Seeds are far more present in our lives than most of us realize. They compose everything from our morning coffee to our favorite chocolates and have helped shape the world as we know it.

California native seeds are just as vital, and protecting them is a way of safeguarding our very future.

Join me and Cheryl Birker at the California Botanic Garden as we explore the hidden world of seeds. In this episode, we take a deeper look into the difference between spores and seeds, seeds that require fire to germinate, seeds that survived for 2,000 years in the Judean Desert, and how safeguarding seeds is a way of safeguarding life as we know it.

Links:

Get 15% off your order of California native seeds from the California Collection by Nature’s Seed when you use the code GOLDEN15 at checkout.

Speak up for California’s public lands with CalWild.

Cacao Seeds as Currency

California Plant Rescue

Seed Germination Data

Seed photos by John Macdonald

Seed Savers Exchange (the catalogue mentioned at the end of the episode)

Support Golden State Naturalist on ⁠Patreon⁠ and get perks starting at $4/month.

Follow me on ⁠Instagram⁠.

My website is ⁠goldenstatenaturalist.com⁠.

Get podcast Merch.

The theme song is called “i dunno” by grapes and can be found ⁠here⁠.

Photo: Prickly poppy seeds by Michelle Fullner, taken at the California Botanic Garden.

California is home to 15 million acres of a kind of land most people have never heard of. These lands span deserts, grasslands, oak woodlands, and coastal rainforests. They’re free or very inexpensive to visit, and they’re almost never crowded. But what are these mythical wonderlands?

These are the largely overlooked lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, and you can go and see them.

Josh Jackson, author of The Enduring Wild: A Journey Into California’s Public Lands, took me to see one of these places he refers to as Forgotten Lands. While we were there, we discussed the history of BLM lands, nature behind a velvet rope and not behind a velvet rope, current threats to the land, how we can find and access BLM lands, and how connecting with these places can change not only how we look at nature far from home, but also how we see the living world in our own backyards.

Links:

Get Josh’s book, The Enduring Wild.

Speak up for California’s public lands with CalWild.

Support Golden State Naturalist on ⁠Patreon⁠ and get perks starting at $4/month.

Follow me on ⁠Instagram⁠.

My website is ⁠goldenstatenaturalist.com⁠.

Get podcast Merch.

The theme song is called “i dunno” by grapes and can be found ⁠here⁠.

Tidy tips photo by Josh Jackson

What do California lizards and tiny foxes have in common? Check out this special announcement episode to find out.

More soon, friends!

Michelle

Kayleigh Shawn McCollum

Are you making New Year's resolutions this year? Mine are a little unconventional. Find out what they are and get to know two incredible advocates for public land, Anders Reynolds and Bill Hodge of The Wild Idea Podcast, on this special bonus episode.

And of course remember to check out The Wild Idea Podcast as soon as you're done listening here.

Happy New Year, friends!

We need every single species of native tree here in California, but our 20+ varieties of native oaks are the most crucial of all. In this episode, join me and my guest, Zarah Wyly, on a walk through a relatively new oak woodland in Folsom dotted with two ancient, magnificent oak trees. Learn the story of how this unusual woodland came to be, find out why oaks are my all-time favorite trees, and explore such questions as: What kinds of life are supported by oak trees? If I plant one, will it wreck my house? What do you have to do to acorns to make them edible? Why does it look like some oak trees are growing apples? How do oaks spread such heavy seeds? What kinds of variety is there among different oak species? What does any of this have to do with the Declaration of Independence?

And here's a handy list of the other podcasts participating in Critical Mast!

• Future Ecologies
• Jumpstart Nature
• Nature's Archive
• Learning from Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast
• Outside/In

Ok, get ready for a lot of links. Here you goooooo!

The Declaration of Independence and the Hand of Time

The Nature of Oaks, by Douglas Tallamy

National Resources Conservation Service Resource on Grazing

Secrets of the Oak Woodlands, by Kate Marianchild

Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

City Nature Challenge

Sacramento Tree Foundation

Calscape (to help with planting natives!)

Daniel Airola's research on bird diversity in urban forests

The theme song is called "i dunno" by grapes, and it can be found here.

Follow me on Instagram @goldenstatenaturalist

My website is www.goldenstatenaturalist.com

You can find me on Patreon here.

Episode photo by Bendp

Can cities be good for wildlife? Or at least not so bad? What changes would we need to make to welcome more life into our cities? How would those changes impact humans? What are other cities already trying?

Come with me and Kat Superfisky to the largest city in California, where we discuss all of this and so much more.

Note: This interview was recorded in September of 2024, so any references to the Federal government are references to the government during the Biden Administration.

Helpful Links:

Kat’s website

Content Creation for Nature

Support Golden State Naturalist on ⁠Patreon⁠ and get perks starting at $4/month.

Follow me on ⁠Instagram⁠.

My website is ⁠goldenstatenaturalist.com⁠.

Get podcast Merch.
The theme song is called “i dunno” by grapes and can be found ⁠here⁠.

Descend with me and LA's first ever urban ecologist into the concrete channel of the Los Angeles River as we discuss novel ecosystems, eminent domain, Greased Lightnin', flood prevention, Ice Cube, soft bottoms, emerald necklaces, and why the LA River is the perfect microcosm of everything LA was, is, and one day could be.

Helpful Links:

Kat’s website

Jason Wise's website

Juan Crespi’s journal

CalMatters LAPD Helicopters article

Grease Filming Locations

Support Golden State Naturalist on ⁠Patreon⁠ and get perks starting at $4/month.

Follow me on ⁠Instagram⁠.

My website is ⁠goldenstatenaturalist.com⁠.

Get podcast Merch.
The theme song is called “i dunno” by grapes and can be found ⁠here⁠.