Past Events
Field Trip: Samoa Dunes and Wetlands Day Hike
Contact: Carol
This newest addition to conservation lands around Humboldt Bay offers scenic dunes, wet dune hollows, tangled willow thickets, sheltering pine forest, and an elfin Douglas-fir stand. Besides absorbing the generally magnificent feel of the area, our goals will be 1)to enjoy the diversity of bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) and 2) to find the patch of Hairy Manzanita and see if it is blooming. We will walk about 3 miles, much on sand.
Field Trip: Sue-meg State Park Day Hike
Contact: Carol
The spruce forest, coastal bluffs, coastal meadow, and rocky outcrops of Patrick's Point State Park always have some surprise among the diverse plants there. Is the grape fern still on the steps on Ceremonial Rock? Has the Tracy's Mistmaiden been awakened by fall rains? We will walk 2-4 miles on park trails.
Burned Forest Day Trip.
Contact: Carol
Many of us read about the fires that burned great swaths of California's forests, but have yet to experience it. The Knob Fire on the southeast of Willow Creek created a nearby (to the coast) place to see the aftermath of a wildfire. We will drive up Friday Ridge Rd. from Highway 299., east of Willow Creek and just before the bridge over the South Fork Trinity River, stopping for short walks where appropriate. We will see the ashes, the black snags, the sprouting shrubs, the unburned patches, and surely surprises.
Horse Mountain Day Hike
Contact: Carol
We saw Horse Mountain in Six Rivers National Forest in early spring. Let's see it in early fall. Indian Butte Rd. has both serpentine and "normal" soils, rocky outcrops, and in normal years a seep and wet ditch. Manzanitas, ceanothuses, conifers, and succulents are guaranteed. We will make a loop trail by returning via the old ski slope up to the radio towers on the summit.
Fall Native Plant Sale
Participating native plant growers for this sale were: Samara Restoration, Lost Foods, Mattole Restoration Council, Beresford Bulbs, Brants Plants and Bob Vogt.
Inventory ListOcean Ranch Day Hike
Contact: Carol
Even at the end of a droughty summer the wetlands in the Eel River estuary will have water and lush plants. We will walk 2-4 miles in Calif. Dept. of Fish and Wildlife's Ocean Ranch Unit and Table Bluff County Park, finding pasture, dune, and wetland plants. We might add a visit to the South Spit. See Hike 51 in Hiking Humboldt vol. 2.
Groves Prairie Day Hike
Contact: Carol
Unusual in our rugged mountains, Groves Prairie is a fairly level meadow, at 4,000 ft elevation, with a creek and surrounded by Douglas-fir forest, some of it old growth. It is time to see how it has survived the five years since our last visit. Will the Grape Fern be in the meadow, the Kneeling Angelica in the stream, the two species of yampah in the wet meadow, the Trillium-leaved Sorrel by the little bridge? Will the four species of gooseberries and currants have fruits? We will walk one to two miles in and around the meadow to answer these questions, some of it on a trail (unless it is overgrown). Groves Prairie is two hours away in Six Rivers National Forest, up Forest Service roads north out of Willow Creek. Dress for the weather (Remember, it is higher elevation) and off-trail walking; bring lunch and water. Camping Saturday night at the primitive Forest Service campground could be an option. Forest fires might disrupt this plan.
Volunteer Appreciation Party
Where: Humboldt Coastal Nature Center
Hosts: Friends of the Dunes
On a beautiful summer evening and in between mask ordinances, volunteers were able to gather to celebrate a year of challenging but successful volunteer work. A few members were gifted handmade gardening aprons. The volunteer event included fun refreshments, volunteer awards and concluded with a beautiful stroll in the dunes.
Spring 2021 Wildflower Show
The Spring 2021 Wildflower Show is viewable here!
December 2020 Holiday Interlude
To celebrate the holiday season, the state CNPS recently launched a fun competition called “Wreathmasters.” 3 of our local members took up the challenge and foraged in the redwood forest around the property of one of those members to collect materials. The rules require at least 51% native plants collected on private property. See their 100% native wreaths below! See more at https://www.cnps.org/wreathmasters.
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redwood, salal, snowberry, inside-out flower leaves, rose hips, sword fern, Sitka spruce, mushrooms, hypogymnia sp., moss, usnea sp. |
cedar, redwood, snowberry, mushrooms, hypogymnia sp., rose hips, moss, red alder cones and catkins, moss, usnea sp. |
salal, bracken, sword fern, usnea sp., coyote brush, rose hips, evergreen huckleberry, wax myrtle, douglas fir, oak, mushrooms |
Anita's wreath
Barbara's wreath
Sharon's wreathSpring 2020 Wildflower Show
The Spring 2020 Wildflower Show was cancelled due to Covid.
However, the Virtual Spring 2020 Wildflower Show is viewable here!
Previous Archived Years:
2014
2012
2011
2005
2004
Activities