A wealth of natural diversity

You don’t have to venture off the beaten track or get your boots muddy to get a dose of nature in Sonoma. Just plunk yourself down on a bench at the Plaza.
“I’d love to change the paradigm a bit about the Plaza,” said Tom Rusert, co-founder of Sonoma Birding.” It’s really more than just our wonderful farmer’s market and large events. It’s really an arboretum.”
The Plaza is home to over 50 different species of trees and dozens of species of birds. Rusert recently approached the City of Sonoma and the Sonoma Valley Visitor’s Bureau about holding an Arbor Day celebration for the first time this year. Both threw support behind the project. In the state of California, Arbor Day is celebrated on March 7, horticulturalist Luther Burbank’s birthday.
“I firmly believe, from what I have seen, that this is the chosen spot of all this earth as far as Nature is concerned,” said Burbank, who was born on the east coast. He was amazed by the long growing season in this area. He made Santa Rosa the site of his horticulture experiments for over 50 years and the mild climate no doubt helped him to develop the 800 new varieties of plants that he introduced in his lifetime, including over 200 varieties of fruits, many vegetables, nuts and grains, and hundreds of ornamental flowers.
Burbank’s observation directly relates to the Sonoma Plaza. One reason the trees downtown are so diverse – ranging from palm trees to redwoods, elms, oaks and flowering cherry trees – is that the Valley’s unique Mediterranean microclimate allows many types of trees to flourish here.
Rusert’s first project was to put together a self-guided walking tour outlining all the different species of trees and birds one might spot on the Plaza.
The Plaza’s arboreal diversity is certainly a sight to behold, but it is also practical. If there were only one species of tree, a single disease could effectively wipe out all the trees on the Plaza. Biodiversity allows for better resistance.
“They had a lot of foresight in diversifying the trees,” said Rusert, who hails from a town in upstate New York where all the old elms were wiped out by Dutch Elm disease.
The Sonoma Plaza is the biggest town square of its kind in California. The Plaza’s eight acres and the surrounding streets were laid out by General Mariano Vallejo in 1836. Some of the trees growing on the Plaza are over 100 years old.
Rusert walked the path around the Plaza countless times to put together the walking tour. He also used the information detailed by the city and the Plaza tree committee.
“In the early days of the park, the Sonoma Valley Women’s Club was very instrumental in creating the tree program on the Plaza,” said Rusert. Members of the women’s club are currently going through the archives to pull more information together, and they’ll be hosting a lecture at their facility about how to pick trees, going over some of the newer varieties that are uniquely resistant to disease and not as water-intensive.
Rusert, an avid birder, was sure to include the Plaza’s avian diversity in his survey. “We have barn owls that live on the Plaza,” he said, “probably 40 to 50 species of birds.”
Many birds nest on the Plaza, while others winter here or just pass through. In the walking tour, Rusert tries to open eyes by grouping common birds into three categories – the ones like quail that you might spot lower down, the trunk and cavity dwellers like the woodpecker and the tree-top dwellers you might squint to see, like the red-shouldered hawk.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for people to enjoy an urban park and all the birds and trees in this habitat,” said Rusert.
In honor of Arbor Day, there will be a public tree planting on the Sonoma Plaza on Wednesday, March 11 at 11 a.m. The city has purchased an arbutus marina, commonly known as the “Strawberry Tree,” which will be planted on the north side of the old Carnegie Library building.
The first Arbor Day in America took place on April 10, 1872 in Nebraska. It was the brainchild of Julius Sterling Morton (1832-1902), a Nebraska journalist and politician originally from Michigan. Today all 50 states celebrate Arbor Day, although the dates may vary in keeping with the local climate. At the federal level, in 1970, President Richard Nixon proclaimed the last Friday in April as National Arbor Day.
Local schools, organizations and businesses are encouraged to participate in the Sonoma Plaza event or other unique celebrations during these new, week-long Arbor Day celebrations in March.
For more information on how to participate, contact Wendy Peterson at the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau, 996.1090 ext. 106 or wendypeterson@sonomavalley.com or Tom Rusert at sonomabirding@gmail.com. Community members can also phone 939.8007 to learn more. Go to Sonomabirding.org for more info about birding in the Valley.