Upcoming EVENTS:
Saturday, June 20th: BUTTERFLIES AT GOLDEN GARDENS!
The Lane County Butterfly club is hosting an upcoming field trip to two locations in West Eugene where they have been monitoring butterfly populations. The second location is Golden Gardens park where there are several small patches of milkweed, host plant for Monarch butterfly larvae.
PAST EVENTS:
BIRDS, BEES and TURTLES was held on Saturday, June 6th. Beyond Toxics, the Coast to Cascades Bird Alliance, WREN (Willamette Resource and Education Network), The Active Bethel Community, the City of Eugene and GGHG (Golden Gardens Habitat Guardians) put up tents at the entry to Golden Gardens Park. Fifty-five people attended or dropped by to learn about these organizations and to take part in the Ecology tour led by the City of Eugene’s ecologist, Lauri Holts. She was joined by Katie McInnis (avid birder and veterinarian for Cascades Raptor Center) and Rick Ahrens, local naturalist extraordinaire. We added quite a few new names to our email list and had great conversations about our push to have a BIOBLITZ next year. Stay tuned as we head in that direction.
Knowing Nature Field Day with iNaturalist adds 89 more observations to iNaturalist in less than 2 hours!!
Five residents of Bethel showed up for the iNaturalist Field Day event held on Saturday, April 18th. On the day before the event, iNaturalist recorded 955 observations for Golden Gardens Park – after the event, we added 89 more! Most were plants, but the group also added a bee, damsel fly, large mouth bass (thanks to a passing fisher-person), and a few birds. We talked about the importance of records throughout the season and from various perspectives and phenology (timing of seasonal events such as blooming or seed set). Want to help add to this – check our quick guide OR reach out if you are a group that is interested in learning more. We are working toward a Golden Gardens BIOBLITZ!
Check out Golden Garden Park’s page in iNaturalist! Residents and fans have collected 1048 Observations!
Inaugural Activity at Golden Gardens Park is a Success!
February 7th, 2026: Neighbors, friends and City officials met at 9am to show a little care and concern for Golden Gardens park. We focused our efforts on removing blackberry and teasel from inside and around the Northwestern Pond turtle fenced enclosure. A group of Boy Scouts assisted the group by removing some fencing around trees near the enclosure.
