Welcome Message

While our Executive Director Steve Windhager steps away for his much-deserved three-month sabbatical, it is my pleasure to open this fall/winter issue of Ironwood.

In the 10 years that I’ve worked with Steve as Santa Barbara Botanic Garden’s director of conservation and research, I’ve seen so many exciting changes. The Garden’s Living Collection looks better than ever, we have record-breaking levels of membership, and our visitation numbers continue to reach our county-issued capacity limits.

It’s a joy to host each of our guests — especially the many families exploring and enjoying our newest immersive section of the Garden, the Backcountry.

As we begin the countdown to our centennial in 2026, we are more committed than ever to pursue our mission to conserve California’s native plants and habitats. After all, native plants are the base of global biological diversity and are key to sustaining life on Earth. To that end, our Conservation and Research Department has been growing and thriving as well. With the opening of the Pritzlaff Conservation Center in 2016, we gained critical space for our labs, collections, and offices. This allowed us to expand our work and tackle the myriad of conservation challenges — from the (sub)microscopic level of genes to the landscape level of ecosystems.

We now have 22 scientists on staff, passionately covering a range of disciplines from botany to lichenology, rare plant biology to genetics, and ecological restoration to insect ecology.

When describing our conservation work, I think of it like building a three-layer cake. The base layer, supporting the rest, is biodiversity knowledge. We must know the species we are working with, where and how frequently they are found, what communities they form, and how they interrelate to other species. Then, for the middle layer, we need to balance and protect those living “ingredients.” We must do what it takes to save rare species, because everything has a job to do and losing biological diversity will make the cake crumble. And for the top of our cake, with all the support of the bottom layers, we must work to restore functioning native habitats that support life — from the plants and lichens to the bugs and the birds.

The icing is you, our supporters, who make all of this important work possible.

In this issue, you’ll read about some of this critical “cake making,” including our lichenologist’s work to inventory lichens, protect rare ones, and educate about them; our botanists’ work to use our herbarium specimens to better understand climate change; and how native plants have a crucial role in attracting wildlife, specifically birds, right in your backyard.

I hope these stories inspire you to join us in our important conservation efforts. Start small with one native plant or expand to a full garden (late fall and early winter is the best time!). Help to document species through apps like iNaturalist. Or join us as a volunteer in the Garden — there are numerous opportunities. Whatever path you choose, it makes an impact, and we’re so grateful for your support. Together, our green thumbs can make a difference.

See you in the Garden,

Denise Knapp, Ph.D.

Director of Conservation and Research

Denise Knapp, Ph.D., Director of Conservation and Research