Vol. 18, No 4
October 1990
FREMONTIA
A Journal of the California Native Plant Society
¦^.#1
CNPS 25th ANNIVERSARY
FREMONTIA
Vol. 18 No. 4                         October 1990
Copyright © 1990 California Native Plant Society
Phyllis M. Faber, Editor
Laurence J. Hyman, Art Director
Beth Hansen, Designer
EDITORIAL
California Native Plant Society
Dedicated to the Preservation
of the California Native Flora
The California Native Plant Society is an organization of laymen
and professionals united by an interest in the plants of California. It
is open to all. Its principal aims are to preserve the native flora and
to add to the knowledge of members and the public at large. It seeks
to accomplish the former goal in a number of ways: by monitoring rare
and endangered plants throughout the State; by acting to save
endangered areas through publicity, persuasion, and, on occasion,
legal action; by providing expert testimony to government bodies; and
by supporting financially and otherwise the establishment of native
plant preserves. Much of this work is done through CNPS Chapters
throughout the State. The Society's educational work includes:
publication of a quarterly journal, Fremontia, and a quarterly Bulletin
which gives news and announcements of Soceity events and
conservation issues. Chaptersihold meetings, field trips, and plant and
poster sales. Non-members are welcome to attend.
The work of the Society is done by volunteers. Money is provided
by the dues of members and by funds raised by chapter plant and
poster sales. Additional donations, bequests, and memorial gifts from
friends of the Society can assist greatly in carrying forward the work
of the Society. Dues and donations are tax-deductible.
1990 is the California Native Plant Society's twenty-fifth
anniversary. We are like a hiker on a trail through flowery
mountains, pausing to look back from where we have come
and ahead to where we are going.
We are proud of what we, as a far-flung statewide group, have
accomplished over the past years; it has been a tremendous group
effort. There are many small contributors and many heroes and
heroines. The sum of individual, chapter and state efforts
warrants a celebration and a moment of reflection.
The Society recently has embarked on a long range planning
process that will enable us to establish priorities for our program
and set our course for the next few years. In reviewing the past
work of the Society, the long range planning committee has
identified four broad goals of CNPS:
•  to provide a knowledge base about California's native flora
•  to promote the beauty and benefits of our native flora
•  to generate greater awareness of threats to California flora
•  to protect the native flora and its habitat
With the population of California growing so fast, we face
a major challenge to carry out our mission of preserving
California's native flora. To increase our effectiveness, we must
have new sources of funds to expand our program; we need to
grow in size and influence. We also want to retain the volunteer
character and "extended family" atmosphere that we enjoy today.
We will need every member's help, their ideas, imagination and
participation.
The flowers along the trail ahead need wise stewardship now
more than ever.
Suzanne Schettler, CNPS President
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Ken Berg, former CNPS botanist, directs the Endangered Plant Program of the Department of Fish and Game.
Catherine Caufield, well-known journalist and author of In the Rainforest, lives in San Francisco.
Gary M. Fellers is research biologist at Point Reyes National Seashore and research associate, University of California at Davis.
Steve McCormick is vice-president and regional director of the California field office of The Nature Conservancy.
Mary Meyer is the CNPS Forest Planner working on U.S. Forest Service planning.
Connie Millar is research geneticist at the Institute of Forest Genetics, Pacific Southwest Range and Experiment Station, Forest
Service, USDA, Berkeley.
Virginia Norris, a botany student at Sonoma State, leads the CNPS rare plant monitoring project at Point Reyes.
Jake Sigg is president of the Yerba Buena Chapter of CNPS and former head gardener of Strybing Arboretum.
James P. Smith, Jr., Dean of the College of Science at Humboldt State University in Areata, was chairman of the Rare Plant
Program from 1978 to 1986.
Nevin Smith is a frequent contributor to Fremontia and proprietor of the Wintergreen Nursery in Watsonville.
Ledyard Stebbins is Professor Emeritus in Genetics, University of California at Davis, and a past president of CNPS.
THE COVER: The Panamint daisy (Enceliopsis covillei), once thought to be extinct and now on the CNPS list lb, is represented on the CNPS
logo and is shown in this photograph by William T. Follette.

Plant sales, first held at Tilden Park (East Bay Regional Park), enabled CNPS to survive its early financial crises and have since become a mainstay
of many chapters. Photographs by Erwin Strohmaier.
THE CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY, THEN AND NOW
by G. Ledyard Stebbins
A little more than four years ago, in 1986,1 flew home
from Minnesota to attend the statewide convention of
the California Native Plant Society. When I gave
directions to the taxi driver at the airport in Sacramento,
he replied: "That's where the big meeting is going on,
isn't it?"
"Good heavens," I said to myself, "have we become
so important that even the taxi drivers know about us?"
When I reached the hotel and saw preparations for the
meeting, I realized that indeed we had; and, as the
sessions progressed, the reasons for this preeminence
became increasingly clear. California, long renowned
for its stately redwoods, giant Sequoiadendron,
picturesque cypresses, and a rich flora of shrubs and
herbs many times more diversified than any other equal
area in the continental United States, has an
organization of plant lovers second to none. It has
already served as an example for other states to copy. As
we celebrate our twenty-fifth anniversary, let us remind
ourselves how we got started, what made our
spectacular growth possible, and where we should go
from here.
3
How We Got Started
The founders of our Society are not professional
botanists. They are lovers of wild plants, growing either
in natural settings or in their gardens where they and
their friends can admire them continuously. The "hard
core" of founders were brought together by a mission of
conservation. In 1965, the East Bay Division of Parks
in Oakland was threatening to discontinue the
Arboretum of Native Plants in Tilden Park, and to
dismiss its Supervisor, James Roof. This brought forth
a series of protests and organized protest meetings on
the part of citizens who loved the Arboretum and felt
that it served a valuable purpose in the cultural life of
the area. After a vigorous campaign, they succeeded in
blocking the proposed dismantling, and the victors
realized that much more could be done to save from
destruction the rare native plants of California. The
need was great, and no other organization was meeting
the challenge. Both the Sierra Club and The Nature
Conservancy were sympathetic, but their energies were
and are directed toward larger goals. The professional
botanical societies were making gestures, but not
undertaking vigorous, concerned action.
This prompted a small but highly dedicated group of
plant lovers to organize our Society: Joyce and the late
Dr. Horace Burr, Jenny and Scott Fleming, Susan and
August Fruge, Inya and Walter Knight, James Roof,
Leonora and Dr. Erwin Strohmaier, plus University of
California chemist Leo Brewer and botanist W.M.
Laetsch. As soon as I heard about it, I organized a
Sacramento Valley Chapter and later attended meetings
of the main group in Berkeley (elected president 1967).
Initially, the Society's plan of action was to interest
other plant lovers in every way possible, to monitor the
activities of private and public agencies whose plans
would in any way destroy rare species or disrupt natu-
ral plant communities, to prepare whatever
countermeasures might be necessary to stop them, and
to seek donations from organizations and private
citizens. As I became more active, I realized that, as the
Sierra Club had long known, people become much more
interested in conserving natural features with which they
have become intimately acquainted, so that field trips
should be an essential part of our Society's activities.
The first of these, taken by the Sacramento Valley
Chapter, was to photograph rare native plants. After a
few unfortunate experiences with non-member student
visitors, we actively enforced the "no collecting" rule on
our trips. The epithet "posy pickers," sometimes applied
to our members, was never justified.
Another of our activities that became widely
adopted, native plant sales, grew out of a crisis from
which we rose, like Phoenix, from near oblivion. In the
autumn of 1966, the core group met in a rented office
for which we were in debt, in a session that at first was
full of gloom and doom. All our efforts at obtaining
funds had failed, and we were not attracting many new
members. Then one of our more stalwart optimists
made the suggestion that from our various native
gardens, plus seedlings grown from seeds that Jim Roof
and others had collected in the wild, we had enough
stock of native plants to put on a sale. The suggestion
was enthusiastically received, and for several weeks all
of our energies were devoted to "pulling ourselves up by
our bootstraps" in this fashion. The sale was so well
publicized that when we opened the gates of the sales lot
in Tilden Park, people were waiting to enter and buy.
The only thing that went wrong was our
underestimation of the interest that we had aroused.
Although the sale was publicized as an all-day Saturday
affair, we were almost completely sold out by noon time.
Not only had we covered our debts, but also we had
acquired many new members. All thoughts of
disbanding were forgotten: we were definitely on the way
to success.
How We Grew
As soon as we were firmly established, we looked for
ways in which to grow. As President during six years of
this period, I realized that growth in membership would
depend upon interesting people by encouraging them to
do things for conservation, and to become familiar with
the beauty that must be conserved in every way possible.
I spoke at evening meetings in many parts of Northern
California, and emphasized that our numerous field
trips were open and welcome to all who shared our
enthusiasm or would like to know more about us. Of
necessity, the trips and talks would be non-technical.
Botanical terms and Latin names of plants would not
be used, although CNPS leaders would be ready to
provide them whenever asked to do so. The events of
those critical years that some most often to my mind are
the victories that we won: the native plant communities
that have become conserved in large part through our
efforts. I present a brief account of four of these
campaigns, since each one of them illustrates a different
way to proceed, based upon taking advantage of the
particular circumstances involved.
Our experience in the Monterey area taught us the value
of having more powerful allies. In the winter of 1969,1
received a telephone call from Dr. John H. Phillips, then
Director of the Hopkins Marine Laboratory, at Pacific
Grove. Homeowners in the forest between Del Monte
Lodge and Pacific Grove were confronted with a new plan
developed by the Directors of the Del Monte Properties
Corporation to open a large sand quarry for making glass.
He asked me whether plant conservationists had any
interest in saving the area. I responded with an enthusiastic
"yes." The area involved is an ancient beach and former
dunes, raised above the ocean millions of years ago. Its
unusual soil supports a unique forest consisting of Gowen
4
cypress (Cupressus goveniana), a species endemic to
the Monterey area; a distinctive race of Bishop pine
(Pinus muricata); two species of manzanita having
different growth habits and chromosome numbers;
three species of Ceanothus, including hybrids between
two of them; and many smaller plants, both common
and rare. Preserving the area had for several years been
a major objective.
The immediate action was to attend a meeting of the
Monterey County Planning Commission to present our
case. We won a minor victory; the permit for quarrying
was not granted. Nevertheless, the campaign was by no
means over. Our next step was to organize a joint field
trip of the Bay Area group and the Monterey Bay
Chapter, to which we invited the protesting residents.
They did us the favor of persuading the Del Monte
Properties organization to waive for all of us the
entrance fee to the 17 Mile Drive. More than 100 of our
numbers were there. I explained at the start that we had
not organized a protest march. We only wished to show
our visitors the rare beauty that would be lost if the
bulldozers and stream shovels were permitted to enter.
We proved our point. After a rancorous feud, chiefly
between the property owners and the company, the case
went to the County Board of Supervisors, who held a
hearing at which we again presented our case. Legally,
its outcome was indecisive, but shortly thereafter the Del
Monte Properties Company presented to the County a
tract that includes the heart of the unique plant
community, to be set aside in perpetuity as a reserve in
honor of S.F.B. Morse, the original developer of the area.
Today, the S.F.B. Morse Botanical Reserve is featured
on the map of the 17 Mile Drive area that is presented
to tourists as they enter it. The Reserve itself is not
bordered by any road, and the trail or bridle path to it
is not indicated by a sign. Only hikers and naturalists
who are interested are likely to find it. It is buffered on
two sides by golf courses, and on a third by a steep hill
leading up to the well fenced Pacific Grove-Carmel
highway. It is as well protected from further incursions
as any area can be.
Boggs Lake Preserve
The Boggs Lake affair taught us that superior knowl-
edge can often win the day without an unpleasant
confrontation. One summer day in 1972, several of us
were telephoned by Alice Howard, then Secretary of our
Society, saying that real estate developers from Oakland
had plans to "develop" Boggs Lake, a vernal pool in
Lake County that is unique for its large size, and
situated in a forest of Ponderosa pine (Pinus
ponderosa), a typical mountain setting. The Lake
County Board of Supervisors was to have a hearing that
at least some regarded as a mere formality before issuing
building permits.
G. Ledyard Stebbins auctioning plants at the first CNPS plant sale.
Driving to Lakeport from Davis, I decided to make a
detour past the lake, so that I could report on its
condition at that time. I was able to tell the supervisors
and the developer's representative that what they had
seen flying over it during April, apparently a sparkling
body of water set in a sylvan glade, was in August a
dusty flat, in the center of which was a mud hole
overarched by tule reeds. The forest consists of trees
having at most a diameter of two feet, crowded so
closely together that several trees would need to be cut
down to make room for a single cabin. Given normal
human activity on a windy day during the dry season,
the whole area could go up in flames during a few hours.
This report caused a Lake County citizen who knew the
area to wonder where they could find enough drinking
water to supply even a small group of houses. Before the
hearing was over, the developers gave up the fight, and
CNPS immediately started negotiations to place Boggs
Lake under the stewardship of The Nature Conservancy,
where it now rests.
The lone Formation
The prolonged campaign for saving some of the spec-
tacular raised beach near lone, in the Sierra Foothills of
Amador County, showed that even when prospects are
gloomy, persistence and the help of knowledgeable allies
can bring desirable results. South of the town of lone
lies an area about two and a half square miles in extent
that with respect to its unique plant community is even
5
A CNPS field trip to a serpentine grassland at St Hilary's Church in
Tiburon looking over San Francisco Bay.
more dramatic than the patches of serpentine that dot
the foothills and Coast Ranges of California. Entering
it, a traveler suddenly leaves the monotonous oak-
covered hills, underlain by a sea of grass consisting
almost entirely of introduced European weeds; and
becomes surrounded by hills whose bronze-green color
is formed by an almost continuous stand of the lone
manzanita (Arctostaphylos myrtifolia), found only
there and in a few neighboring areas. Its dominance
coincides with the presence of an unusual soil, consist-
ing of layers of sand and clay. It is the fossilized remnant
of what was, forty million years ago, a seashore beach,
when an arm of the sea covered California's Great Val-
ley. The combination of low rainfall and intense sum-
mer heat, plus unfavorable substrate textures, low
content of mineral nutrients and extreme acidity (pH
3.5-4) of the soil yields an environment that blue oaks
and pasture grasses cannot tolerate, so that plants which
evolved in response to bygone conditions can still per-
sist, while everywhere else they have been crowded out
by aggressive newcomers, both native and alien. The
stands of lone manzanita are bordered in slightly bet-
ter sites by a larger, more common manzanita (A. vis-
cida), scrubby live oaks (Quercus wislizenii), and an
uncommon local species of Ceanothus tomentosus, that
decorates the area with its bright blue flowers in spring.
The sparse growth of herbs that occupies openings in
the shrub cover includes a sweet-smelling relative of the
cinquefoils, Horkelia parryi, and a tiny species of
mountain buckwheat, Eriogonum apricum, also con-
fined to the lone area. Dr. James Reveal, the recognized
authority on Eriogonum, has written that the relation-
ships of E. apricum within its huge genus are obscure,
but that it may well be a sole survivor of ancient ances-
tors of the modern species.
The lone barrens have for generations been recog-
nized as one of the most distinctive floristic communi-
ties of California. Hence our Society in its early years
placed a high priority on preserving at least some of the
area. Unfortunately the exceptional soil that has
preserved its unique plant community has also a high
commercial value. From it can be extracted pure sand,
valuable for glass making, and more important, pure
clay that is ideal for roof tiles and irrigation pipes. Two
large quarries have been operated there by high-powered
corporations for more than fifty years, and are still in
full swing. Inquiries with their representatives in San
Francisco, resulted in hostile replies loaded with
obscenity, that made our prospects seem anything but
encouraging. Nevertheless, some of our members per-
sisted, in particular world renowned soil scientist
Professor Hans Jenny and his wife, Jean. After further
visits to the area, some of which were met with equal
hostility on the part of company workers who happened
to be there, we sought the aid of The Nature Conser-
vancy. As a result, in 1978, a tiny plot, thirty-eight acres
of the lone formation was conserved, first by The
Nature Conservancy and now under the aegis of
California's Department of Fish and Game. Much of
the remaining area is still untouched, but who knows for
how long? Our Society should look for opportunities to
conserve more of it.
Tiburon
Our role in conserving part of Tiburon's serpentine
formation, during the last of the years when I was Presi-
dent, showed once more the importance of allies and
cooperation, and in addition our growing ability to make
a substantial contribution to the cause. We were no longer
a fledgling but a mature conservation organization.
The Tiburon Peninsula, north of San Francisco, has
long been known to botanists as the only home of
several rare endemic species, all of which are special to
the serpentine rock formation that underlies it. The rea-
6
sons why serpentine harbors rare species were clearly
explained by Arthur Kruckeberg in recent issues of
Fremontia. Tiburon is also one of the most desirable
residential areas in the Bay Area. There is probably no
other area in California where conserving rare plants
comes in such direct conflict with the desires of private
citizens for an ideal home site.
Given this situation, conserving Tiburon's rarities has
been possible only because of other favorable
circumstances. One of them is the presence of Old St.
Hilary's Catholic Church, a landmark that many of its
citizens cherish. During the 1960s, the diocese, having
built and occupied a new church in a more convenient
spot, decided that Old St. Hilary's could be sacrificed,
the property sold for a high price, as a means of their
future support. If that happened, the entire south slope
of the Peninsula would become a suburban community
and its unique assemblage of rare plants would be gone
forever, leaving only the less desirable northern half of
the Peninsula, part of which has been preserved in order
to save the enchantingly beautiful Tiburon mariposa lily
(Calochortus tiburonensis). This resulted in joint action
between the Marin Chapter of CNPS and the citizens
who were anxious to preserve the church. Our Society
as a whole was able to raise $3,000, then a rare sum for
us, which we contributed to the preservation fund. Both
the church and several acres of the serpentine plant
community are saved, we sincerely hope in perpetuity.
Where Are We Today?
Our statewide CNPS directory for 1989 reflects the
constant growth of our Society during twenty-three
years, and the wide support which it now enjoys. Our
membership of nearly 9,000 is well distributed
throughout the state, forming twenty-eight different
chapters. The responsibilities of the Board of Directors
are shared by forty-one members, including presidents
of the chapters. Responsibility for our activities, such
as action for conservation, determining priorities
among rare and endangered species, publications,
finances, legal advice, nominations of officers, field
trips, plant sales, education, and future planning, are
shared by a total of nearly 400 members, including
directors, statewide officers and chapter officers. The
ratio of one actively working officer for each twenty
members is unusual for an organization as large as ours,
and reflects the height of interest of members. Moreover,
only a small portion of the officers are either
professional botanists or salaried conservationists. By
and large, we are a Society of amateur plant lovers.
These figures show that the "do-it-yourself attitude
that was adopted by our founders and was largely
responsible for making our growth possible, still
persists. We need to preserve it and to continue our
collective efforts.
Where Do We Go from Here?
Our success to date has shown that the main
principles that have governed our growth and
development continue to be valid. These are: (1) work
together among ourselves as much as we can, but rely
on outside help whenever joining forces with another
organization will be of mutual help to both of us; (2) go
into the field as much as possible, and invite other
people to join us, so that we can be constantly aware of
deteriorating or improving conditions in every part of
the state; (3) keep careful watch on all government or
private agencies that are likely to propose regulations
that will either hurt or help us, and be prepared to act
quickly and effectively; and (4) never give up on any
conservation effort until victory is won or irreparable
damage has been done.
In spite of our success, we still hear the voices of
critics who question the value of our existence, and
believe that the tasks which we are performing could be
carried out by older, better established organizations.
These critics can be answered in the following way. First,
the membership of the professional botanical societies
is concentrated in or near the major universities, while
the majority of our chapters are far closer to the areas
that need to be preserved. This makes CNPS a more
efficient watchdog than any previously existing Society,
having a major interest in conservation of plant species
and floras; second, the major organizations dedicated
to conservation, such as the Sierra Club, Audubon
Society and Nature Conservancy, have many causes on
their agendas, of which spectacular bits of scenery and
warm, furry mammals or soaring birds arouse far more
interest among most people than do rare plants. Finally,
A late night meeting at the Strohmaier's house in Berkeley in 1966 when
the young society was in bad financial straits. Left to right: August
Fruge, James Roof, Alice Howard, Clyde Robin, Mary Wohlers; Paul
Zinke (back).
our independence from but constant cooperation with
these other organizations give us a flexibility that greatly
increases our effectiveness.
Nevertheless, although we are doing well at present,
we can still do better. I suggest two directions for
expanding our horizon. First, more interchange of
information with native plant societies in other states.
If our central office does not already have it, it should
possess a file that includes officers, membership and
activities of all other native plant societies in the United
States and Canada. Even further than this, for our
members traveling overseas, particularly to Europe and
Australia, a brief list of people or organizations with
whom they would find mutual enjoyment in exchange
of ideas and field experience, would enrich our lives and
those of others. Joint meetings or symposia between
CNPS and native plant societies of neighboring states
have already been tried with considerable success. This
activity could be expanded.
Another activity that could be expanded is training
our younger members for careers in conservation.
Volunteer experience in the activities of the California
Native Plant Society inevitably exposes people, on a
small scale, to the problems and difficulties that face
conservationists on a world wide scale. Several of our
officers have found expanded opportunities with state
agencies, and have improved materially the activities of
these agencies. I am not sure how this activity could be
expanded within the scope of CNPS, but it deserves
serious consideration.
General Conclusions
We are well established, and growing at a rate that is
commensurate with our needs. No matter how big we
become, we must maintain the intimacy, friendliness,
and capacity for doing things ourselves that we have
nurtured in the past. Continuous field experience,
supplemented by exchanges of opinions, has been and
will be our life blood. As we grow, these qualities can be
directed toward ever expanding goals and prospects of
conservation. We should welcome visitors, nurture
alliances, and do everything possible to promote our
role as a relatively small but effective unit in a worldwide
federation of societies dedicated to the cause of saving
the beauties of plant life from destruction.
G. Ledyard Stebbins, Genetics Department, University of
California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616
A CNPS field trip in Red Rock Canyon in April 1969.


A HISTORY OF THE RARE PLANT PROGRAM AND INVENTORY
by James P. Smith, Jr.
As we look back on our first twenty-five years, it is
clear that rare plants have been a major focus of the
Society's attention and resources. Probably the best
known product of this effort is the CNPS Inventory and
a significant portion of what follows chronicles its
development. But there is more to our rare plant
program than the Inventory. The Society's network of
rare plant coordinators in the various chapters, its
development of rare plant status reports and field survey
procedures, its survey contracts, our cooperative
agreements with state agencies, the preservation of
natural areas, and our involvement in the development
of legislation to protect rare plants provide a more
complete picture of what so many CNPS members have
accomplished in this aspect of the Society's activities.
If we were to single out a particular date and event
that marked the beginning of this effort, it would be
1968 and the compiling of a card file of California
vascular plants with a distribution of less than one
hundred miles, using the distribution information in
Philip Munz's "A California Flora." The compiler was
none other than G. Ledyard Stebbins, who was the
Society's President at the time and who remains one of
our most effective advocates. These 5" x 8" cards were
sent to botanists for review. Roman Gankin, Chairman
of the newly formed Rare Plant Study Committee,
coordinated the evaluation. Several in-house lists,
composed of over 800 plants, appeared during the next
three years. The first widely distributed CNPS list,
containing the names of 520 plants, came out in July
1971. In that same year, Gankin chaired a rare plant
study conference attended by fifteen people at the
California Academy of Science. This group struggled
with the same kinds of problems that were to occupy our
attention through the years—definitions of terms, the
concept that a plant could be rare but not endangered,
how to go about protecting plants, use of the computer
for storage and retrieval of data, mapping of locations,
and the controversial topic of the degree to which rare
plant data should be disseminated.
Leslie Hood, CNPS Conservation Chairman and
Director of the California Natural Areas Coordinating
Council, was to play an important role in those early
years because it was he who brought to our attention
that the state's Office of Planning and Research (OPR)
was beginning a program to gather information about
areas of environmental concern. The occurrence of rare
and endangered plants was part of that program. A very
tangible result of Hood's involvement was a $25,000
grant from the OPR to support our continuing program
suffrutescens on a field trip to Lake Winnamucca near Carson Pass.
Photograph by Fraser Muirhead.
of site verification in the field, of copying herbarium
labels, and of plotting rare plant locations on
topographic maps. Thousands of specimens were
photographed and hundreds of locations plotted.
In 1973 CNPS President John Sawyer asked
Lawrence Heckard, Leslie Hood, and Alice Howard to
serve on a Rare Plant Project Advisory Committee. This
marked the beginning of a formal group that would set
priorities, recommend policy and make reports to the
Board of Directors. Howard chaired the committee until
9
1978. Her contributions during those years were
significant, encompassing all aspects of the Society's
rare plant studies. I would note especially her efforts in
gaining the passage of the Native Plant Protection Act,
sponsored by Senator John Nejedly. This legislation
requires the California Department of Fish and Game
to establish criteria for determining whether a native
plant is rare or endangered, to inventory plants, to list
them, and to make it unlawful to import, collect,
possess or sell them within California. Lawrence
Heckard was to serve for many years on the committee
and its successor, the Rare Plant Scientific Advisory
Committee. His botanical knowledge and common sense
approach have been much-needed and appreciated
commodities these last two decades.
It was also in the early 1970s that the Society mounted
a major effort to update and expand its files. We did not
call it a "data base" in those days. Once more we
circulated lists for review. The high-point of these
activities occurred in July 1974, when a number of
professional and amateur botanists from throughout
the state met for a mapping session at the University of
California at Davis. This provided an excellent opportunity
for the participants to share their knowledge, often
incomplete, of California's rare and endangered plants.
It is still affectionately remembered as "The Map-In" at
Davis. I recall vividly that on many occasions none of
us could offer any first-hand information about a
particular plant being discussed, underscoring how little-
known our rarities were, and are.
A Team of Amateurs and Professionals
This brings me to an important point. The CNPS rare
plant investigations have been based upon the first-hand
knowledge and field experience of a statewide network
of botanists. When I use the term "botanist," I mean
both the amateur and the professional student of plants.
Our rare plant program has benefited greatly from the
generous and competent efforts of the amateur. The
detailed mapping of locations, the confirming of the
existence of plants in the field, and the recording of
changes in population size continue as we attempt to
refine our data.
Even before the appearance of the Inventory, we
recognized that attempts to classify plants solely on the
basis of the degree to which they were threatened was
too restrictive. The concept of rarity was interfering with
that of endangerment. While it is true that endangered
plants are, with a few exceptions, also rare, some taxa of
more widespread occurrence were endangered and their
numbers diminished because of commercial and private
exploitation for horticultural use. Many of our beautiful
lilies, cacti, orchids, succulents, and insectivorous plants
come to mind. People have always enjoyed taking them
home, planting them ... and watching them die.
In an attempt to address this problem, CNPS developed
the Rarity-Endangerment-Vigor-Distribution (R-E-D)
Code that would allow for the independent coding of
four coordinate elements. Rarity is a judgement as to
the extent of a plant, both in terms of the number of
individuals and the nature and extent of their
distribution. The scoring of endangerment recognizes
that a particular plant may be threatened with extinction
in some or in all of its range. The determination of vigor
rests on an assessment of naturally occurring
populations through time. Are the populations
increasing, stable, declining, or even approaching
extinction? The coding of distribution allows us to
address geographic occurrence. A plant may be a highly
restricted California endemic or, at the other extreme,
it may be rare in our state, but relatively common in
other states. In recent years, we have reduced the scheme
to a R-E-D Code.
The First Inventory in 1974
In December 1974, the Society published the first
edition of the "Inventory of Rare and Endangered
Vascular Plants of California," under the editorship of
W. Robert Powell. In its Main List were 704 plants of
primary concern. A second list of 554 plants constituted
a group of rare, but not presently endangered plants. A
list of 135 plants having limited distributions, but not
being rare, constituted an appendix. This brought the
total number of species, subspecies, and varieties in the
first edition to 1393.
At the time of its publication, the CNPS Inventory
was the most detailed compilation of rare plant data for
any state in the nation. It quickly became the most
widely used reference on the subject in California. The
staffs of city, county, state, and federal agencies, private
consultants, conservationists, and botanists relied upon
it as their prime source of authoritative information.
Many of these same individuals provided CNPS with
new information, suggestions, and corrections. We
responded by issuing supplementary lists of additions
and deletions.
Another source of rare plant information came from
the Society itself. Beginning in 1977, CNPS contracted
with the U.S. Forest Service and with the California
Department of Fish and Game to prepare several
hundred status reports. These invaluable summaries
went far beyond the level of detail that we could provide
in the Inventory. They included the nomenclatural
history of the plant, commentary on its distribution, a
botanical description highlighting diagnostic features,
information on habitat, endangerment factors, manage-
ment suggestions, references, illustrations, and the
names of individuals who had knowledge of the plant.
The early status reports were prepared under the
supervision and editorship of Alice Howard. Jane Cole
10

