Conservation

CVAS is committed to helping promote the conservation of our natural habitats. In this section, you’ll find tips and tricks from our Conservation Chair on how to reduce your impact on the environment, utilize native plants, and attract more of our avian friends to your environmentally friendly yard.

Our latest newsletter articles about conservation:

  • Doug Tallamy: How Gardening with Native Plants Helps Wildlife, CA Focus
    Renowned ecologist and entomologist Doug Tallamy explains why native plants are critical to sustaining wildlife and how home gardeners can halt extinction and species loss when they choose native plants, particularly caterpillar host plants. Tallamy was the keynote speaker of the 2020 online Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, featuring California native plant gardens in the San Francisco East Bay, CA. http://www.bringingbackthenatives.net (Please allow a few moments for the video to load below)
  • Perfect Habitat
    Recently I was in Anaconda, Montana visiting friends. I love the mountains in Montana and birding there is a treat. An eBird list from Anaconda had shown an American Dipper close to where I was, and considering how difficult it is to see our local Dipper, I decided to look for it. The location was a small city park with a perfect fast moving shallow stream running through it, so I followed the stream for … Read more
  • If We Build It, They Will Come
    Any baseball fan and movie lover knows that this is a “sorta” quote from “Field of Dreams” (the actual quote is, “If you build it, he will come.”). In this case the “they” are the mountain lions of the Santa Monica Mountains. In my email inbox the other morning was an exciting message from the National Wildlife Federation announcing “the California Wildlife Conservation Board recently approved a $20 million grant to the wildlife crossing at … Read more
  • Blowin’ in the Wind
    I recently passed the local elementary school which was celebrating the return of the students to the campus. That’s a very exciting thing for these students who have had to learn under more than difficult circumstances these past 18 months. The campus was festive-looking with at least 50 mylar balloons and as many, if not more, latex balloons. As much as I enjoy a good party with lots of decorations, balloons cause me angst. While … Read more
  • What Can I Do?
    Every day we read about the state of this Planet, our Island Home, and what we are doing to bring Mother Nature to her knees. It’s not easy to stay positive when we learn that three billion birds have been lost since 1970, that climate change is threatening the polar bears of the Arctic regions, and that the humans of these same areas are seeing their lives and livelihoods threatened almost to the point of … Read more