Climate stress and grief: building resilience through gardening
Monday, February 9th, Noon-1:30pm Zoom registration required https://oregonstate.zoom.us/meeting/register/XCYSvB-WRruhitWnAAH9PQ
This is an interactive training for Master Gardener volunteers, staff, and faculty.
Gardeners are experiencing climate change firsthand. Shifting seasons, extreme weather, plant loss, and uncertainty about what the future holds can bring up powerful emotions—sometimes quietly, sometimes all at once.
This 90-minute training introduces the concepts of climate stress and climate grief and explores how they show up specifically for gardeners and gardening communities. Adapted from existing work supporting farmers and ranchers, this session is designed with gardeners in mind and rooted in the relationships, identities and sense of hope that gardening often carries.
Participants will:
- Build shared language around climate stress and climate grief and why these experiences are increasingly common among gardeners.
- Explore why climate-related emotions can feel different for people who garden and care deeply for land and plants.
- Learn practical, accessible strategies for building resilience through connection, action, and care.
- Reflect on how Master Gardeners can support themselves, fellow volunteers, and community members as climate change continues to shape gardening in Oregon.
The session weaves together research, lived experience, guided reflection, and discussion. Gardening itself is centered as both a place where grief can surface and a powerful source of connection, agency and resilience.
Participants will leave with new tools for naming and navigating climate-related emotions, along with ideas for how small, meaningful actions—especially those rooted in gardening—can help transform concern into steadiness, hope and forward movement.
Invasive Plant Identification Basics
Wednesday, February 11th from 9-11 am PST (NV, AZ, SoCal)
Wednesday, February 18th from 4-6 pm PST (WA, OR, NorCal)
Attend either or both sessions regardless of what state you’re in. Some information will be regionally specific, but most will be broadly relevant.
The California Invasive Plant Council (Cal-IPC) is offering a free training on answering public questions about invasive plants. The workshop takes place on Zoom. To get the Zoom link, please register for the workshop.
Designed in consultation with Master Gardener volunteer program leaders from five western states, this information session and workshop will address and offer:
- Invasive plant ecology basics
- Tips to answer plant clinic inquiries about invasive plants
- Useful online resources
- Elements of a standard response to questions
The workshop counts for two hours of continuing education credits for Master Gardener volunteers.
Can’t make those dates? A recording will be available, but please register to indicate your interest.
If you have questions about the workshop content, please contact Constance Taylor at ctaylor@cal-ipc.org
