Dear Friends of the Eastern Sierra Land Trust, We wanted to take a moment to address an important action that we recently undertook at our office on Fowler Street in Bishop. As part of our ongoing commitment to preserving the integrity of our region’s ecosystems, we made the difficult but necessary decision to remove seven large Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) trees from the landscape. The Tree of Heaven is a …continue reading
What does life look like for butterflies and moths before they reach adulthood? In a word: eating! One of my favorite childhood books was The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (you can watch a charming animated version of the book HERE). In the story, a caterpillar eats and eats before undergoing metamorphosis and emerging as a butterfly. While Carle captured the essence of a caterpillar’s insatiable appetite, he made a …continue reading
Happy National Pollinator Week! This annual celebration is run by Pollinator Partnership and promotes pollinator health. To celebrate and spread awareness of pollinators, we will publish blog posts on our website every day this week that cover different pollinators. What is a Pollinator? Let’s start simple on the first day of National Pollinator Week. What exactly is a pollinator? To learn about pollinators we first need to talk about pollination. Pollination happens …continue reading
Sometimes you need some good news and motivation, and we have some for you today–the western monarch butterfly population has increased! Biologists and volunteers count overwintering monarchs in coastal California each year. During the fall of 2021, the Xerces Society counted nearly 250,000 butterflies compared to less than 2,000 butterflies counted during fall 2020. Although that is merely a sliver of the millions of monarch butterflies that migrated in the 1980s and …continue reading
Welcome to Claire Marvet! Our ESLT team is thrilled that Claire has joined us as our 2021/2022 Education Coordinator & AmeriCorps Member. Claire comes to us through the Sierra Nevada Alliance's Sierra Nevada AmeriCorps Partnership (SNAP)—a selective program that places young leaders with conservation agencies and organizations throughout the Sierra Nevada each year. SNAP members have been working with ESLT ever since the SNAP program began in 2009. By focusing on education, …continue reading
Today is Saturday, and while you were probably sleeping in, it’s most likely that the bees were too. Have you ever seen a bee nap? Well today, National Pollinator Week Day 6, is dedicated to a little pollinator known for many things, and one of them is their notorious tendency to nap in flowers all dusted with pollen. Have you ever fallen asleep after eating some cake to wake up and find …continue reading
We know what you’re thinking, Hummingbirds are a big topic for such a small bird. With about 15 different species nesting in North America, there are several species that visit during migration. So for National Pollinator Week Day 5 we’re going to celebrate Hummingbirds and keep it simple like simple syrup. Let’s talk about the ones we love to watch in our California landscape – you know, the small bolting creatures that …continue reading
National Pollinator Week Day 4 is all about Leafcutter Bees! Yesterday we gave our attention and support to Mason and Blue Orchard Bees, two species of the Megachilidae family and both very important native pollinators of some of our favorite spring foods. Today, we are not straying too far from these busy little fruit pollinators as we dedicate our Thursday to the Leafcutter Bee. The Leafcutter is also a member of the …continue reading
National Pollinator Week Day 3 is all about Mason Bees, a native species of bee in the Osmia genus and the Megachilidae family. Blue orchard bees are also a mason bee, and sometimes called Orchard Mason Bees. Mason bees are a native species of bee that play an important role in pollinating food plants and for the Blue Orchard, orchard trees. Some of these foods include almonds, …continue reading
National Pollinator Week Day 2 is all about Monarch Butterflies! They are scientifically known as Danaus plexippus, belonging to the Nymphalidae family. As we all well know, the monarch is a crucial and highly studied species of milkweed butterfly and it calls many places home as it migrates throughout North and Central America. These beautifully winged creatures prepare for the cold weather of winter and begin to fly south, from as north …continue reading