Program Mtg-Habitat Haven:From Sod to Songbirds Tues. 9/23/25 on Youtube

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Coast to Cascades Bird Alliance (CCBA) will present information about our fairly new and very popular native plant gardening project, Habitat Haven. Barbara Bryson will tell us all about the Habitat Haven project, which helps foster backyards that bring in pollinators and help feed birds.

Barbara is from a multigenerational Oregon family and grew up a “tomboy” playing in the woods of south Eugene. In college, she studied biology and worked briefly in forest research before ultimately becoming a Family Nurse Practitioner. Love of plants led to many decades studying ornamental landscape plants and aspiring to create a traditional version of a beautiful garden. However, recognizing that birds and wildlife prefer native plants shifted her thinking. Douglas Tallamy’s book, Nature’s Best Hope, was instrumental in causing that shift.

Barbara joined Lane County Audubon Society (now CCBA) hoping to make a difference for birds. In May of last year, with support from the Board, volunteers, and a grant from Upper Willamette Soil and Water Conservation District, she started the backyard habitat certification program, Habitat Haven. Her timing couldn’t have been better. As of July, barely 14 months later, there were 150 land stewards enrolled in the program, spread throughout the Eugene-Springfield area and Cottage Grove!

What ties native plants, insects, and birds together? What can we do to help birds and pollinators? Find answers at the CCBA program meeting on Tuesday, September 23. Join your friends at the Campbell Center, 155 High Street, at 7:00 pm. Doors open at 6:30 for some social time. Check the Zoom link at ccbirdalliance.org (laneaudubon.org also works) about a week before the meeting. The program will also be recorded and posted at ccbirdalliance.org a few days later.

Join your friends at the Campbell Center, 155 High Street, Eugene, on Tuesday, May 27, at 7:00. The doors will open at 6:30 for some social time. This program will be available online via Zoom. A recording of the program will be posted here within the following week.