For 22 years, scientists at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden have been asking what genetic diversity might mean for a rare tree. Then, in 2026, a wildfire changed the stakes. One of the Rarest Trees on Earth Every day, visitors pass two Torrey pines (Pinus torreyana) near the Garden’s entrance without realizing how special they are.…
Santa Rosa Island, also known as Wima by the indigenous communities who originally inhabited it, is the second largest of the four islands in the Channel Islands National Park system. It supports some rare and endemic plant species, including the island subspecies of Torrey pine (Pinus torreyana subsp. insularis), which is almost entirely limited to…
Over the past year, we’ve shared the excitement of bringing native, water-wise plants to working landscapes across the Cuyama Valley. Planting days are often the most visible part of restoration, but they’re only the beginning. Once the plants are in the ground, the real work begins: caring for them, learning from them, and watching how…
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Call to Action The United States Department of Agriculture has extended its original 30-day window for the public to submit comments on the proposed rescission of the popular 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule (ie., Roadless Rule). Santa Barbara Botanic Garden strongly opposes this proposed rule change and encourages everybody to submit…
Since April of this year, local municipalities have worked diligently with the Garden and our partners to develop and adopt local ‘biodiversity resolutions’ in acknowledgment of the critical need to support and enhance biodiversity regionwide. The cities of Buellton, Carpinteria, Goleta, Guadalupe, Santa Barbara – and the County of Santa Barbara itself – have all recently issued strong statements of support for biodiversity and sustainability principles as…
While our 2025 field season got off to a slow start, by mid-July, most of the Rare Plant Team was heading out every week to sites across California for field work. On this particular week, Chloe Tilton, Rare Plant Technician, and I were in the midst of a marathon 5-day field trip. Day one was spent driving from Santa Barbara to Sacramento, successfully making three rare plant seed collections along the way. Woohoo! On day two, we worked around the Sacramento area at two natural reserves, including finding and collecting seeds from a massive population of Spicate calycadenia (Calycadenia spicata, California Rare Plant…
On a cool morning this February, a group gathered at the Buckhorn Roadside Resort in Cuyama Valley to watch birds and drink coffee. Most participants had never used binoculars to go birding before, so the morning officially began with a binoculars tutorial: We described how to adjust the spacing between the barrels, how to focus…
I met Mary Galindo in early 2025 at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, when we hosted a networking event for the South Coast Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. She and I hit it off instantly, and it became apparent that a new and potentially impactful relationship was about to begin. A Santa Barbara native with an outgoing personality,…
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