*-'<*'!A-'4i'' '¦   -
The CNPS botanists: Rick York, Mark Skinner and Ken Berg. Self-portrait.
had that responsibility for a number of them, and in
more recent years the CNPS botanists have continued
to supervise the revision of existing reports and the
writing of new ones.
In 1978, President August Fruge expanded the rare
plant committee to include representatives from across
the state and changed its name to the Rare Plant
Scientific Advisory Committee, thereby indicating a
primary charge to its members. I became the Chairman
of the reconstituted committee and served in that
capacity for several years.
With each passing year, it became more obvious that
a second edition of the Inventory was needed. In
November 1979, the United States Fish and Wildlife
Service and CNPS cosponsored a second review
conference, attended by about fifty botanists, once
again at the Davis campus. Its primary purpose was to
review a provisional draft of plants for a second edition.
It appeared in 1980, with John Sawyer, Jane Cole and
I as its editors. We introduced several changes in format.
This time, 1383 plants were presented in four lists. We
began with a group of plants called "Presumed Extinct
in California," in an effort to draw special attention to
forty-four taxa that were known only from historic
collections. We hoped that botanists around the state
would be challenged to see if any of these plants could
be rediscovered, and several of them were! The
California Department of Fish and Game recognized
the plants of this edition as constituting its "species-
of-concern" list. We published two supplements in 1981
and 1982.
A Move to Sacramento
In that same year, the Rare Plant Program also faced
a very serious problem. For many years our rare plant
files and maps had been housed at the University of
California at Davis; first at the arboretum and later at
the Institute of Ecology. Now that space was no longer
available and we had to relocate our office. Offers came
in from a variety of sources —universities, consulting
11
firms, the Endangered Plant Program of the California
Department of Fish and Game, and the California
Natural Diversity Data Base (CNDDB), a new
organization resulting from a cooperative effort
between The Nature Conservancy and California
Department of Fish and Game. Each option was
weighed carefully and after much debate, the Society
signed a contract with CNDDB. By combining our
efforts, the goals of both organizations could be met
and duplication could be avoided. An important benefit
to us was the further computerization of our rare plant
data. I had to learn such "new" terms as relational data
bases, interactive graphics, and digitizing. Today, of
course, we know them as techniques for manipulating
the way in which we store, retrieve, and present data.
As an outgrowth of our arrangement with CNDDB,
the Rare Plant Program of CNPS hired its first full-time
staff botanist, Rick York. The rare plant data that
already existed in our files, together with the accelerated
pace of acquiring new information, had exceeded the
capacity of our group of volunteers to maintain current
manual files and to respond to inquiries in a timely
fashion. A full-time botanist position had become a
necessity. Our agreement with the CNDDB also led to
establishing the CNPS botanist's office and files within
facilities provided by the California Department of Fish
and Game, the state agency charged with inventorying
rare and endangered plants and with preparing the
documentation needed for state listing.
The contract with CNDDB was to last for one year,
but soon after it went into effect discussions proceeded
about the possibility of turning this into a more
permanent relationship. The combined effort has been
a great success from the start, as seen in the increased
collaboration of staff botanists. Since 1980, the
relationship has flourished, in no small part because of
the abilities of Rick York, Ken Berg (who became the
CNPS botanist when Rick joined the staff of the
Endangered Plant Program), Deborah Jensen, Susan
Cochrane, and others.
Planning for the third edition of the Inventory began
in late 1982. We held meetings the following year to
discuss possible format changes and to solicit
information on incompletely known plants. In July
1983, through the generosity of many chapters and
CNPS members, the Rare Plant Program was able to
purchase a microcomputer, printer, and software. The
work of entering all of our rare plant data into the
computer began that summer and was completed in a
relatively short time. What a difference this made. Not
only were we able to deal with an ever increasing volume
of rare plant data, but we could rely on this same system
to help us produce the new editions of the Inventory. In
February 1984, we once again held a statewide meeting
of amateur and professional botanists at the University
of California at Davis. The new edition appeared later
that year.
A New Era — Electronic Coordination
Work on the fourth edition began in 1987, with the
conversion of our computerized data to MS-DOS
compatible dBase III + files. Advances in database
management software improved our ability to organize
and to analyze the data and it allowed electronic
coordination with the Department of Fish and Game
botanists at the Natural Diversity Data Base. We
circulated a list of proposed status changes to more than
200 data contributors around the state. We held
meetings in Sacramento and in Berkeley in December
1987 to discuss final status recommendations and to
receive outstanding field survey forms.
These solicitations led to a systematic re-evaluation
of the rarity and endangerment ratings for more than
700 of our highest priority plants. We compared county
and topographic quadrangle data with those in the
NDDB computer files. We assembled, categorized, and
entered habitat data for more than 1,400 plants. The
fourth edition appeared in September 1988.1 have been
involved in editing the last three editions of the
Inventory and this one is the best. Much of the credit
must go to Ken Berg, who as CNPS botanist, was
intimately involved its production. His careful work
with "quality control" of location information and his
ability to work with the more sophisticated computer
software that we now had at our disposal are
responsible, in large part, for its success.
The Rare Plant Program continues to be guided by
the Rare Plant Scientific Advisory Committee, headed
in recent years by Thomas Elias of the Rancho Santa
Ana Botanic Garden and by Bruce Pavlik of Mills
College. While the traditional concerns of the program
still command attention, new ones have been added,
such as an increased role in preparing the information
needed for state listing of plants and the recognition
that an inventory of natural plant communities is a
critical need. And, of course, our new CNPS botanist,
Mark Skinner, is at work on the next edition of the
Inventory. Plans are being developed to make it
available in both a hardcopy and an electronic format.
Why has the California Native Plant Society spent so
much of its time, energy, and money to study rare
plants? There is, of course, the intellectual satisfaction
that comes from the knowledge itself. But, the knowl-
edge is a means of accomplishing one of the Society's
major goals—the preservation of rare plants and their
habitats. Our responsibilities are best served by
complete and accurate information upon which to make
sound judgments and recommendations. Although our
understanding is incomplete and there are imperfections
in our data, the information is there for all of us to use.
The challenge is for us to use it wisely.
James P. Smith, Jr., College of Science, California State
University, Humboldt, Areata, CA 95521.
12
Bfc*T£$
¦ *     ¦ 3 7   w - aST  •    ¦      i.T.-l
A CNPS Northcoast Chapter work party "lupine bash" eradicate the aggressive yellow bush lupine (Lupine arboreous) to preserve the native
dune flora at the Lanphere-Christensen Dunes Preserve near Areata. Photographs by Ken Berg.
THE CNPS BOTANIST IS A REFLECTION OF THE SOCIETY
by Ken Berg and Mark Skinner
What do the U.S. Forest Service, the television show
"20-20," a Sonoma County Supervisor, Brand X
Consultants, and Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun, the world's
largest newspaper, have in common? On any given day,
each might seek the expertise of the California Native
Plant Society for information and advice on how to
protect rare plants or resolve land use planning conflicts.
As staff for the CNPS Rare Plant Program, the Botanist
is a conduit between the Society's volunteer network and
a myriad of conservation issues. The diverse activities
of the Botanist reflect the Society's active role as a
recognized leader in plant conservation.
The Botanist, a combination itinerant ombudsman
and resident curator of botanical minutia, is required to
do a little of everything. What other job would enable
you to monitor endangered plants on remote San
Miguel Island with National Park Service botanists one
week and testify before the State legislature or the Fish
and Game Commission the next? Sometimes the CNPS
conservation strategy is obscured by the frenetic pace of
activity and threats in California. In general CNPS is
successful by maintaining accurate information,
effectively setting priorities, and efficiently coordinating
and collaborating on plant conservation issues.
Accurate data on the rarity and distribution of native
plants and the factors threatening their populations are
needed to determine where to focus our limited
resources. Maintaining this information is an enormous
13
challenge in California because we have a tremendously
rich flora and a rapidly expanding human population.
In 1980, when Rick York was hired as the first CNPS
Botanist, there were already twenty-four million
California residents. In 1983 Rick began the
monumental task of computerizing more than fifteen
years of CNPS rare plant data on nearly 1,400 taxa
(Fremontia January 1982). Now CNPS tracks more
than 1,600 rare plants; thousands of occurrence records
must be processed annually to maintain the inventory.
Additional staff are needed just to keep up with the field
survey forms contributed by more than 200 volunteers.
Today California has more than thirty million
residents. Three thousand new people arriving each day
exert intensive pressure to develop native habitats.
Conservationists face the distressing task of deciding
which plants receive protection efforts and which do
not. One in every four native plants needs help, but
setting priorities is critical when you cannot save
everything. By determining which plants are most
imminently endangered with extinction the Rare Plant
Scientific Advisory Committee (RPSAC) establishes
priorities for listing petitions, scientific research, habitat
acquisition and restoration, and other protection
efforts. The Botanist transforms RPSAC policies and
priorities into conservation action
Being a conduit means having some bad days. Even
with our best efforts to gather data and set priorities,
California's flora is losing ground rapidly. Having a
statewide perspective on the rate of habitat loss is
overwhelming at times. In your county alone, how many
vernal pools or oak woodlands have you seen replaced
by suburban sprawl? Add in the other threatened habitats
in your county, multiply that by fifty-eight counties and
you can begin to get a statewide perspective.
It's essential to remember that other people care and
are willing to help in order to maintain a positive
outlook. CNPS's strength comes from its active
membership and effective interagency collaboration.
The Society has a long history of productive
coordination with The Nature Conservancy, California
Department of Fish and Game, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, and many other organizations and agencies.
The CNPS network of volunteers brings conservation
priorities and vital information to decision makers around
the state. The Botanist coordinates with agency staffs,
helps connect volunteers with each other, identifies key
issues and provides activists with information and training
necessary to protect rare plants.
A recent emphasis of the Rare Plant Program has
been to actively reach out to CNPS Chapters and other
organizations to strengthen the conservation network.
Over the last few years, the travelling road show has
presented the "Protecting California's Endangered
Flora" slide program in more than thirty cities. These
interactions have motivated and inspired both the
Botanist and local conservationists around California.
Working together, we've been able to make a
difference. Most conservation victories can be traced to
a foundation of increased public awareness. By sharing
our appreciation and enthusiasm for native plants with
people, we empower them to help us. Many of California's
finest wildflower preserves were protected by activating
public concern. Baldwin Lake, Jepson Prairie, Nipomo
Dunes and Ring Mountain are just a few success stories
{Fremontia January 1983, April 1981, January 1984,
July 1975 and July 1982).
Effective conservationists know how to bring out the
latent hero in people. Everyone has the capacity to
protect native plants. If the Humboldt milk vetch
(Astragalus agnicidus) can be protected by the ranchers
who nearly exterminated it, anything can happen
(Fremontia April 1988). Our challenge is to find the
common ground that unites divergent interests.
Periodic Plant Watches, a project coordinated by the Napa Chapter's Joe Callizo, help CNPS keep track of endangered species. North coast
chapter members, here, monitor the endangered Menzies' wallflower (Erysimum menziesii) at TNC's Lanphere-Christensen Dunes Preserve.
Lynn Lozier of The Nature Conservancy presents Gordon Tosten with
a commemorative plaque for his voluntary efforts to protect the
world's only known population of the Humboldt milk-vetch
(Astragalus agnicidus) on his family's ranch in Humboldt County.
Can CNPS continue to have a positive influence on
the future of California's flora even with our escalating
population pressures? We think so. But only by
recognizing the scope of our challenges and making a
realistic commitment to meet them can we continue to
protect the living California landscape. This will require
that we reach out to new partners for cooperation, raise
more money, take more risks and follow our
convictions. Future Californians are counting on us to
succeed. Let's not disappoint them.
Ken Berg, Mark Skinner, Natural Heritage Division, Department
of Fish and Game, 1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
The CNPS Poster Project
In 1978, CNPS launched its poster publishing project as
a way of "raising our profile" and to gain more advocates
for preserving our native flora. Should the first poster be
successful, we envisioned doing others that would cover
different areas of the state. At the time our state finances
were extremely limited, and the poster was a scary
commitment for us. From the vast wealth of native species
to choose from, we decided to depict "the prettiest and the
commonest" within one designated area. To help narrow
the selection, no genus would be repeated on an individual
poster, and no species would be repeated on other posters.
Marin artist Gompers Saijo was our first artist. With the
"Spring Wildflowers" poster completed in the spring of
1979, we timidly voted to print 5,000. To our relief and
delight our original poster sold out in a very few months,
and the poster project was off and running.
Gompers Saijo again did the art work for the second
poster, "Wildflowers of the Desert," and I again selected the
plants to include. He and our other top-notch artists were
selected for their artistic talent and their knowledge of our
native plants. All of our artists work in water color.
Svetlana Buchli was the artist for the "Shrubs of the Coast
Ranges," and Kristin Jakob for the "Wildflowers of the
Sierra Nevada." The botany departments at U.C. Berkeley
and the California Academy of Sciences generously
reviewed each poster before publication.
After subtracting total expenses of $135,000 for art work,
printing, laminating and administration, eleven years of
poster sales have produced a net profit approaching half
a million dollars, about equally divided between the state
organization and the chapters.
How could we possibly produce such a phenomenal
profit margin? Mainly because our distribution costs are
next to nothing. Our network of twenty-seven chapters
throughout the state makes it possible to distribute to sales
outlet in every metropolis and every corner of California;
our transportation costs are next to nil because chapter
representatives pick up posters at quarterly meetings for
distribution at no cost.
In addition, CNPS is fortunate to have a noble cadre of
volunteers—the twenty-seven chapter sales chairmen and
the chapter treasurers who make the sales happen. At the
state level there are such unsung and unpaid heroes as Steve
Lowens, who keeps all the books and produces quarterly
reports; Jane Anderson, who manages all the sales and
maintains the storage facility for the unlaminated posters;
Maxine Durney, who stores and manages sales of the
laminated posters; Elizabeth McKegney, who responds to
all inquiries that come to the Sacramento CNPS office
regarding where posters may be purchased; and Anne
Spencer, who mails out all the orders that come in to the
office. Additionally, there are those volunteers who supply
posters to the outposts — Susan Fruge for Joshua Tree
National Monument, Mitch Beauchamp for Anza-Borrego
State Park, and Anne Amerine in Agoura Hills, who
supplies Southern California chapters. The contributions
of all these devoted volunteers in time and effort can be
measured not only in the considerable income they have
generated for the Society, but also in the many new
members they have attracted and the awareness of our
glorious flora that these posters promote.
Two new posters are in the works: another one by artist
Svetlana Buchli, "Wildflowers of the Coast," is due out by
the end of 1990, and "Wildflowers of the Redwood Forest,"
by Rosemary Bauman in Crescent City, is scheduled for
printing next year.
Wilma Follette
15
s >; • -¦>
i^i^y^tXZ0"^ f0™ a Vegetati°n m°"iC " ^ UPPCT Se"SP; Cre6k watershed ofthe Los Padres NaS.™
MONITORING U.S. FOREST SERVICE PLANNING
by Mary Meyer
The California Native Plant Society recognizes the
wealth of botanical resources in the state's twenty
million acres of national forestland; these lands support
twenty-five percent of the rare and endangered plants in
the CNPS inventory, and they contain a wealth of
different types of forest, scrub, woodland, grassland,
meadow and riparian habitats. National forestlands are
also noted for their unique habitats, such as those found
on serpentine and limestone soils and in seasonal
wetlands, alpine plant communities, bogs, and fens.
CNPS has strongly advocated native plant protection
and has served as an important source of botanical
16
information for the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) from the
early days of maintaining the rare plant inventory to our
current participation in the forest planning process.
Since CNPS' beginnings in the mid-1960s, our national
forest conservation efforts have addressed wilderness
preservation; rare, threatened, and endangered plants;
the Research Natural Area program; and protection of
areas with unique elements or high botanical diversity.
The year 1974 was an important year, with the publication
of our first edition of the Inventory of Rare and
Endangered Vascular Plants of California, and the
appointment of Jean Jenny as our Public Lands
Coordinator. The inventory helped focus attention on
rare and endangered plants on national forestland, and
Jean Jenny spearheaded early contacts with various
National Forest staff by individual and local chapters.
In 1977, under the direction of Alice Howard and R.
Jane Cole, CNPS contracted with USFS and the
California Department of Fish and Game (CFG) to
prepare several hundred status reports on rare and
endangered plants. That same year, the California Region
of USFS established the first Botanical Area, Butterfly
Valley in the Plumas National Forest. Protection of
Butterfly Valley's Darlingtonia bogs and lush meadows
was primarily accomplished through the efforts of the
late Wayne Dakon, well known as a self-trained botanist,
outspoken and effective environmentalist, and CNPS fellow.
Meanwhile, the rare plant program continued to
expand, and the second Inventory was published. In
1980, CNPS hired its first full-time botanist, Rick York.
Rare plants identified in the CNPS Inventory and
records compiled at the newly established California
Natural Diversity Data Base formed the basis for lists
of sensitive plants prepared by staff at each national for-
est. "Sensitive species" is the term USFS uses to
designate those rare and endangered species in need of
special protection and management.
During the early 1980s, several conferences were
sponsored by CNPS at Fort Cronkhite to provide
training and support to chapter members interested in
conservation. Workshops on national forest issues were
important components of these conferences because
USFS was preparing its critically important ten-year
management plans.
The National Forest Management Act (NFMA) of
1976 required each national forest to prepare land and
resource management plans supporting environmental
impact statement every ten years. While past planning
emphasized a single resource, such as timber or
recreation, current planning addresses the whole gamut
of resources, from air, water, biological and cultural
resources to mining and timber.
The NFMA mandate to produce long-range plans
coincided with increased emphasis on commodity
production during the Reagan administration. Forest
plans described the intent of USFS to meet increasing
demands for timber by converting forests to tree
plantations through clear-cutting supported by use of
herbicides and other intensive site-preparation methods.
Expansion of grazing, vegetation type conversions, and
other forms of intensive manipulation of forestland for
commodity production were also advocated. Forest
plans promised many great programs to enhance
watersheds, fisheries and wildlife habitat, provided
Congress would fund them. Conservationists doubted
the ability of USFS to protect watersheds and resources
while increasing timber and range outputs because they
had witnessed the impacts resulting from past lower
levels of production and were aware of future staffing
Pileated woodpeckers depend on dead wood in old growth forests for
building nest cavities. Photographs by the author.
and funding cuts. NFMA required USFS to increase
efforts to bring the public into the planning process.
This greater public scrutiny has lead to the highly visible
debates we see today.
Jim Jokerst volunteered at this time as CNPS Forest
Service Coordinator to work with local chapters and
prepare written comments on the draft ten-year plans
and supporting environmental impact statements. With
eighteen forests in the California Region of USFS and
planning documents the size of several telephone
directories, the task soon became overwhelming and
CNPS agreed to fund a co-worker. CNPS, along with
the Audubon Society, The Nature Conservancy, and
California Trout Unlimited, funded a comments
coordinator position to assist Jim and provide for an
integrated and mutually beneficial effort on behalf of
the conservation groups.
Another important year for CNPS was 1986, when it
held its first conference on rare and endangered plants,
attended by more than 800 participants. Zane Smith, Jr.,
then regional forester of California's eighteen national
forests, was a keynote speaker, addressing sensitive plant
management by USFS. The conference, with its
enthusiastic throng of professional and amateur
botanists, showed Mr. Smith and leaders of other
regulatory agencies that rare plant conservation was
more than an esoteric subject of interest to a select few.
That same year, the January issue of Fremontia focused
on national forest planning, with articles by Zane Smith,
Jr., Ledyard Stebbins, Jim Jokerst, and William Unkle.
This issue is important reading for anyone interested in
the role of CNPS in the forest planning effort.
In 1987, catastrophic wildfires consumed over one
17
million acres of forestlands and shrublands in
California. As the state scrambled to control the fires
and mitigate damage, it became apparent that both the
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
(CDF) and USFS would respond by seeding damaged
watersheds with the highly undesirable non-native
ryegrass {Lolium multiflorum). CNPS feared that
overzealous ryegrass seeding would impair the natural
recovery process and outcompete native fire followers.
Jim Jokerst and CNPS President Charli Danielsen
prepared a press release with supporting literature
discussing our concerns, and wrote letters urging CDF
and USFS to limit ryegrass seeding. Several major
newspapers ran stories as a result and CNPS concerns
were made known to a broader group within USFS. By
combining a highly visible strategy with sound scientific
information, CNPS succeeding in raising awareness of
the disadvantages of ryegrass use. This pressure and the
results of USFS research has led to dramatic reductions
in the use of ryegrass by USFS.
In 1987, CNPS chose to further increase its visibility
and interactive efforts with USFS by funding a forest
issue consultant position. I was hired at that time to
work under the supervision of Jim Jokerst and
undertake most of the ever-increasing workload
associated with the forest plan review effort and follow-
up. Part of my job was to meet with USFS botanical and
planning staff as a CNPS advocate for the native flora.
I met with staff of eleven of the eighteen forests in the
California Region during the next two years. For many
forest planners it was the first time they had ever met a
CNPS representative, or listened to the points of view
of informed botanists and plant ecologists outside
USFS. Throughout this process, Jim Jokerst continued
to provide invaluable supervision and support as we
learned the ins and outs of national forest planning.
As the final ten-year plans were released, we found
that our comments had resulted in some improvements
for the native plants. However, CNPS felt that many of
its legitimate concerns and requests were not
satisfactorily addressed. Most forest plans relied on
widespread manipulation of native vegetation to pro-
duce timber, forage, and water while ignoring the long-
term effects of repeated clear-cutting, burning, seeding,
soil disturbance, soil and nutrient loss, and grazing.
Furthermore, only a few new botanical areas were
designated, and CNPS felt that rare plants were not
afforded the pro-active management and monitoring
required by law and regulation.
To further pursue solutions to our concerns, CNPS
filed formal administrative appeals of the already
released final ten-year plans. To date, the Angeles,
Sequoia, Los Padres, San Bernardino, Plumas, and
Eldorado National Forest plans; the Regional Plan for
Vegetation Management for Reforestation; and some
plans for timber sales have been appealed and more
appeals  are expected.  The Lake Tahoe Basin
Management Unit and Inyo plans were not appealed by
CNPS because our concerns in these areas were
adequately treated.
Through negotiations with USFS, CNPS has since
obtained a settlement agreement with the Angeles
National Forest in which we mutually agreed to terms
that resolve issues raised in our appeal; we are close to
similar agreements with the San Bernardino, Los Padres
and Sequoia national forests.
As we enter the 1990s, CNPS continues its forest
planning endeavor while expanding support to local
chapters. For the next two years, I will be working as a
half-time CNPS employee maintaining the current
program and providing information and encouragement
to local chapters to expand their involvement in USFS
issues. CNPS has also recently embarked on a new
relationship with USFS by entering into a memorandum
of under-standing. The MOU enables CNPS to undertake
joint projects with USFS to protect and enhance botanical
values. By showing our commitment to native plant
protection through careful scrutiny and cooperative
endeavors, CNPS will continue its advocacy role for native
plant protection on national forestlands.
Recent Accomplishments in Forest Planning
CNPS forest plan reviews have focused on aspects of
national forest management with the greatest potential
to affect botanical values. While other conservation groups
have addressed protection of wild and scenic rivers,
wilderness, and roadless areas, CNPS has emphasized
previously overlooked aspects of vegetation management.
Management and monitoring of sensitive plants,
designation and protection of botanical areas and research
natural areas, and programs affecting chaparral, hardwood
and riparian ecosystems have received close scrutiny.
Grazing, timber and mining practices have also been a
focus of our reviews and appeals.
As CNPS began scrutinizing Forest Service programs
to protect sensitive plants, it became clear that even the
best plan requires an adequate staff and budget to be
successfully implemented. Although each designated
National Forest has a sensitive plant coordinator, in the
past, the coordinator was often a wildlife biologist or range
conservationist with little direct experience or time to
devote to the botany program. Only five professional forest
botanists were working in the state during the 1980s. CNPS
expressed concerns to forest planners and to Regional
Forester Paul Barker in 1988. Over the last two years, the
California Region has placed professional botanists on
eleven out of its eighteen forests, and more botanists are
expected to be hired. Eighteen full-time and many seasonal
botanists now work to maintain the sensitive plant
resource. A combination of factors, including pressure
from conservationists and lobbyists in Washington DC,
such as Dr. Faith Campbell of the National Resources
18
Intensive livestock grazing threatens unique bog and mesic meadow plant communities within the proposed Mt. Pleasant Research Natural Area
in the Plumas National Forest.
Defense Council; timber sale appeals filed by forest
activists; the leadership of Jim Shevock, USFS regional
botanist and CNPS member; and the devotion and work
of USFS staff have resulted in increased Congressional
appropriations to hire botanists.
One of the most important aspects of sensitive plant
management addressed in forest plans is the development
of species management guides. Guides are central to a
pro-active sensitive plan program, and are prepared under
the direction of a professional botanist following guidelines
contained in the Forest Service Handbook. As final plans
came out, CNPS found that some referred to species
management guides, typically in the monitoring section,
but generally there were no specific commitments or
schedule for completing guides even though many species
are potentially threatened by USFS activities.
Through negotiated settlements of forest plan appeals,
CNPS has so far obtained commitments from the Angeles
and Los Padres national forests to prepare two guides
per year. The Sequoia National Forest also has agreed
to complete twenty-eight botanical investigations over
the next ten years; this is the first stage in producing guides.
Priority is given to those species most sensitive to ongoing
forest uses, thereby focusing attention on species most
in need of monitoring, management and recovery.
When Regional Forester Zane Smith, Jr., addressed
management of sensitive plants at the CNPS 1986 Rare
and Endangered Plant Conference, he used the species
management guide for the Shirley Meadows mariposa
lily (Calochortus westonii), a Category 1 candidate for
federal listing as an endangered species, as an example
of how USFS provides special management for sensitive
19
•iTftpyfoB
A rich profusion of herbaceous plants grow among the granite along Hat Creek that flows onto lands managed by the Lassen National Forest.
species. Ironically, guide direction was overlooked recently
when the Sequoia National Forest proposed the Flat
Timber Sale near Shirley Peak. The sale prescribed
intensive timber harvest and tree plantations on about
forty percent of the known habitat of C. westonii.
Inconsistency with the species management guide and
the proposed manipulation using unproven techniques
represented a big risk to the species.
When the environmental assessment for the Flat Timber
Sale was issued last January, CNPS appealed and alerted
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Both organizations
expressed concerns to the Sequoia National Forest that
the sale violated direction in the guide and could
jeopardiize the species. The proposed sale was subsequently
withdrawn by USFS. This incident demonstrates the
continuing need for CNPS to diligently monitor and
review site-specific projects to ensure that sensitive species
receive appropriate management and protection.
Preservation of sensitive plants in the face of limestone
mining in the San Bernardino National Forest poses a
unique challenge. Threats to limestone endemics from
open pit mines were described by Tim Krantz in the April
1988 Fremontia. Mining on public lands falls under the
archaic Mining Act of 1872, which allows mining on public
land with little regard for other resources. In its forest
plan, the San Bernardino National Forest developed
standards and guidelines requiring reclamation of mined
areas and the establishment of refugia to protect limestone
endemics. However, CNPS felt that the Forest should be more
aggressive in asserting its authority to regulate surface use.
To lay our course of action, CNPS negotiated an
agreement with the Forest whereby it would develop a
five-year action plan for the study and management of
limestone endemics. The action plan will address pilot
studies for reclamation, establish permanent refugia, and
develop a coordinated resource management plan that
20
would increase dialogue and cooperation between private
operators and government agencies. Concurrently, CNPS
is monitoring progress toward federal listing of the
limestone endemics, an action endorsed by CNPS. Once
limestone endemics are listed, USFS has the authority
to provide stronger protection through the Endangered
Species Act.
Botanical Special Interest Areas
Designation of botanical special interest areas in forest
plans is an important way to provide special management
of unique botanical resources. Although few were
designated in draft plans, the region has indicated that
about sixty areas will be designated in the final plans.
The number of botanical areas varies greatly between
forests, without much justification. For example, the
Eldorado National Forest established five areas, many
recommended by Dr. Ledyard Stebbins, an active CNPS
member. In contrast, the Shasta/Trinity National Forest,
one of the largest and most diverse in the state, has
proposed only one area in its recently released draft plan.
In our pending appeal of the Plumas plan, we requested
botanical area designation for several areas identified by
Wayne Dakon. The management prescription for
botanical areas is also under appeal on the Eldorado
National Forest where we are requesting off-highway
vehicle closures and mineral withdrawals. Both the Los
Padres and Sequoia national forests will review livestock
grazing in botanical areas to ensure grazing does not
degrade botanical values. Negotiations have also resulted
in several forests agreeing to monitor botanical areas and
research natural areas annually.
The Research Natural Area (RNA) program is a key
component of USFS efforts to preserve biodiversity. By
executive order, the chief of USFS can establish RNAs
recommended by individual forests in the forest plans.
RNAs are intended to preserve relatively pristine examples
of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems for baseline study,
non-manipulative research, and education. CNPS is
fortunate to be represented on the regional RNA
committee by Deborah Jenson; CNPS continues to be
strong advocates of the program in our forest plan reviews.
For example, our appeal of the Angeles plan objected
to the selection of a boundary for the Falls Canyon RNA
that excluded several hundred acres of old-growth big-
coned spruce (Pseudotsuga macrocarpa) in the adjacent
Rush Creek drainage. During our negotiations, the
Angeles National Forest agreed with our argument, and
the issue was referred back to the RNA committee for
review. The committee recently decided to expand the
RNA by over 600 acres, thereby enhancing RNA values,
stability and research opportunities.
Forest plans typically include a management
prescription designed to maintain RNA values. CNPS
was surprised to find that these prescriptions have generally
not called for the elimination of livestock grazing. Because
livestock grazing is ubiquitous in many areas of the western
United States, USFS is often unable to find pristine
candidates free of grazing impacts to nominate, as required
in the RNA regulations. The level of grazing on existing
and proposed RNAs varies from little or no use to serious
overgrazing that compromises the ecological integrity and
research value of the RNA.
CNPS argues that only casual or incidental grazing
is allowed under the RNA regulations, and therefore,
management prescriptions should address the reduction
and eventual elimination of grazing under all
circumstances. One approach we have taken in our
negotiations with the Los Padres National Forest has been
to use upcoming allotment management plan revisions
as a vehicle to deal with grazing conflicts in RNAs. This
approach will require CNPS to stay on top of allotment
management plan revisions, but it will provide USFS with
a way to solve grazing conflicts in a site-specific manner.
As CNPS continues to raise this issue on other forests,
it will give a strong message to the region of our high regard
for the integrity of the RNA program.
Riparian Areas
The current round of forest planning has generally
called for strengthening protection of riparian areas.
Riparian areas occupy less than one percent of the
forestland but are vitally important to many dependent
plant and wildlife species. Demands for timber, forage,
and recreation can degrade these fragile areas. Most plans
establish zones of special management for riparian and
meadow habitats so that riparian-dependent resources
can be protected when conflicts occur.
CNPS appeals have addressed issues such as logging
along streams and meadows, protecting springs and seeps,
and increasing protection from grazing impacts. The
Sequoia National Forest has agreed to a no-cut zone
in riparian areas, a policy we will encourage for other
forests. The Angeles and Los Padres national forests
will revise allotment management plans in important
riparian areas and expand monitoring of riparian area
conditions to identify grazing conflicts. Both forests are
establishing demonstration areas where exclosures will
be monitored to document what values are currently being
lost to grazing.
Chaparral Management
Chaparral vegetation dominates most of the south-
ern California forests and is common elsewhere in the
state. Chaparral communities generally require periodic
fire to maintain health and vigor. Unfortunately, past
fire suppression has left large tracts of unburned decadent
chaparral. To address the wildfire potential, forest
21
plans direct that prescribed burning be used to create a
mosaic of age classes less susceptible to devastating, large-
scale fires.
The challenge is to treat chaparral in a manner which
mimics the conditions under which the community
evolved, to maintain floristic diversity and a healthy
chaparral community. Several articles on the problems
of prescription fire in chaparral were featured in the July
1987 issue of Fremontia. CNPS has urged USFS to
recognize the needs of plant species when designing
prescribed burns. To provide a better idea of how chaparral
is responding to USFS treatments, the four southern
forests have agreed, through appeals and negotiation,
to a South Zone monitoring plan. Each fire site will be
sampled quantitatively to determine how individual species
respond to burning conditions. Subsequent prescriptions
will be modified where needed to maintain species diversity
and shrub cover.
CNPS was surprised to find that several forest plans
intended to emphasize grazing of burned chaparral,
presumably in response to regional direction to increase
forage opportunities. CNPS presented scientific literature
showing that grazing immediately after fire can impair
the recovery of chaparral communities and harm fire-
following endemics. We have been successful in obtaining
agreements that recognize a three-year recovery period
during which livestock use will be discouraged.
Elimination of type-converting chaparral to weedy
herbaceous grasslands for forage are among our other
achievements in this area.
Forest Management
While USFS is mandated to operate as a multiple-use
agency, timber production continues to drive the agency's
budget allocations and activities. Timber and road
building programs receive a majority of the agency's
congressionally appropriated funds. Most land
classification, even in spotted owl habitat areas, is
prescribed for some form of timber harvest except
Wilderness and Research Natural Areas. High-volume,
old-growth stands available for timber harvest are nearly
depleted. To main-tain current harvest levels, intensive
tree farming is proposed by USFS, which some believe
will jeopardize long-term productivity and forest diversity.
CNPS felt that many of its legitimate concerns and
requests were not satisfactorily addressed. Furthermore,
marginal areas that were previously considered unsuitable
for harvest, such as steep slopes and areas with poor, low-
productivity soils, are also now proposed for timber
harvest. Meanwhile, biological realities are redefining
forest management issues and influencing forest policy.
Federal Listing of the spotted owl, declines in other ancient
forest species, and the paucity of old-growth and ancient
forests are forcing USFS to recognize that it must do a
better job of protecting and managing forest diversity.
Several promising changes are appearing on the horizon.
USFS is responding to public concern for the environment.
The USFS chief has proposed New Perspectives in
Forestry, an initiative to achieve greater balance between
resource development and environmental protection. New
direction from the Washington, D.C., office of USFS
indicates renewed support for the RNA program. USFS
chief also stated in a recent memo that when conflicts
occur, standards and guidelines contained in forest plans
take precedence over program outputs. A recently released
USFS draft report from the Threatened, Endangered and
Sensitive Species (TES) Task Force indicates goal should
be to establish itself in the forefront of TES conservation
and recovery programs. Recent budget increases for TES
programs indicate that support is growing. Finally, the
regional forester has indicated that California's
environmental agenda for the 1990s will embrace new
methods of landscape and ecosystem management to
maintain biodiversity.
The Sequoia National Forest has experimented with
an innovative method to resolve conflicting forest plan
appeals by using outside mediators. Timber and livestock
industries, state agencies, and conservation groups,
including CNPS, were brought together to develop a new
forest plan. Management of giant sequoias (Sequoia-
dendron giganted) was revamped using guidelines
developed by Save the Redwoods League. The allowable
sale quantity for the timber program was reduced by over
twenty-five percent while providing sufficient levels of
timber harvest to keep the two local mills open. Important
roadless areas and significant old-growth stands were
removed from the timber base. Clear-cutting was reduced
and stringent standards were developed to protect soil,
water, and wildlife resources. A multiple-use liaison panel
was established to review implementation of the agree-
ment, and annual reporting of data acquisition and
monitoring results will provide a much clearer picture
of how well the Sequoia National Forest is meeting
the intent of the agreement. Other forests in the region
should consider mediation as an avenue to resolve
conflicts and build consensus between conservation and
industry interests.
As we reflect on the accomplishments of CNPS and
others who actively participate in forest planning, it is
clear that the effort has already been worthwhile, and
the momentum of support for environmental protection
is building. Bureaucracies are slow to change, but they
must strive to obtain a more balanced land ethic; they
mirror our society as we struggle to regain a sense of
respect and regard for our planet. In 2015, when CNPS
reflects on its fifty-year anniversary, I hope we will view
a legacy of forests held in trust by an agency with a
renewed sense of stewardship and a new appreciation for
the profound natural values of our forests, creeks,
meadows and summits.
Mary Meyer, 4095 Freedom Road, Oroville, CA 95965
22
*"    Owr ., V «tfP#« v     .sift
	4
V	
	
