and diverse voices, will leverage the incredible successes of past struggle toward building a future we all can love. Together, we will explore a vision for how we learn and work toward lasting change, transition California to shared systems that secure our treasured biodiversity, and with our success inspire the rest of the world to do the same for their special lands. Dan Gluesenkamp is Executive Director of CNPS, and was previously E.D. of Calflora and Director of Habitat Protection and Restoration for Audubon Canyon Ranch’s thirty preserves. He earned his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley studying plant-insect interactions in native and invasive thistles, and has led research and restoration projects across California. A co-founder of the California Invasive Plant Council and of the Bay Area Early Detection Network (BAEDN), in 2009, Dan discovered a presumed-extinct Franciscan manzanita (Arctostaphylos franciscana) plant growing on a traffic island at the Golden Gate Bridge.

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August

	The Paradox of Preservation: Wilderness and Working Landscapes at Point Reyes National Seashore Presentation by Laura Alice Watt, Professor, Department of Geography, Environment, and Planning at Sonoma State University Thursday, August 1, 6:30pm - 8:30pm $14 (non-refundable). Pre-registration required. Both Point Reyes National Seashore and the Laguna de Santa Rosa could be described as “Leopoldian”, or places that exemplify Aldo Leopold’s ideas about the interconnections between wild and cultivated landscapes - yet the practicalities of including active agriculture within a federally protected area like Point Reyes National Seashore bring their own challenges. The history of Congressional intent to protect the continuation of over a century of dairy and beef ranching on the peninsula has come into recent clashes with the idea that public lands “should” be dominated by wildlife and recreation use. Laura Alice Watt’s recent book compiling years of research addresses how environmental history can help us to understand, and perhaps solve, this management dilemma. Join us for this thought-provoking talk that will chronicle how national ideals about what a park “ought to be” have developed over time, and what happens when these ideals are implemented by the National Park Service in its efforts to preserve places that are also lived-in landscapes. Laura Alice Watt is a professor of environmental history and policy at Sonoma State University. Her long-term research agenda is to explore the history of protected landscapes to bolster their long-term sustainability in terms of both natural and cultural systems. In contrast to most land policy research, she uses landscape as a tool for understanding the complex interactions between people and their environments, tracking historical changes in protected areas as indicators of shifting social dynamics and structures. Prior to coming to SSU, she worked as an environmental consultant in San Francisco for four years with EDAW, Inc., specializing in writing resource management plans for the Bureau of Land Management, as well as historic landscape analyses for a variety of government agencies. Outside of school she is an avid photographer and sailor.
"Blackbirds Above Wetlands" "Red Tail Hawk"	Conjuring the Laguna through Abstraction Acrylic Painting Techniques Workshop with Angela Zocco Sturr Saturday, August 17, 10:00am - 3:00pm $68. Pre-registration required. Let go of the constraints of reality and enter the world of abstract art with current exhibiting Heron Hall artist Angela Zocco Sturr. Whether you are new to the freedom of abstraction or a longtime enthusiast, this workshop may spark a fresh approach to painting a landscape. Working indoors, using a variety of wooden shapes, we will draw an organic vista of interlocking shapes. Transparency, overlapping and textured brushwork using acrylic paint will be explored. A special emphasis will be on mixing and creating harmonious muted colors. This will be a relaxed and supportive approach, open to change and invention at every step of the process. No previous art experience is necessary. A materials list will be provided upon registration. Angela Zocco Sturr has taught art and ceramics from her Sebastopol studio for many years. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and shows her work locally. She has been a longtime docent of the Laguna Foundation's Learning Laguna program, trained for numerous outdoor education programs with Landpaths and Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods, and completed the UC Naturalists program to become a California Naturalist. Finding long-term stewardship as a participant in the citizen science program Beach Watch, she gathers data monthly on South Salmon Creek Beach. Currently she teaches art and garden at Apple Blossom Elementary School. Please visit her online gallery or view her work in person in Heron Hall now through August 27, 2019.
	The State of Water: Understanding California’s Most Precious Resource Presentation and book-signing by Obi Kaufmann Thursday, August 29, 6:30pm - 8:30pm $14 (non-refundable). Pre-registration required. Obi Kaufmann’s lively presentation about how science and art can work together to deliver a powerful message of hope comes as an antidote to the miasma of despair that seems to pervade most popular discourse regarding the natural world of California and beyond. In the newly released State of Water, a follow-up to his best-selling book The California Field Atlas, Kaufmann turns his artful yet analytical attention to the Golden State’s single most complex and controversial resource: water. Interspersed throughout with trail paintings of animals that might survive under a caring and careful water ethic, Kaufmann shows how California can usher in a new era of responsible water conservation, and – perhaps most importantly – how we may do so together. Join us in beautiful Heron Hall for a dive into a unique exploration of water, the resource that supports life as we know it and from which the Laguna Foundation bases all of its conservation, education, and restoration efforts. Growing up in the East Bay as the son of an astrophysicist and a psychologist, Obi Kaufmann spent most of high school practicing calculus and breaking away on weekends to scramble around Mount Diablo and map its creeks, oak forests, and sage mazes. Into adulthood, he would regularly journey into the mountains, spending more summer nights without a roof than with one. For Kaufmann, the epic narrative of the California backcountry holds enough art, science, mythology, and language for a hundred field atlases to come. When he is not backpacking, you can find the painter-poet at his desk in Oakland, posting @coyotethunder #trailpaintings on social media. His website is www.coyoteandthunder.com.
	Coiled Willow Basket Workshop with Charlie Kennard Saturday, August 31, 9:30am - 3:30pm $100. Pre-registration required. Enjoy a respite from the summer heat and spend a Saturday working with your hands while taking in the view overlooking the Laguna de Santa Rosa from Heron Hall. This day-long workshop on the immersive and challenging art of basket-making will use willow, a common riparian tree found across Sonoma County, to shape a small coiled basket. Local weaving expert Charlie Kennard will demonstrate how to split and trim willow to prepare weavers, and then participants will begin a Paiute-style trinket basket, with a foundation of whole willow. This workshop is suitable for adults and teenagers. All basket-making materials are included in the registration fee. Participants must bring a water bowl, sharp pocket knife, and lunch. Hot drinks and snacks are provided throughout the day. Charlie Kennard of San Anselmo is a long-time basket weaver and student of California Indian and other traditional basketry techniques of the world. He teaches throughout the Bay Area, and in many schools and at teacher trainings. Tule boats made in his workshops can be seen at the California Academy of Sciences, the Bay Model in Sausalito, and in the collection of the Lake County Museum. You can also visit a basketry plant garden Charlie has created at the Marin Art and Garden Center in Ross, where he and friends have woven a basket 13 feet across. Charlie is active in native habitat restoration in Marin, managing several projects for Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed.

