Happy New Year! With the holiday season behind us, we look forward to 2023 with renewed hope and optimism for the future and year ahead. Whether you watched the dropping of the New York Times Square Ball, watched New Year fireworks displays, sang ‘Auld Lang Syne,’ or made resolutions for 2023, hold on to the fact that there is more that joins us together than divides us.
Our first meeting of the year takes place at 11 a.m. on Mon- day, January 16, in the Club- house. The topic will be on gar- dening in Niguel Shores. Our
speaker will be Steven Schinhofen—owner and president of Harvest Landscaping—who will address gardening in the drought, landscape plans, and problems in Niguel Shores.
Members are welcome to bring guests to the meeting with a $5 admission fee for each guest. There will be a question-and-answer session. If you have any questions about Niguel Shores’ landscaping, please email them to Garden Club President Lydia Reese at lydiashappy@ gmail.com.
One of Garden Club’s projects is the Penny Pines Restoration Program. We collect donations at our meet- ings to help purchase tree seedlings for restoring burned areas in our National Forests. The Nature Conservancy currently has a project to plant a billion trees across the planet to slow the connected crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. They are encouraging people to give the gift of trees through this project.
There are almost two thousand trees alone in Niguel Shores! All trees, no matter their size, help to improve life on our planet. Trees clean the air we breathe. They give us oxygen to breathe in, and convert the carbon dioxide we breathe out back into stored carbon. Trees store carbon all through their lives, provide habitat for wildlife, help filter our water, and provide shade that helps regulate the temperature of our environment. Best of all: Time in nature with trees helps our mental and physical well-being. We need to preserve our trees!
—Ann Strauss
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