Dje

...ja>BEJafite'^      -Just ..¦-¦' ¦'. .^'^^s^jflSisgpB
Rope Beach at Pierce Point in the Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County. Photographs by Gary M. Fellers.
A COOPERATIVE PROJECT
AT POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE
by Gary M. Fellers and Virginia Norris
Rare plants are not assured of survival simply by
growing on lands protected by public parks. Their
preservation also demands careful, long-term
monitoring and, from time to time, well-designed
intervention. Most public park agencies today have
limited resources and may find it difficult to provide
sufficient protection for their rare plants. Point Reyes
National Seashore and the California Native Plant
Society (CNPS) have developed a cooperative program
to monitor and manage rare plants.
The Seashore, located forty miles north of San
Francisco, includes sandy and rocky beaches, coastal
prairie, Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and Bishop
pine (Pinus muricata) forests, chaparral, and wilderness
lakes. In large part due to the wide diversity of habitats,
strongly maritime climate, and southern geological
origin, Point Reyes has a remarkably diverse flora with
828 species and an additional thirty-five varieties and
subspecies. About sixteen percent of the entire
California flora is represented in an area of only 114
square miles.
Not surprisingly, this diverse flora includes a
significant number of rare plants. Forty-two of the
species listed in the 1988 edition of the California Native
Plant Society's inventory of the State's rare and
endangered plants have been reported from Point Reyes
or are likely to occur within the Seashore. Two of these
are presumed to be extinct, four are presumed to have
been extirpated from the Seashore, thirty have been
confirmed since 1983, and another six are objects of
current searches. Four of the forty-two species are
formally listed by the State and thirty-three are
candidates for Federal listing.
In 1983, the Seashore had very little information on
23
most of these rare plants, and there was concern that
either grazing or the Seashore's fire management
program might have a negative impact on rare plants.
From 1983 to 1984, Park Service biologists Ronilee
Clark and Gary Fellers conducted a systematic search
for rare plants known or reported from Point Reyes.
They found twenty-one species within the Seashore and
wrote a report summarizing the status of each plant (see
Clark and Fellers, Fremontia, April 1987).
The report proposed some immediate management
actions for the most vulnerable plants and outlined an
ambitious monitoring program that would allow the
Seashore to track all known rare plant populations and
assure their continued survival. The various species were
to be resurveyed at intervals ranging from one to four years
depending on their rarity and possible endangerment.
The Seashore promptly began some of the specified
management activities, but resources were not available
for monitoring all of the rare plants. Meanwhile, the list
of rare plants expected to occur at Point Reyes had
increased due to new information on plant distributions
and additions to the official CNPS inventory of rare plants.
Thurber's reed grass (Calamagrostis crassiglumis), once thought to
have been extirpated from the Seashore, was rediscovered in 1987.
In 1986, Bob Wing contacted the Seashore and
indicated that a group of local CNPS botanists would
like to volunteer to monitor rare plants. A priority list
of plants was agreed upon and the Seashore provided
copies of the rare plant report, topographic maps,
photographs of the plants and occasional assistance in
the field. By the end of the first year, thirteen botanists
had visited sixteen known sites with ten species of rare
plants and had discovered new populations of San
Francisco owl's clover (Orthocarpus floribundus) and
northcoast phacelia (Phacelia insularis van continentis).
The cooperative monitoring program continued under
Wing's leadership in 1987, with twelve participants
visiting a dozen sites and finding a new population of
coast rock cress (Arabis blepharophylla).
The first two years demonstrated the success of the
cooperative program. The volunteers had shown sustained
interest and had been able to relocate and survey known
populations of eleven rare plants as well as to find several
new populations. In 1988, Virginia Norris and Sue Baty
were co-leaders of the group, and since 1989 Norris has
served as leader. The monitoring season has been extended
through early September to cover summer- and early fall-
blooming rarities. Thirty-five botanists took part in a total
of thirty field days in 1988, and thirty-four participated
in twenty-seven field days in 1989. Some individuals came
only occasionally, but several have now contributed more
than forty days of field time. Leaders or other group
members prepare field survey reports and maps for each
visit to every rare plant population for the State's Natural
Diversity Data Base in Sacramento, a paperwork chore
of no small dimension.
As CNPS botanists became more familiar with
Seashore terrain and the habitat characteristics of each
new species, they were able to locate many more new
populations —twenty-one in 1988 and twenty-two in
1989. Some of these new populations are of species
added to the Seashore's original list of rare plants such
as Gray's clover (Trifolium grayi), Franciscan thistle
(Cirsium andrewsii), Marin manzanita {Arctostaphylos
uva-ursi var. marinensis), and straggly gooseberry
(Ribes divaricatum var. publiflorum). One, beach layia
(Layia carnosa), was added to the CNPS list in 1988, has
been classified as endangered by the State, and is being
proposed for threatened status by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service because coastal development in California
is rapidly destroying suitable habitat. Ten populations
of this species supporting more than 3,500 plants have
been located at Point Reyes. The Seashore is obviously
a crucial reservoir for this rapidly declining species.
In 1987, Park Service botanist Teresa Prendusi discov-
ered two small populations (forty and fifty-eight plants)
of Thurber's reed-grass {Calamagrostis crassiglumis)
which was believed to have been extirpated from the
Seashore because it had not been seen for thirty-eight
years. Two years later Kay Best and Wilma Follette
collected a grass during a CNPS field trip at Point Reyes
that was determined to be Calamagrostis crassiglumis.
A later survey confirmed an important new population
estimated at between 1,000 and 1,500 plants.
The emphasis of the 1989 monitoring program was
not only to track some of the key populations of rare
plants, but also to search for new populations of
selected species. One of these was Point Reyes bird's-
beak (Cordylanthus maritimus van palustris), which
was known to occur at only one Seashore site, the head
of Schooner Bay. By systematically checking other salt
marsh areas, they found the plant growing at two
additional sites in Schooner Bay as well as at Home Bay,
Creamery Bay, and Limantour Spit. None was found at
three other likely locations where many typical salt
marsh species did occur. Interestingly, it was noted that
the bird's-beak was always associated with marsh rose-
mary (Limonium californicum) and that no rosemary
occurred at the three apparently suitable sites where no
bird's-beak was found.
During the four years of the cooperative monitoring
program at the Seashore, seventy-one people have
surveyed for rare plants at Point Reyes. They have
located twenty-one species of rare plants and have made
significant contributions to the knowledge and
management of the Seashore flora.
With the CNPS volunteers conducting most of the
monitoring, the Seashore has been able to focus its
resources on managing the most vulnerable rare plants.
The species identified as most in need of immediate
protection in 1984 was the Sonoma alopecurus (A.
aequalis var. sonomensis). Outside the Seashore, the
only remaining populations were at several historical
sites in Sonoma County that had not been checked for
many years. Fellers and Clark had found the single small
Seashore population declining in numbers and being
grazed and trampled by cattle.
In 1985, the Seashore constructed an exclosure
around the population to keep cattle out. Over the next
several years, the marsh vegetation within the exclosure
flourished, but the populations of alopecurus declined
from thirty-five plants to one. Clearly the fence was not
helping and may even have contributed to the decline by
allowing other species of plants to thrive and out-
compete the alopecurus.
Fortunately, the Seashore had also started a
greenhouse propagation program using seeds collected
in 1986. alopecurus proved to be easy to raise and the
greenhouse provided more than 400 seedlings for
planting in three marshy sites. The outcome of two
introductions is still uncertain, but the third has done
well with sixty-two plants present in 1988 and eighty-five
in 1989. Meanwhile, another small natural population
of about eighty plants was found by Prendusi (in 1987)
near the original site. Since the exclosure at the original
site did not favor alopecurus, the exclosure was opened
in June of 1990. All populations will be carefully
monitored during 1991.
"<t
*
*>.-
Ten populations of beach layia (L. imnwui), J nl:im [I
declining in the state from habitat loss, grow in the
National Seashore.
KM Is I
Point

ipiillv
Reyes
At the request of the California Department of Fish
and Game, Fellers and Prendusi surveyed the historical
Sonoma County populations of alopecurus in 1987.
Three of seven sites were found to support plants,
including the type locality where plants had not been
reported for thirty-two years. While none of the
localities was well-protected or harbored large numbers,
it was reassuring to find at least a few plants
contributing to the genetic diversity of the species. With
at least two viable populations at the Seashore, the
Sonoma alopecurus does not appear to be in immediate
danger of extinction.
An important lesson to be learned from the
alopecurus experience is that rare plants cannot always
be best preserved merely by protecting them from
grazing or trampling. Some species are adapted to
certain levels of disturbance or may benefit from the
control of competing vegetation. Hence it is important
to understand the ecological interactions within the
plant community before a full recovery effort is
implemented. When immediate action seems warranted
because of an imminent threat, it must be done
carefully, with constant monitoring of the results.
The Seashore is applying this experience to its
management of the Sonoma spineflower (Chorizanthe
valida), a species being proposed for Federal listing and
the plant currently recognized as the most endangered
25

mi  . *-"
-*"*
,a%^

*-
i*t&   **»
I* iff1'
.V^ :,f
Curly-leafed monardella (Monardella undulata), a native dune plant is threatened statewide by coastal development and at the Seashore by invading
iceplant (Carpobrotus edulis).
at Point Reyes. While this species has been reported
from several other coastal populations, all but the one
at Point Reyes are now disputed or believed to have been
extirpated. The single Seashore population appears to
be healthy, but it does occur in an area that is grazed and
the question of grazing impact has again been raised.
This time the Seashore has taken a more experimental
approach by protecting a small number of plants with
test exclosures while leaving most of the population as
is (see Davis and Sherman, Fremontia, January 1990).
Thus far it is not clear whether or not the spineflower
does better in the absence of grazing. Further
monitoring and competition experiments are planned.
Another plant of current interest is the Point Reyes
lupine (Lupinus tidestromii var. layneae). The species is
found only on sand dunes in Monterey County, Point
Reyes National Seashore, and at one site in Sonoma
County. The variety layneae is found only at Point
Reyes. Because of the general loss of coastal dune
habitat, the Point Reyes lupine is being proposed for
Federal listing as a threatened species.
At Point Reyes, the lupine is known from one
extensive and four small populations. The larger site has
been trampled by cattle with an obvious detrimental
effect on the lupine and other dune species. The
Seashore has now fenced the dunes in order to protect
both the dune vegetation and nesting snowy plovers. At
least one and possibly more of the other lupine sites are
threatened by non-native iceplant {Carpobrotus edulis).
The CNPS botanists have documented the increasing
threat from iceplant to the lupine as well as to two other
rare dune plants, the beach layia and the curly-leaved
monardella (Monardella undulata var. undulata). While
the iceplant problem seems almost overwhelming in
some areas, the Seashore has begun removal
experiments and is currently working on one small dune
restoration project. Iceplant at that site was removed by
bulldozer and native dune species are being tested for
their ability to stabilize windblown sand along roads.
The Seashore is working with a volunteer group of
gardeners to propagate the natives in the Seashore
greenhouse for later plantings.
Overall, rare plants at Point Reyes National Seashore
are doing quite well. Only because of the cooperative
program between the Seashore and the CNPS has it been
possible to track the status of rare plants while conducting
essential management of the most vulnerable species. The
Seashore now regularly consults the CNPS botanists, or
the extensive rare plant files, about proposed projects
which might affect rare plants. As a result, the chance
of accidental damage to rare plants has been greatly
reduced. As the experience of the past four years so clearly
demonstrates, this close partnership has produced an
invaluable program for protecting an important segment
of California's rare flora.
Gary M. Fellers, Research Biologist at Point Reyes National
Seashore, Point Reyes, CA 94956. Virginia Norris, Inverness, CA.
26
CNPS-A VIEW FROM THE OUTSIDE
by Steve McCormick
In 1969, when I was an undistinguished freshman at
the University of California at Berkeley, I heard that
Dr. Robert Ornduff was leading a wildflower walk at
Point Reyes on a Saturday in April. The walk was
sponsored by an organization I had never heard of, the
California Native Plant Society. At the time, I had a
general interest in the outdoors and a budding but
unfocused concern about the environment and
conservation of natural areas. I don't know what
attracted me, particularly, to taking that spring walk. I
suppose I just wanted to get an introduction to the
wildflowers, and the natural history of the county in
which I had grown up. I certainly didn't realize that the
trip would change my life. I was overwhelmed with the
glorious displays of wildflowers we saw that day—fields
of brilliantly yellow lasthenia (L. macrantha),
punctuated with the delicate pink globes of sea thrift
(Armeria maritima), regally purple swaths of owl's
clover (Orthocarpus purpurascens); subtly elegant
appearances of cream-colored wallflower {Erysimum
concinnum); almost formally handsome stands of
mission bells (Fritillaria lanceolata).
I was absolutely entranced. An inchoate passion had
been awakened. After that day, like any acolyte, I
couldn't get enough of my new interest. I bought floras
and field guides, purchased a good hand lens (a
Hastings triplet; remarkably, I've never lost it), went on
numerous guided walks, started my own little
herbarium, and, of course, joined the California Native
Plant Society. For reasons that now elude me, I've
pursued degrees in economics and law but my
overriding interest was in California's flora.
I had the good fortune to work summers, during my
years in college and law school, as a naturalist with the
California Department of Parks and Recreation in the
Sierra area. It was there that I met the man who would
become my mentor as a naturalist, Kenneth Leig. I've
never known anyone who so thoroughly and intimately
understood nature like Ken. His knowledge came not
from books but from years of studious observation. Not
surprisingly, Ken was involved with CNPS and, through
him, I became more familiar with the organization, and
increasingly impressed with its articulate advocacy on
behalf of California's native flora. Motivated by this
spirit and imbued with Ken Leig's almost metaphysical
absorption with nature, I decided to devote my life to
doing all I could to preserve California's natural heritage.
Upon graduation from law school, I was once again
fortunate, I landed a job as regional legal counsel with
The Nature Conservancy. Although I was greatly
:&.$m
'¦.¦¦?.•¦•¦•

