Efforts to Boost Native Plants in California Take Root

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Some people may think palm trees are native to California, but they’re not. In fact, non-native flora abound throughout our state. A bill moving through the California Legislature aims to boost the proliferation of native plants by requiring landscaping on some public and commercial areas to use at least 75 percent low-water, native plants by 2035. The idea is to promote cultivation of California’s native plants, increase biodiversity, and respond better to climate change. Native plants play an important role in supporting wildlife and insects that have evolved together over thousands of years. We’ll talk about efforts to grow more native plants in California, how they benefit the environment and how to incorporate them into your garden. Guests: Andrea Williams, director of Biodiversity Initiatives for the California Native Plant Society Michael Wilcox, senior lecturer of Native American Studies and Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Stanford University Kathy Crane, owner of Yerba Buena Nursery at Pastorino Farms Nina House, museum scientist at the University and Jepson Herbaria, at University of California Berkeley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for Forum comes from Rancho La Puerta, a wellness resort in Baja, California, just an hour from San Diego,
0:07.4	recently voted the number one destination spa by readers of travel and leisure magazine.
0:12.8	Summer retreat packages of three, four, or seven nights including hiking, water classes,
0:19.0	mindfulness, spa therapies, and culinary adventures with
0:22.8	farm-fresh ingredients. Learn more at Rancho LaPuerta.com.
0:27.3	Switch to Comcast Business Mobile and save hundreds a year in your wireless bill.
0:31.4	Comcast Business, powering possibilities.
0:33.9	Restrictions apply. Comcast Business Internet required.
0:36.0	Compar as two unlimited intro lines and lowest price 5D plans of top three carriers.
0:38.9	Tax on fees extra, reduce speeds after 30 gigabytes of usage.
0:41.3	Data thresholds may vary.
0:43.6	From KQED.
1:00.0	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrival. California has been the canvas for many different kinds of utopian projects over the years.
1:05.0	Our water infrastructure is some of the most extensive in the world turning desert to palm-treeed metropolis.
1:10.0	Our state has made and remade the future, movies, computing, the internet.
1:14.6	But a different vision has taken hold among some ecologists,
1:17.6	one in which the plants that were here before European colonization
1:21.6	are restored in our cities and wildernesses.
1:24.6	Native plants and their co-evolved insect partners return, helping restore ecological
1:29.1	balance even as the planet moves deeper into the climate crisis. We'll talk native plants,
1:34.3	the people who love them, and new legislation aiming to help them proliferate. After this news,
1:39.3	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.