Community Events 2019

May | June | July | August | September

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May

	Taking Great Photos with Your iPhone/Smartphone Workshop with Susan and Neil Silverman Saturday, May 18, 9:00 am-4:00 pm Laguna Environmental Center, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 $105. Pre-registration required. What inspires you to take a picture? Is it natural beauty; a bizarre moment; a quirky expression; an adorable child; your dog at the beach? No matter what sparks your motivation to “click”, your photographs represent what is significant in your life. The best camera to capture those moments is the one you have with you. These days that is most likely your phone! Come spend time in a fun and inspirational environment to improve your vision and learn techniques that will elevate the quality of your images. We will spend time indoors and outside learning about working with natural light, depth of field, achieving sharp images that will print beautifully, macro, detail and landscape photography, HDR, panos, filters, action, burst mode, selfies and editing in the phone. After practicing with our phones or tablets (iPads, iPhones or Android devices) we will return to Heron Hall to review, share and discuss. Susan and Neil Silverman are a husband-wife team who have taught and photographed together for over twenty years. Their passion behind the lens is transmitted not only through their images, but to their students as well. They have been leading their own workshops for over ten years and taught for Great American Photography Workshops for ten years; have taught for Better Photo.com, Santa Fe School, PPA affiliates, PPC, B&H Photo, Pacific North West Art School, Gualala Art Center, Santa Rosa Junior College, and many more. Although they are well versed in Photoshop and Lightroom, they believe in getting the image in the camera. They love teaching and watching their students have that “Aha” moment of learning how to capture a wonderful photo. They forever seek "the Image, the Light, and the Moment" through their camera lens and their life experiences. Photography is fun, exciting and an ever-changing environment and they work hard to keep their finger on the pulse of the beat of the times. A photo can be good or great; and they believe in putting the "extra" in front of ordinary. Visit their website.
	NEW Heron Hall Art Exhibit Opening Reception “Into The Fold” Oil and Acrylic Paintings by Angela Zocco Sturr Sunday, May 19, 3:00 pm-5:00 pm Laguna Environmental Center, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 FREE. No RSVP required. Artist Statement: The title of my show, "Into the Fold", refers to how my experience of training and becoming a Laguna docent has broadened my awareness of both the natural and cultural richness that is the Laguna de Santa Rosa. I am deeply grateful to have been welcomed into a community so committed to teaching and building a healthier environment for future generations. This art show is a celebration of the work that the outdoor education program called Learning Laguna is about. Learning Laguna docent volunteers lead students to explore the Laguna's water cycle, plant and animal adaptations, aquatic life, and bird migration through classroom and field activities 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.

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June

	Wild Lives of Wildlife: A Wildlife Camera Workshop with Shelly Spriggs Saturday, June 15, 9:00 am-12:30 pm Laguna Environmental Center, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 $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 after the workshop of images their camera captures. 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.
	Bird Courtship and Breeding Strategies Bird Walk with Lisa Hug Sunday, June 16, 2019, 8:30 am-1:00 pm Starting Location: Laguna Environmental Center, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 $55. Pre-registration required. June is the month when fledglings appear throughout the wetlands of the Laguna. Often the male parent will take on feeding and protective responsibilities for the youngsters, who are just getting their webbed feet wet, or downy wings in the air. What better way to celebrate Father's Day weekend than to watch the entertaining Double-crested Cormorants perform their parenting duties? We will look and listen for other birds, including colorful orioles and grosbeaks, on the way to the rookery, where we will spend some extra time observing the cormorants nesting behavior. This driving and walking tour with local birder and naturalist Lisa Hug will start at the Laguna Environmental Center (LEC) before carpooling out to Delta Pond, an area that is ordinarily closed to the public. At the end, we will return to the LEC to enjoy our packed lunches and create a list of birds encountered throughout the day. Lisa Hug originally came to California from the Midwest in 1986. She was very involved with Point Reyes Bird Observatory and eventually became a contract biologist and freelance naturalist in the mid-1990s. She has been teaching for the College of Marin, Petaluma Adult School and Point Reyes Field Institute for over a decade. She was president of Redwood Region Ornithological Society for two years and received the Martha Bentley and Ernestine Smith Award For the Dedication to Wildlife Conservation Education in 2009. She was regional coordinator for the Sonoma County Breeding Bird Atlas and is currently one of the Sonoma County Reviewers for ebird.org . She is the editor for the Birds Checklist for the Laguna de Santa Rosa which can be bought through the Laguna Foundation Store.
	Nature Journaling at the Laguna with Marley Peifer Workshop and field trip with Laguna Foundation and LandPaths Saturday, June 22 1:00pm - 5:00pm Beginning location: Laguna Environmental Center, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 FREE. Pre-registration required with LandPaths. **Location: Kelly Ponds/Kelly Farm 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, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm Laguna Environmental Center, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 $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 Glusenkamp, Executive Director of the California Native Plant Society Thursday, July 18, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm Laguna Environmental Center, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 $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 State of Water: Understanding California’s Most Precious Resource Presentation and book-signing by Obi Kaufmann Thursday, August 29, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm Laguna Environmental Center, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 $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, 9:30 am - 3:30 pm Laguna Environmental Center, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 $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

	Fresh Pressed Flowers Workshop with Jan Lochner Sunday, September 15, 2019, 1:00pm-4:00pm Laguna Environmental Center, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 $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 Laguna Environmental Center, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 $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.

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October

Stay tuned!

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November

	Coiled Rush Basket Workshop with Charlie Kennard Sunday, November 2, 9:30 am - 3:30 pm Laguna Environmental Center, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 $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.

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

• June 4 – A State of Change: Presentation and Book Signing with Laura Cunningham
• September 21 – Fall Impressions: A Natural Dye and Eco Print Workshop
• And 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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