fiUM
The Nipomo Dunes are now being protected by The Nature Conser-
vancy after years of effort by CNPS members, particularly Kathleen
Stoddard Jones. Photograph by Ken Berg.
impressed with the Conservancy, I found the legal work
unsatisfying. I wanted to be more closely involved in deve-
loping programs and pursuing land preservation projects.
I soon had my chance and became a field representative
with the newly created California Field Office.
The Nature Conservancy had a well-deserved
reputation for negotiating quick and innovative land
purchase transactions but it lacked a systematic and
27
objective methodology to identify priorities.
Fortunately, CNPS, through the herculean efforts of Les
Hood and many others, had spearheaded the creation
of the California Natural Areas Coordinating Council
(CNACC), producing the first comprehensive inventory
of the state's natural lands. This county-by-county
inventory became the primary basis upon which Nature
Conservancy land acquisition decisions were made.
Once again, CNPS was providing direction.
The Nature Conservancy began to work ever more
closely with CNPS on a variety of projects and
activities. In 1980 the two organizations, along with
other conservation groups, succeeded in persuading the
state Resources Agency to create the California Natural
Diversity Data Base as a permanent program within the
Department of Fish and Game. This computer-based
inventory, which was an extension and expansion of the
CNACC inventories and the CNPS Rare Plant Project,
was designed to store and generate up-to-date informa-
tion on the status and occurrence of California's most
imperiled plants, animals, and natural communities.
Today, the Data Base has become an absolutely
indispensable resource for identifying land conservation
priorities for planning major public and private
development projects and for monitoring the long-term
trends in the status of California's natural diversity. The
creation and success of the Data Base are due in very
large part to the tremendous input and support of the
California Native Plant Society.
Propelled with information from CNACC and,
eventually, the Data Base, the Conservancy's land
acquisition program flourished. We assiduously
pursued sites that were dubbed "islands of botanical
endemism" such as Boggs Lake, harboring slender
Orcutt grass (Orcuttia tenuis), rare Boggs Lake hedge-
hyssop (Gratiola heterosepala) and few-flowered
navarretia (N. pauciflora). Ring Mountain, the only
known location of the very rare Tiburon mariposa lily
(Calochortus tiburonensis), and one of the few sites
remaining for Tiburon paintbrush {Castilleja neglecta);
and Baldwin Lake, home to more unique species of
plants than anywhere in the continental United States.
We also went after sites that supported examples of
unique California natural communities that were
insufficiently protected: riparian forests at the Kern
River Preserve, valley oak woodlands at the Kaweah
Mount Tamalpais photographed from Ring Mountain in Marin County. Photograph by Fraser Muirhead.
Oaks Preserve, vernal pools and native grasslands at the
Vina Plains and Jepson Prairie preserves, and various
others. Funds for these and many other purchases were
secured, in part, from support generated by the
California Native Plant Society and its numerous chapters.
As the Data Base revealed the existence of more and
more narrowly restricted rare plants in California, The
Nature Conservancy decided to add to its land protection
efforts by launching the Landowner Contact Program.
Through this program private landowners are notified
of the occurrence of rare species on their property and
encouraged to maintain or, where appropriate, adjust land
use practices to ensure preservation of the species of
concern. This program has been made possible only with
the help of dozens of CNPS volunteers who have helped
collect and analyze field data. To date, sixty-seven
landowners have made commitments to preserve a total
of fifty-four different species, many of which are only
known occurrences.
The unabated threats that increasing growth poses to
the California landscape have motivated The Nature
Conservancy recently to initiate major ecosystem projects,
almost all of which have long been recognized by CNPS
as very high priorities. In just the past few years, The
Nature Conservancy has joined forces with federal and
state agencies, as well as other private organizations, to
begin creation of macropreserves along the Sacramento
River (Great Valley riparian forest), the Cosumnes River
(Valley oak riparian forest and wetlands), the Carrizo Plain
(Valley saltbush scrub and native grasslands) and the
Nipomo/Guadalupe Dunes (Coastal foredune scrub).
On the drawing board are plans for similar large-scale
efforts to protect foothill Blue oak woodland, Central
Valley wetlands and Southern California coastal streams.
California is a place of truly indescribable natural
diversity and abundance. In fact, I don't think it's an
exaggeration to say that, in this regard, California is the
most famous place in the world. The state is graced with
one of the world's most spectacular coastlines, some of
the world's most magnificent mountain ranges, some of
the world's most complex desert systems, one of the
world's wettest rain forests, and one of the world's largest
and most fertile valleys. Since its "discovery" in the
eighteenth century, the magnetic attraction of the
California landscape has lured streams of people from
around the earth. Fortunately, much still remains. But
if we are to maintain the ineffable quality of life here we
must preserve as much of this natural heritage as possible.
This generation now living can leave no more important
legacy than the protection of uniquely Californian
landscapes and species they support. For generations will
regard these natural areas with the same reverence, care
and respect as we regard the great works of art and
architecture created and preserved by past generations.
No organization has done more to preserve Wild
California than the California Native Plant Society. It
has contributed immeasurably to describing our unique
In the early 1970s Dr. Robert West of the Marin Chapter discovered
the rare Tiburon mariposa lily (Calochortus tiburonensis), known only
on Ring Mountain in Tiburon. Photographs by Fraser Muirhead
(above) and William T. Follette.
flora; it has helped create systematic inventories of natural
areas and endangered plant species; it has promoted and
contributed to the creation of priceless permanent
preserves; it has effectively pursued legislation to create
greater protection for California's rare plants; it has
effectively advocated the use of native species in residential
landscaping; and it has, through this laudable periodical,
Fremontia, informed lay and professional readers on a
variety of issues and topics. And, from my standpoint
not insignificantly, it has pushed at least one life in a
profoundly fulfilling direction.
Congratulations CNPS on twenty-five years of
tremendous contribution towards preserving California's
native flora.
Steve McCormick, The Nature Conservancy, 785 Market Street,
San Francisco, CA 94111
29
FELLOWS OF THE CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY
by Marian Reeve
The title of Fellow of the California Native Plant
Society was created in 1973 to give special recognition
to "elder statesmen" who have made significant
contributions to the knowledge, appreciation, and
preservation of our native flora. In observance of the
Society's twenty-fifth anniversary the Fellows
Committee lists below the CNPS Fellows (1973-1989).
Fellows are elected by the Board of CNPS, on the
nomination of chapters and the recommendation of the
Fellows Committee.
Charles Young, first recipient of the Fellows award,
helped found and nurture the Gualala Chapter of
CNPS, later named the Dorothy King Young Chapter in
honor of his wife. His exceptional skill in growing
natives created "Grandpa Charley's Park" from seeds
and transplants rescued from the bulldozer path. (1973)
Roxana Ferris, long-time curator of the Dudley
Herbarium of Stanford University, was a prolific
collector and student of western American plants. She
collaborated with Professor Abrams on his Illustrated
Flora of the Pacific States and was solely responsible for
the final volume. (1974)
Philip A. Munz was an eminent taxonomist and
director of the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. His
monumental A California Flora and A Flora of
Southern California are the standard field references.
His illustrated local field guides are popular with
thousands of amateurs. (1974)
Carl W. Sharsmith, both as professor of botany at
San Jose State University and as ranger-naturalist in
Yosemite National Park, has introduced uncounted
followers to the wonders of our native plants. Carl is an
authority on the alpine flora of the Sierra Nevada. (1974)
30
John Thomas Howell, curator emeritus of botany at
the California Academy of Sciences, is one of our
foremost experts on California's vascular plants. His
Marin Flora is a landmark in county floras for
California. (1975)
Edmund C Jaeger, dedicated naturalist of the desert
and author of numerous articles and books, introduced
countless persons to an appreciation of desert life, and
perhaps more than any other person, awakened a wide-
spread desire to protect and preserve it. (1976)
James B. Roof, a founder, officer, and board member
of CNPS, developed the California native botanic
garden in Tilden Regional Park, Berkeley. He pioneered
in rescuing rare plants and made significant
contributions to the taxonomy of the manzanitas. (1976)
G. Ledyard Stebbins, professor emeritus, UC Davis,
a founder and second president of CNPS, successfully
guided it from 1966-1972. Evolutionist, geneticist and
botanist, he has made enormous contributions to our
knowledge of the evolution of California plants, and his
explorations have yielded many new species. (1976)
Mary DeDecker, energetic collector, floristic
researcher, and conservationist, has a new genus bearing
her name and several new species. Her knowledge of
fragile desert plant communities and their requirements
for survival has made her a leader in conservation and
land-use planning in the vast Inyo and eastern Sierra
Nevada region. (1977)
Herbert L. Mason is professor emeritus, UC Berkeley
and life-long student of the California flora, with
research on such varied topics as the paleo-hisory of
closed-cone pines, the phlox family of the Pacific Coast,
California plant communities, endemics, and marsh
flora. His Flora of the Marshes of California remains
a classic. Personally, and through the generations of
students, he stimulated, he contributed immeasurably
to conservation of California's plant heritage. (1977)
Helen V. Chamlee, native plant enthusiast of the San
Diego area, effectively educated the public on the
ecological value and use of native plants through news-
paper articles, garden and conservation journals, talks
and consultations, and such preservation efforts as the
Florida Canyon Preserve in Balboa Park. She authored
Ferns of San Diego County and helped found the San
Diego Chapter of CNPS. (1978)
Herman Baum, of the Santa Clara Valley Chapter,
was a horticulturist, explorer, and expert photographer
of native plants. He generously shared his great love and
knowledge of the native flora by leading field trips,
presenting slide shows, and helping at plant sales. (1978)
Kenneth Taylor served two CNPS chapters and was
statewide Environmental Impact Coordinator. Through
his stimulating talks and horticultural contributions he
popularized native plant preservation both in their
native habitat and in the garden. (1979)
Gerda Isenberg is a pioneer in the propagation of
native plants for horticultural uses. She has generously
shared her home and demonstration garden with study
groups and interested visitors, especially working to
educate young people about the horticultural values of
native plants. (1980)
Mildred E. Mathias, emeritus professor at UCLA,
former director of the botanic garden there, enthusiastic
teacher, lecturer, and field trip leader, has added to our
scientific knowledge of native plants especially in the
parsley family. Her conservation activities are widely
known and equally respected, both here and in the
American tropics. (1980)
Elizabeth McClintock, long associated with the
California Academy of Sciences and UC Berkeley, is an
energetic defender of rare plants and critical habitats as
well as research taxonomist in the mint and hydrangea
families. Her interest in introduced plants led to her
heading the Escaped Exotics committee of CNPS as
well as to many publications. (1980)
Rimo Bacigalupi, curator emeritus of the Jepson
Herbarium, at UCB and lifetime student and collector
of plants throughout California, has generously shared
his prodigious knowledge of the taxonomy and
geographic distribution of California's native plants
with students and colleagues. His chief taxonomic
contributions have been in the saxifgrage, figwort, and
silk-tassel families. (1981)
Hans and Jean Jenny, a tireless conservation team,
have promoted the acquisition of important natural
areas: the pygmy forest, (once clay barrens), Jepson
Prairie, Red Mountain (Mendocino), Mt. Shasta mud
flow, and many others still in process. Hans,
outstanding soil scientist, has educated us all on the
relationships between soils and unusual plants. Jean has
done outstanding work in ferreting out facts on
important natural areas and in catalyzing efforts to get
them preserved. (1981)
Lyman Benson, professor emeritus at Pomona College,
is a renowned expert on the cactus family and author of
The Cacti of the United States and Canada. Beloved
teacher to many generations of students, he inspired life-
long interest in the preservation and classification of the
native plants of California. (1981)
Joyce and Horace (Doc) Burr, founding members, have
both been major contributors to CNPS. Joyce served on
the California Natural Areas Coordinating Committee,
our first attempt to describe and map all the state's
sensitive natural habitats, is our historian, and maintains
keen interest in conservation issues. Doc, an agricultural
chemist, served the Society as recording secretary, by-laws
reviser, advertising director for Fremontia, and gentle
adviser. At Doc's death in 1983, Joyce, with the CNPS
board, created the Doc Burr Graduate Research Fund
to aid graduate students toward the goals for which he
worked so hard. (1982)
Virginia Rumble, a founder and active member of the
North Coast chapter, also served the Society as director,
corresponding secretary and recording secretary. She
was instrumental in establishing the Native Plant Garden
at Humboldt State University. She and her husbaind, Earl,
have led numerous field trips and shared their home for
many Society functions. (1982)
August and Susan Fruge, creative and talented founding
members, have contributed significantly to the survival
of the Society. In addition to chairing the Publications
committee, Susan (with Jenny Fleming) in 1966 organized
the first and very successful plant sale that kept the Society
from going bankrupt. August became Society president
in 1979 and brought his sound judgment and deftness
at handling conflicting interests and personalities at a
time when CNPS sorely needed him. (1983)
Margedant Hayakawa, dedicated editor of Fremontia
from 1973-1982, brought the Society's journal to a highly
professional level. Not limiting her horticultural interests
to California natives, she has also served as board, member
and president of Pacific Horticultural Foundation. (1983)
Reid Moran, for twenty-five years Curator of Botany
at the San Diego Natural History Museum and a
prodigious collector, nearly tripled the size of the
herbarium. Over 200 publications communicated his
research, particularly on the stonecrops of Baja, California
and the American Southwest, often with warmth and
humor. (1983)
Marjorie Schmidt, distinguished horticultural writer
and gardener with outstanding success growing native
plants, contributed many articles to Fremontia as well
as a regular column, "Natives For Your Garden." Her
1980 book, Growing California Native Plants, is a
treasure for the neophyte native plant gardener. (1985)
Wilma Follette, a founder of the Marin Chapter and
"professional amateur" botanist, is a field trip leader per
excellence. She developed the highly successful
31
wildflower poster concept, shepherded the posters
through production, and managed finances, sales, and
distribution, contributing heavily to fiscal survival of
the Society and its chapters. (1985)
Scott and Jenny Fleming, founding members, have
projected their enjoyment of their lovely native garden
into continuous service to CNPS. Jenny co-chaired with
Susan Fruge the first five CNPS plant sales, served the
East Bay chapter as president, vice-president, and
program chairman, and served as statewide director.
Scott was state treasurer, set up the Society's insurance,
served for many years as legal advisor, and led the board
through a revision of the by-laws. (1985)
Wayne Roderick, founding member and horticulturist
with worldwide recognition, is an ardent conservationist
and inveterate collector of seeds and bulbs, generously
shared with botanic gardens and friends. He has served
CNPS as director and in many other capacities and is a
much sought-after field-trip leader. (1985)
Nancy Dale, long-time CNPS member and dedicated
former president of the Santa Monica Mountains
chapter, has parlayed her love of both flowers and the
Santa Monica Mountains into a book, Flowering
Plants: the Santa Monica Mountains, Coastal and
Chaparral Regions of Southern California. Now
thousands can extend their knowledge and enjoyment
of the wildflowers of her special region. (1986)
Wayne Dakan, a self-taught botanist, made
outstanding contributions to the identification of
Plumas County flora. He is remembered both for his
checklist of Plumas County vascular plants and for his
effective tirades against environmental destruction.
(1987)
Myrtle Wolf, early member of CNPS, is a tireless and
dedicated worker for the East Bay chapter, the botanical
garden in Tilden Regional Park, the UC Botanical
Garden, the Pacific Horticultural Foundation, and any
number of other worthy causes. Her botanic expertise
and legendary green thumb have contributed
immeasurably to the success of CNPS plant sales. (1987)
Lawrence (Larry) Heckard, founding member of
CNPS and curator of the Jepson Herbarium at UC
Berkeley, is both a distinguished botanist with emphasis
in the figwort family and an extremely effective
conservationist. He has served the Society in many
capacities, helped to initiate the inventory of rare plants,
pursued state legislation to protect rare plants, and
lobbied to form a state program to protect critical
habitats. Recently his major focus has been the Jepson
Herbarium's updating of the Jepson manual. (1988)
Dorothy King Young, a founder of both CNPS and
the chapter that now bears her name, has spent most of
her life teaching the values of nature to children and
adults. Visitors almost invariably were led into the
woods to share her "jewels," title also of her illustrated
guidebook, Redwood Empire Wildflower Jewels. (1988)
Betty Lovell Guggolz, founder and first president of
Milo Baker chapter, has worked tirelessly with city and
county officials in support of open space and rare plant
preservation. Her reports and maps have had great
influence on county planners and have secured valuable
preserves and parks. Her mitigation guideline for rare
plants has been highly useful for CNPS statewide. (1988)
Alice and Bud Meyer have devoted their considerable
energies to the San Luis Obispo chapter. Alice steers the
annual plant sales, edits and produces the chapter bulletin,
helped organize and edit the proceedings for a native plant
symposium, and was in charge of the statewide
education trust fund for several years. Bud serves on the
conservation and rare plant committees and is especially
concerned with the flora of the Morro Bay area. He is
mainly responsible for defeating a proposal for three
supertanker monobuoys in Estero Bay. (1988)
Paul Covel, dedicated naturalist, spent his entire life
revealing the natural world to scouts, park visitors, and
innumerable field trip participants. Partial to birds, he
was, nevertheless, an early member of CNPS and perennial
chairman of the East Bay Chapter's conservation
committee, single-handedly reviewing countless EIRs and
speaking forcefully on chapter concerns at meetings and
hearings. (1989)
Grace Heintz reactivated the somnolent Santa
Monica Mountains chapter in 1972 and for several years
gave most of the programs and led most of the field trips
before recruiting enough enthusiastic members to keep
the chapter on course. Her love of plants is not limited
to natives. She has authored two books on trees and is
a recognized expert on the genus Eucalyptus. (1989)
June Latting's main goal during uncounted years of
unrelenting vigilance was protection of the desert. With
CNPS sponsorship she organized a 1974 symposium at
Fullerton and edited the proceedings, published as Plant
Communities of Southern California, which has con-
tributed enormously to the understanding of Southern
California vegetation. (1989)
32
».-       "¦-,        ***                    *.
i^.^:V ¦>-¦¦¦-
The rare adobe lily (Fritillariapluriflora), CNPS list lb, shown growing abundantly in Bear Valley in Colusa County, is threatened by grazing,
off-road vehicles and horticultural collecting. Photograph by Fraser Muirhead.
CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY
CHAPTERS
(The editor is grateful to Bart O'Brien, State Recording
Secretary, for collecting these chapter accounts, which are part
of his effort to maintain an historic account of CNPS.)
Sacramento Valley Chapter
Sacramento Valley was the first CNPS Chapter formed,
December 13, 1965. Dr. G. Ledyard Stebbins became the
Chapter's first president and the following year, he became the
State CNPS Society president. Other organizers of the
Sacramento Valley Chapter were Dora Hunt, Tom Fuller, John
Tucker, and Mary Ann Wohlers. Affiliated with the
Sacramento-Davis base of the Sacramento Valley Chapter were
members from the "surrounding foothills as well as portions
of the San Joaquin Valley," specifically Chico, Grass Valley,
Roseville, Stockton, Modesto.
In 1968 Florence Marsh became Chapter Treasurer, a
position she still holds today; she was also newsletter editor for
many years. Over the years it was often Florence who held the
Chapter together through unsteady periods.
Monthly meetings began in 1966. In March, James B. Roof,
of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Berkeley, spoke on
"Adventures with California Native Plants." The Chapter has
had a steady stream of excellent and instructive speakers nine
times per year, frequently drawn from Chapter membership.
In May 1987, the first annual potluck became an enjoyable
addition to the meeting agenda. For many years, meetings and
other activities were carried on cooperatively with the Goethe
Arboretum Society.
The first field trip to the lone Clay Barrens, on February 6,
1966, with sixty CNPS members, led to the formation of a
reserve. The second trip, on March 27, explored Pine Hill, and
the Nimbus Reservoir areas, both of which were also held
worthy of preservation. On the sunny day of April 16, 1966,
thirty members examined the Dixon vernal pools (today's
Jepson Prairie) with Dr. John Tucker and Dr. Stebbins. These
three became favorite trips and have since been offered
regularly. In the first year, Charles M. Goethe, Sacramento
philanthropist and CNPS sponsor, donated money for
refreshments on field trips. Chapter field trips often begin near
the coast early in the year and advance with the season across
the valley, finding themselves high in the Sierra in the summer.
This Chapter has been fortunate to have had many trips led
by everyone's favorite, Dr. Stebbins.
Plant sales have provided funds and created public
awareness of native plants. Through 1974 Sacramento Valley
members contributed many van loads of plant materials to the
Society's sales in the Bay Area. In the 1960s-1970s the Goethe
Arboretum Society celebrated its namesake's birthday by
contributing native plants and trees to local school nature
33
areas; our Chapter gave plants and assistance. By 1976 the
Chapter began holding its own sales, with members raising
natives aind exotics, sold at the Goethe Arboretum on the
California State University, Sacramento campus. In those
early years the Chapter was highly pleased to net $200 from
a sale. 1977 saw a special feature at plant sale time, a nine-
projectoir slide show of California flora. In 1985 the Chapter
added stock of natives from commercial nurseries increased
the range of species for sale, and improved advertising. 1987
and 1988 saw great enthusiasm and effort, in which years both
a spring and a fall sale were held. The sale has become well
known, and profits have increased greatly; a few members
continue to raise plants for the sale.
Conservation work has from the beginning been a major
part of the Chapter's efforts. Notable examples include: from
1973 on, the preservation of Brush Lake on the American
River behind Cal Expo; in 1977 the lone preservation
movement; in 1981 a large and active conservation committee
was formed to protect the Phoenix Field vernal pools above
the American River; support of the American River Parkway
Revision Plan; and many, many others. A major conservation
effort has been saving Brannon Island, a prime riparian area
at the confluence of the Sacramento and American rivers,
from marina development in December 1982 and again in May
1983. Joined by other local groups, a media event was held
with four television stations and two newspapers giving
attention to the site. In another solid success in 1984, Chapter
conservation committee action caused the entire Del Paso
Regional Park Master Plan to be revised to preserve several
natural areas which included regenerating valley oaks. The
revised plan became known as a role model for park
development. In 1986 the committee successfully requested the
State Parks and Recreation Department to install protective
fencing at Nimbus Overlook wildflower area.
An Education committee began work in 1981 on plant
family information to be used by teachers. In 1986 a video was
produced on the ecology of the American River Parkway for
use by schools.
Beginning in 1984 a Rare Plant Committee started reviewing
environmental documents of various agencies, a massive job,
given the geographic area of this Chapter.
The first plant count, held in 1983, surveyed vernal pools,
conducted a count around Folsom Lake, and counted
Fritillaria liliacea for several years at Jepson Prairie.
Over the years, the Sacramento Valley Chapter has
participated in numerous ecological fairs, chose Hisbiscus
californicus as our logo, and sold T-shirts displaying the logo.
In 1974 it hosted the Society's botanists working on the Rare
and Endangered Species Committee; conducted plant keying
clinics in 1974 and 1982; and held a slide contest in 1982, in
which year the Chapter also received the Sacramento Audubon
Society's annual award for active conservation work.
The Sacramento Valley began with some twenty-five members.
In October 1968,100 newsletters were being mailed. At this time,
the Chapter ran out of funds which had been contributed by
CM. Goethe for expansion of the Chapter. Members were asked
to send postage stamps in order to continue receiving their
newsletters. One hundred and nine members were on record
in March 1969. In 1970-1971, a membership drive was conducted.
Sacramento Valley Chapter membership today stands at over
600, spread over many counties.
Betty Matyas


Eben McMillan leads the San Luis Obispo Chapter field trip to the
Shell Creek area of eastern San Luis Obispo County.
San Luis Obispo County Chapter
The San Luis Obispo County Chapter was founded in January
1966, by Dr. Robert F. Hoover of Cal Poly University.
From its beginning the Chapter has worked to preserve the
Nipomo Dunes, one of California's great dune systems; much
of this effort was spearheaded by Mrs. Kathleen Goddard Jones
and her husband, Gaylord. Their years of effort culminated
in April 1990, when the Coastal Conservancy purchased 2,550
acres of Mobil Oil Company property from the Mobil
Foundation, and Mobil made a gift of $100,000 to assist in
management of the property by The Nature Conservancy.
In 1967-1968, with others, the Chapter made great efforts
to stop the U.S. Forest Service from clear-cutting on Cuesta
Ridge. Finally, after cutting a firebreak through the Sargent's
Cypress grove on the crest of the ridge and thinning the trees,
the ridge-scraping was halted, and on June 20,1969, the grove
was designated as a Botanical Area.
With permission of the San Luis Coastal Unified School
District, and help from Morro Coast Audubon Society and
Morro Bay Garden Club, we planned, planted, and established
a native plant garden and nature trail on the grounds of Morro
Elementary School in Morro Bay. The garden was turned over
to the school for education and enjoyment of the students, who
were to maintain it.
Lupinus ludovicianus, a lupine which grows only in this
county, was declared the official flower of the San Luis Obispo
County by the Board of Supervisors in June 1967, at the request
of the Chapter.
Dr. Hoover's book, "The Vascular Plants of San Luis Obispo
County, California, was published by University of California
Press in 1969. Dr. Hoover had wanted to include color pictures
in his book; but sadly, he had only just finished writing before
he died, and saw only proofs of the book. In 1974 a color
supplement to the book was published, consisting of 160
photographs of plants by members of the Chapter, who tried
to include at least one species of every family mentioned in the book.
Since 1968, the Chapter has had a plant sale each year. The
community has come to expect the sale on the first Saturday
of each November. Our first annual Wildflower Weekend was
held in 1982, to share our county's wildflowers with people
from all over the state. It has been well attended.
34
The Chapter held a symposium called "Native Plants: A
Viable Option" at Cal Poly on January 28-29, 1977. It was a
drought year, and many representatives of native plant gardens
in the state, nursery growers, and Cal Poly professors presented
papers. Over 500 people attended. The proceedings of the
symposium were published by the Chapter in October 1977,
and designated as CNPS Special Publication No. 3. There were
two printings, and proceeds were shared equally with State CNPS.
There has always been an active Conservation Committee,
and it endeavors to include members from all parts of the
county. Countless hours have been spent by committee
members attending hearings and meetings, and letter writing
is an important function of the committee members and the
entire membership.
The Rare Plant Inventory of State CNPS began in 1974, and
a Rare Plant Committee was formed by this Chapter. It has
located and listed many rare plants in the county, and they have
been listed in the Inventory.
In 1988 Dr. Malcom McLeod, who has long chaired the Rare
Plants Committee, was honored by State CNPS when he
received the " 1988 Award for Rare Plant Conservation" and
a copy of the newest Rare Plant Inventory.
Alice Meyer
Dorothy King Young Chapter
It was the rallying cry of "Beat the Bulldozers" that brought
the Gualala Chapter members together on February 13,1966.
Word had been quickly spread by Dorothy and Charley Young
that a baseball diamond was to be created on Brushy Opening
Road, and all who cared about native plants should appear with
tools on February 13 to dig and rescue plants before they were
"done in" by the bulldozers. About thirty-two volunteers turned
out for this event which came to be known as "The Big Dig."
The Youngs had become enthusiastic members of the newly
formed CNPS mother Chapter in Berkeley in 1965. Their
enthusiasm was contagious, and with project "Big dig"
fresh in mind Dorothy had no difficulty persuading the thirty-
two volunteers to start a CNPS Chapter in Gualala. For
many months the meeting place was Grandpa Charley's Park,
an affectionate name given to the Young's home and garden
in the redwoods.
The first officers were Dorothy King Young, President; Fred
Schuler, Vice President; Winifred Schuler, Secretary; and
Charles Migliavacca, Treasurer. One of the remarkable bits of
history for our Chapter was the presidency two years later of
Fred Schuler, a high school senior and an eager naturalist who
brought youthful inspiration to his office.
When the Berkeley Chapter had its first plant sale in 1966,
the Gualala Chapter donated plants and sent Dorothy Young
as an emissary with a good supply of her book Redwood
Empire Wildflower Jewels.
Our Chapter was proud to nominate Charley Young to be
the first CNPS Fellow in 1973. Later in that year John Stout
suggested that the Chapter honor Dorothy Young for her
tireless efforts in championing the importance of native plants
by changing the Chapter's name to Dorothy King Young
Chapter. All members agreed, and on September 30,1973, the
name was changed with the State Board's approval. In 1988
Dorothy was nominated and became a CNPS Fellow for her
dedication and leadership in bringing native plants before the
public eye.
The territory covered by our Chapter is unusually stretched
out covering a narrow coastal strip from Jenner in Sonoma
County to Cleone, ninety-eight miles north in Mendocino
County. In our early days we had members from as far north
as Humboldt County, but as a nucleus of members gathered
in the Arcata-Eureka area, that group formed its own North
Coast Chapter. The handicap of being stretched out is that
long distances members must travel to attend meetings.
We are fortunate to have a number of coastal plant
communities not only for our own study, but also attract
members from other Chapters and botanists from around the
world. These include coastal stand, coastal prairie, northern
coastal scrub, closed-cone pine forest, and north coastal forest.
Our region is probably best known for stands of coast
redwood, rare pygmy forests, a fen, sphagnum bogs, and the
Jughandle Ecological Staircase with its uplifted terraces and
consequent distinctive vegetation.
Early in 1987 our Chapter launched a program to control
the exotic and invasive jubata grass Cortaderia jubata, which
had silently infiltrated much of our woodlands and highway
right-of-ways. With the manpower aid of the Lions Service
Club and the financial aid of the community, we were able to
eradicate most of the large stands of this giant grass by
selectively spraying it with Roundup. The area of concern is
approximately fifty square miles. Follow-up consisted of
spraying large clumps and digging smaller seedlings. The
program has been in effect for three years and will require
monitoring for several more years.
Our major coastal concern is the race for development or
build out with threat of erasing entire plant communities and
the wildlife which depends upon them. We feel The Sea Ranch
in Sonoma County provides a good example of planning with
thought given to preserving existing plant communities and
open space. Their development plans forbid the introduction
of exotic plants, protection is provided for wildlife, and
common areas are set aside so that plant communities are left
undisturbed. They provide a good illustration of man living
harmoniously with the natural environment.
Mary Rhyne
Past presidents of the Dorothy King Young Chapter. L. to R., back row:
Jean Rand, Fred Schuler, Jim McNamee. Front row: Dorothy K.
Young, Leila Romer.


