PLEASE NOTE: Our previously scheduled Fall Equinox Nature Hike on Pine Mountain has been rescheduled to this date due to a temporary road closure as a result of the recent Chorro Fire. The road has since been reopened earlier than planned but we’re sticking with the new date of October 11.

Visit some of the most spectacular scenery and habitat that Ventura County has to offer on our 3rd annual Fall Nature Hike on Pine Mountain at an elevation of 7000 feet. According to Craig Carey, author of Hiking and Backpacking Santa Barbara and Ventura, the Reyes Peak Trail along the northern slope of the peak is “quite simply one of the most beautiful stretches in the southern Los Padres.” And he’s not even talking about the views.

Read more and register here.

Join me and special guest Professor James Adams of USC School of Pharmacy on Saturday, September 12, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for a Medicinal Plant Walk on Sisar Creek in the Upper Ojai Valley between Ojai and Santa Paula.

Dr. Adams brings a wealth of knowledge and experience as well as a unique perspective on herbal medicine. He is the co-author — with the late Chumash healer Cecilia Garcia — of the groundbreaking book, Healing with Medicinal Plants of the West: Cultural and Scientific Basis for Their Use. As an Associate Professor of Pharmacology, he has been teaching pharmacy students, medical students......

Read more and register here.

As many of my readers and Herb Walkers know, there is a tremendous diversity of edible and medicinal plants to be found in the mountains, canyons, rivers, and valleys of Ventura County.

I will offer a 6-week slideshow-lecture class on “Edible and Medicinal Plants of Ventura County” at Little House Senior Center in Ojai beginning Friday, September 11.


The class is presented by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) and is open to anyone 50 years of age or older. We will meet each Friday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., skipping October 2, and finishing up on Friday, October 23.

Read more and find out how to register here.

This Herb Walk will begin at 9 a.m. at a site of great native plant diversity, the Arroyo Burro Estuary/Mesa Creek Restoration Area at the east end of the Arroyo Burro (Hendry’s) Beach parking lot. From there we will slowly climb up the trail to the Douglas Family Preserve overlooking the ocean, and return to the parking lot by 12:00 noon.

We will be identifying useful native and naturalized plants and learning about the many ways that they have can be utilized for food, home remedies, wildcrafting, foraging, survival, landscaping and more.

Even before the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District invited me to present an August slideshow lecture to their customers on "Native and Drought Tolerant Plants with Medicinal Uses" I already had a link to their great plant guide on my website. If you missed downloading it free from my Links to Resources page, here is another chance. Just click on the cover photo at the top of this article.

If you would like a printed copy, stop in at LVMWD headquarters in Calabasas or send me an email and I'll save a free copy for you for the next time you attend a walk or hike.

PLEASE NOTE: The Fall Equinox Nature Hike on Pine Mountain previously scheduled for this date has been moved to October 11.

Celebrate the Fall Equinox on Sunday, September 20, with an Herb Walk on the Wheeler Gorge Nature Trail just upstream from the famous Wheeler Gorge on scenic Maricopa Highway.

We will identify wild plants in riparian and chaparral habitats and discuss the many ways they can be used for food, medicine, crafts, survival, landscaping and more.

Read more and register here.

Don't let the archaic title fool you. This is a classic. Written by Ernest Thompson Seton, the originator and co-founder of the Boy Scouts of America, and a renowned naturalist, author, and painter, The Gospel of the Redman was originally published in 1935 while Seton was living among Native Americans. At that time the word “Redman” was one of the most common expressions to refer to First Peoples and was not considered improper by those Seton interviewed for the book.

Read more and order it here.

As our thank-you to you for opening and reading this newsletter, here is a discount code worth 10% off all items (except Gift Certificates and event admission charges) for the months of August and September at the Herb Walks Store. We are always adding new books to our collection. Have you looked lately?

Just click on the Herb Walks logo below to get the code. Then copy and paste it when requested at checkout.