Education Department Santa Barbara Botanic Garden

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Education Department Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Education Department Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Outline of Topics for a General Tour revised winter 2015 Mission Statement The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden fosters the conservation of California's native plants through our gardens, education, and research, and serves as a role model of sustainable practices. Vision Statement The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden envisions a world in which society understands the interdependency between people and plants and acts to preserve the natural world. Introduction Garden docents become familiar with twelve principal topics, in addition to Garden Basics. Several topics together might serve as background material for a well-rounded Garden walk. We encourage docents to develop their own tour, in their own individual style. The Education Department is available to support the docents and other education volunteers in developing new ways to engage visitors of all ages. Plants have stories to tell that can inspire our visitors to care about California’s native plants. Garden tours rely on knowledge of individual plant species to illustrate the topics and to evoke our mission. Good plant stories inspire visitors to feel a sense of stewardship for the natural world we all share and the critical role native plants play in our survival. A good rule of thumb is to be prepared to discuss three plants for each topic that you select. Learn three plants for each topic to begin with, then add to the foundation you’ve built. To help you, in addition to our monthly meetings, we offer supplemental trainings, field trips, and discounts on classes. Many of our docents have been studying native plants for years, and are happy to share their knowledge. For each topic in this guide, we provide examples of plants you might choose to show people on walks. It is also effective to carry natural items such as pinecones, seeds and fruits, leaves, and other plant materials with you on tours; many docents carry a personalized bag of ‘props’. The Education Department can supply props, or you can pick them up on the trails as you go. A hand lens can be useful for examining small flower parts, leaf surfaces, or insects. We can also supply field guides and even a small field microscope that can be checked out. The Education Department also maintains a circulating library for Education Department volunteers. The nature of your walk will be determined by a combination of your individual style and the level of interest of your audience. Remain adaptable and sensitive to your audience’s engagement. Draw on what you learn in docent training, California Naturalist and other classes, conversations with horticulturalists and botanists, and personal observation in developing your own ‘package’ of tours. Contents Garden Tour Basics Topic #1 California Native Plants Topic #2 Biodiversity Topic #3 Plant Communities Topic #4 Plant Adaptation Topic #5 Fire in the Garden Topic #6 Conservation Topic #7 Geology Topic #8 Native Plant Horticulture Topic #9 Mission Dam Topic #10 Chumash Uses of Plants Topic #11 Teahouse Topic #12 Garden History Many thanks are due to the docents, staff, and friends who contributed to this draft of a revised docent guide to topics. Cathy Rose took the lead, providing four topics and a lot of editorial help with the guide as a whole. Thanks also to Rick Zelazny, Susie Bartz, Karin Hodin, Bill Lewis, Diana Kennet, the Chumash Uses committee, Karen Oslund, Susan Davidson, Alice Esbenshade. In addition to the twelve topics in this guide, other topics will be added in future revisions. If you would like to contribute a topic, or add to an existing topic, please contact the Education Department. We highly encourage docents to assist in the development of our interpretative guides, training, and other programs. A Naturalist’s Guide to the Santa Barbara Region by Joan Lentz is recommended as a wonderful overview of natural history in the Santa Barbara region. NOTE: Any passages in grey are supplemental material that may be useful to docents but are not necessary to include on a public tour. 2 Garden Tour Basics -Introduce yourself, and welcome tour participants -Ask participants to introduce themselves and say where they are from -Share the following facts, which you may incorporate into parts of your tour: The Garden . o is dedicated to the conservation of California's native flora o is a private, non-profit scientific and educational institution. o relies largely on memberships, donations, and grants for support. o was established in 1926 by Anna Dorinda Blaksley Bliss, who wished to preserve this special place for all to enjoy. o has 78 acres of land and several miles of trails. o is a living museum collection that preserves plant biodiversity. o grows display gardens of California natives to inspire to stewardship. o provides a broad diversity of educational programs in the areas of conservation, plant science, horticulture and sustainable landscape practices, and natural history. o offers local field trips and travel, botanical arts and letters, family programs and special events. o participates in restoration of degraded wild landscapes. o specializes in the California Channel Islands and island biogeography. o conducts research on the flora of California and related floras of the world. 