35
Santa Monica Chapter
On October 22,1966, the first CNPS Chapter in Southern
California, the Sierra Santa Monica Elfin Forest Chapter, was
formed with Helen Funkhauser as President. Helen, the
founder of this Chapter, and many of her friends lived in the
Santa Monica Mountains and loved the native plants
blooming in their backyards. They made frequent trips out to
see them, knowing when and where they bloomed. In 1970
Helen called me and said there were too few Chapter members
to carry on activities, and she herself was much too involved
with the soil conservation district and obligations with the
schools to continue to serve CNPS. Would I be president of
the Chapter? I wouldn't. I was teaching full time and did not
want to be president of anything. So the Chapter became
inactive in September 1971.
Shortly thereafter, I was in the San Gabriel Mountains with
a group and had my " Jepson." A dear lady took it from the table
and jumped all about. When I said, "That's my book," Grace
Heintz and I got acquainted. She was the first person I had ever
met who was as interested in flowers and their botanical names
as I. So together Grace and I reactivated the Santa Monica
Chapter in October 1971, with fewer members than ever. Since
she was retired and I was still teaching, she became the second
president. Grace went to every educational institution in Los
Angeles County to ask for professional help from botanical
departments and always got turned down. I called Rancho Santa
Ana Botanical Garden and the Los Angeles County Museum
of Natural History with no success. We kept reading that all
the other Chapters in the state were receiving help from
universities and museums alike. But not ours.
Well, Grace and I kept having programs and field trips
though attendance was usually poor. Since the telephone had
produced few participants, we tried a newsletter. Our first was
in 1976, and it was not all that productive either.
Meanwhile, in 1971 the Southern California Botanists also
had become a Chapter of CNPS and were having programs,
field trips, symposia with enormous success. At that point we
thought our Chapter would disappear or could become a small
auxiliary of theirs. While this was being debated, the South-
ern California Botanists pulled out of State Society. Grace and
I were asked to pull our tiny, failing group together because
something down here was needed.
By this time quite a few years had gone by. I had retired and
became the third president. Grace had held us together with
keying classes, and Geoff Burleigh often showed his lovely slides.
We plotted field trips and latched on to those of other Chapters.
In 1978 we began a series of spring Weekly Wildflower Walks
in the Santa Monicas co-sponsored by the Sierra Club. The series
has continued and to this day is one of the best things we do—
educating the public. The trips are always well attended and
have helped us gain new members. On our first unforgettable
field trip, we prepared for our usual five or six and over 200
people arrived, overwhelming us, and trampling every wildflower
in sight. I had overdone the publicity and underestimated public
interest in walking about in the spring. In 19791 staged our first
wildflower show in the Woodland Hills Promenade Mall. When
I say "I" I mean "I". We had about four active members. Grace
was leading a nature club to the desert. Jo Kitz was away and
someone else went to the hospital with a bad back. My daughter-
in-law, Ruth, and I stayed up all night arranging them in every
container we could find and hauled them all into the mall the
next day. Geoff Burleigh came and showed slides. Theodore
Payne, The San Fernando Valley Herb Society, and several other
groups showed up and manned tables with their material. It
was a beautiful success, and I glowed with pride—and a bad
case of poison oak.
By 1980 the Sierra Club and other groups had achieved from
the federal government the Santa Monica Mountains National
Recreation Area. I thought that CNPS should have a State
Board meeting here so the park people would have input on
the concerns of the Society about preserving native flora. We
had only a few active members; however, we went ahead and
did it anyway. At the time we had only $22 in the treasury, and
I had every intention of informing the state that we had to go
inactive again as soon as the board meeting was over.
Out of nowhere came all this help. Geoff showed his
wonderful slides at the dinner meeting and took those who
could stay on a tour of some of the most exciting flowers in our
mountains the next morning. Tina Kasbeer provided delicious
inexpensive lunches for those going on the field trip the next
day. Jo Kitz showed up to handle the dinner money. Robin
Smith arrived and sold posters to supplement our treasury
until we could put out the next newsletter.
Robin Smith was a splendid fourth president, and when she
left for the northern part of the state, Jo Kitz became the
fifth — and one of the great additions to this society. Jo and
I had fortuitously met in a Pierce Junior College botany
course, for which I am eternally grateful.
Since that CNPS Board meeting in 1980, our Chapter has
never looked back. Robin Smith, Jo Kitz, Linda Hardie-Scott,
Steve Hartman —all wonderful people—have made it better,
bigger, grander, more worthwhile; a great Chapter doing
great things.
Nancy Dale
Monterey Bay Chapter
From their first official meeting in January 1967, members
of the Monterey Bay Chapter focused on certain areas of
concern: education (including field trips and providing
information to the public, "especially to landscape architects
and highway engineers"), rare plants, and the establishment of
a botanical garden. Early speakers (including Chapter founder
Beatrice Howitt, John Thomas Howell, G. Ledyard Stebbins,
and Robert Hoover) focused on Monterey and California
endemics, plant propagation, and plans for the country parks
and recreation district. Early areas of concern for conservation
included the Marina dunes and the coastal chaparral at Fort
Ord. The first plant sale was held in April 1968, selling native
plants, seeds, cones, and driftwood.
The first major conservation issue to confront the Chapter
was the preservation of "Evolution Hill" in Del Monte Forest,
an area characterized by Dr. Stebbins as "absolutely unique,
and . . . not matched by any biotic community found in
California or anywhere else in the world." In January 1970, a
statewide CNPS field trip attracted 125 people and garnered
full-page photographic coverage in the local newspaper. One
and a half years later, after a good deal more work, an eighty-
acre Morse Botanical Preserve was formed and deeded to
Monterey County as a scenic easement and nature reserve. In
the years since, efforts have been made to protect and enlarge
the reserve, and the Del Monte Forest Local Coastal Plan now
calls for the reserve to increase to over 400 acres.
36
During the early 1970s, members of the Chapter worked
with the Bureau of Land Management on a proposal to set up
a natural area on San Benito Mountain in San Benito County,
a major area of serpentine endemism. In 1972 about 1,500
acres were set aside, and the Chapter called for more than
paper protection, as ORVs threatened the vegetation there. In
1977 the Chapter participated in the preparation of a land-use
plan and rare plant survey, and was instrumental in having a
large additional area fenced in 1989 to protect rare plants,
including Fritillaria falcata.
Since 1975, the Chapter has worked to contain and eradicate
pampas grass, particularly when sensitive habitat such as
"Evolution Hill" is threatened. The Chapter has also campaigned
against other invasive exotics, including French broom and
iceplant. Major removal of iceplant and revegetation projects
at Asilomar and Marina Beach were brought about in part by
Chapter efforts. A principal Chapter activity continues to be
the preservation and restoration of the Monterey Bay dunes
through membership in the Monterey Bay Dunes Coalition and
the Marina and Sand City Coastal Task Forces.
Another continuing conservation project has been the
attempt to protect and monitor stands of coastal chaparral in
the Fort Ord Military Reservation. Starting in the first year of
the Chapter, this effort has resulted in nine areas being set
aside. Efforts have continued to prevent unnecessary
disruption of the remaining chaparral on the post. In 1989 the
Army agreed to preserve an additional 100 acres of rare plant
habitat as mitigation for a construction project, and to mark
and give formal protection to the original reserves.
Since the inception of the Chapter, interest in a botanic
garden led to participation in planting natives in some urban
parks, but often these were inundated by weeds, as the
problems of maintenance became overwhelming. In 1981 the
Lester Rowntree Memorial Arboretum was established on a
one-and-a-half-acre site at Mission Trails Park in Carmel with
funding from the City of Carmel and donations in memory
of Lester Rowntree, Honorary President of CNPS. A loop trail
was constructed and planted with over 100 species of native
plants, and a joint committee of CNPS members and city
residents was set up to oversee the arboretum and to develop
a master plan. Since then a free brochure has gone through
several editions, native plant and succulent gardens have been
established, and a lath house and compost pile have been added.
With the exception of the drought years in the mid-1970s,
at least one plant sale has been held every year since the first
in 1968. At the latest sale in October 1989, almost 1,000 plants
were sold in about two hours. The growth of interest in the
cultivation of native plants, which has been encouraged in part
by the annual native plant sales, has in the last few years caused
a substantial increase in the size of the sales and in the numbers
of plants and books sold.
The Chapter has continued its educational program with
eight meetings a year, featuring speakers on botanical and
horticultural subjects, regular field trips to areas of special
botanical interest, and exhibits in a variety of public forums.
The last twenty-four years have also seen many letters written,
much testimony given, and lawsuits participated in on various
conservation issues in the county. Some efforts were
successful; some were not. Over these years the public has
become more enlightened and educated about the need to
preserve and protect California native plants. The most
successful projects in the Chapter's history have been joint
projects with city governments, park districts, private citizens,
and other organizations which made a long-term commitment
to the venture. As the base of concerned and educated citizens
is expanded, so too is the foundation for an environmentally
health future.
Pat Pittman
San Diego Chapter
Two pieces of paper—with dates five years apart—are the
only remaining clues about the origins of the San Diego Chapter
of CNPS. One paper is a letter of warm encouragement to the
fledgling Chapter from Ledyard Stebbins (1967), and the other
is the first Chapter newsletter (1972). Twenty years later, these
two papers challenge the CNPS historian to reconnect the
invisible threads of interest which link the two documents.
Bill Knerr, who has long been professionally active in many
aspects of San Diego horticulture, originally queried Ledyard
Stebbins in the spring of 1967 about forming a county Chapter
of CNPS. In Stebbins' April 6 reply (on official CNPS
stationery), he comments:
"In a recent visit I was again much impressed with the
number of localized species which occur near your rapidly
growing center of population, and which are, therefore,
seriously threatened. On visiting the Torrey Pines State Park
I learned of efforts to add to this reserve the stands of Torrey
pines to the northward, and south of Del Mar."
Dr. Stebbins then suggested some likely local contacts,
including professional botanists such as Dr. Reid Moran at the
Natural History Museum, and faculty members at San Diego
State University. Closing with a quick review of Chapter
responsibilities (which included a charter membership of
fifteen persons), Dr. Stebbins offered his earnest wish for
success in initiating an area Chapter.
That success was slow to crystallize . . . but a one-sheet
newsletter postmarked January 16, 1972 exults:
"Well, we finally got the show on the road last Saturday! The
officially adopted title is San Diego Chapter of the California
Native Plant Society. Officers elected are: President, Mitch
Beauchamp; Vice President, Mike Douglas; Recording
Secretary, Anne Galloway (she later replaced Mitch as
president); Corresponding Secretary, Bill Gunther; and
Treasurer, Betty Macintosh. Committees were established:
Field Trips, Darley Howe; Publicity, Burch Mehlin;
Conservation, Reid Moran, Helen Witham (Chamlee), and
Jack Reveal; and Finance, R.H. Aikin and Bette Kingman.
Our paid membership now totals roughly thirty souls . . . "
This first newsletter also suggested that San Diego members
reserve a weekend in late March "to meet our friends to the
north" because the Bay Chapter of CNPS planned an Easter
vacation field trip to this area. The proposed excursion
included visits to Silverwood Sanctuary, Anza-Borrego Desert
State Park, Otay Mountains and some vernal pools — quite a
full weekend.
By the end of its first year, the Chapter had become a solid
force in the community. Members participated in a Balboa
Park celebration by presenting a weekend exhibit of striking
photographs (by Betty Macintosh) and labeled plant
specimens and informative literature. During a time of keen
interest about environmentally responsible organizations, the
Chapter hoped to both educate the public and to recruit
energetic new members.
37
San Diego Chapter succeeded in arousing community
interest. The following year witnessed a giant leap in group
activities and commitments. Bill Knerr presided in 1972, a busy
period in which the group hosted several garden tours,
presented wildflower and photography exhibits, sponsored
many field trips, produced an attractive newsletter, and staged
its first plant sale.
As members increased the visibility of CNPS within the
county, the Chapter found itself under unwanted pressure to
assist with newly mandated environmental impact reports. The
group decided to detach itself from such responsibilities (and
liabilities) by establishing a system of referrals to individual
experts whose opinions would not represent (or compromise)
an official CNPS position.
Many—if not most—of the charter members of the San Diego
Chapter of CNPS invested inordinate amounts of time, energy
and inventiveness in the group, for many years after its founding.
Of all the earliest members, though, the one with the widest
circle of outreach contacts and the most effective sphere of
influence was Helen Witham Chamlee. Born Helen Vallejo,
she was also related to the Carillo family, and was a true
California native herself. As a child she was encouraged in her
natural history interests, which she continued to develop as a
parent and teacher. Her passion for botany won her a place on
the staff of the Natural History Museum in 1968, where she
ultimately became an associate of the education department.
From that vantage point, she was about to do what she loved
best: teach people about native plants. She wrote a regular
newspaper column, led hikes, taught classes, produced a book
on local ferns, and lectured to community groups. She lobbied
vigorously and successfully for preservation of natural areas
within the city, and she developed no less than fourteen nature
trails throughout the county. Many, many persons attended
CNPS meetings at her invitation and promptly joined the
Chapter. Her personal encouragement and her ready willingness
to help others learn about native plants could only be described
as a quiet kind of charisma.
The California Council of Landscape Architects honored
Helen for her dedication and outstanding service to
environmental causes. The California Native Plant Society
made her a Fellow. The Wild Animal Park named a native
plant garden for her. Her fellow Chapter founders would
surely agree that the first decade of CNPS in San Diego could
appropriately be deemed the Helen Chamlee years.
Each founder saw the purposes of the charter group through
the slightly different lens of his or her personal background.
Mitch Beauchamp, then a botany student, felt that the prime
motivation of the Chapter was the study and preservation of
San Diego's unique local plants. Bill Knerr, plant propagator
at the zoo, was interested in learning about the cultivation of
native plants in this particular climate. Helen Witham
(Chamlee), trained as a teacher, was eager to educate the public
about indigenous plants. Betty Macintosh, a photographer,
saw natives through her camera, and portrayed them
eloquently in their own habitats. Reid Moran, a museum
botanist, was keenly interested in rare specimens. Bette
Klingman, a newcomer to the area, welcomed the dual
opportunities of learning about her new home territory
through plant hikes and making an active stand for the
preservation of valuable open spaces. Bill Gunther, retired
from the Navy, relished studying desert plants and growing
native irises in his garden. All members sensed a certain
urgency about the mission of CNPS, both in their own region
and throughout the state. Whether the founder's private
interests were in saving, sowing or studying native plants,
CNPS provided its charter members with a reason to rally
around a common concern — the plants, themselves.
Conservation efforts and botanical studies have become the
strength of the present group, which continues to press for
assertive environmental action. Often these center on vernal
pools or other rare habitats. Yet laced among the regional
hearings and letter-writing campaigns, there is still an
abundance of memorable weekend wildflower hikes, inform-
ative monthly meetings, and successful annual plant sales. In
fact, all of these activities interact to help educate members
about the issues that the group's first president saw as primary:
the preservation and study of San Diego's unique native plants.
Carol Greentree
Milo Baker Chapter
The Milo Baker Chapter (Sonoma) of the California Native
Plant Society was organized during the winter of 1971-1972
and obtained its charter on March 15, 1972. Fifteen charter
members were present at that meeting and officers were
elected. In September 1972, the Chapter held the first of its
annual plant sales to fund Chapter activities. In January 1973,
the Chapter began publishing a monthly newsletter which has
continued under various editors.
Current membership in the Chapter is 450. Twenty-one
members are on the Board of Directors, which meets monthly.
General meetings are also held monthly, with speakers at
each meeting except in August, which is the Chapter's annual
picnic; and in September, which is the seed packaging
meeting for the plant sale in October. A plant raffle is held at
each general meeting.
Plant sales have consistently been successful with the
gross income each year surpassing that of the previous year.
Features of the sales are native plants, seeds and bulbs,
paintings, note cards, dried arrangements, books, posters,
T-shirts, and the rare plant exhibit. In 1975 the Milo Baker
Gardener, a booklet on growing local native plants, was
published. The booklet has been a popular plant sale item and
has been reprinted several times.
Field trips range from one trip per month to several during
the peak blooming season. They are generally local, with
one or two overnight trips each year to distant areas. The
"Monday Walkers" group meets weekly for wildflower walks
around the county.
Since its inception, the Chapter has participated in a variety
of other activities, including Topolos' Wine and Wildflower
Show, the Paul Schaffer Wildflower show, the Oak
Symposium, a Laguna de Santa Rosa Conference, the
acquisition of the Todd Road Ecological Preserve (vernal
pools), a booth at the Sonoma County Fair, and a Creek Week
(a restoration project). The Chapter organized and conducted
a very successful vernal pool symposium in 1989.
The Chapter has also sponsored students in an Internship
Program at Sonoma State University, given grants to fund
endangered species research, provided scholarship money to
Santa Rosa Junior College, and contributed to Outdoor
Science Education Programs at Fairfield Osborn Preserve.
Both financial and volunteer help have been contributed to the
Sonoma State University Herbarium.
38
Various members have given educational talks and slide
shows at the request of schools and garden clubs and have
participated in the establishment of a Braille trail at Spring
Lake County Park and the restoration of a pioneer cemetery.
Several members have served as docents at state and county
parks and at Bouverie Preserve. As a member of the Sonoma
County Conservation Council, a coalition of several
environmental organizations including our Chapter, we are
kept abreast of conservation issues pertinent to Sonoma
County and are able to coordinate some of our conservation
activities with other groups.
The Chapter maintains and monitors the Vine Hill Preserve,
a one-acre parcel owned by CNPS, purchased to protect the
last remnants of Arctostaphylos densiflora. The Chapter also
monitors a 4.2 acre conservation easement parcel dedicated to
CNPS in 1986 as mitigation to protect Ceanothus confusus and
Arctostaphylos stanfordiana repens. The Rare Plant Committee
monitors the sites of fifty rare and endangered plant species
and fifty-five less-rare species in the county; the committee
chairperson Betty Guggolz reviews and comments on
environmental impact reports and serves as a referral botanist
to city and county planning agencies in matters pertaining to
development in rare plant areas. This participation has resulted
in the inclusion of protective language for rare plants and plant
communities in the Local Coastal Program document and the
City of Santa Rosa and Sonoma County general plans. Several
chapter members were instrumental in developing a county tree
protection ordinance. The Plant Watch Committee annually
monitors the populations of rare or uncommon plants in
Annadel State Park.
The Chapter has its own collection of wildflower slides, and
in 1989 formed a photography committee, with the goal of
promoting better photography by Chapter members and
rounding out the slide collection.
The Milo Baker Chapter has consistently attempted to
advance the goals of the society and is dedicated to the
preservation of California's native flora.
Betty Guggolz, Vanette Bunyan and Ruth Haas
Santa Clara Valley Chapter
The Santa Clara Valley Chapter was founded in 1972 when
a growing need for a chapter to serve the South Bay was
recognized. President Grace Mason, Vice President Sally
Casey, and Secretary Virginia Bothwell were elected at this
meeting. On April 22, fifteen people attended our first Chapter
field trip to Yerba Buena Nursery, led by Gerda Isenberg and
Roxana Ferris. Our Chapter newsletter, The Blazing Star, first
appeared on June 1,1972. It had been preceded by a one-sheet
publication of field trips dated Spring 1972. Our first
wildflower show was held at the Saratoga Horticultural
Foundation on April 24,1973; the following year it was moved
to the Saratoga High School.
Strong ties were developed with several colleges and
universities in the South Bay Area, especially with the faculty
of the biological science department of San Jose State
University. Some of our most popular field trips were led by
faculty members of San Jose State, one in particular—Carl
Sharsmith's trip to the Mount Hamilton Range—has proven
to be extraordinarily popular and has occurred every year since
the Chapter's inception.
The year 1973 saw the election of botanist Natalie Hopkins
as our Chapter President. Natalie served as our Chapter
President for two years. In 1974 the Chapter successfully
hosted a statewide CNPS field trip weekend organized by Stu
and Diane Olsen. The weekend included visits to the Abrams
Cypress at Bonny Doon, the nature area at De Anza College,
a bayland salt marsh, and a tour of the Saratoga Horticultural
Foundation. Roxana Ferris and Carl Sharsmith became our
Chapter's first two CNPS Fellows during this year.
A field trip to what is now Edgewood Park led by Mabel
Crittenden in April 1975, foreshadowed an involvement in a
conservation issue that has continued to this day—an effort
to preserve the serpentine grasslands at Edgewood County
Park. Mabel introduced our Chapter members to the
exceptional flora near Redwood City. At this time, the site was
intended to become a state college campus. Edgewood was
purchased from the state for use as a county park in 1979.
Shortly after the county purchased Edgewood, it was learned
that they wanted to build an eighteen-hole golf course on the
site —thus began our major conservation issue.
Suzanne Schettler was our next Chapter President. Among
the activities that occurred through her efforts was a plant
inventory of Wunderlich County Park near Woodside. Other
Chapter members became prominent, among them Herman
Baum, who began to lead many field trips for our Chapter
while continuing his excellent photographic work. More than
one program resulted from his widespread explorations
throughout the state of California. He became a Fellow of
CNPS, the third from our Chapter in the summer of 1978.
Another of our founding members, Virginia Bothwell, began
her highly popular weekday walks on the Stanford campus and
Foothills Park. The wildflower show became a two-day event
in 1980. It has always been a significant Chapter event with
hundreds of dollars raised from a concurrent plant sale.
Doug Erskine became President in fall 1976 and it was at
this time, a newly formed Education Committee was born.
Immediate projects included providing advice to parks and
others on natives for landscape use and providing information
for teacher/student natural history trips. An important issue
during Doug's tenure was the effort to save Tulare Hill, a
serpentine landmark south of San Jose. Field trips continued
to be well attended with joint trips with other chapters taking
place, including a visit to Mount George in Napa County to
acquaint the participants with Ceanothus and Arctostaphylos
of that region.
In 1978 we visited the coastal terraces ecological staircase
at Jughandle Creek, Mendocino County. We visited Rose
Ranch in Plumas National Forest in 1979. During the terms
of Anita Jesse (1977-1978) and Pat McCue (1978-1979) formal
lists of escaped exotics of the South Bay Area were prepared.
In October 1979, the purchase of the Edgewood College site
by San Mateo County and the Mid-peninsula Regional Open
Space District was announced. Susan Sommers, a CNPS
member and nearby resident of Edgewood reported the
presence of four rare and endangered plants and later
compiled a partial flora list of Edgewood County Park, listing
nearly 400 species for the site. Skipper Tripp was President in
1979 and Stevie Ferguson in 1980. Herman Baum left 1,200
glass-mounted slides of native plants to our Chapter. These
slides have become the core of our Chapter slide library. Our
slide library group identifies, labels, stores, and produces slide
shows for Chapter use. Others have since donated slides and
our Chapter members have now used these slides to produce
39
shows for various community groups and other educational
efforts of the California Native Plant Society. Gerda Isenberg,
owner of Yerba Buena Nursery, became our fourth Chapter
member to become a Fellow of CNPS in the fall of 1980.
Gerda's donation of native plants for our spring plant sale has
funded most of our Chapter's early activities. These donations
continue to this day, and still constitute the majority of our
Chapter's operating funds.
Bob Will, a horticulture instructor at Foothill College,
became President in the Fall of 1981 and opened many doors
for our Chapter. In addition to landing the Foothill Campus
Center for our wildflower show, he held propagation
workshops in the greenhouse facilities at Foothill and made
arrangements for use of classrooms for a popular plant keying
short course taught by botany instructors Lee Main and Sally
Casey. Sally, one of our founding members, has held many
positions with our Chapter, and her field trips, featuring the
grasses, continue to be some of the most popular field trips our
Chapter conducts.
A noteworthy program at this time was given to our Chapter
by G. Ledyard Stebbins, former state CNPS President and
professor emeritus at U.C. Davis. His presentation, Ecological
Islands of Northern California and their Preservation,
reminded our Chapter to never give up in our efforts to
preserve our flora. We would soon realize how important these
words were as our efforts to save Edgewood Park from
becoming a golf course increased. In December 1982, the San
Mateo County Board of Supervisors approved a conceptual
master plan and environmental impact report (EIR) for
Edgewood that included an eighteen-hole golf course. Our
state organization and two individuals challenged the
adequacy of the EIR in a lawsuit. During spring and summer
of 1983, several environmental organizations (including
CNPS) conducted a survey of a 390-acre site in the southern
watershed across from highway 280 to the south and west of
Edgewood Park. Their report, published in August 1983,
found the "alternative site" to be superior to Edgewood for the
accommodation of a golf course. The Board of Supervisors
continued to consider Edgewood as the prime site of the golf
course in spite of this report. Their planning process was
showed when the San Mateo thornmint {Acanthomintha
obovata subsp. duttonii) and the Bay checkerspot butterfly
(Euphydryas editha subsp. bayensis) were proposed for federal
listing as endangered species. The San Mateo thornmint was
formally listed as endangered in June 1985, and the Bay
checkerspot butterfly was listed as threatened in September
1987. Meanwhile, an Edgewood Park Docent Program was
started to train people to guide walks for the general public
at Edgewood. This program and the walks continue to this
day and have proved to be as successful as they are popular.
Many Chapter members are recognized for this effort, but
Toni Corelli should be singled out for her outstanding efforts
on this project. There were years when she would lead the
majority of these walks.
In addition to our battle to save Edgewood, our conserva-
tion chair. Bob Berka was busy attending meetings that would
help determine the fate of 63,000 acres of Henry Coe State
Park. The result was that a significant portion of the land was
declared wilderness and added to the State Wilderness System.
Bart O'Brien, President from 1985 to 1986, began a series of
summer special programs with Lyman Benson as first speaker,
and participation in the Santa Clara County Fair—our first
major effort to become more visible in the South Bay. The
result has been an increase in our membership to 500.
A Chapter book service was initiated at this time as well as
propagation workshops for our plant sale, conducted by
Barbara Coe of Saratoga Horticultural Foundation. At Bart's
suggestion, we also began holding a Fall potluck, which was
wildly successful and has been a Chapter institution ever since.
Ken Himes became Chapter President in January 1987. The
Chapter hosted the CNPS state board meeting in March 1987
at Foothill College; participated in the San Francisco Wildlife
Refuge native plant symposium and plant sale, the Coyote
Point wildflower show, and the San Mateo County Fair with
a booth and display about Edgwood County Park. At the time
of the San Mateo County Fair, there was renewed pressure by
the golfing community to commence construction of a public
golf course on Edgewood Park. Our efforts at the fair provided
us the opportunity to present an alternative point of view to
the general public. During the following spring, we renewed
our efforts to expand our docent walks at Edgewood. Several
Chapter publications were produced to become available at the
County Fair—these being "Serpentine Bibliography," by Toni
Corelli; "Trees and Shrubs of San Mateo County," by Jeff
Caldwell; a new edition of the "Partial Flora of Edgewood
County Park," by Susan Sommers; and a new edition of the
"Edgewood Park Background Information."
With the federal listing of the Bay checkerspot butterfly as
a threatened species in September 1987, the County was
presented with a major roadblock to their golf course plans
in that the butterfly's habitate (the serpentine grasslands)
would have to be protected, something that CNPS has always
stated would be impossible with a golf course at Edgewood.
Members of the Edgewood Park Committee renewed their
efforts to get the County to consider the South Watershed Site
as a viable alternative to Edgewood for a golf course.
Opposition has developed against development of this site
also, especially during these drought years.
Ken Himes, Jean Sorensen and Bart O'Brien
East Bay Chapter
The natural world is a place with no lines drawn through it.
For some members, the decision to draw a line around our part
of the world and call it the San Francisco Bay Area (later
renamed East Bay) Chapter of CNPS was a hard one. But by
1973, with many chapters already in existence, the line was
drawn, and on May 10 the state CNPS Board approved our 200
member Chapter.
Dr. Baki Kasapligil was the first president of our Chapter
(1973). It fell to Dr. Kasapligil (1973), William "Bill" Brophy
(1974-1975), Carl Koerper (interim 1975), and John Mathews
(1976) were pioneers: they developed the development of our
organization and traditions. Our Bay Lea/began publication
in September of 1973. Our plant sale, inherited from our earliest
days as the mother organization, started its slow, steady growth
as the basis for our finances. Our first by-laws, enacted in 1975,
set an approach of clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
Strong conservation activism began immediately, first under
Neil Havlik, and from 1975 until he died in 1990, under the
kind and effective guidance of Paul Covel. The Chapter has
struggled long and hard for the preservation of Antioch
Dunes, for San Francisco Bay wetlands protection, and for
limiting urban encroachments on park lands.
40
«'-|S^5,!:SrfliSli"if!fr:-... „":;»..


r."*
v *.:
--¦.:. • '^^fe^E,,'.--'"^ "I ¦ -i«r "i**.".-
¦A ¦-"**'   '*. ^^^B~      #            *              i «"31 M** ,,rfk  *"?--
asaHsi^«ft-^;.?^^—v.-..- ¦¦¦¦¦¦ r..
-.'.;V;^.';*";;3-f«V"X'- ¦.   .'*                       *¦-¦ -:"-.      -;.   ¦- \ " j......" ¦     ¦¦   ..   -,%.*¦-    .
'-".¦•  •    u? .jtVL-" -^   **''¦¦'   •¦.-¦    -¦-.-¦     ¦     .   ...-¦¦¦.  .       ¦¦-¦
.***.
.ftS«f#-
A joint CNPS and Jepson Herbarium field trip to the coastal prairie found on ancient sea terraces at Salt Point State Park in Sonoma County.
Photograph by Larry Heckard.
In 1977 James Roof became president. Jim was a man of
strong vision and forceful personality. During his years vivid
and lengthy discussion about policies and directions was the
rule. As our Chapter secretary humorously noted at the end
of a meeting, "A committee is a group of people who can talk
for hours and produce a result called minutes." Of course, out
of the talk came a lot more besides minutes. The scope of
conservation activities broadened to include more aggressive
strategies and especially a heightened involvement in Mr.
Roofs love, Mount San Bruno. Our Rare Plant Committee
was formed. The Bay Leaf expanded in content and length.
James Roofs strong presidential style might be typified by
his introduction of "President's Four Goals for Bay Chapter"
at a meeting, attempting to set Board direction. Combined
with some controversial contributions to a People's Park event
and interference in East Bay Regional Parks labor issues, this
abrasive style resulted in Board resistance. When Jim rejected
a recommended slate of candidates and substituted a new one,
the Board reacted. The ensuing struggle between Board and
President ended in a diplomatic but firm reassertion of the
rights of the whole board to make critical decisions.
1979-1980 saw, with Jenny Fleming as President, a new era
in our Chapter begin. Continuing through 1981-1982, with
Charli Danielsen as President, this was a time when earlier,
sometimes sporadic or tentative efforts were sorted out, good
from bad, and became traditions. Jenny and Charli believed
in and practiced the consensus approach to decision-making.
Both followed the idea that delegation of authority in a clear,
directed manner is essential to success. Amended 1979 by-laws
summarized these attitudes.
General membership meetings became monthly events and
programs were exciting. The Chapter roster rose to 1,105. The
annual dinner was instituted. Field trips became monthly or
even more often. Scholarships for local students began.
Increased native plant educational endeavor did not mean
lessened conservation activism. This was a time when our Rare
Plant Committee did some of its best work in issue-related
field surveys. The diversity of challenges undertaken in these
years was truly amazing. Some were as complex as the
acquisition and proper management of Antioch Dunes, others
as simple as preserving old black walnuts by a church in Pinole.
It is perhaps ironic that the most controversial challenge our
41
Chapter undertook occurred in the presidency of Marian
Reeve (1983-1984). Marian, a gentle and soft spoken person,
quickly found herself in the center of a lawsuit undertaken to
block the badly conceived golf course on the Edgewood Park
serpentine meadows. With Board support and dedicated
individuals bearing the brunt of the strategy and analysis
sessions, Marian saw this difficult effort through to the
successful result of today, a preserved Edgewood. But the toll
on the Chapter finances and strain on people's energy and time
lead to what could only be called exhaustion.
When William Keeler became President our Chapter was
sorely in need of a rest. Bill gave us a chance by directing our
efforts to such basic important goals as the need to secure a
permanent growing ground for our plant sale, the follow-up
on Antioch Dunes management, and the provision of monies
for local educational projects. His pet project was the
formation of the Yerba Buena Chapter with financial and "Bay
Leaf support.
Patricia Allen—better make that "Patsy" as she was easily
the most loved president our Chapter has had — strolled into
presidency (1987-1990) continuing to build programs based
firmly in the traditions of our Chapter. Our plant sale has
prospered phenomenally. The Rare Plant committee is
reinvigorated. Our Conservation Committee, functioning now
with issue-scope and priorities-policy guidelines is once again
tackling an impressive array of challenges. We now have 1,300
members. The change of our Chapter name to East Bay
Chapter symbolizes the confidence we have in our Chapter's
future as well as pride in our past.
This history was prepared from seventeen years of minutes
kept by CNPS founding member Leonora Strohmier. The East
Bay Chapter owes especial gratitude to her careful and
dedicated work.
David Bingham
Marin Chapter History
The Marin Chapter was founded in the spring of 1973 by
Rick Bergman and twenty-three charter members. When
President Rick moved away that summer, the Chapter hung
in limbo for a year until the fall of 1974, when it "reactivated"
with a full slate of officers. In 1975 we held the first of our
annual potluck-and-members-slide-show dinner meetings with
raffles and auctions as fund raisers. We decided not to meet
in July, August, and December. Our first plant sale that year
netted us $630. (Our 1987 sale netted a record $2,080.) During
September 1975, we hosted the State CNPS quarterly board
meeting and celebrated the Society's tenth anniversary. In
1974, we nominated John Thomas Howell as a CNPS Fellow,
in 1975 Jim Roof (jointly with SF Bay and Milo Baker
chapters), and in 1985 Wilma Follette. Since our first year we
have procured botany books for our members at a twenty
percent discount. We designated Calochortus tiburonensis as
our logo plant on our Newsletter and T-shirts.
Since our Chapter's inception we have held both local and
out-of-county monthly field trips. For the past fifteen years
a group has tripped once a weekday throughout March, April,
and May to special places within the county led by Wilma
Follette. During the past several years about half these trips
have been devoted to making plant lists for extensive public
lands in Marin: GGNRA, Pt. Reyes Seashore, our seven state
parks, County Open Space lands, Marin Municipal Water
42
Nature study can be great fun as Wilma Follette demonstrates on a
Tahoe Chapter field trip. Photograph by Ken Berg.
District lands, Nature Conservancy lands, and Audubon
Society preserves. Several extensive summer trips of one or two
weeks were made to such exotic spots as the southern
California deserts, the Sierra, Mt. St. Helen's in Washington,
and Vancouver Island. In 1988 we began spring walks for
mothers with small children. Also, we have conducted walks
on lands where sheep grazing or development was being
considered to. make the public more aware of the presence and
value of native plants.
The Chapter has been represented at many fairs and shows
including the 1988 Marin County Fair, where we won a second
prize for our display garden. We have declined to take part in
wildflower shows for conservation reasons.
Over the years we have contributed money in varying
amounts to a statewide list of worthy causes related to native
plants: the deserts and Baldwin Lake to the Cullinan Island
wetlands on San Pablo Bay and the Abrams cypress to the
Siskiyou Mountains and the Smith River. Locally, some
particular concerns we have addressed with supporting funds
and/or letters include County Open Space land acquisitions
and The Nature Conservancy's acquisition of Ring Mountain;
the removal of eucalyptus trees from Angel Island State Park
and GGNRA; the impact on native plants by Cal Trans use of
herbicides along roadsides and optional removal of pampas
grass in Tiburon; the restoration of Mt. Tamalpais West Peak
to a natural condition; and a minimizing of herbicide use in
the County's management of escaped exotics.
We opposed seeding barley on a local burn; lumbering on
MMWD lands; commercial fungi collecting in state and national
parks; horses and bicycles in wilderness areas of Pt. Reyes
Seashore; wide swaths cut along state park and MMWD trails;
widening or adding trails in Marin as part of the Bay Area Ridge
Trail. We advised the Marin Board of Realtors, who were
distributing "wildflower seeds," that they should be planted in
gardens and not in the wild. We also wrote with concerns about
development in Tiburon on serpentine lands; damage by feral
pigs on watershed lands (starting in 1981) and offering $500
if MMWD would quickly and quietly eliminate them; exotics
at Fort Baker; a rare plant in a Larkspur development.
We maintain memberships in the North Coast Environ-
mental Center, the Planning and Conservation League, and
The Nature Conservancy (we send $50 in the name of each
speaker at our general meetings to their Land Acquisition
Fund). We contributed $2,500 towards the purchase of the
CNPS Sacramento office computer; $2,000 to MMWD to hire
a botanist to locate, map, and assess their rare plants and
vegetation types before the district conducts further burning;
the State CNPS for research on Forest Service plans; the
Jepson Manual Project—$500 a year; and the J.T. Howell
Chair in the Academy of Science's Botany Department.
From 1977 to 1980 we had a special Broom Committee
which distributed pamphlets called The Broomhandle, gave
slide shows, and held two workshops. A letter to local
newspapers encouraged homeowners to eliminate broom and
pampas grass. We have spent $854 to date eradicating pampas
grass at Inverness, and we back efforts to eradicate capeweed
and other exotics continually being planted by a vandal in
GGNRA. We hold annual plant counts assessing our rare
plants. In 1986 a group of mostly local CNPS members began
monitoring rare plants for the Pt. Reyes Seashore.
We spent $1,000 installing a native plant garden at the
Richardson Bay Audubon Sanctuary, and we provide
continuous maintenance. We recruited members to help
propagate natives in GGNRA's greenhouse. We installed
display windows at the West Point Inn, the San Rafael Library,
and the Richardson Bay Audubon Sanctuary. In 1978, we set
up a Conservation fund from monies donated as memorials;
we provided carved redwood benches as memorials to valued
members at two local Audubon locations and the Pt. Reyes
Bird Observatory and a rock bench/table on Ring Mountain
in honor of Tom Howell's eightieth birthday. From 1984 to
1986 we attempted to rebuild a bridge across Stemple Creek
with funds granted by the Coastal Conservancy, but it was
ultimately abandoned because of liability concerns of the
rancher's lawyer. We produced brochures for the Richardson
Bay Audubon Native Garden, the rare plants of Ring
Mountain, and a leaflet (regularly updated) listing rare plants
growing in our chapter area. We supported with loans from the
board and individuals the 1978 publication of McHoul's
Wild/lowers of Marin and in 1989 Shuford and Tomassi's
Plant Communities of Marin.
In 1981 and 1982 we gave slide shows on their rare plants to
MMWD, Pt. Reyes National Seashore, and GGNRA staff and
presented them books with photos, locations, and a map. We
co-sponsored a College of Marin weekend class on Mt.
Tamalpais with several of our members as instructors. In 1988,
with over $15,000 in our combined general and conservation
funds, we organized a symposium on planting with natives;
140 attended and we netted $2,500. We recently distributed
CNPS posters to local schools. We have purchased a coffee urn
and a slide projector for use at meetings and an IBM
Wheelwriter II for membership records. Our Chapter
membership passed the 500 mark in 1988.
Wilma Follette
Napa Chapter
The Napa Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant
Society was formed in 1973. In the early years the Chapter was
involved in the California Natural Areas Coordinating Council
(CNACC), a group taking an inventory of natural areas. The
program was organized by Giles Mead and managed by Les
Hood of Sonoma. Steve Rae was the local botanist who
organized plant information. CNACC was a major project of
the State Board.
In these early years the Chapter was also involved in efforts
to inventory rare and endangered plants of California, a
project originated by Ledyard Stebbins, and staffed by Roman
Gankin and Bob Powell. The inventory was conducted in two
A CNPS field trip to The Cedars serpentine area in Sonoma County.
Photograph by Ken Berg.

