Californians will be celebrating the very first California Native Plant Week April 17-23, 2011. The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) hopes to inspire a greater appreciation and understanding of our incredible natural heritage and biological diversity
.
Join the celebration by conducting an event or exhibit that would help raise awareness about the value of California’s native plants. Earth Day falls during that week, creating a great opportunity to highlight native plants as a theme for a booth or educational program.
CNPS will be creating an online calendar for California Native Plant Week so people can locate events. To register an event, plant sale, exhibit or program, please send details to CNPS directly.
California’s native plants help clean water and air, provide critical habitat, control erosion, infiltrate water into underground aquifers, and more. Gardens and landscapes with California native plants are perfectly suited to California’s climate and soils, and therefore require less water, fertilizers and pesticides. Yards with native plants provide “stepping stones” of habitat from wildlands through cities for urban-adapted wildlife, such as some birds, bats, butterflies, beneficial insects and more.