CLERC, Lakeport, CA (2026)

06/19/2026

🌿 FEATURED FLORA FRIDAY 🌿

Mule Ears Wyethia

Lake County is home to four native species of Mule Ears, bright yellow sunflower relatives that light up grasslands and foothill woodlands every spring. They all share the same basic look: golden blooms on sturdy stalks and big basal leaves that really do look like the ears of a mule. The difference between the four comes down to the foliage.

Narrow-Leaf Mule Ears (W. angustifolia) is the most common, with long, slender, lance-shaped leaves. Smooth Mule Ears (W. glabra) is a California endemic with broader, glossy, nearly hairless leaves. Gray Mule Ears (W. helenioides) has wide leaves covered in soft silvery-gray hairs and favors sunny oak woodland clearings. Woolly Mule Ears (W. mollis) lives up to its name with thick feltlike hairs and a preference for higher elevations.

Their large blooms are a major nectar source for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators, and their seeds feed birds and wildlife into the dry season. Indigenous Californians gathered Mule Ears seeds to make pinole, a nutritious toasted flour, and burned meadows intentionally to encourage new growth of Wyethia and other seed-bearing plants.

Next time you spot golden blooms on a Lake County hillside, check the leaves. They will tell you which of our four native Mule Ears you found.

Have you spotted Mule Ears on your hikes this season? Share your sightings with us in the comments below! 👇

06/17/2026

🐞 Wildlife Wednesday: Lady Beetles

Everyone recognizes a ladybug, but there's a lot more going on beneath those polka-dot wing covers than most people realize. First, a fun correction: ladybugs aren't bugs. They're beetles in the family Coccinellidae, and entomologists prefer the name "lady beetle" or "ladybird beetle." California alone is home to roughly 175 native species, and about 200 species total occur in the state.

The species you're most likely to see here in Lake County is the Convergent Lady Beetle (Hippodamia convergens), the most common lady beetle in North America. Local naturalist Kathleen Scavone has documented annual blooms of them at Anderson Marsh and across south Lake County, where swarms arrive in mid-June heading westward in what she describes as "a delightful polka-dot experience."

These tiny predators are voracious. A single adult lady beetle can consume around 50 aphids per day and up to 5,000 over its lifetime. But here's what surprises most people: the larvae are even better hunters than the adults. Lady beetle larvae look nothing like the cute, round, red-spotted beetles we all know. They're spiny, dark-colored, and shaped like tiny alligators, and if you spotted one on a leaf you might mistake it for a pest rather than a garden hero. In their roughly three-week larval stage, they can eat their body weight in aphids daily, and a small cluster of hatched eggs can eliminate over 6,000 aphids in just four weeks. The larvae hatch from small yellowish egg clusters typically laid right in the middle of an aphid colony, giving them an all-you-can-eat buffet from the moment they emerge.

That bright red-orange coloring on the adults? It's a warning signal to predators. When threatened, lady beetles "reflex bleed," releasing a bitter, foul-tasting yellowish fluid from their leg joints. So next time you spot a strange-looking spiny critter crawling along a stem in your garden, take a closer look before reaching for it. It might just be a baby ladybug pulling serious pest-control duty, no chemicals required.

🔬 Hippodamia convergens (Convergent Lady Beetle) 📍 Lake County, CA

06/13/2026

Thank you to everyone who took the time to stop by our booth at the kickoff of the Lakeport Summer Concert Series!

We had a blast handing out fun merch and connecting with the community, while spreading the word about our free community chipping program and our many fire mitigation projects around Lake County!

We hope to see you again for more fun on July 31st!!!

06/12/2026

🌿 FEATURED FLORA FRIDAY 🌿

Red Larkspur Delphinium nudicaule

Look closely at the shaded hillsides and rocky streamsides of Lake County this spring and you might spot something that looks like a hummingbird's idea of a perfect meal. Red Larkspur sends up slender stems topped with clusters of brilliant scarlet and orange blooms, each one shaped like a small elongated cornucopia and built almost exclusively for hummingbird pollination.

The flower's shape says it all. The elongated petals that give larkspurs their name, resembling the hind spur of a lark's foot, are perfectly sized and angled for a hummingbird's beak. Bees and butterflies can visit, but hummingbirds are the real target, and in the shaded woodland habitats where Red Larkspur thrives, they show up reliably every spring.

Here is something fun to know about the name. The genus Delphinium comes from the ancient Greek word for dolphin. Early botanists thought the flower buds resembled a dolphin's shape, which earned this entire genus of fiery wildflowers one of the most unexpected names in the plant world.

