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The meeting was be held at Shepard Garden & Arts Center, 3330 McKinley Blvd. , Sacramento. This was be a “hybrid” meeting and was not recorded, unfortunately.
Start out the new year with Greg Kareofelas’s talk on Monarchs. The talk will feature photos and stories of the life history, the plants important for its survival, the migration it takes each year to survive the winter period, and the differences between the west coast and east coast populations.
Learn how and why the Monarch is different from every other California butterfly. And why this difference makes all our efforts to help maintain its population so difficult. We will have time to answer your questions and if I can’t answer, I will probably know who to direct you to.
There was a time, not so long ago, that the monarch was a very common butterfly. It could be found in many gardens in every Valley town. Narrow leaf milkweed grew in many places: along roadsides, vacant lots, railroad right of ways, and creeksides. Stop at any one of these places and you would be certain to find the familiar striped caterpillars or the distinctive chrysalis of the monarch. A trip to Pacific Grove in the late fall would be rewarded with seeing millions of monarchs ready to settle down for the winter. This is no longer the case, and many researchers are trying to figure out why.
Greg Kareofelas has been “playing monarchs” for 75 years in the Central Valley of California. He is associated with the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology, a long-time member of the Sacramento Valley Chapter of CNPS, and a long-time member of the Lepidopterist Society.
Photos courtesy of Greg Kareofelas
Title of Talk: California Bumble Bees and Their Use of Native Plants April 8, 2026 at 7:00 PM The meeting will be held at Shepard Garden & Arts Center, 3330 McKinley Blvd. , Sacramento. This will be a “hybrid” meeting and will be streamed on Zoom. Click here to register and attend via Zoom. Summary
Title of Talk: California Native Salvias – from Wildlands to Gardens March 11, 2026 at 7:00 PM The meeting will be held at Shepard Garden & Arts Center, 3330 McKinley Blvd. , Sacramento. This will be a “hybrid” meeting and will be streamed on Zoom. Click here to register and attend via Zoom Summary The
Title of Talk: Organizing a Community in Support of New Legislation February 11, 2026 at 7:00 PM This meeting will ONLY be streamed on Zoom. Click here to register and attend via Zoom. Summary We will discuss how to organize our community members on passing a bill and watchdogging it after. Key points will include: