Nature Nerds! Special Season Two Opener! 5/27/24

Join us for an outdoor evening of presentations about local ecology!

What happens when you take an English teacher turned full-time naturalist and put them in conversation with an ADHD plant conservationist who can’t stop swearing?  Probably a very entertaining discussion about what it is like teaching science and ecology in the world of social media. Jessie Dickson and Michelle Fullner might be better known as @sacramentofoodforest and the Golden State Naturalist.  This duo might seem like an unlikely collaboration, but we think they go together like a badger and a coyote on a cooperative excursion.  (Please don’t ask us who is the badger and who is the coyote). 

Michelle Fullner is an educator, California Naturalist, parent of two woodland sprite daughters, and host of the Golden State Naturalist podcast, which is now ranked in the top 1% of podcasts globally. Michelle holds a bachelor’s degree in English and Comparative Literature from San Jose State University, and a Master’s in English: Composition and Rhetoric, from California State University, Sacramento. As an educator, she taught middle and high school English in California public schools for ten years before transitioning to her life as a full-time admirer of acorns, California newts, redwood sorrel, and tide pools. 

Jessie Dickson - You have almost certainly seen Jessie admiring some roadside botany, flipping off invasive species, or explaining why it’s dumb to buy mantid oothecas in a little plastic  to-go containers. His ADHD-filled native plant conservation adventures can be witnessed on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. 

Did you know that birding can reduce your stress and anxiety?  Some people call birding the gateway drug to environmental awareness.  It heightens your appreciation of your surroundings, helps to appreciate nature in nearly any outdoor setting, and will make you a better listener!  Come hear five easy tips to help you get out there to start seeing “lifers” (and learn what that even means).  

Cliff Hawley grew up on a small ranch in Lincoln, CA, and discovered a love of birds at 14 when he found a male Vermilion Flycatcher in his yard. As a birder and Certified California Naturalist, he’s a county-level reviewer for eBird as well as a field trip leader for local Audubon groups and a Vice President of the Central Valley Bird Club.

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