¦:-¦:¦«"-,?
;-**;.
v   ¦©¦         .          -    '                 .            *rS".!ff'*' rt\/r* ' •     -ASK
parts. One effort was geographical in determining the validity
of herbarium records within each county; the other was field
checking and reporting.
The Napa Valley Chapter has sponsored wildflower
symposiums and wildflower shows, wildflower walks, and
other typical activities. Through the years the Napa Chapter
established the usual committees and activities, and with
experience they became stronger and more effective. However,
three activities or projects stand out in this Chapter's history.
In 1979 the Chapter was faced with an opportunity. In the
foothills east of Napa State Hospital lay 900 acres of State-
owned land. If this property was not spoken for soon it would
be put up for sale by the state. Since no branch of the county
government was willing to get involved with forming a new
park, a group of interested citizens of the county formed a
non-profit organization, Skyline Park Citizens Association,
for the purpose of negotiating a concession agreement with
the Napa County Board of Supervisors to establish and
operate a public park on this land. A number of conservation-
minded organizations along with several horsemen groups
made up the Skyline Park Association. The Napa Valley
Chapter of CNPS took a leading role.
The Napa Chapter Board felt that the formation of Skyline
Park provided a great opportunity for the people of Napa
County and lent its wholehearted support. The Chapter
planned to preserve and protect any rare and endangered
plants discovered there and also saw Skyline as an ideal place
to establish a native plant botanical garden.
The park was established and the chapter installed an
irrigation system at the entrance and around the parking lots,
planted the first stage of a native plant botanical garden, and
cleared and developed nature trails throughout the park. The
Chapter has been significantly involved in the park
development. Thousands of membership hours and Chapter
dollars have been spent on this project.
The idea for a native plant nursery was sparked by the
Chapter's early plant sale in 1979. In the early years results at
producing natives for sale were uneven and marked by some
failure, and it was decided that a central growing grounds
would permit better knowledge of how to propagate, maintain,
and grow natives. The Chapter was fortunate in having a
member family donate about a half acre for Chapter use, and
since 1982 the Chapter has used this site. Members did not dig
plants from the wild but grew plants from seed or cuttings
aided by a small mist house. Much time, energy, and money
went into learning successful methods of propagating and
growing different species, and it was found that each seemed
to have its own unique set of requirements for success.
Members are still learning.
It was thought that the knowledge and skill acquired by the
members involved could be useful in maintaining natives in
their natural habitats where threatened and also in revegetation
efforts. Propagating and growing natives for the fall plant sale
also serves to interest and educate the public in native plants
and generates income for the Chapter. In fact, the sale of
plants has become the Chapter's main source of income. In
general, the Chapter has been very successful in this activity.
The Chapter has also propagated and grown to transplant
stage natives donated to Skyline Park as well as to the Native
American Garden at the Bothe Napa Valley State Park, the
Carolyn Parr Nature Museum, St. Helena City Park, Sophie
Mitchell Memorial Garden at White Sulphur Spring and others.
In the early 70s another group, some of whom were Chapter
members, became enamored with the idea of offering a
Natural Science Docent Program to the Napa County school
children. It started with the requirement that prospective
docents take the Ecology and Biology course offered by Napa
College or a similar program training elsewhere. A school
"suitcase" program inspired by the Audubon Canyon Ranch
Docents was developed. In 1979, this group asked the Napa
Chapter to sponsor them. More recently the group has become
a committee of the Napa Chapter, and all docents are now
Napa Chapter members.
Other conservation activities include periodic plant watches,
a program to monitor and field evaluate rare and endangered
plant populations in Napa County. Joe Callizo directs this
statewide program. The Chapter works with property owners
to protect the sites to insure the plant's continued survival.
Rapid growth in Napa in the 1970s and 1980s has resulted
in a flood of conservation activities, including working with
Homestake Mining to reduce the impacts of a proposed gold
mine; the protection of the marshes and endangered wetland
species along the Napa River; the protection of vernal pools
in several locations in the county; and the preservation of
significant oak woodlands and savannas.
Evelyn B. Allen
Santa Cruz Chapter
The Santa Cruz Chapter was started in 1974, under the
leadership of Glenn and Jan McGourty. Beginning 1977, the
Chapter has each year co-sponsored the Spring Wildflower
show with the Santa Cruz City Museum Association. First
Suzanne Schettler and then Adrienne Harrold were in charge
of the event, working with John Anderson of the Natural
History Museum. The displayed plants and blossoms are not
collected in the wild but are from local gardens and nurseries.
Nevin Smith, manager of Leonard Coates Nursery (later
owner of Wintergreen Nursery), has been a major source of
plants. T-shirts, posters and plant information are also
available for the many visitors. Each year a different exhibition
on the walls and in display cases accompanies the show. These
consist of art work, antique plant books, or plant related
collections. A plant sale is usually held after the last day of the
three-day show.
Beginning in 1976, the chapter has had an annual fall plant
sale. The plants are obtained by member propagation at
propagation and potting parties and by donated plants, mainly
from Nevin Smith of Wintergreen Nursery. Each type of plant
has a detailed label, including a photo, and instructions on the
plant's needs. Experts are also available to give advice to
buyers. The chairpersons for the sale have been Suzanne
Schettler, Eleanor Young, and Tom Kelly. This is the Chapter's
biggest fund raiser. Beginning in March 1983, the Chapter
selected various locations to conducted a plant count. Randy
Morgan and Laurie Kiguchi have been the leaders.
The Chapter's logo is a drawing of the Abram's or Santa
Cruz cypress (Cupressus abramsiana,) which first appeared on
the Jan./Feb. 1978 newsletter, The Cypress Cone. Brett Hall
proposed the Cypress and Sharon Hobson was the artist. This
tree is only found in four small groves in the Santa Cruz
Mountains. The newsletter has been produced by Madge
Morton, Jim Cook, Clark Magruder, and Kurt Ellison.
On the second Monday of every other month the Chapter
44
has a general meeting with a public program. Occasionally a
drawing or raffle for plants will also occur. The Board meets
on months alternating with the general meeting, on the sec-
ond Monday in a member's home. A potluck precedes the
meeting. The Board also takes the program speakers out to
dinner before each general meeting. Betty Barnhart is one
naturalist and photographer who gave excellent slide
show/lectures to the Chapter in the late '70s and early '80s.
The Chapter has a field trip to a botanically interesting spot,
at least every other month. Randy Morgan has been a frequent leader
whose knowledge of plants has been invaluable to the group.
The Santa Cruz Chapter has been actively involved in
conservation projects such as: protection of the Santa Cruz
Wallflower in 1981 from proposed Beaureard Vineyards in
Bonny Doon; legal suit against County Board of Supervisors
for failing to protect rare and endangered plants on the
Galleon Heights subdivision in Boulder Creek; preserving the
Santa Cruz Cypress trees in Bracken Brae grove northeast of
Eagle Rock, 1979; preservation of the sand hills from sand
mining by Lone Star Co. in San Lorenzo Valley, 1983; joined
with Santa Cruz Land Trust to make Antonelli's Pond a nature
area in 1982; worked to preserve the South County Sloughs in
Watsonville; protection of H-H Ranch in Swanton in 1982;
protection of Santa Margarita sandstone formation in Bony
Doon from TMI development; and protection of the Santa
Cruz tarweed (Holocarpha macradenia) near Watsonville.
A few of the monetary gifts and some volunteer work
include: $250 given to Santa Cruz County Land Trust for labels
for a native plant garden at City Museum; $850 given to State
CNPS for its computer, 1983; $500 given to Sempervirens
Fund to help buy land to add to Big Basin State Park in May,
1985; $500 given to Santa Cruz County Feral Pig Depredation
Committee to help pay a half time coordinator to deal with
problems relating to exploding wild pig population in the
county in 1989. Alice Harper represents the Chapter on this
committee; Chapter volunteers helped to plant and tend the
coastal native garden at Long Marine Lab north of Santa
Cruz; prepared a native plant slide show for use in schools and
by the public in 1981. The show is checked out at the Natural
History Museum and is still often used by local schools. Linda
Locatelli was in charge of this project as well as other CNPS
duties (treasurer, volunteer at Wild Flower Show, plant
propagation, etc.).
Alice B. Harper
Northern San Joaquin Valley Chapter
By the early 1970s, CNPS was growing rapidly with new
Chapters sprouting up in more metropolitan areas and along
the coast. Equal interest in the protection of native, rare, and
endangered flora could be found within the San Joaquin and
Sacramento valleys, where vast tracts of native grasslands,
wetlands, and woodlands had already been devastated and
thousands of acres were threatened. Nowhere else in California
had so much native habitat been destroyed and altered by
modern man than in the Great Valley.
The Sacramento Valley had already established an active
CNPS Chapter in Sacramento. With hopes to eventually see
two or three more Chapters in the southern portion of the
Great Valley, a group started the Northern San Joaquin Valley
Chapter, based in Modesto, in 1976. This Chapter has had four
presidents: Joe Medeiros, Roy Schmidt, Gloria Weigel, and
Virginia Goodrow. There, of course, have been scores of other
members instrumental in the success of this Chapter.
While other Chapters worked on "broom-bashes," exotic
species eradication projects and rare-plant inventories, the
NSJV Chapter tried to figure out ways to find a native plant
within the rampant weeds, pastures, and cultivated crops of
the highly manipulated valley.
Of significant interest to the NSJV Chapter since its
inception have been the Red Hills (Tuolumne County),
Hickman Vernal Pools (largest in California), Barnett Ranch
vernal pools, Del Puerto Canyon and Henry Coe State Park
(Stanislaus/Santa Clara Counties), Grasslands State Park
(Merced County), Caswell State Park (San Joaquin County),
Littlejohn's Creek (Stanislaus/San Joaquin counties), and San
Luis Island (Merced County). The Chapter continues to be
extremely interested in the preservation of valley oaks, riparian
vegetation, vernal pools, native grasslands, and the numerous
rare plants that exist within the region.
Joe Medeiros
Channel Islands Chapter
The Channel Islands Chapter was founded in 1976.
Our records begin in 1977, but they are scanty for the first
few years. In 1977, one year after the founding, we had about
ninety members.
About 1980, John Broz, who was Recreation Supervisor for
the city of Ventura, became active in the Chapter as program
chairman. Many of the current generation of board members
were recruited by John and his wife, Jackie. Because of their
hard work and their ease at making friends, he was able to
improve the number and quality of our field trips and other
events. By the end of 1981, our membership had grown to
about 175.
During 1981, agreement was made with the City of Ventura
that we would develop a half-acre lot, owned by the city, as a
demonstration garden, as it is not suitable as a building site
because a channelized creek runs beneath the property. Bill
Murphy, an ornamental horticulturist and one of our
members, designed the garden. Over the past eight years it has
steadily improved and now looks quite good. We hold our
annual plant sales across the street from it, and the garden
serves as good advertisement for gardening with native plants.
Beginning in 1981, we began attending the Ventura street
fairs regularly. The City of Ventura closes Main Street three
times a year and allows non-profit organizations and
craftsmen to set up booths. This has proved to be a good way
to sell things and recruit new members.
At the end of 1982, we had our "constitutional crisis." The
president had held the job for six and years and was asked by
the CNPS state president, John Libby, to appoint a nominating
committee and hold an election. This resulted in the entire treas-
ury being donated to Channel Islands National Monument by
the then president. The state president had to intervene and
appointed a nominating committee. A system was set up wherein
elections are held every year, and a president serves a two-year
term. Two signatures are now required on our checks.
In 1985, the Wheeler fire occurred, which covered many tens
of square miles, just as the Periodic Plant Watch program was
being developed by the state CNPS. We chose to study the
regeneration of the chaparral and the effects of post-fire rye
grass reseeding on regrowth of native plants. We continue this
45
study to the present and have collected a substantial amount
of data.
Also in 1985, the Channel Islands Chapter wrote letters to
the Los Padres National Forest, opposing the development of
a back-country off road vehicle (ORV) loop trail. Eventually
the Forest Service wrote back saying they had received seventy-
five letters supporting each side, and since the matter was
controversial, they had canceled the proposal. Unfortunately,
this issue has recently resurfaced.
Beginning in 1986, the Chapter took an interest in Fritillaria
ojaiensis, a plant on the CNPS rare and endangered List IB.
Since that time we have located three previously unknown
populations at Gridley Canyon, Wheeler Gorge, and Santa
Paula Canyon. The last location was the type locality, where
the species had been thought to have disappeared. Also during
that year, we "assisted" "Sunset" magazine in preparing an
article on matilija poppies. We did detailed field work for the
article, and the Chapter was paid $300.
Also in 1986, the Chapter became a "friend of the court,"
filing a brief in a case where development was planned on a
wetland area on the Ventura River in Ojai. The locality was the
southernmost point in the range of a species of Sagittaria, and
was the only location in Ventura County for a large number
of wetland species. The court decided in our favor, allowing
only partial development of the property. However,
management of the area, as well as completion of mitigation
measures, were unfortunately assigned to the development
homeowners association, which is not knowledgeable about
the natural area or native plants. For example, the current
landscaping plan shows on its list of "native" grass species,
only non-native, exotic species.
In 1986, the Channel Islands Chapter joined other South-
ern California Chapters in writing to the State Coastal
Conservancy to urge their support in the acquisition of the
1,700-acxe Circle X Ranch in the western Santa Monica
Mountains. This important area was subsequently acquired by
the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation and Conservation
Authority, which ensured that this unique piece of land would
be preserved for future generations. In 1989, a Chapter
representative, Rick Burgess, was on hand for the ceremonies
that transferred the Circle X Ranch to the National Park Service.
In 1987, we began having regular monthly programs, offered
September through May, alternating between Ventura and
Santa Barbara. However, because of poor attendance at the
Santa Barbara meetings, they are now always held at the
Channel Islands National Monument in Ventura.
Also in 1987, hearings were held concerning the Los Padres
National Forest's twenty-year plan. The CNPS, at both the
Chapter and state levels, prepared lengthy and detailed
comments. We requested expansion of wilderness areas,
addition of botanical reserve areas, limitation of type
conversion for grazing, etc. The Forest Service made some
attempt to address our concerns. However, we are currently
participating in an appeal of the plan to attempt to get it to
incorporate more of our proposals.
We had our first native plant sale in 1987, held in the parking
lot at Ventura High School, Ventura. Plants were supplied by
Las Pilitas Nursery of Santa Margarita. The Chapter kept
twenty-five percent of the gross sales. This has, in effect,
doubled the financial income of the Chapter. We plan to
continue this as an annual event.
The History Committee
Sequoia Chapter
The first meeting of the Sequoia Chapter (originally, South-
ern San Joaquin in Valley Chapter) was held February 27,1977
in Fresno. Joyce Hall, our first president (and organizer of the
Chapter) recalls that then State Membership Chair, Joyce Burr,
had provided her with names of local CNPS members. Hall's
interest had been stimulated by field trips taken with a plant
taxonomy class, and with students of a field biology course at
Fresno City College.
Among the first Chapter members were biology staff and
students of both California State University, Fresno and City
College, and local residents, some of whom worked in the
environmental field and others just interested in our native flora.
Art Manly, a retiree with a yard full of native plants, was an
early president. He enhanced the activity of the Chapter by
providing plants for raffles at meetings, phoning members and
encouraging them to attend meetings. Other early presidents
were Phyllis Emparan, John Stebbins, Michelle Prestigard, and
Dan Hamon. Dan has left the area, but he led some very
interesting field trips to places he had botanized when he was
a Botanist with Sierra National Forest. He rediscovered
populations of a number of Hoover's collections, and the state
listing of Lupinus deflexus and Calyptridium pulchellum are
to his credit.
Later presidents did not have the time Art had to devote such
personal attention to the members, and after we lost our
central meeting place at Pyle School, the organization has
become less active. In June 1990 the Chapter hosted the State
Board meeting at Bass Lake and arranged several field trips,
including a boat ride across Bass Lake at sunset.
In the past we held several successful native plant sales and
wildflower shows. Our most recent effort has been devoted to
conservation issues on small hydroelectric power plant
development and other riparian issues; loss of vernal pools to
housing development; and fighting Cal Trans plans to reroute
Highway 168 through a diverse mid-elevation forest acre
botanical site (used by botany classes for many years).
Since our Chapter covers such a large area we now have two
vice presidents, one for the south and another north in order
to reach more of our members.
Jeanne Larson
Mount Lassen Chapter
The first meeting of the Mount Lassen Chapter of the
California Native Plant Society was held on November 4,1977,
at California State University, Chico. Rob Schlising (who
became the Chapter's first president) spoke on the topic,
"What is so special about our California native plants?" The
turnout for the meeting was very good because, according to
Dr. Schlising, "The time had come for this to get started." The
Chapter was admitted into CNPS by the State Board of
Directors in December 1977, with an initial membership of
seventy-five persons. In 1983, the Chapter was divided into two
Chapters; the Mount Lassen Chapter continued to represent
Butte, Glenn, Plumas, and Tehama counties, as well as Lassen
Volcanic Park while the newly formed Mt. Shasta Chapter
represented the northern counties. Mt. Lassen has hosted the
State CNPS board meeting twice, once alone and once as co-
host with Mt. Shasta.
From the very beginning this Chapter actively educated its
46
members and the community in general about California's
native plants via workshops, lectures, and field trips. The first
major project of the Chapter was developing a phenology of
the flowering, fruiting, and seeding native plants of Butte
County. The earliest activities were field trips to local sites such
as Table Mountain, Vina Plains vernal pools, Honeyrun
Covered Bridge, Feather River Canyon, Lassen Park, Richvale
vernal pools, and many other beautiful areas of Northern
California, including extended trips to further sites such as the
Lava Beds and the Sutter Buttes. The first plant sale was held
in the fall of 1979 under the direction of Tim Devine (later
taken over by Lowell Ahart) and was a great success. The
Chapter also held annual slide contests to collect slides of local
plants to loan to local school and other groups for
presentations. In November 1979, the Chapter held a
bunchgrass plant-in at Bidwell Park in an attempt to revegetate
this area with some native plants. In 1986, the Chapter, under
the direction of Marjorie McNairn, held "The Wildflower
show" (which has continued as a biennial event) to inform the
public about native wildflowers and local habitats, as well as
to raise funds for the Chapter and increase membership.
One of the first actions of the Chapter was to form a
Conservation Committee to monitor environmental documents
and to encourage county planners to protect rare plants as a
matter of county policy. The committee also compiled a list
of rare plant locations throughout Northeastern California so
members could verify the locations and appreciate the beauty
of the plants. In August 1979, the committee purchased its first
"Easement Deed" to two small parcels in the Nimshew area of
Butte County for $1, thus protecting a population of the rare
plant species Fritillaria eastwoodiae.
The Chapter has also participated in local issues. Local
development and business interests have found that plants have
an advocate in this area. Especially significant have been the
Chapter's opposition to mining on Table Mountain, its
attempts to mitigate damage to Lindo Channel during the
widening of Cohasset Road to four lanes, its attempts to
protect local native oaks, and its protection of populations of
Limnanthes floccosa subsp. californica, a vernal pool plant
and Butte County's most endangered plant species. The
Chapter has also been active in promoting the use of native
plants, trees, and shrubs by the city in revegetation and
landscaping projects.
The Mount Lassen Chapter and its members have
cooperated with local environmental organizations. In
November 1981, the Mount Lassen Chapter joined the Butte
Environmental Council, a local environmental advocacy
group. The Chapter has also maintained a booth featuring
local endangered plants at the annual Butte County
Endangered Species Faire and at the Chico Expo. In 1983, Tim
Devine developed a native plant garden for the Chico Nature
Center, a local organization dedicated to educating the public
about environmental matters. Jim Jokerst contributed to the
formation of the Butterfly Valley Botanical Area in Plumas
National Forest.
Many Chapter members have distinguished themselves in
statewide CNPS activities. In January 1980, Jeff Prouty received
a mini-grant from CNPS to prepare a computerized rare plant
data base for northeastern California and Rob Schlising was
appointed to serve on the statewide Rare Plant Scientific
Advisory Committee. Several members have been active in the
statewide CNPS, including the late Pauline Broyles (who edited
the statewide bulletin), Jim Nelson, and Mary Meyer (who is
presently holding a statewide position). Jim Jokerst also received
the 1988 Rare Plant Conservation award for his efforts to protect
the Butte County meadowfoam.
Presently Mount Lassen Chapter has over 250 members and
publishes its newsletter, the "Pipe Vine," ten times a year. There
are eight evening programs a year, usually with an invited
speaker. Field trips (often led by long-time member Wes
Dempsey) are scheduled several times a month throughout the
year and are extremely well attended.
Diane Mastalir, Mary Meyer and Rob Schlising
Sanhedrin Chapter
The Sanhedrin Chapter was started in January 1981.
Mike Brady was the first president. We are most active in the
fall with mushroom walks, and in spring with wildflower
walks. Our membership has remained consistently around
sixty, and we are proud to say that this past year we have added
about ten to that.
We currently have about twenty active members; however,
we are determined to get new people more actively involved.
Gladys Telschow
Kern County Chapter
Kern County has had a long history of botanist-
conservationists who have been actively monitoring and
preserving unique plants and plant communities long before
CNPS was organized. The Kern County Chapter of CNPS was
formed in 1982, primarily to continue conservation efforts
begun decades earlier.
Conservation issues of concern to our Chapter include: the
management and preservation of riparian habitat along the
Tim Krantz explains the ecology of the pebble plains to visitors of the
North Baldwin Lake Ecological Reserve. A new Visitor Center was
built cooperatively by CNPS members, Friends of Big Bear Valley
Preserves, TNC, DFG and USFS.
¦'¦ivii-jr^t
\\
X
0
&*
*
A field trip to the Eureka Dunes at a CNPS sponsored symposium honoring Mary Dedecker. Photograph by Ken Berg.
Kern River; wind farm development in the hills around the
Southern San Joaquin Valley; and the protection of the
endangered Bakersfield cactus (Opuntia treleasei). Cactus
protection involves cooperation with local governmental
agencies to protect and relocate populations threatened by
development as well as the support and expansion of the
Nature Conservancy's Sand Ridge Preserve.
Annual field trips often include searching for and
monitoring at least fourteen rare, threatened or endangered
local species and always provide rewarding experiences for
participants of all levels of botanical expertise.
The California Living Museum (CALM), which opened in
the early 1980s, provides the Chapter with an opportunity
to promote CNPS educational goals. CNPS members
are actively involved in the planning and completion of
the landscaping of CALM using California native plants
to represent major habitat types. Each year the Chapter
provides a wildflower show for the CALM anniversary
celebration. In 1989, the Chapter also was the principal
sponsor of the CALM botanical room, contributing both
expertise and funds. The annual Chapter plant sale is held at
CALM as part of a successful partnership in promoting the
native flora of California.
Although the Kern County Chapter is relatively small and
new, the dedication of its members, some of whom have been
actively involved in native plant conservation for over five
decades, make it a productive group.
Laura Stockton
The Bristlecone Chapter
For years, the establishment of an Eastern Sierra Chapter
of the California Native Plant Society had been a vision in the
mind of Mary DeDecker, noted botanist and a pioneer in the
state CNPS movement. The unique floristic environment of
the eastern Sierra required a separate study area; the water
problems of the Owens Valley needed the support of a state
conservation organization for disappearing habitats. With
enough environmentally-conscious, interested people living
and working in Inyo and Mono counties, the time seemed ripe
in 1982 to start a Chapter.
Consequently, on March 31, 1982, the Bristlecone Chapter
48
was formed and the first officers installed: President, Vince
Yoder; Vice President, Frances Cholewa; and Secretary/
Treasurer, Betty Gilchrist. With a lasting dedication most of
the charter members became involved in creating and sustaining
a distinctive Chapter of the organization, the twenty-first,
which was unanimously named Bristlecone in honor of the
now-famous Bristlecone Pine, Pinus longaeva, nature's oldest
living tree found in the high desert and Great Basin mountains
of Inyo and Mono counties.
Mary DeDecker led the way with an outstanding Newsletter,
soon highly valued, from individuals to botanical libraries and
museums throughout the United States and Canada. President
Vince Yoder involved us in many local and state conservation
efforts. K.C. Wiley took on membership chair, which she has
handled capably ever since.
Establishing goals and objectives were paramount
considerations in the formative months as we set up simple
workable by-laws. Probably the most important goal which
interacts with all the others is the protection and identification
of the plants of this unique area of multiple habitats.
Environmental issues in the Eastern Sierra at this time
related primarily to water. The building of a second aqueduct
and the increased pumping to fill it by the Department of
Water and Power of the City of Los Angeles created a
desperate situation destructive of plants and plant habitats in
the Owens Valley. The new Chapter became a vocal force in
efforts to prevent this devastation.
Compiling a history of the Chapter gives time to reflect on
some of the highlights since its formation in 1982. Vince Yoder,
serving as first President, organized and led the first field trip
in August to the Bristlecone pine forest. An overnight camping
trip, with the Marin Chapter as guests, allowed time for getting
acquainted and a comprehensive study of plants of this
unusual area. An unexpected natural display occurred when
a violent electrical storm lasted all night.
Representing our Chapter, President Yoder established a
cooperative relationship with the Inyo National Forest staff
when he expressed concern over the trampling of springs by
cattle grazing in the White Mountains. He asked that we be
allowed to participate in a plan to protect any spring affected.
Vince continues this early contact in working with the Bureau
of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service, being on
the alert and speaking out on the effects of cattle grazing on
public lands, as well as a myriad of other conservation-
oriented issues.
Significant events during Mary DeDecker's term as
president (1984) began with her leadership in the on-going
water problems between the City of Los Angeles and the
County of Inyo. A water agreement between Inyo County and
Los Angeles now seems to be finally coming to fruition after
three-quarters of a century of conflict, turmoil, and litigation.
The use of water, the most constant basic need of plants and
of humans, continues to hold high priority in our Chapter. A
recent educational public forum on water matters was co-
sponsored by the Bristlecone Chapter of the California Native
Plant Society, Eastern Sierra Audubon Society, Mono Lake
Committee, Owens Valley Committee, Toiyabe Chapter of the
Sierra Club, and the boards of supervisors of Inyo and Mono
counties. The Eastern Sierra Water Symposium was held on
February 4,1989. A committee composed of Mary DeDecker,
Leah Kirk, Mike Prather, Bill Manning, and Vince Yoder
planned the event. From the inspiring opening remarks by
Mary DeDecker through a full day of well-informed
professional speakers, interested people from throughout the
state returned home with a wealth of current information to
better understand and participate in the decision-making and
planning for the best use of water in Inyo, Mono, and Los
Angeles. Tapes of the symposium were transcribed and made
available by CNPS, Bristlecone Chapter.
In April of 1984 the Eureka Dunes officially became a
National Natural Landmark with an on-site ceremony and
installation of a plaque. It was exhilarating to know that the
dunes were now protected and that rare and endangered plants
such as dune grass, Swallenia alexandrae, and Eureka
primrose, Oenethera avita subsp. eurekensis, as well as all the
other distinctive flora and fauna of this very special habitat
would be saved from the onslaught of off-road vehicles.
Doris Fredendall, our 1985 president, initiated the clean-up
project at Tollhouse Springs on the Westgard Pass Road and
continues to monitor conditions there. Bristlecone Chapter
joined the Eastern Sierra Audubon Society in urging the listing
of Fish Slough by the Bureau of Land Management in an Area
of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). This was
accomplished in December of 1985. ACEC designation of
BLM continues to be a focus of attention of CNPS.
DeDeckera Canyon, beyond Eureka Valley, recommended by
the Bristlecone Chapter, is now an ACEC to protect its rare
plants and archaeological values.
1986 President, Ann Yoder, led the Chapter through a busy
year. A study project of a major fire in Independence was
undertaken by Dr. Sue Ustin of UC Davis with a team of
biologists and assistance from the members of our Chapter.
The burn occurred in July 1985, and destroyed approximately
8,000 acres of vegetation on BLM and Forest Service lands.
Monitoring plant recovery is continuing.
Doris Fredenhall graciously accepted the presidency again
in 1987 and 1988. Under her enthusiastic leadership a tamarisk
removal project was begun at Eureka Dunes. Most valuable
was her thoughtful and capable administration.
A mass gathering of field biologists for the Mary DeDecker
Symposium in May of 1987 was a memorable high point for
the Bristlecone Chapter. Sponsored by the California Native
Plant Society and the White Mountain Research Station of the
University of California, this symposium was an outstanding
event. Speakers and their important research on the Eastern
Sierra represented fourteen academic institutions, four botanic
gardens and museums, four government agencies, and four
private consultants. The papers were subsequently published
in a symposium volume available through the White Mountain
Research Station.
In 1989, as President Mark Bagley took office, the first CNPS
state board meeting east of the Sierra took place in Lone Pine
on June 3,1989, with Bristlecone Chapter hosting. Members
who helped found the functions of the state level absorbing.
Summarizing seven productive years of existence has not been
an easy task; it has been difficult to choose the highlights from
among the many fine meetings, programs, field trips, classes,
and symposiums in Bristlecone. The valuable associations with
professionals in botany and related fields, and the lasting
friendships we have made with all manner of special people
concerned with our earth has given us new insights and a
determination to preserve and protect its matchless beauty for
ourselves, our children, and future generations.
Betty Gilchrist
49
South Coast Chapter
The South Coast Chapter of the California Native Plant
Society was organized during the winter of 1982, and our first
meeting took place on November 8th of that year. Betty Shaw
was the driving force who initiated and publicized the
formation of this new group in the South Coast area. She
consulted with many people on the local and state level to find
out whether or not it was feasible to start a CNPS group in this
area. She urged all interested persons to join and help form the
new Chapter. Our first organizational announcement appealed
to all gardeners and native plant enthusiasts to become a part
of the new Palos Verdes/South Bay Chapter. Twenty-two char-
ter members date their membership from December 5, 1982.
The name was soon revised to South Coast Chapter in order
to indicate the inclusive area of the membership. From the very
first, we have used the facilities at the South Coast Botanic
Garden for our monthly meetings. The Los Angeles South
Coast area is our immediate concern. The majority of our
members are located in Torrance, Lomita, San Pedro, Long
Beach, Palos Verdes, Manhattan Beach, and Redondo Beach.
Our first president was Virginia Gardener.
During the first several years our faithful members attended
regular monthly meetings and field trips. By early 1983 our
membership rose to forty persons; sixty-four in 1986; and
today we have ninety-four members.
One of the first projects in which we were involved early in
our history was the Bea Wyse Garden. This is a small native
plant garden located next to the Palos Verdes City Hall. During
1983 and 1984 we were responsible for the weeding and
watering of the area.
In 1985 Betty Shaw and a few interested members planned
and planted a native plant section for the South Coast Botanic
Garden. Betty gave herself to this project and nurtured the
plants with great care. Because the garden is situated on a
landfill, there were problems with spontaneous combustion
underground. At various times the water supply was cut off
and we resorted to hand watering. When the County of Los
Angeles decided to repair the problem it used a large caterpillar
tractor. This completely destroyed the native plant garden,
including a large fifteen-gallon tree. This incident was
devastating to the enthusiasm of the group and provoked anger
against the county. All the effort and care that was put into
planting and maintaining the native plant section was wasted
when the plants were thoughtlessly run over.
In 1983 we published our first newsletter. This publication
has maintained a hand-lettered style in order to give it a
different look and to encourage its reading. By 1985 the club
determined a logo would be useful for the newsletter, T-shirts,
and for other identification purposes. After much discussion
we decided to use Lupinus succulentus in a circular logo,
created by Delores Braden.
Our first plant sale was in 1985 at the South Coast Botanic
Garden's "Fiesta de Flores." The purpose of this annual festival
is to encourage the community's participation at the garden.
Under the leadership of Rick Dykzeul, our participation in this
event has provided ever-increasing funds for our club.
One conservation project of which we can be proud is the
Chapter's donation to and planting of $200 worth of plants
at Madrona Marsh, a local hard-won preserved area. We were
also able to persuade a local nursery to match our contribution
for this worthwhile effort.
In 1989 the South Coast Chapter planted a native plant gar-
den below the whale watching platform at the Point Vicente
Interpretive Center in the city of Rancho Palos Verdes. It has
been a rewarding experience to work with the city of this pro-
ject. Our initial planting floundered, and as a result we have
learned something about plant tolerance in a salt-sprayed and
windy location.
Early in 1989, our Chapter was asked to join the newly formed
Council for Conservation Organizations. This group has helped
us to become informed and involved in issues on the Palos Verdes
Peninsula. It is an opportunity for the Chapter to cooperate
with other local environmental groups.
The Chapter has grown since its inception and is striving to
become aware of the importance of our unique California
native plants. The South Coast Chapter CNPS is more active
in areas than in the past, getting involved wherever we can have
an impact on an increasing number of people. Our California
flora is a treasure we need to cherish and protect. We need to
educate ourselves and, in turn, educate others.
Ellen Frank and Dolores Braden
Tahoe Chapter
As the winter of 1982 was about to cast its flurry of cold and
snow on the Sierra Nevada, more scurrying was apparent than
just the squirrels. Residents of the Truckee/Lake Tahoe area,
warm by the hearth, were busy organizing a new CNPS
Chapter. Under the auspices of Julie Carville, Mike Yoder-
Williams, Tim Daniels and others, a meeting was held to
determine interest. Sixteen persons became the founding
members of the Chapter and their names, along with a petition
for recognition, was submitted to the State Corresponding
Secretary. On December 4, 1982, the Tahoe Chapter of the
California Native Plant Society was sanctioned by the State
Board. The minutes of the first meeting indicated that,
"... the Chapter's membership potential at well over fifty
persons." Officers for 1982-1983 were Julie Carville, President;
Tim Daniels, Vice President; Kathie Hoxsie, Secretary; Wilma
McPherson, Treasurer; Mike Yoder-Williams, Truckee
Coordinator; and Laird Blackwell, Conservation. At a March
13, 1983 meeting, Bob Allard replaced Tim Daniels, and
Marlene Neff became Membership Chairperson. Art
Penniman took responsibility for field trips, and an active hike
schedule was developed. Paid memberships increased to
twenty-one, and sheep grazing on the Tahoe National forest
became a conservation issue. The columbine Aquilegia
formosa became the Chapter's logo by popular vote.
Growth of the Chapter was slow but steady for the next few
years. 1986 saw the first major fund raiser. Actor Lee Stetson
of John Muir fame gave a performance to raise money for our
sheep enclosure project at Sagehen Meadows. The two
performances raised enough to fence almost four acres, under
Forest Service use permit, and the fence was completed the
next summer. The site now encompasses a significant and
diverse wildflower area and has served for hikes and
educational classes.
In 1987 the Chapter hosted the June State Board Meeting
at Lake Tahoe. The same year saw increasing emphasis on
conservation issues with many members developing expertise
in testimony, letter writing, and forming coalitions with other
involved interest groups. Forest Service planning and local
development proposals came under close scrutiny. This
50
A CNPS field trip to Fern Canyon, once threatened by a proposed free-
way and now protected in Prairie Creek State Park in Humboldt
County. Photograph by Ken Berg.
activism has continued, and the Chapter has become a
recognized voice in this part of the Sierras.
As the Tahoe Chapter moves into the 1990s and its ninth
year, membership has grown to 130 persons. Hike attendance
is increasing with an average of twenty participating. Chapter
dinners have increased beyond the carrying capacity of
members' homes with fifty persons being the usual turnout in
rented facilities. Under the 1990 presidency of Lela Joslin, a
founding member, the Chapter sees steady, continued growth.
Conservation activities will continue with growing resolve and
efficiency while still keeping in mind why this Chapter was
founded — to have fun and learn more about the wonderful
wildflowers of the Sierra Nevada.
The Tahoe Chapter is proud to be associated with the
California Native Plant Society and wishes all Society
members a delightful twenty-fifth anniversary.
Ray Butler
Shasta Chapter
The Shasta Chapter, the twenty-fifth Chapter of the
California Native Plant Society, is proud to help celebrate the
twenty-fifth anniversary of CNPS. The Chapter was
established in 1983 to allow plant enthusiasts in the
northwestern counties of the state to more actively participate
in CNPS. Formation of the Chapter, whose logo is the
firecracker flower (Dichelostemma ida-maia), was
spearheaded by Barbara Williams and Don Burk. The first
organizational meeting was held on February 17,1983, and the
Chapter was formally recognized by the State Board on June
4, 1983. Since that time, the Chapter has grown from some
thirty-nine initial members to over 115 members. The Chapter,
which is based in Redding, holds meetings monthly except in
December. At least one meeting per year is held in Weed,
located seventy-five miles to the north, to help strengthen ties
with members in Siskiyou County, who comprise nearly
twenty percent of our membership. An annual picnic and
several field trips are also held in Siskiyou County.
The Chapter has been involved in several ongoing
educational projects as well as a number of one-time events.
The latter have included writing two articles on native plants
(the Shasta Lily and Phantom Orchid) for Wildways, a local
nature magazine (Summer, 1983); participation in the Carter
House Science Fair (April, 1984); participation in "Green Plant
Day," an event sponsored by the Carter House Natural Science
Museum (CHNSM) in July 1984, to focus attention on plant
life; leading on-campus wildflower walks for two elementary
school classes (Spring, 1984); offering several plant
identification/keying sessions for members, and preparing
book reviews for publication in the Chapter newsletter.
Long-term activities included sponsorship of three "Fungus
Fairs" jointly with CHNSM (February 1985, November 1985,
and November 1986). A "Fungus Fair" was not held in 1987
due to low rainfall and poor mushroom conditions, and the
event has been at least temporarily suspended since then due
to our mushroom guru, David Biek, moving to Washington in
1988, where "shroom" conditions are more reliable. Secondly,
Chapter member Marlys Richman served on the CNPS state-
level Oak Hardwood Policy Committee. The Committee
drafted an issue and policy statement and provided
educational materials on California oaks.
Additionally, the Chapter established an Arboretum
Committee in 1983 to develop an arboretum in Redding jointly
with CHNSM. After extensive review of sites, presentations to
the City Parks Commission and other work, it was concluded
that the arboretum would be most successful and best utilized
if developed adjacent to the CHNSM. As the museum had plans
to relocate, the arboretum planning effort was put on hold in
August 1986, until the future museum location became more
definite. In January 1990, the Arboretum Committee chairman
announced that the museum relocation plans were sufficiently
stabilized such that arboretum planning should resume.
While the arboretum planning effort was on hold, the
Committee channeled its energy into creating a small native
plant garden at the existing CHNSM site. Over fifty drought-
resistant native shrubs were planted in March 1987, many of
which are currently doing well despite virtually no care since
being planted. Mulching of the area and a second planting day,
scheduled in the spring of 1990, was to determine how certain
California natives survive in an arboretum setting in Redding,
to encourage public awareness of drought-resistant plants, and
gain support for the future arboretum.
Conservation activities undertaken by the Shasta Chapter
focused on writing letters and/or encouraging members to
write letters regarding a wide range of conservation issues.
Specific issues have included Forest Plans for the Lassen
(Summer 1986) Shasta-Trinity (Summer 1986) and Klamath
(Spring 1989) national forests; USFS herbicide usage (Fall 1983
and Summer 1986); the proposed Upper McCloud River
Wilderness Area (1983/1984); use of license plate fund
revenues (1984/1985); riprapping along the Upper Sacramento
River (Fall 1983 and Spring 1985); exotic plant importation
(Spring 1986); native plant habitat acquisition (Spring 1986);
Proposition 70 (May 1988); and the Mt. Eddy Roadless Area
(January 1989). Additionally, the Chapter designed and
implemented a revegetation/erosion control project at the
Whiskeytown Natural Environmental Education Development
Camp, and helped the U.S. Forest Service Evaluate habitat
damage in Panther Meadows, a sensitive and over-used wet
meadow community on Mt. Shasta.
Technical activities include those related to rate plant
protection, the CNPS plant watch project, and preparation of
plant checklists and floras. Rare plant projects have included
field surveys and evaluation of seventeen of the twenty-two
previously reported populations of Orcuttia tenuis occurring
in Shasta and Tehama counties, as part of The Nature
Conservancy's Element Preservation Planning program;
assisting the U.S. Forest Service in field surveys for Erigonum
alpinum; field surveys for Cryptantha crinita, Arnica venosa,
and Cordylanthus tenuis subsp. pallescens; and review of
environmental impact reports for a number of local
development projects.
"Plant watch" field work was undertaken in 1983,1984, and
1985 to establish baseline data for three local sites.
Additionally, in 1989, members revisited a plot in the Castle
Crags area, first studied some twenty years earlier.
In 1985, at the request of the National Park Service, Chapter
member David Biek undertook a major project to develop a
flora and herbarium for the 42,000-acre Whiskeytown
National Recreational Area. After three years of work, some
831 species and twenty-seven plant communities had been
recorded, a flora was prepared (unpublished, but available
from the Shasta Chapter or Park Service), and extensive
additions were made to the Park Service herbarium.
The Chapter also sponsored field trips to the McCloud
River Nature Conservancy Preserve and Burney Falls State
Park specifically to help develop plant checklists.
Fund-raising activities included sales of CNPS posters,
bumper stickers, decals and other materials, production and
sale of Chapter T-shirts, and plant sales. The Chapter has held
six plant sales (October 1984, April 1986, April and October
1988, and April and October 1989), most of which have been
jointly sponsored by CHNSM. Although net profits have been
rather small in light of the immense amount of work involved,
the plant sales have provided considerable publicity and
attracted a number of new members to the Chapter.
In addition to the above, for a period of approximately one
year, the Chapter sold advertising space in its newsletter.
Although this had considerable promise as a fund-raiser, it was
discontinued when our advertisement sales person resigned.
The Chapter has sponsored field trips on a regular basis.
Some of our favorite and/or more spectacular trips have been
to Castle Crags State Park, Whiskeytown National Recreation
Area, McCloud River Nature Conservancy Preserve, Mt. Eddy
- Deadfall Lakes, Cedars Lakes Basin, Lassen Volcanic
National Park, Cooke and Green Pass, as well as members'
native plant gardens.
Slide presentations have been given at most Chapters meetings,
with topics ranging from the flora and/or natural history of
far-flung places such as Peru, New Zealand and the Antarc-
tic, to wildflowers found in members' backyards. A number of
presentations have been by natural resource agency staff
including the Forest Service, Park Service, Department of Fish
and Game, County Department of Agriculture and others.
Members occasionally meet for pizza before the meetings,
particularly when we are hosting an out-of-town speaker.
Other social events have included an annual picnic in the Mt.
Shasta City park and post-field trip picnics at members' homes
or area parks. Our first Chapter picnic, in August 1983, was
held in honor of three Soviet botanists who were touring
various national forests throughout the United States. The
Chapter also hosted the June 1988 State Board meeting.
Don Burk
Yerba Buena Chapter
San Francisco Bay Chapter (San Francisco and East Bay)
believed their Chapter was too large and diverse and that few
West Bay (San Francisco) members came to meetings or
participated in activities generally held in the East Bay. Twenty-
five people from San Francisco attended a formative meeting
in March 1986 and expressed interest in creating their own
Chapter. At a follow-up meeting officers were elected and a
Chapter name chosen, Yerba Buena. Patricia Fallon was the
first president. A questionnaire was sent to San Francisco and
San Mateo County members. One hundred and forty-five
joined the new Chapter that represents San Francisco and
northern San Mateo County.
Major Chapter efforts have been concentrated in two areas:
the acquisition of natural areas remaining in private hands,
and the management of these and areas already in the public
domain. We work closely with neighborhood and environ-
mental organizations to attain these goals. Other areas of
concern include the transfer of the Presidio from the Army to
the National Park Service, which will require more time and
energy as the planning process progresses; routing of hiking
trails through the city and the peninsula watershed; and
inventorying and managing the rare plants of San Francisco.
Jake Sigg
The Sierra Foothills Chapter
On Rattlesnake Ridge one afternoon in May 1989, after
inspecting a population of Tuolumne fawn lilies (Erythrinum
tuolumnense), Jennie Haas, Kathy Burnett and Peg Carkeet
were discussing the future of the lilies when the subjects of The
52
Nature Conservancy and the California Native Plant Society
entered the conversation. The three ladies wondered if the time
was right to try to launch a CNPS Chapter in the Central
Sierra. The need for a local Chapter was apparent. Tuolumne
and Calaveras counties were growing at unprecedented rates,
controversies concerning the use of herbicides were brewing,
and issues regarding grazing impacts and sensitive plants
abounded within the National Forest lands. The Red Hills (a
unique serpentine landscape in the lower foothills containing
many "Inventory" listed plants) was undergoing a tug-of-war
between a variety of groups including gun clubs, movie studios,
private owners, the Bureau of Land Management, recreational
vehicle organizations, and wildflower and wildlife enthusiasts.
A meeting was scheduled to take place on June 15. Ken Berg,
CNPS Staff Botanist, gave an inspiring slide presentation to
the forty-six people in attendance. A petition for acceptance
was drafted and sent to the Executive Council. Three
committees were formed: a Conservation Committee with Pat
Stone as its exuberant chairperson; a Field Trip Committee
chaired by Jean McEuen, a veteran of dozens of wildflower
expeditions; and a Native Plant Committee, chaired by the
undauntable Mary Ruth Casebeer. Fred Boutin, a
horticulturist noted for his expertise on historic roses,
volunteered to conduct a monthly forum in which plants
brought to meetings by members would be discussed,
cataloged, and/or auctioned.
The proposed Chapter continued to meet monthly. At the
September statewide quarterly meeting the Chapter became
official by a unanimous vote of the Board of Directors.
Chapter members were thrilled and decided to adopt the name
Sierra Foothills. The Sierra shooting star (Dodecatheon
jefferyi) was chosen as the logo and was soon depicted on
Chapter T-shirts designed by Ellen Burke.
The first Chapter officers were elected in November 1989.
Coordinator/Director Kathy Burnett shared the
responsibilities of President with Peg Carkeet. Because of our
four-county coverage, four vice-presidents were elected: Denise
Van Keuren, Jennie Haas, Mary Anderson, and Patti Wilson.
Our Treasurer, Adele Wikner; Secretary, Alice Kraus; and
newsletter editor, Mary Renner; along with our Data-Base link,
Mike Mays, became our real workhorses as we immersed
ourselves more deeply into Chapterhood.
We decided 1990 would be our year to educate ourselves,
sort out our priorities, and begin work on the projects we felt
to be most timely. A successful booth at the Sonora Christmas
Craft Fair enabled us to start the year with $700 in our bank
account. Membership at the beginning of 1990 was estimated
by our membership chairpersons, Wendy Faris and Wayne
Harrison, to be seventy-five with most Chapter meetings being
attended by approximately thirty-five people of all ages and
professions. Among these we count many United States For-
est Service employees, teachers, horticulturists, botanists,
nursery owners, homemakers, a computer programmer,
secretaries, realtors, ranchers, photographers, artists, a
mycologist, county employees, and even a county supervisor
and his wife. Programs have included presentations on the
wildflowers of Calaveras Big Trees State Park, fire ecology,
bark beetle infestation, vernal pools, County Planning
Department flow chart (and where CNPS fits in), and the
USFS Sensitive Species Surveys.
Field trips followed the spring season from the lower
foothills in March to the top of the Sierra in July. Plant sales
Tuolomne fawn lily (Erythronium tuolomnense) on CNPS list lb is
found only in Tuolomne County and is possibly threatened by current
logging. Photograph by Peg Carkeet.
were scheduled for April and October in cooperation with
plant propagating members and local nurseries.
Issues tackled by the Conservation Committee have
included an adopt-a-plant program, research on natural
communities, wetlands, the Clavey River, public land grazing
and the Red Hills; a cooperative meadow boardwalk building
project with USFS at Pinecrest; Year of the Oak booth and
heritage oak contest spearheaded by Dee Boutin; involvement
requested by the County Planning Department and providing
comments on the environmental effects on native plants of
various projects; and, finally, a project in which all members
can participate—weekly articles with drawings entitled
"Speaking for the Plants," about native plants of the Sierra
published in Tuolumne County's "Union Democrat" and the
"Calaveras Enterprise" newspapers.
All of the members of the Sierra Foothills Chapter would
like to take this opportunity to thank all the other Chapters
for welcoming us into CNPS. We hope we can live up to our
mutual expectations and indeed help "speak for the plants."
Peg Carkeet
THE ANCIENT FOREST
by Catherine Caufield
(Excerpts from an article of the same name published
in the May 14,1990 issue of the New Yorker Magazine.^
Ours was once a forested planet. The rocky hillsides
of Greece were covered with trees. Syria was known for
its forests, not its deserts. Lebanon had vast cedar
forests, from which the navies of Phoenicia, Persia, and
Macedonia took their ship timber, and which provided
the wood that Solomon used to build the temple at
Jerusalem. Oak and beech forests dominated the
landscapes of England and Ireland. In Germany and
Sweden, bears and wolves roamed through wild forests
where manicured tree farms now stand. Columbus saw
the moonscape that we call Haiti "filled with trees of a
thousand kinds." Exploring the east coast of North
American in 1524, Verrazano wrote of "a land full of the
largest forests . . . with as much beauty and delectable
appearance as it would be possible to express." The first
European settlers gazed upon these forests with a
mixture of awe, fear, and greed. To them the forests were
both a terrible wilderness and a source of riches. Cutting
them down was the way to security and prosperity. "The
very notion of advancement, or civilization, or
prosperity, seems inseparably connected with the total
extirpation of the forest," one settler observed. At first,
forests were cleared mainly for the subsistence
purposes —to get land for farming or wood for
homebuilding—for large-scale commercial logging was
under way by the early eighteen-hundreds. In 1850,
according to the book "This Well-Wooded Land,"
lumber production was the No. 1 manufacturing
industry in the United States.
The loggers started in the great hardwood and white-
pine forests of the Northeast. By the time of the Civil
War, those forests had largely been exhausted. Logging
then moved to the pineries, the cypress swamps, and the
live-oak stands of the South and to the pine forests of
the Great Lakes region. It took only fifty years to deplete
the latter. One writer of the time described logging as
"the great nomad among American industries, driving
from one .virgin forest to another, like a threshing
machine from one ripe wheat field to the next." In
Canada, the progression followed a similar line — from
New Brunswick to Quebec and on to the Pacific Coast.
The Pacific Forest
In the West, the loggers came up against their last
frontier—the most magnificent forest on the continent
and the greatest conifer forest on earth. The Pacific
Forest curves along the coast for nearly two thousand
miles, from the Alaska Panhandle to just north of the
Golden Gate; it stretches inland as far as the Cascade
Range and the Coast Ranges. The trees-spruces, cedars,
redwoods, hemlocks, and Douglas firs — are immense,
many three hundred feet or higher and fifty feet around.
Five-hundred-year-old trees are not uncommon here,
and some of the trees are more than two thousand years
old. These are the largest and oldest trees in the world,
and their age and size imbue this forest with a solemnity
so deep it seems to many visitors spiritual. This forest
is home to a greater mass of life than even the tropical
rain forests. It is crucial to the stability of the region's
and the world's climate: it causes up to a third of the
local precipitation, and it stores more carbon than any
other terrestrial ecosystem. It is the breeding ground for
the most productive salmon fisheries in the world —
fisheries that support an industry worth billions of
dollars annually. It is home to little-known species, such
as the marbled murrelet, one of the last birds in North
America to have its nesting place discovered, and the
Pacific yew, a tree that contains an important anti-
tumor agent. Above all, this forest is a remnant of the
world as it was before man appeared, as it was when
water was fit to drink and air was fit to breathe.
Originally, the Pacific forest covered seventy
thousand square miles of Canada and the United States.
About sixty percent of Canada's Pacific forest has by
now been destroyed, mostly in the past forty years. In
the United States, less than ten percent survives. Almost
all that remains in both countries is on public lands, and
it is scheduled to be cut for lumber, plywood, and pulp,
much of it for export to Japan. Conservationists
estimate that these forests will be gone in less than
twenty years. Government and timber-industry officials
disagree; they say it will be fifty to eighty years before
the forests are exterminated.
From the air or from a mountaintop, the forest may
seem at first like a single entity—a homogeneous swath
of green that blankets hills and valleys. A closer look
contradicts this picture. The forests is really many
forests — a patchwork of different colors, shapes, and
textures. The ribbon of deep green snaking through the
forest is made by spruce trees liming a stream bank.
Circular patches of green and rust colors are bare boggy
areas too wet to support trees. A set of pick-up-sticks on
a hillside is a five-acre patch of wind throw—huge trees
tossed to the ground by fierce winds several years ago
and new bleached a deathly, leafless white. A blackened
54
KAa '.>.t "¦'>-.¦--'-* ¦*,.''¦               X   i&^-i* »¦¦•*;

