Calendar of Events

Dig into Nature with us! Register below to attend virtual, on-campus and on-preserve events. Watch recordings under "Past Events." For questions, contact Kerry Wininger. Let’s learn new skills and deepen our understanding of the earth together!

  • Building Resilience - Discussions to foster climate resilience collaboration
  • Deep Dives - Live and recorded lectures and panels with experts
  • Learn with a Naturalist - Informal chats and fun outdoors
  • Live from the Field - Conversations with field station researchers worldwide
  • Local Nature - Live presentations with nature explorations close to home
  • Naturalist Ed Series (At Osborn Preserve) - Hikes with local experts & a learning community of naturalist educators

Monday, October 14, 2024

tanoak acorn in tree and Pomo woman's face

The Blessed Acorn

10:00am to 12:00pm
Galbreath Wildlands Preserve

Acorns are a traditional food source for indigenous people throughout the United States. Historically they have provided up to 40 percent of sustenance for Pomo people, as a rich source of protein and fats. In the North Bay, the most highly prized acorn comes from the tanoak tree, or chishkale, the Pomo word for tanoak. This member of the beech family is not a true oak, but a cousin whose acorn comes adorned with a furry, showy hat said to be the envy of the other oaks with their flat or vaguely bumpy caps. On this adventure we will harvest tanoak acorns, learning about their value, traditions around them and how to select the best acorns, care for and prepare them for eating.

tanoak acorn in tree and Pomo woman's face

The Blessed Acorn

1:00pm to 3:00pm
Galbreath Wildlands Preserve

Acorns are a traditional food source for indigenous people throughout the United States. Historically they have provided up to 40 percent of sustenance for Pomo people, as a rich source of protein and fats. In the North Bay, the most highly prized acorn comes from the tanoak tree, or chishkale, the Pomo word for tanoak. This member of the beech family is not a true oak, but a cousin whose acorn comes adorned with a furry, showy hat said to be the envy of the other oaks with their flat or vaguely bumpy caps. On this adventure we will harvest tanoak acorns, learning about their value, traditions around them and how to select the best acorns, care for and prepare them for eating.

Saturday, October 19, 2024

a group of hikers watch a sunset

Natural History Hikes

10:00am to 2:00pm
Fairfield Osborn Preserve

University students and community docents will be your guide. Our guides are trained in natural history of the mountain and interpretation of preserve programs. They will lead you on one of many trails into this 450-acre preserve on the shoulder of Sonoma Mountain. Hike options include visits to the headwaters of Copeland Creek and spectacular vistas of the Santa Rosa Valley and Valley of the Moon.

Saturday, October 26, 2024

a group of hikers watch a sunset

Natural History Hikes

10:00am to 2:00pm
Fairfield Osborn Preserve

University students and community docents will be your guide. Our guides are trained in natural history of the mountain and interpretation of preserve programs. They will lead you on one of many trails into this 450-acre preserve on the shoulder of Sonoma Mountain. Hike options include visits to the headwaters of Copeland Creek and spectacular vistas of the Santa Rosa Valley and Valley of the Moon.

Saturday, November 2, 2024

a group of hikers watch a sunset

Natural History Hikes

10:00am to 2:00pm
Fairfield Osborn Preserve

University students and community docents will be your guide. Our guides are trained in natural history of the mountain and interpretation of preserve programs. They will lead you on one of many trails into this 450-acre preserve on the shoulder of Sonoma Mountain. Hike options include visits to the headwaters of Copeland Creek and spectacular vistas of the Santa Rosa Valley and Valley of the Moon.

Monday, November 4, 2024

woman in winter clothes measuring a tree

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Trees Responding to a Changing Climate

12:00pm to 1:00pm
Online

While California's native grasslands tend to be more reliable carbon sinks than our woods, the forests of the northeastern United States are one of the fastest-growing terrestrial carbon sinks globally, attributed to historical declines in large-scale agriculture, timber harvesting and fire disturbance. However, climate-induced tree migration is altering forest community composition and carbon dynamics. An investigation into tree physiological responses to temperature across resident and migrant trees in a northeastern US forest revealed evidence suggesting that resident trees may have a physiological disadvantage compared with their migrant counterparts. Compounded with this result, an array of ecological disturbances further threatens the dominance of resident species, resulting in species replacement that may reduce the carbon storage potential of northeastern US forests.

Saturday, November 9, 2024

a group of hikers watch a sunset

Natural History Hikes

10:00am to 2:00pm
Fairfield Osborn Preserve

University students and community docents will be your guide. Our guides are trained in natural history of the mountain and interpretation of preserve programs. They will lead you on one of many trails into this 450-acre preserve on the shoulder of Sonoma Mountain. Hike options include visits to the headwaters of Copeland Creek and spectacular vistas of the Santa Rosa Valley and Valley of the Moon.

students in front of a rocky wall outside

Osborn Geology Walk

2:00pm to 5:00pm
Fairfield Osborn Preserve

Sonoma Mountain is a part of a tectonic boundary we call The San Andreas. Deep Earth forces have uplifted the mountains & valleys of Sonoma County out of the ocean over millions of years, caused volcanic eruptions, and created topography at the intersection of countless faults. The land exists in its current form because of earthquakes, streams, landslides, fires, and human influence. Join Nicole Myers, lecturer at Sonoma State University, for a journey through geologic time and history in Sonoma County. We will observe how geology and climate have created the landscape features of Fairfield Osborn Preserve.

Saturday, November 16, 2024

a group of hikers watch a sunset

Natural History Hikes

10:00am to 2:00pm
Fairfield Osborn Preserve

University students and community docents will be your guide. Our guides are trained in natural history of the mountain and interpretation of preserve programs. They will lead you on one of many trails into this 450-acre preserve on the shoulder of Sonoma Mountain. Hike options include visits to the headwaters of Copeland Creek and spectacular vistas of the Santa Rosa Valley and Valley of the Moon.

Friday, November 22, 2024

a man and woman sit in nature writing in a notebook

Representation, Reason and Rewilding: A lecture & workshop with Obi Kaufmann and the editors of Zaum Magazine

4:00pm to 7:00pm
Fairfield Osborn Preserve

How does creativity help us gain geographic literacy? In this 2.5 hour workshop, the staff of Zaum magazine invites you to explore this question. We will begin with a 45-minute lecture by poet, naturalist, and best-selling author of the California Field Atlas, Obi Kaufmann. Following Obi’s lecture, attendees venture out on a nature walk at dusk to gather inspiration before returning to the field station’s classroom to draft a creative record of the Fairfield-Osborn Preserve of their very own! 

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