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Free Lecture and Book-Signing with Tom Parker. Co-sponsored by Solvang Library. Saturday, February 27, 7:00 p.m. Santa Ynez Valley Grange #644. 2374 Alamo Pintado Ave. Los Olivos, CA. The California Floristic Province (CFP) is the center of diversity for manzanitas (Arctostaphylos species, Ericaceae). The CFP contains 104 of 105 species known worldwide.  Manzanitas are the “rock stars” of woody plant …

Field trip with Larry Ballard. Saturday, March 12, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Participation is limited to 25. Advance registration required at synature@west.net or 693-5683. Members free/nonmembers $20. The Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes National Wildlife Refuge lies within the largest coastal dune system in California. The hike takes us through dune scrub, a shrub-dominated habitat that includes dune specialist plants along with …

Field trip with Liz Gaspar. Sunday, March 20, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Participation is limited to 20. Advance registration required at synature@west.net or 693-5683. Members free/nonmembers $20. As we go to press, the rains have just begun in earnest, and we can’t predict where the best wildflowers will be in late March. It may be along the Manzana Creek, …

Help pull thistles at beautiful Burton Mesa Ecological Reserve. Saturday April 16, 2016. 9:00-noon with optional after-lunch walk. Join the SYVNHS for a morning of weed abatement followed by a short trek into the beautiful Burton Mesa Ecological Reserve.  Tim Matthews, SYVNHS board member, will lead us in removing noxious Milk Thistle, Silybum marianum, and Italian Thistle, Carduus pycnocephalus, that …

Field trip with Denis Kearns. TRIP CANCELLED DUE TO RAIN: See note below. Saturday, April 9, 9:00 a.m. to about 4:00 p.m. Participation is limited to 25. Advance registration required at synature@west.net or 693-5683. Members free/non-members $20. Note as of 8 April 2016: We are very sorry to have to cancel the Santa Ynez Valley Natural History Society field trip …

Free evening event. Saturday, April 23, 7:00 p.m. Tipton Meeting House. UC Sedgwick Reserve. 3566 Brinkerhoff Avenue, Santa Ynez. The Santa Ynez Valley Natural History Society and UC Sedgwick Reserve are pleased to host a poetry reading in honor of Earth Day with former Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara Paul Willis. The human relationship to the natural world and wild …

Field trip to Burton Mesa Ecological Reserve with Tim Matthews and Christine Thompson. Sunday, May 1, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Participation is limited to 20. Advance registration required at synature@west.net or 693-5683. Members free/nonmembers free. This trip will explore plants and birds of the unique ecosystem protected by Burton Mesa Ecological Reserve (BMER), and will include an account of …

Field trip with Chris Ryan Friday, July 15, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Participation is limited to 25. Advance registration required at synature@west.net or 693-5683. Members free/nonmembers free. South Vandenberg Air Force Base offers spectacular views of the Channel Islands and seldom-seen natural history displays. The base archeologist, Chris Ryan, will host our group to see the flora of Tranquillon …

Field Trip led by Larry Ballard. Reported by Larry Ballard and Len Fleckenstein. Photos and captions by John Evarts. THE DUNES OVERVIEW by Larry Ballard The Guadalupe dune sheet extends from Oso Flaco south to the Santa Maria River. It lies entirely on the Santa Maria River floodplain and represents two aeolian (wind-blown) Holocene dune-building episodes. The active dunes date from the present-day to about 2,000 …