Red Larkspur is native to the low elevation foothills and slopes of California and Oregon, and it is right at home in Lake County. Look for it along wooded hillsides and beside streams and moist slopes, particularly in clay soils with some shade. It also pops up regularly along roadsides in spring, waving from the cut banks where drainage keeps the soil just moist enough.

One important note: like all members of the Delphinium genus, Red Larkspur is toxic if ingested. Admire it, photograph it, and share it with your hummingbird-loving friends, but leave it right where it belongs.

Have you spotted Red Larkspur on your hikes this season? Share your sightings with us in the comments below! 👇

06/10/2026

Wildlife Wednesday: California Scrub-Jay

If you live anywhere near an oak tree in Lake County, you've almost certainly had a run-in with a California Scrub-Jay. Bold, loud, and brilliantly blue, these birds are year-round residents of our oak woodlands, chaparral, and backyard feeders, and they are far more than just pretty faces with big attitudes.

Scrub-jays belong to the corvid family alongside crows, ravens, and magpies, and they are among the most cognitively advanced animals ever studied. A landmark 1998 study by researcher Nicola Clayton demonstrated that scrub-jays possess "episodic-like memory," the ability to recall what happened, where, and when. They were the first non-human animals shown to have this capability. In practice, this means a scrub-jay can remember the location of thousands of individually buried acorns and will prioritize recovering perishable foods before they spoil.

That caching behavior is also what makes them essential to the health of Lake County's oak woodlands. Each autumn, a single scrub-jay can bury thousands of acorns across the landscape. The ones they don't retrieve germinate and grow into the next generation of oaks. Without jays and other acorn-dispersing wildlife, our upland oak woodlands, savannas, and chaparral would struggle to regenerate, especially after wildfire.

They're also socially savvy. Scrub-jays have been observed holding "funeral" gatherings around dead jays, calling loudly and congregating in ways that suggest awareness of death. They can mimic the calls of red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks, possibly to scare competitors away from food, and they will deceive other jays who are watching them cache by faking a burial and relocating the real stash later.

Next time one swoops in and steals a peanut off your porch railing, give it a little credit. That bird is planting forests and outsmarting its neighbors.

🔬 Aphelocoma californica 📍 Lake County, CA

06/05/2026

🌿 FEATURED FLORA FRIDAY 🌿

Wavyleaf Soap Plant Chlorogalum pomeridianum

Most wildflowers put on their show during the day. Wavyleaf Soap Plant waits until late afternoon, opening its delicate white star-shaped blooms right around sunset and keeping them open through the night before closing again by morning. The species name pomeridianum literally comes from the Latin for "past midday," a built-in reminder of exactly when to go looking for it.

Scattered across open grasslands, chaparral slopes, and oak woodlands throughout Lake County, this perennial bulb is one of the most ecologically useful native plants in the region. Its evening blooms are timed for moths and night-flying insects, filling a pollination window after dark that most other wildflowers leave completely unoccupied. That makes it an essential resource for the nocturnal side of the pollinator community.

Its ecological value does not stop there. The large fibrous bulb buried underground is also a fire-adapted survival strategy. Not only does the bulb protect the plant through fire, Wavyleaf Soap Plant is known to have fire-stimulated flowering, meaning it blooms prolifically in the first growing season after a fire, taking advantage of the open mineral seedbed before other vegetation recovers.

The Pomo people of Lake County recognized this plant's extraordinary usefulness long before botanists gave it a Latin name. The bulbs were used as soap for washing the body, hair, baskets, and utensils. The fibrous coating was bound together to make brushes used to sweep ground acorn off grinding stones. Cooked and mashed bulbs produced a glue for brooms and arrows. The bulbs were also roasted and eaten as food. One plant, an entire toolkit.

Look for the long, wavy-edged leaves hugging the ground in spring, and return in late afternoon through summer to catch those delicate white blooms opening right before your eyes.

Have you spotted Wavyleaf Soap Plant on your hikes this season? Share your sightings with us in the comments below! 👇

05/29/2026

🌿 FEATURED FLORA FRIDAY 🌿

Western Redbud Cercis occidentalis

Every February, something magical happens across Lake County's foothill slopes and canyon edges. Bare branches erupt in clusters of brilliant magenta blooms before a single leaf has opened, painting the hillsides in color when the landscape is still waking up from winter. That is Western Redbud, and once you know it, you will spot it everywhere.

