Earth Sanctuary: A Nature Reserve, Meditation Parkland and Sculpture Garden

Earth Sanctuary's West Pond - Constructed in 1957

Here is a photo showing the excavation and creation of the West Pond at Earth Sanctuary in 1957.  Newman Road is at the top of the photo.  Photo courtesy of Clayton L. and Kathryn E. Walton & family.

Here are a few Goldsworthy-like artworks created by visitors this past week.  One is at the Fen Stone Circle and one is at the Dolmen. 

Natural artwork at Fen Stone Circle

Natural artwork at Dolmen

Chuck Pettis and new Beaver Xing Sign

The beavers have started crossing Newman Road by Earth Sanctuary.  A neighbor called and asked me to put up a “Beaver Xing” sign.  Voila!

Palm Tree at Earth Sanctuary

At Earth Sanctuary, we have a 500 year plan to return the property to mature old growth forest. 

What trees should we plant with 500 years in mind?  The problem is complicated by the fact that at Earth Sanctuary, we have seen much longer periods between summer rain in past 10 years.  Last summer, we didn’t get any rain for 2 months and then the rain was only about 1/10″.  This makes it hard for a lot of plants and trees to survive.  The trees that are surviving are the drought tolerant trees such as pines and trees from California like Sequoias. 

A few years ago I asked some biologists what they expected the climate to be like in 500 years and they said: “Imagine parrots.”  So, we are getting ready for those future parrots.  We have just planted two Palm trees in the Earth Sanctuary arboretum as a symbol of climate change and our potential future climate.

The just-planted Ava Pettis Sequoia

For Christmas I got a small Sequoia tree from my daughter-in-law Kat and son Morgan.  Morgan is going to make a sign to go beside it: The Ava Pettis Sequoia Tree, named for my granddaughter.  Hopefully Ava will be able to watch it grow to ~100 feet in her lifetime.  The new Sequoia is now planted at the top of the Celestial trail in the new Earth Sanctuary arboretum beside a boulder cairn.  Sequoias seem to do really well at Earth Sanctuary and we are planting more of them this year.  -Chuck Pettis

Craig & Joy Johnson monitored a Rufous Hummingbird nest at Earth Sanctuary for 34 days and created a slide show from the building of the nest to eggs to fledged hummingbirds!  Click here to see the slide show.

This slide show takes you through the development of these amazing, tiny birds.  Arleen Stebbins first saw this nest while conducting her Wood Duck survey at Earth Sanctuary.  Many, many birds nest at Earth Sanctuary. 

Photos and slide show by Craig Johnson

Rufous Hummingbird

Above is a female Rufous Humminbird on her nest.  Under her are two hatched chicks.

Two Hummingbird chicks at Earth Sanctuary.

12 days later here are the two chicks!

Here is a web cam of a Black-chinned Hummingbird

Here is a web cam of an Allen’s Hummingbird.