70% of the Garden was burned or scorched in the Jesusita fire in May, 2009. Mention current changes that are happening in the Garden, such as garden renovations, progress in the Meadow, and construction. -At the end of the tour tell them about areas of the Garden you have not visited on the tour, and orient visitors on the map. point people to the Garden Shop and Nursery Thank them for joining us and wish them a good visit in the Garden! 3 Topic #1 California Native Plants A California native plant is one that was present in California prior to the immigration of European settlers, and grows in the wild without cultivation in California. Examples of native plants: Manzanita (Arctostaphylos spp.), California Sycamore (Platanus racemosa), Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia), and Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium bellum). Examples of non-native plants: "California" Pepper Tree (Schinus molle), a native of Peru; Eucalyptus sp., native to Australia; Common Oleander (Nerium oleander), native to the Mediterranean; and Sweet Alyssum (Lobularia maritima), native to Europe. Although many trees, shrubs, and flowers from all over the world thrive in Santa Barbara only California native plants are we grown in the Garden. There are almost 5000 species (the exact number in the 2013 Jepson Manual is 4976) of native plants in California. More than a quarter of the 17,000 native plants in the United States are found in California. There are many threats to California native plants. Many organizations such as the California Native Plant Society and the Southern California Botanists are working to address these threats: population growth and development habitat loss and habitat fragmentation invasive species pollution of land, air, and water climate change (dry lands become drier, bringing fire and pests) wind and solar projects, especially in the desert There are 35 designated ‘biodiversity hotspots’ in the world, a designation developed by UNESCO. The California Floristic Province is one of three in the United States. The others in the U.S. are Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and pine oak woodlands of New Mexico and Arizona. Hotspots refer to regions with a high degree of endemism (plants that grow no where else in the world) accompanied by much habitat loss. Those areas are especially deserving of protection. Topic #2 Biodiversity We use the expression "species diversity" or “biodiversity” to describe the richness of species – the number of species in a given area. There is a complex interdependence between all species of living organisms, and the plants and animals that depend on them. All animal life on the planet depends on plants, either directly or indirectly, for survival. Loss of a single species can have effects that ripple through an entire ecosystem. Species of plants are gathered into groups called genera (singular, genus), and related genera are grouped into families. A species may be defined as a group of related plants that closely resemble one another and breed only with each other or, if they hybridize, the offspring of the hybrids are not fertile. Since reproduction between individual species results in fertile offspring, the species are said to "share the same gene pool." 4 To illustrate the reasons for the remarkable diversity of plants in California, go to the kiosk as you begin your walk, and point out the different areas on the California map. The great diversity of plants native to California depends on five key factors. 1. Elevational Range. Climate, particularly temperature and rainfall, vary with elevation. Generally rainfall increases with elevation while temperature decreases. The elevational range in California extends from -282' at Badwater in Death Valley to 14,495' on the top of Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevada. 2. Latitude. California covers over 1000 miles from north to south. California's northern border with Oregon is roughly at the same latitude as Boston, Massachusetts. California's southern border with Mexico is roughly the same latitude as Savannah, Georgia. Vegetation varies from north to south. 3. Geology. There is great diversity of rock and soil types in California including Sierra Nevada granites, Cascades volcanics, Klamath region metamorphics, and the sedimentary and serpentine rocks of the Santa Barbara area. 95% of the rock in the Santa Barbara region is sedimentary. The mineral composition of these different California rocks and soils affects the plant life of any given area. 4. Mediterranean Climate. Santa Barbara has a Mediterranean climate, named for the similar climate of the European Mediterranean region, with mild rainy winters and warm dry summers.
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