Haywood to receive conservation award

For her continued stewardship to promote and ecologically-friendly environment in Sonoma, Maggie Haywood will receive the seventh annual Rotary Club of Sonoma Valley Conservation Award on Arbor Day, Friday, April 24. The program starts at 11 a.m. in the Grinstead Amphitheater.

Haywood is a past president of the Sonoma Ecology Center, co-founder and co-chair of the Sonoma Overlook Trail, and member of the Bay Area Ridge Trial Advisory Council, Lonoma Land Trust board of directors and Jack London Park Partners Advisory Board.

“Maggie has allowed and encouraged people to hike on her winery property for years, and is probably the most diligent practitioner of sound environmental principles as far as a lifestyle is concerned than anyone I know,” said Karen Collins, last year’s conservation award recipient. “I honestly cannot think of anyone in the Sonoma Valley who compares.”

In addition to the award ceremony, the city of Sonoma plans a full Arbor Day celebration in the Plaza, famous for showcasing the variety of trees and bird life found in the Sonoma Valley.

Haywood said, “I am honored to be joining a distinguished group. The Arbor Day celebration is a unique event and I love it.”

The event is co-hosted by Sonoma Birding and the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau. “This is our seventh year hosting the Arbor Day celebration. We have a number of speakers and we’re really excited for the turnout,” said Wendy Peterson, outreach coordinator at the Bureau. “We typically plant trees for the celebration, but the long-term plan scheduled this as a gap year, so we won’t be doing that.”

Peterson added the Plaza’s unique foliage provides schools like Crescent Montessori with an “outside laboratory,” where students study tree live from the Valley in a central location.The Plaza, which covers eight acres, is the largest plaza in California.

After an introduction by Mayor David Cook and Sonoma Birding co-founder Tom Rusert, the Quarryhill Botanical Garden will host a panel called “Returning the favor,” led by education coordinator and nursery manager Corey Barnes, followed by a seedling presentation.

Crescent Montessori School students plan to present conservation-focused projects, and the event closes with a poem, “The story of the Mountain and the ‘Oak’” by Michael Sheffield, a Sonoma poet, with music provided by Mark Willson and Mario Ramirez.During the event, guests are encouraged to explore the Plaza and experience the diverse arboreal life in the Sonoma Valley.

Rusert designed the self-guided tour and map of the Plaza, highlighting the variety and species found within. The Plaza boasts trees of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the monolithic coast redwood to the evergreen Douglass fir. bald cypress, southern magnolias, tulip trees, blue gum and Norway spruce dot the Plaza, among many more species both native and introduced to the Valley.