ty^-mm&&&&
In old
56
Malar,.               ¦» - &?• ¦«.•¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦rci: -"¦" \ -'- ¦' .'JOBUL^->-m
important component of the forest ecosystem. Photograph by Beth Hansen.
patch with many trees still standing is where fire,
perhaps set by lightning, ran through a grove. Bare
treetops rising from the green forest like enormous white
candelabras are the sign of an ancient cedar forest.
Some areas are well stocked, densely packed with big
trees. Others, perhaps on rocky hillsides or acid soils,
have fewer and smaller trees.
The Pacific forest is essentially a coastal forest. The
close connection between land, river, and ocean is
especially noticeable in Alaska and Canada, where
glaciers and shifting tectonic plates have created a
landscape of hills and valleys and a jagged coastline
with innumerable islands and inlets. The result is
thousands of small watersheds, each draining into the
ocean through its own little estuary, and each with its
own character.
One of the things that make the Pacific Northwest
forests so unusual is that it is a forest of conifers, and
not broad-leaved trees. In "Ancient Forests of the
Pacific Northwest" Elliott Norse, a senior ecologist at
the Wilderness Society, explains that eighty million
years ago conifers were the dominant vegetation on
earth. Even then, however, a new, more diverse and
adaptable type of plant was evolving —one that
reproduces by means of flowers. The flowering plants,
including broad-leaved trees, have evolved and adapted
so well to different habitats that in most parts of the
world they have pushed the less versatile conifers into a
mere supporting role. True conifer forests are now
restricted mostly to the Arctic regions — the far-northern
reaches of Canada and the Soviet Union. But in the
Pacific Northwest conifers have retained their
prehistoric majesty. The reason for this anomaly is the
region's strange climate: the winters are wet with regular
freezes, and the summers are hot and dry. In most parts
of the world, there is a season of moisture and warmth,
when plants have the water and the sunlight they need
for photosynthesis. In the Pacific Northwest during the
summer, there is enough light for photosynthesis but
not enough water. In the winter, when there is enough
light and water for photosynthesis, temperatures often
dip below freezing, and cause most broad-leaved plants
to lose their leaves. Conifers, however, are well adapted
to exploiting the opportunities for growth in these
forests. Most conifers keep their leaves all year, so they
are able to photosynthesize and grow during the winter
months. And conifers, because they use water more
efficiently than broadleaved trees do, can also grow
during the dry summer months.
The Pacific forest is a triumph of life over adversity.
It thrives on thin, nutrient-poor, unstable soils, on steep
hillsides, and under extremely difficult climatic
conditions. Unfortunately for the forest, man took its
magnificence at face value and inquired no further.
How do its trees achieve their great size? How do they
flourish in a difficult climate and terrain? How can it
support such a large population of wild creatures? The
first comprehensive ecological study of the Pacific
forest—a forty-eight page report—was published in
1981. By contrast, a classic text on tropical-rain-forest
ecology, by Paul Richards, was published in 1952, and
in writing it Richards was able to draw on a body of
published work about rain forests extending back at
least to 1891.
Jerry Franklin, Forest Scientist
The principal author of that 1981 report, "Ecological
Characteristics of Old-Growth Douglas-Fir Forests,"
was a Forest Service scientist named Jerry Franklin, the
son of a pulp-and- paper-mill employee in Washington
State. Like many forestry students, Franklin helped put
himself through school by working for the Forest
Service. He did research on subalpine forests while he
was studying for a Ph.D. in botany and soil science from
Washington State University. His true love, though, was
the Douglas-fir forest in which he had played and
camped as a boy. In 1969, the National Science
Foundation, in association with the Forest Service,
financed a new program to study the ecology of the
Pacific forest. Franklin became one of the project's
leaders. "I was thinking, My God, here are these
incredible forests, and nobody really knows a damn
thing about them," Franklin told me. "They sort of got
lost in the cracks, because the academic biologists and
ecologists wanted to go down to the tropics, and the
foresters thought they knew all they needed to know about
the forests here, which was how to cut them down."
Forests, like human beings, have a natural life span.
Once they reach maturity, at about two hundred years,
growth slows down considerably, and most of their
energy goes into sustaining themselves. Eventually,
though it may take several centuries more, decay sets in,
and the trees die and fall down. To a logger, leaving trees
in the ground beyond their point of maximum annual
wood production makes no sense. Since the Pacific
forest consists of trees that tend to live for centuries
beyond that point, it has been regarded by loggers and
foresters alike as decadent. The professional forester's
view is that such forests should be cleared and replanted
with healthy young trees as quickly as possible. Franklin
and his colleagues, however, found that this post-mature
phase, how generally called old growth, is the richest,
most complex stage of the forest's life. For the first few
decades after a patch of forest is cleared—by fire, wind,
or logging—it is an open, grassy area, a good feeding
ground for wildlife such as deer, bears, and elk. During
severe winters, though, when these open areas are
blanketed with several feet of snow, the animals take
refuge in old-growth stands, where the ground is
protected from snow, and food is still available. At about
thirty years, the young stand enters an almost sterile
period that lasts for up to a hundred years. This occurs
57
because the trees, all the same age, have formed a dense,
unbroken canopy, which blocks the sun and shades out
understory growth. As the stand ages, trees died and
fall, allowing sunlight to penetrate to the forest floor
and stimulate another layer of growth. When the stand
achieves a certain complexity of structure — shrubs,
herbs, and trees of varying heights creating a
multistoried canopy—it has become old-growth.
It is impossible to come up with a description of old-
growth forest that fits the whole Pacific region, since, as
Franklin points out, "nature is just too complex and
variable to fit into neat conceptual boxes." Still, there is
general agreement that true old-growth forests are
characterized by large, old living trees; a multilayered
canopy; large standing dead trees, called snags; and
large dead trees on the ground and in streams. The dead
trees are essential to the health of the forest, and are the
basis of its astonishing productivity. The nutrients that
the forest needs are not mainly in the soil but in the
living and dead plant material itself. As leaves and
branches fall to the forest floor, as trees and plants die
and decay, this material is recycled to the living forest.
With this highly efficient and almost closed system, the
forest feeds itself, wasting nothing.
Habitat Variety for Wildlife
One of the most important features of the old-growth
forest is the variety of habitats it provides for wildlife.
More than a hundred and fifty species of mammals live
in such forests, and as many as fifteen hundred
invertebrate species may live in a single stand. So far,
according to Kelly's book, scientists have found a
hundred and eighteen vertebrate species (mammals,
birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes) whose primary
habitat is old growth. The large old trees, merely by
virtue of their great height, create a continuum of
climatic conditions, from the cool, dark, moist forest
floor to the harsher environment of the canopy, exposed
to the sun, rain, snow, fog, and wind. Every part of the
tree-living or dead, including the roots — is home to a
whole community of plants, insects, birds, and
mammals. The plants and the animals that dwell in the
canopy are different from those which nest in a snag,
live halfway down a tree trunk, or stay on the forest
floor. One species, the tiny red tree vole, which is found
only in these forests, spends its entire life high up in a
Douglas fir. It makes its nest there, eats almost nothing
but Douglas-fir needles, and gets its water by licking
rain from the needles.
The Forests are Finite
In the midst of the nineteenth century's orgy of
logging, there dawned the realization that the North
American forest was finite. By 1879, according to a
study by Michael Williams in "World Deforestation in
the Twentieth Century," more than two hundred million
acres — a quarter of the country's forestland—was gone,
and the rate of deforestation was increasing. There was
talk of a timber famine, and the talk was frightening,
because at that time and for many decades to come the
United States was at base a timber economy.
Many people, perhaps most, simply denied or were
unaware that careless land-clearing caused serious
problems. Others saw such problems as the unavoidable
cost of the need to turn forests into farmland and timer,
few raised their voices in warning. One such was George
Perkins Marsh, a Vermont lawyer, businessman,
congressman, and diplomat. Marsh had extensive
experience of deforestation. He was briefly a lumber
dealer in Burlington, a town that in the space of twenty
years went from selling timer from the nearby Green
Mountains to having to buy it, because those woods
Because of the quality and volume of their timber, the ancient Pacific forests have been the most heavily cut. Photograph by Beth Hansen.
were exhausted. Marsh also spent some time as
Ambassador to Turkey, and was struck by the effects of
deforestation in that country and in the Mediterranean
region as a whole. In 1864, he published "Man and
Nature," a book that Lewis Mumford later called "the
fountainhead of the conservation movement." In it
Marsh explained how "indiscriminate clearing of the
woods" in other countries had damaged water supplies,
agriculture, and commerce and had led to the downfall
of cities and nations. "Man has too long forgotten that
the earth was given to him for usufruct alone, not for
consumption, still less for profligate waste," he wrote.
He called for a new treatment of the natural world,
based not on a romantic view of nature as an inspiration
or a challenge to mankind, and not on a political phi-
losophy that says the land belongs to the people, but on
a scientific understanding of how natural systems work.
In 1891, Congress gave the President authority to
create forest "reservations." No one was clear about the
purpose of the forests until 1897, when Congress
decided that they should be managed to protect
watersheds and "to furnish a continuous supply of
timber for the use and necessities of citizens of the
United States." In 1985, President Theodore Roosevelt,
an ardent conservationists, gave authority for managing
these reservations, or national forests, to the Department
of Agriculture's forestry division, renamed the Forest
Service. By 1913, there were a hundred and eighty-seven
million acres of national forests, and four million acres
have been added since While most of the national forests
are in the West, the system also includes over twenty-four
million acres of lands in the Eastern and Southern states,
most of which have already been logged.
Gifford Pinchot, Forest Service
The first head of the Forest Service was an aristocratic
Easterner, Gifford Pinchot. Though Pinchot had been
trained in forestry in France, he was more of a politician
and a crusader than a technician. He deplored the way
private landowners were treating the nation's forests, and
he argued, unsuccessfully, that the government should
take control of all the country's forestlands. Pinchot was
an inspirational figure and —especially with the backing
of his ally Teddy Roosevelt — a powerful one. As David
Clary points out in "Timber and the Forest Service,"
Pinchot believed deeply in scientific forestry as a tool of
social progress. It was up to the Forest Service, he said,
to replace the rootless, boom-and-bust logging economy
with stable communities able to count on a continuing
supply of timber from the national forests.
The Forest Service also played a part in advancing
another rationale for forest protection—the preservation
of wilderness. Private landowners, who were cutting their
trees as fast as they could, pressured the Forest Service
to keep national-forest timber off the already glutted
market. The agency therefore kept its forests intact, waiting
in gloomy anticipation of the day when the private forests
would be exhausted and it could step in to avert the long-
dreaded timber famine. In the meantime, "the national
forests were de-facto wilderness, largely unaltered from
their primeval conditions, seldom visited by man, and
the 'hard-rock' forest rangers came to hold a deep affection
for this wild uninhabited country," according to the
forestry scholar Richard Behan, quoted in Dennis Roth's
"The Wilderness Movement and the National Forests."
Many of the leading advocates of wilderness in the first
decades of this century were Forest Service employees —
men who lived close to nature the year-round and wanted
to see its beauty protected.
The greatest of the Forest Service's wilderness advocates
was Aldo Leopold, a forester and game manager for the
agency and a founder of the Wilderness Society, which
is now one of the agency's strongest critics. Leopold
believed that encounters with wilderness had formed the
American spirit, and that taming the American landscape
would cut the country off from the roots of its vitality.
"Is it not a bit beside the point for us to be so solicitous
about preserving institutions without giving so much as
a thought to preserving the environment which produced
them and which may now be one of our effective means
of keeping them alive?" he asked. Inspired by the infant
science of ecology, Leopold also argued that mankind
needed to preserve natural areas for study. It was at
Leopold's urging that, in 1924, the Forest Service set aside
its first wilderness area— five hundred thousand acres
around New Mexico's Gila River.
The idea that national forests could harbor wilderness
areas and produce timber was consistent with the Forest
Service's philosophy that forests offer many benefits, not
only timber, wilderness, and the protection of water quality
but also fishing, hunting, and recreation. For many years,
the agency had no difficulty in reconciling these often
conflicting interests, because there was no pressure to cut
the national forests. The Second World War changed that.
The Forest Service responded to the military's urgent need
for wood by more than doubling its timber production
in three years. As the country settled back into civilian
life, the demand for wood continued to soar, but private
forestlands were almost exhausted, and could not meet
the demand. This was the timber famine that the Forest
Service had long anticipated—the moment when it would
step in to keep the American people in timber and the
American timber industry in business.
The Forest Service had been set up to demonstrate to
a sloppy and reckless timber industry how forests should
be managed, but, early on, it came under pressure to
violate its own guidelines. In the immediate postwar
period, the harvest from the national forests was just a
fraction of its potential. But, because the national forests
were then still largely inaccessible, pressure on the few
areas that logging trucks could reach was intense. By 1948,
according to Clary's book, B.H. Payne, a Forest Service
59
timber manager, was ruing the fact that "the Forest Service
was forced to accept in part the highly undesirable practice
of over-cutting on some of the developed areas in order
to increase the over-all supply of timber." The demand
for timber from the national forests climbed all through
the fifties and sixties. "Land and Resource Planning in
the National Forests," by Charles Wilkinson and H.
Michael Anderson, shows that from 1944 to 1966 the
amount of timber cut annually from the national forests
almost quadrupled. Because of the quality and the volume
of their timber, the ancient Pacific forests have been the
most heavily cut. Since the mid-sixties, the hundred and
fifty-six national forests have produced around twelve
billion board feet of timber a year, and about a quarter
of it comes from the thirteen old-growth national forests
of the Pacific Northwest. (Board feet are the measure of
the amount of usable wood in a tree. One board foot is
one foot square and one inch thick. It takes about ten
thousand board feet of timber to build the average single-
family house. A large, old Douglas fir may contain that
much timber; some giants are on record as containing
thirty thousand board feet.)
Forest Service Mismanagement
Throughout the nineteen-sixties, evidence mounted
that the Forest Service was mismanaging and overcutting
the national forests. A1969 Forest Service study concluded
that its Douglas-fir forests were being overcut, and
predicted that harvests would drop by forty-five percent
once the old-growth trees were gone. In 1970, a group of
highly respected foresters issued a report criticizing the
Forest Service for ignoring its legal obligation to protect
all the resources of the forest. "Multiple-use management,
in fact, does not exist as the governing principle," the report
said. And in 1975 the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals,
in Virginia, banned clear-cutting in the Monongahela
National Forest, in West Virginia. To cope with this
emergency, Congress in 1976 adopted the National Forest
Management Act, which ordered the agency to limit the
timber cut to an amount that each forest could sustain
in perpetuity. Under the N.F.M.A., the agency was also
ordered to prepare, as part of its ten-year management
plans, harvesting schedules, based on realistic analyses
of each forest's timber potential. In these plans roads,
meadows, lakes, and rocky areas may not be counted as
forestland. The plans must also eliminate from the timber
baseland on which trees will not grow back within five
years of logging, and must make more accurate estimates
of the amount of forest to be set aside to protect other
values, including water quality, wildlife, and recreation.
On the other hand, the plans allow the agency to assume
that it will be able to increase productivity by using
fertilizers, pesticides, and specially selected seedlings in
growing the next generation of trees. Taking all this
information together, the Forest Service has determined
that the sustainable harvest level for forests in Washington
and Oregon is substantially lower than had been thought.
The sustainability of even these lower levels has been called
into question by some prominent foresters. James
Torrence, the regional forester in charge of all the national
forests in Washington and Oregon, told the Portland
Oregonian shortly before his retirement, last summer,
"We can do it"—harvest at the new levels. "We can
physically do it. But we can't do it for the ten-year life
of the plans."
New Forest Service Plans
In any case, none of the new forest plans for the Pacific
Northwest are yet in effect. Draft plans for those forests
indicated that the sustainable harvest level was about
twenty percent lower than had been assumed. In 1983,
John Crowell, the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture who
was responsible for the Forest Service, and had previously
been general counsel to Louisiana-Pacific, one of the
country's largest purchasers of federal timber, ordered
the plans withdrawn and revised, and that process took
six years to complete. In the course of this delay, additional
scientific evidence of the ecological damage caused by
high timber harvests was amassed. The new draft plans
indicate that sustainable yield for the forests is about
twenty-five percent lower than current cutting levels. In
addition, planners in several national forests have indicated
privately that the final plans should have even lower harvest
levels than the draft plans specify.
While the forest plans are slowly being completed,
Congress has been directing the Forest Service to increase
its planned cut above the sustainable yields reflected in
the draft forest plans, and even above the historically high
levels still being proposed by the Forest Service. In
1987—the last year for which analyzed figures are
available—Congress ordered the Forest Service to cut
eighteen percent more timber from the none old-growth
national forests in western Washington and Oregon than
the agency had proposed, or almost eleven percent more
than the draft plans for the forests say is sustainable. The
Siskiyou National Forest, for example, has been ordered
to harvest 46.7 percent more than the Forest Service itself
proposed.
Today, the effects of almost fifty years of intensive
logging in the publicly owned forests of the Pacific
Northwest are clear. The logging industry has been unable
to take large amounts of timber out of the forest with-
out damaging water quality, wildlife, and even the forest's
capacity for regeneration. Clear-cuts, once regarded as
appropriate only in special circumstances, cover—or
uncover—the landscape. The United States Forest Service
makes an effort to protect the public from the mournful
sight of clear-cuts by leaving "visual-protection corridors"
of tall trees along the roadsides, but as the cutting has
progressed from the valley floors up the steep hillsides
60