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September

	Painting Oak Branches and Galls in Gouache Workshop with Lucy Martin Saturday, September 7, 10:00am - 3:00pm $95. Pre-registration required. Oak galls, an apple-like deformity on oak trees caused by chemicals injected by insects, are one of the most fascinating ecological phenomena found in the Laguna de Santa Rosa and a subject that warrants further examination. Lucy Martin is known as a botanical artist whose paintings are all about close observation, which often leads to increased understanding of the particular object at hand. She paints mainly in gouache (similar to watercolor but more opaque), with the addition of watercolor and occasionally colored pencil. In this class, we will take a close look at oak branches and oak galls that are present in abundance on the oaks throughout Sonoma County. Lucy will present techniques such as layering from dark to light, dry brush for texture, and using gouache to achieve intense color, which are methods that help create a painting that has a sense of depth and density. She will also demonstrate each step in the painting and provide one-on-one guidance as the students create their own compositions. Lucy Martin lives in Sonoma County, California. She is mainly self-taught, with some formal training including classes with Mary Jo Koch. She exhibits in the Sebastopol Gallery and Calabi Gallery, as well as annually in Art Trails, the juried Sonoma County Open Studio art tour. Her work was purchased for the Permanent Collection of the Special Collections and Archives Department at the McHenry Library at UCSC. She has exhibited in international shows of the American Society of Botanical Artists and solo shows at the Library at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. Her art exhibit focused on lichens was on display in Heron Hall during the summer of 2018. Visit her website at www.lucymartinart.com.
	Fresh Pressed Flowers Workshop with Jan Lochner Sunday, September 15, 2019, 1:00pm - 4:00pm $35. Pre-registration required. Experimenting and creating with pressed flowers is a great way to bring a bit of life and beauty into the dormant fall season. In this make-and-take workshop, local gardener and Laguna Foundation volunteer Jan Lochner will share the simplicity and elegance of the art of pressing flowers. Jan will demonstrate her personal techniques for pressing and using flowers. We will make various items, from bookmarks and cards to window ornaments and refrigerator magnets. Join us for this fun, hands-on and informative workshop as Jan shares her secrets of pressing flowers in hopes that you will continue to enjoy this easy and enjoyable art process on your own. All workshop materials and supplies, including flowers, are provided. Participants need only bring an open creative spirit and a smile. Suitable for eight years old and up (minors must be accompanied by an adult). Jan Lochner has been creating note cards from pressed flowers as a hobby for 25 years. She uses color, shape, and texture on fine quality paper, making each hand-made card unique. Her home in Sebastopol is her workshop with the dining room table seldom clear and kitchen cupboards filled with bags and boxes of flowers that she collects from her garden and other local sources.
	Fall Impressions: A Natural Dye and Eco Print Workshop With Shelly Spriggs (Regional Parks) and Laguna Foundation staff Saturday, September 21, 9:00am - 2:00pm $20. Pre-registration required. You don’t have to be a painter or sculptor to learn to capture the colors and shapes of nature! Enter eco printing, which combines natural history, creativity and fun by using local leaves, fruits and flowers to create unique textile impressions on silk. Regional Parks’ naturalist Shelly Spriggs will bring samples of eco-printed scarves and give a step-by-step demonstration. We will harvest a small amount of leaves, petals, and other foliage from the Laguna Environmental Center’s native plant landscape and grandmother’s garden around the old farmhouse. We’ll learn how to arrange the collected plant materials on the silk, then fold, bundle and steam them in a pot of water which persuades the plants to