Environmental Education

Firefighters participating in wildland fire training

Wildland Fire Training 2020

  • by Scout Mata
Just two days after undergoing annual wildland fire training at UC Davis’ Russell Ranch, the UC Davis Fire Department, and other regional firefighting departments, responded to the largest fire of this year’s early season so far. 
Woman planting a plant into the soil.

10 TIPS for Summer Planting

It’s true that summer is not the best time of the year to install new plants, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t. Watch the latest Ask the Garden Gnomes video below for advice or scroll down to find some quick tips.
Peter Moyle, associate director of the Center for Watershed Sciences, poses with a common carp.

Common carp could be cause of common problem in Arboretum Waterway

Carp Research in the Arboretum Waterway

Undergraduate researcher Kim Luke with the Center for Watershed Sciences is working with the Arboretum and Public Garden to conduct an experiment about how different fishes in the Arboretum Waterway may influence water quality. She is particularly interested in how one kind of fish, common carp, influence algal blooms.

A bough of mistletoe hangs by a ribbon over a doorway.

Why we kiss under a parasitic plant, mistletoe!

In ancient cultures throughout the northern hemisphere, the time around the winter solstice has long been a season of celebration, feasting, and thanksgiving. On the far northern reaches of the Roman Empire, people like the Teutons and Celts had their own winter rituals centering wheat, oak trees and mistletoe.
A potted winter daphne

The Central Valley garden in winter

In California’s Central Valley, the onset of winter’s cool, wet weather marks the beginning of the growing season for California native and Mediterranean climate plants. Comparable to early spring in colder, continental climates, this is the season when root growth begins and summer drought-adapted plants emerge from dormancy, leafing out and, in some cases, bursting into bloom.
A picture of one of the picks.

Taylor’s Pollinator-Friendly Picks

  • by Taylor Lewis
The Arboretum Teaching Nursery is here for you at the turn of the year to bring you another edition of “Tried and True and something New.” Find some perennial favorites that are sure to brighten up your garden as the weather warms.
Image of a hummingbird drinking nectar from California fuchsia in the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden.

Pollinator Plant List: Hummingbirds

  • by Sydney Odman

Did you know hummingbirds move much faster and over considerably larger areas than insect pollinators do? With their fast wings, compact size and slender bills, it's no wonder that these tiny birds play such an important role in our environment. Unfortunately, due to climate change, habitat loss and a variety of other human-caused influences, researchers consider nearly 15% of hummingbird species vulnerable to extinction. 

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