August 7, 2025
Putah Creek Council, Solano Resource Conservation District and Solano County Parks are kickstarting a new “Friends of the Lake Solano Park Demonstration Garden” volunteer group.
The “Friends of” group will engage local community members in the health and establishment of the garden by doing maintenance work such as removing weeds, touching up on wood chips, and installing native plants as needed. PCC and SRCD will also provide training on ecological knowledge, such as identifying Monarch butterfly caterpillars and native plant identification.
The new demonstration garden at Lake Solano Park was installed in early 2025 as part of a 1.1 million dollar California Coastal Conservancy grant received by Solano Resource Conservation District and their partners Solano County Parks, Putah Creek Council, Bureau of Reclamation and Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation.
The grant includes the half-acre demonstration garden, which features an ADA trail and plant species that are culturally significant to the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, and habitat restoration to the upper reaches of the park that were burned in the 2020 LNU Fire.
Overall, SRCD and their partners are expecting to plant 1,700 native trees and shrubs, plant 20,000 milkweeds for the benefit of monarch butterflies, and seed 10 acres of native grasses and wildflowers. The project is focused on increasing public access and education to the park.
The Friends of the Lake Solano Park Demonstration Garden group will meet on the first Tuesday of each month. From June through September the meeting time is 8:30 to 10:30 a.m.; and from October through May the meeting time will be 10 a.m. to noon.
Those who are interested in attending should contact Katherine Holmes at the Solano Resource Conservation District: katherine.holmes@solanorcd.org.
In addition, PCC, SRCD, and Solano County Parks are hosting a Native Tree Care Workday at the Lake Solano Day-Use Area on Saturday, Aug. 23. Those who are interested can RSVP at putahcreekcouncil.org/events.