transfer their image to the fabric with surprising color. While the prints are setting, we will take a 1-2 mile easy-paced walk along Irwin Creek to the Laguna on mostly flat but uneven terrain, if weather allows. All workshop materials are provided. Bring a picnic lunch. This workshop and outing will take place rain or shine and is made possible through a partnership with the Laguna Foundation and Sonoma County Regional Parks. Shelly Spriggs is a Sonoma County native – born and raised in the small town of Graton. Shelly leads a variety of guided outings throughout the county sharing her fascination, enthusiasm and extensive ecological knowledge with audiences of all ages. An eternal student of nature, avid wildlife tracker, experienced environmental educator and certified California Master Naturalist, she is also an integral player in the Laguna Foundation's wildlife camera project.
	Natural Remedies Workshop With Amy Charnay, MS, CNS Sunday, September 22, 10:00am - 1:00pm $65. Pre-registration required. Using botanicals to create medicinal syrups, tinctures, and teas is a timeless craft combining art, science and nature. In addition to being loads of fun, there is the added benefit of boosting your immune and other body systems just in time for the arrival of fall and winter! In this workshop, we will make several take-home natural remedies including elderberry syrup, an herbal tincture, and loose-leaf teas to stock your natural medicine cabinet. Expert medicine-maker and clinical herbalist Amy Charnay will share her wealth of knowledge as she guides us through the step-by-step procedure from plant identification, harvesting, proper drying techniques to processing & preserving these beloved plant allies. Nurture your connection to the seasons, the land, and yourself through a hands-on practice you can continue the rest of your life. Amy Charnay, MS, CNS hails from upstate New York and holds Bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Science & Latin American Studies and a Master’s of Science in Herbal Medicine. She has worked as an Herbalist, Board Certified Nutrition Specialist, and Yoga & Mindfulness Instructor for more than 15 years. Amy holds an international certification in Aromatherapy and is a FDA trained botanical microscopist with extensive experience in the herbal manufacturing industry as a formulator and quality control specialist. Amy teaches in the Herbal Medicine Masters of Science program at the Maryland University of Integrative Health and at the California School of Herbal Studies. She is passionate about applying her skills as a permaculturist and Sonoma County Master Gardener on her urban farm in Santa Rosa called ‘Herban Allies’. She views the human body as a complex and deeply interconnected ecosystem and maintains a private practice in Santa Rosa, CA.
	Wild Lives of Wildlife: A Wildlife Camera Workshop with Shelly Spriggs Saturday, September 28, 9:00am - 12:30pm $35. Pre-registration required. Do you ever wonder about the wildlife living near you? What are they up to when we aren’t around? Take a peek inside the wild lives of wildlife in this motion-activated trail camera workshop led by local naturalist Shelly Spriggs. Learn how these cameras work, helpful tips & tricks for setting them up and things to consider for choosing a successful location. In this hands-on guided walk, we will explore a recently completed restoration site along Irwin Creek covering approximately 1-2 miles at an easy-pace over mostly flat but uneven terrain. Participants will have the opportunity to work in small groups to set-up a wildlife camera on-site and receive an email of images captured by their camera. Shelly Spriggs is a Sonoma County native – born and raised in the small town of Graton. Shelly leads a variety of guided outings throughout the county sharing her fascination, enthusiasm and extensive ecological knowledge with audiences of all ages. An eternal student of nature, avid wildlife tracker, experienced environmental educator and certified California Master Naturalist, she is also an integral player in the Laguna Foundation's wildlife camera project, monitoring & documenting wildlife within the Laguna de Santa Rosa.