This native deciduous shrub is one of the most ecologically generous plants in the region. Its early blooms arrive precisely when native bees and hummingbirds need nectar most. Leafcutter bees harvest its heart-shaped leaves to line their nests. Birds feed on its seed pods and shelter in its branching structure throughout the year. It is not just a pretty face. It is a full-service habitat in a single plant.

Western Redbud is also a four-season spectacle. Magenta blooms in late winter, bright heart-shaped leaves through summer, brilliant gold and red fall color, and then maroon seed pods that persist on the bare branches all winter long, giving the plant something to show off in every single month of the year.

Indigenous Californians have long recognized this plant's value too. The twigs of Western Redbud have been used for generations to weave baskets, and California Native peoples practiced careful pruning to encourage the straight new growth needed for that craft, a form of land stewardship that kept these plants healthy and productive.

Look for it on dry foothill slopes, canyon edges, and oak woodland openings across Lake County, often growing in shrubby clumps alongside manzanita, ceanothus, and California buckeye.

Have you spotted Western Redbud blooming this season? Share your sightings with us in the comments below! 👇

05/27/2026

🐟 Wildlife Wednesday: Clear Lake Tule Perch

Meet one of Clear Lake's most unique and underappreciated native fish. The Tule Perch is the only freshwater species in the entire surfperch family -- a group of 23 fish that otherwise live in the Pacific Ocean. And Clear Lake is home to its own distinct subspecies, the Clear Lake Tule Perch (Hysterocarpus traskii lagunae), which is endemic to Clear Lake and the Blue Lakes here in Lake County.

What makes these small, deep-bodied fish truly unusual is that they give birth to live young, making them the only viviparous native freshwater fish in California. Males transfer s***m to females using a modified a**l fin spine as early as late summer, but the eggs aren't actually fertilized until January. By May or June, females give birth to anywhere from 10 to 60 fully formed fry. The genus name Hysterocarpus literally translates to "womb-fruit."
In 1854, the Tule Perch became the very first freshwater fish species formally described from California, and its description was published not in a scientific journal but in a San Francisco newspaper.

Tule Perch were once abundant in Clear Lake and held cultural significance for the Pomo people. Today, their populations have declined due to habitat loss, water quality changes, and competition from introduced species. The subspecies is currently listed as a species of High Concern by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Protecting shoreline habitat, tule beds, and water quality in Clear Lake directly supports the survival of this one-of-a-kind fish.

🔬 Hysterocarpus traskii lagunae 📍 Clear Lake & Blue Lakes, Lake County, CA

05/25/2026

The countdown is on, less than one month until the Lakeport Summer Concert Series kicks off at Library Park 🎶

We’re proud to sponsor opening day on June 12 with The Fargo Brothers.

Come find the CLERC booth, say hi, learn how you can help build a more fire-safe Lake County, and enter to win some fun merch.

Good music, good company, and a chance to connect with the work happening right here at home.

05/22/2026

🌿 FEATURED FLORA FRIDAY 🌿

Henderson's Shooting Star (Primula hendersonii)

If there is one wildflower that stops hikers in their tracks every spring in Lake County, it is this one. Henderson's Shooting Star sends up clusters of magenta to lavender blooms with petals swept dramatically backwards, trailing behind each flower like tiny comet tails streaking across the sky. Once you see one, you never forget it.

Also known as Mosquito Bills and Sailor Caps, this beloved perennial wildflower grows in shaded woodland floors and chaparral edges throughout the region. Look under oaks and along partial-shade slopes where the soil stays moist through spring. It tends to appear in small colonies, so where you find one you will often find many.

Shooting Star has a fascinating relationship with its pollinators. It requires something called buzz pollination. Bumblebees vibrate their flight muscles at specific frequencies to blast pollen loose from the flower's tightly held anthers. It is basically a tiny bee concert happening inside every bloom, and honeybees simply cannot do it. This makes native bumblebees absolutely essential to the plant's reproduction.

That early-season partnership matters enormously. Shooting Star provides critical nectar for bumblebees just as they emerge from winter dormancy, when almost nothing else is available. It is one of those relationships that reminds us just how interconnected everything in a healthy ecosystem really is.

Here is one more thing worth knowing. After flowering, Shooting Star disappears completely. It dies back to the ground once the rains stop, leaving no trace until next spring. Catch it while you can!

Have you spotted Henderson's Shooting Star on your hikes this season? Share your sightings with us in the comments below! 👇

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