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October

	Birding Across the Watershed Special Event with Pepperwood Preserve Saturday, October 19, 8:30am - 3:30pm Starting Location: Laguna Environmental Center, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 Ending Location: Pepperwood Preserve, 2130 Pepperwood Preserve Rd, Santa Rosa, CA 95404 $50. Pre-registration required. Ages 13 and up welcome. Join Pepperwood Preserve and Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation staff and naturalists for a day of birding from the wetlands to the headwaters. We will look for a variety of year-round resident birds, the first migrants passing through, and those arriving to stay for the winter. We will start the day at Laguna de Santa Rosa – heading first to Santa Rosa Creek and then on to Delta Pond. As we explore these two water features we will keep our eyes and ears open for Nuttall’s Woodpeckers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Great Egrets, and American White Pelicans as well as many other riparian and waterbird species. After lunch we will reconvene in the Mayacamas Mountains to explore the birds of Pepperwood’s oak woodland and grassland habitats. Here we will be on the lookout for Oak Titmice, Northern Harriers, Say’s Phoebes, and Meadowlarks. Expect a wonderfully robust species list as a result of this big day of birding!
	Hoot ‘n Howl: Night Critters of the Laguna Saturday, October 26, 6:00pm - 8:30pm $15 for individuals, $20 for one parent with up to two kids, or $35 for families of four. Pre-registration required -Opening soon! Bats, owls and spiders, oh my! Bring familiar Halloween creatures to life during this fun, family-friendly evening at the Laguna Environmental Center on historic Stone Farm. The Laguna is home to a variety of animals we see frequently during the day, but who comes out when the sun goes down? We will take a short walk around the grounds, poking our heads in to the ol’ Hop Barn to look for barn owls, listen for high-pitched bat calls, examine different spider webs, and use a UV light to attract wandering moths. After exploring outside, we will go inside to dissect owl pellets and create some simple take-home Halloween crafts to decorate your doorstep for the trick-or-treaters later in the week. Join our Community Education Program Manager, Allison Titus, and our wonderful Laguna guides for this light hearted celebration of all things nocturnal.

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November

	Coiled Rush Basket Workshop with Charlie Kennard Sunday, November 2, 9:30am - 3:30pm $100. Pre-registration required. Enjoy a delightful day full of hands-on learning in Heron Hall and around the peaceful Laguna Environmental Center grounds with master weaver, Charlie Kennard. We will use rush (Juncus), a common wetland plant, as the foundation for the beginning of a small bowl-shaped basket. As binder, we will use peeled willow, another often-seen riparian plant around Sonoma County, grown and prepared by Charlie himself. Participants will also have the opportunity to practice splitting and trimming willow shoots. All basket-making materials are included in the registration fee. Participants must bring a water bowl, sharp pocket knife, very small diagonal wire clippers, and lunch. Hot drinks and snacks are provided throughout the day. This workshop is suitable for adults and teenagers. Charlie Kennard of San Anselmo is a long-time basket weaver and student of California Indian and other traditional basketry techniques of the world. He teaches throughout the Bay Area, and in many schools and at teacher trainings. Tule boats made in his workshops can be seen at the California Academy of Sciences, the Bay Model in Sausalito, and in the collection of the Lake County Museum. You can also visit a basketry plant garden Charlie has created at the Marin Art and Garden Center in Ross, where he and friends have woven a basket 13 feet across. Charlie is active in native habitat restoration in Marin, managing several projects for Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed.
	Holiday Soap Making Workshop With Kelly Smith Saturday, November 23, 10:00am - 12:30pm $40. Pre-registration required - Opening soon! Learn a fun and useful new skill just in time for making unique homemade gifts for the holidays! If you’re new to cold process soap making, it can seem a bit overwhelming even with all of the online resources available; sometimes they make it even more confusing. From the chemistry of soap making, formulating recipes based on your own needs (such as dry skin), and breaking down the step-by step process, this hands-on class leaves no soap making secrets untold. Taught by veteran soap maker Kelly Smith of Rubber Ducky Soap, this workshop is designed to help you feel confident making bars of soap in your own kitchen, in addition to sending you home with two batches of soap made with additives and scents agreed upon during the class. Kelly Smith was drawn to soap making after a friend gave her a bar of soap they had made when she was in her mid 20’s. Once she tried the handmade bar, she was driven to learn how to make soap herself, having been plagued by dry skin her entire life. After a few failed attempts, Kelly finally figured out how to make soap like the one she was given. By then, she was hooked and decided she would start a home-based business selling soap at local farmers’ markets and craft fairs. Kelly now operates 11 markets in Sonoma and Marin Counties and has turned passion for making cold process soap into a successful hobby business.

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Also on tap, coming up ... Stay tuned for details!

• Much, much more!!!

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Cancellation Policy

If you are registered for an event and need to cancel, please notify us as soon as possible so that others may attend. Cancellations received more than 30 days in advance of the event date will receive a refund minus a $10.00 processing fee. Cancellations made between 30-7 days in advance will receive a 50% refund. We are sorry but refunds cannot be given on cancellations made less than 7 days in advance. Please also note that we often need a minimum number of participants to conduct most events. If the Laguna Foundation needs to cancel the event for any reason, we will notify you as soon as possible (at least 1 day prior to the event) and you will receive a full refund.

Non-Refundable Fee

Events that cost $20 and less are non-refundable (except in case of our cancelling for inclement weather or other extenuating circumstances, in which case we will issue full refunds). This is due to administrative costs and significant processing fees associated with online registration services such as Eventbrite. Thank you for your understanding and for your interest and support of our programs!

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For more information, contact Allison Titus, Community Education Program Manager
(707) 527-9277 xt. 110 or by email at Allison@LagunaFoundation.org.

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