Ueuicuiiing hai been selected a, the optimum timber harvest method tor California's intensively managed timber lands. The replacement tree
Clearcutting has been selected as the optimum timber harvest method for California's intensively managed timber lands. The replacement tree
plantation of same-age trees, dominated by one or two species of conifers, will be cut again in sixty to ninety years in the Shasta Trinity National
Forests. Photograph by Mary Meyer.
clear-cuts have become harder and harder to hide; some
spread across thousands of acres. It is not merely the sight
of large areas of deforested land that upsets and confuses
visitors; the jagged stumps, broken branches, and shredded
bark that clutter the logging sites, and are bleached by
the sun or blackened by fires set to destroy them,
accentuate the sense of devastation, and so do the
landslides that commonly scar steep denuded slopes.
Senator Gale McGee, of Wyoming, called clear-cutting
"a shocking desecration that has to be seen to be believed,"
and described one clear-cut as looking "as if a squad-
ron of B-52s had ravaged the pristine beauty of the Wind
River Mountains." In British Columbia, there is no limit
on the size of clear-cuts. The limit on clear-cuts in the
United States is forty acres in most national forests, sixty
acres in Douglas-fir forests, and a hundred acres in Alaska,
but exceptions can be granted. Observers estimate that
up to half the clear-cuts in Alaska's Tongass National
Forest are larger than a hundred acres.
How Much is Left?
No one knows exactly how much of the ancient Pacific
forest is left. There are no comprehensive maps or surveys
of old-growth, and the little information that has been
gathered is fragmentary and inconsistent. The United
States Forest Service is only now developing a definition
of old-growth — a step that British Columbia's forest
service has not yet taken. One thing that is known is that
the greatest extent of old-growth forest left is in coastal
British Columbia, which also has the highest old-growth
logging rates. And sixty percent of British Columbia's
coastal old-growth forest is estimated to have already been
destroyed. Of perhaps seven million acres left, fewer than
four hundred and fifty thousand have been set aside in
parks and preserves. At the present cutting rate—about
a hundred and twenty-five thousand acres a year—it is
estimated that virtually all unprotected coastal old-growth
will be gone by the year 2020. According to Douglas
61
Williams and Robert Gasson, University of British
Columbia forest analysts, the high-volume forests that
both ecologists and economists value most will be gone
even sooner—in fifteen years. "There's damn little of the
lower-elevation forest set aside," Jerry Franklin, now of
the University of Washington, says. "In our wilderness
areas, it's mostly higher-elevation forest with poor
biological diversity. So the wilderness areas don't do a
good job of protecting biological diversity. And the parks,
with the exception of the Olympic National Park, don't
really do a good job, either." In both the United States
and Canada, parks have been chosen for their dramatic
scenery rather than for their biological significance.
Most of the parks in the Pacific area are centered on
mountain ranges. They consist largely of rocks and snow
and ice, with perhaps a fringe of old-growth forest on
the lower slopes.
Reserves must also be big enough to accommodate the
needs of their native species. Charles Meslow, a spotted-
owl specialist with the Fish and Wildlife Service, has said
that each mating pair of spotted owls, for example, requires
from fifteen hundred to four thousand acres of old-growth
forest, depending on where the forest is. In general,
according to Franklin, "it is preferable to have reserves
of several hundred acres, but smaller patches may also
be worth saving, depending on a number of circumstances,
including the type of forest, how isolated it is, and how
rare it is." In 1986, the Forest Service's Old Growth
Definition Task Group, a committee of government and
university scientists, concluded that stands of less than
eighty acres are ordinarily too small to be viable in the
Pacific Northwest. As the climate heats up, it is going
to be important to have not only reserves of a viable size
but also corridors of forest linking those reserves, so that
plants and animals can migrate among different latitudes.
The corridors would also allow several small reserves to
function as one larger unit. Unfortunately, no such
corridors exist, and much of what remains of the ancient
forest consists of small, isolated patches surrounded by
clear-cuts, or bisected by logging roads. The majority of
the old-growth patches in the Siuslaw National Forest,
in Oregon, for example, consist of less than forty acres.
A Double Standard for the U.S.
"It's interesting that we're telling Third World countries,
'Don't cut your forests,' and yet look at the things we're
doing here. We're wiping out our fish runs, we're wiping
out our biotic diversity; we're sending species to
extinction," Andy Kerr, of the Oregon Natural Resources
Council, says. "You know, we're not a Third World country.
We're not so poor that we have to destroy our ancient
forests. And we're not so rich that we can afford to."
Our destruction of the greatest forests remaining on
this continent has many consequences, certain to be long-
lasting and in some cases irreversible. Fishing, tourism,
and recreation are already suffering. It is harder for people
who wish to do so to make a subsistence living. An
ecological system that we do not yet understand is
disappearing. Plant and animal species are being driven
to the edge of extinction. Rivers and streams are dying.
Drastic changes in our planet's climate are being hastened.
In exchange, we are getting wood. But for how long?
In the United States, the future of the ancient forest
is now being decided largely in the courts, where a
symbiotic relationship has developed between government
scientists and critics of the government. "It was the
advocacy groups' picking up on the science and using it
in their lawsuits that really brought us out of the closet,"
Jerry Franklin said last year. "If it weren't for them, I
suspect, we'd still be in our ivory tower, shouting out the
window with nobody paying any attention."
These lawsuits, which focused on establishing the
ecological value or vulnerability of individual sites
scheduled for logging or road building, had mixed success.
But as the ancient forest continued to dwindle a new
element entered the equation—the northern spotted owl,
whose habitat is the old-growth forest. In the early eighties,
researchers in the Forest Service, the Fish and Wildlife
Service, and academic institutions established that the
northern spotted owl was nearing extinction, and that
further destruction of its habitat posed a threat to its
survival. In 1987, environmentalists filed the first of three
spotted-owl lawsuits. Those suits dramatically changed
the clash over forest resources. For the first time, the courts
were being asked to rule not on just one stand of trees
but on large areas of old-growth, stretching across many
national forests. The Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund filed
the suits for various coalitions of plaintiffs, including
Strix occidentalis caurina, the northern spotted owl itself.
In Northern Spotted Owl v. Hodel, twenty-five
environmental groups joined the owl in challenging the
Fish and Wildlife Service's refusal to list it as threatened
or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. In 1988,
the federal district court in Seattle ordered Fish and
Wildlife to reconsider its decision that the owl was not
threatened or endangered, saying that "expert opinion
is to the contrary." The environmentalists won their point
in the spring of 1989, when the Fish and Wildlife Service
proposed to list the spotted owl as a threatened species-a
category that requires special protection of its habitat.
The guidelines set forth in the 1976 National Forest
Management Act were supposed to enable the Forest
Service to resolve conflicting demands on the nation's
forests. The conflicts have only intensified, however, and
the courts have become the main arbiters of forest policy.
Environmentalists, the timber industry, scientists, and
politicians are all saying that Congress must step in. "The
prospect is of the courts' essentially dictating and
managing the forests," Peter DeFazio says. "I think we're
close to the point where the policymakers are going to
have to roll up their sleeves and get back into the middle
of this debate.
62
PLANTING TREES TO CHANGE CLIMATE: IS IT A GOOD IDEA?
by Jacob Sigg
Massive tree plantings are proposed to counter climate
warming but the cure may be worse than the disease unless
a great deal of thought is given to the way the program
is carried out. On the one hand, increased carbon dioxide
C02 levels in the atmosphere from increased fossil and
wood fuel burning appear to be creating a greenhouse
effect. On the other hand, all plants remove C02 from
the atmosphere in the process of photosynthesis. On a
biomass per acre basis, herbaceous wetlands remove more
C02 than do forests; however, the emphasis on planting
trees to reduce C02 levels is based on the assumption that
trees live longer, require more time to decay and, thus,
sequester the carbon for longer periods of time.
The American Forestry Association through its Global
Releaf program is attempting to plant one hundred million
trees in the next ten years. In his 1990 State of the Union
address, President Bush called for $175 million to plant
a billion trees per year. State and local governments and
various non-profit organizations are developing their own
tree planting programs. Are these programs simply a panic
Site of the Glen Park Housing Project showing the natural spread of
a row of blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus) planted as a windbreak in
1942 and in 1990 (below). Most of the shrubs to the right (1990) are
French broom, another invasive exotic that threatens native
ecosystems. Photographs by Greg Gaar.
reaction to what is widely perceived as a grave global
threat? Are these suggested responses appropriate, and
what are the consequences if implemented?
There are underlying assumptions to the development
of tree-planting programs: first, that enough trees can
be planted to make a measurable difference in atmospheric
C02; second, that the source of the problem, accelerated
burning of fossil fuels and forest depletion, will be slowed
or reversed in the near future; and third, that no dam-
age will be done to the environment by the remedy.
The single consideration of current tree-planting
programs is the carbon dioxide consumed in wood vol-
ume production. This ignores the likelihood of further
disruption of already damaged natural systems, thus,
potentially further destabilizing them. If there is an
urgency to finding a solution to global warming, there
must be an accompanying urgency to incorporate
changes in lifestyle to reduce C02 by-product, not
develop a diversionary activity.
Will tree planting efforts distract attention from the
issue of deforestation and atmospheric emissions? Will
people feel we are doing our part by planting a few or
even many trees while at the same time we continue
business-as-usual in our daily lives? Will we continue to
consume as much fossil fuel, petroleum-based fertilizer,
and air conditioner time? Consider the car dealer who
is urging the public to carry out more tree planting
programs. For him a palliative tree planting program is
far better than a citizenry seriously concerned about
auto emissions.
Suggestions designed to maximize storage of carbon
that are worrisome include: restructuring forests by
altering species composition; planting only rapidly
growing species and strains; increasing tree density and
removing shrub understories. Other considerations are
to plant on roadsides, on open spaces, and "wherever
you can."
Planting trees "wherever you can" sends chills down
my spine. In 1872 Arbor Day founder J. Sterling Morton
called on energized volunteers to do "battle against the
timberless prairies." This rallying cry was recently
quoted with approval by a tree planting group. San
Francisco not long ago was a treeless peninsula, a
grassland/wildflower area of surpassing beauty
according to eye-witness accounts. Civic-minded leaders
thought it would be an improvement to plant the
"barren" hills with trees. The trees chosen were of only
three kinds and were not native to San Francisco. They
were imposed on the land and did not carry with them
the complement of biological organisms—the seed-
eating birds and squirrels, the insects and larvae which
chew on leaves and burrow in bark and seed, the bacte-
ria and fungi that are part of the recycling process. The
resulting planted forests destroyed the pristine native
plant areas which has been vibrant biological
communities and which included rare plant and animal
species that now extinct. These planted forests of
eucalyptus, Monterey pine and Monterey cypress are
continuing to expand through seedling regeneration and
even today are threatening plants listed as endangered
by state and federal agencies such as the Raven
manzanita (Arctostaphylos hookeri subsp. ravenii) and
the Presidio clarkia (Clarkia franciscana). The forests
in San Francisco today are biological wastelands,
monotonous and uninviting to human or animal. Yet in
our response to climate warming we may be repeating
this kind of mistake. Because there is to be no centralized
control of planting projects and the emphasis is on
volunteer effort, there is a risk that ecosystems can be
damaged by well-intentioned efforts. If tree-planting is
given priority over all other life forms; perhaps, the
greenhouse effect may become a secondary worry.
Guidelines for tree-planting programs should be
developed to include the following:
•  no type conversions of natural ecosystems such as
grassland or shrubland to forest;
•  avoid areas where natural ecosystems or a substantial
native plant presence exist, except for habitat restoration;
•  in restoration, plant only those species and genetic
strains that occur or have occurred at a particular site
naturally, and retain their natural ratios;
•  prohibit exotic species, except in urban areas. Even
here, encourage indigenous vegetation, as it tends to
support native wildlife, and prohibit trees with
aggressive colonizing tendencies as they may spread into
contiguous rural areas;
•  after fires and volcanic eruptions let natural succession
occur. This is a necessary condition for the emergence
of a stable, self-sustaining ecosystem. Artificial
forest plantations are even-aged and short-circuit natural
evolution;
•  maintenance must be built into the planting proposals.
While trees planted in forests and open spaces may need
little or no maintenance, those planted in urban and
developed areas may need a great deal. Questions of
liability arise as trees topple, shed limbs, block views
and winter sun (important in an energy-short world),
their roots penetrate sewers and their limbs damage
powerlines. Maintenance is expensive; and the record
in U.S. cities is dismal.
It is far from certain that any of the conceived large-
scale planting efforts will ever be undertaken.
Government budgets at all levels are tight, and the
demands placed by critical social needs are becoming
increasingly strident. Will tree planting be seen as a
priority? Possibly not. But we are at only round one,
and if concerns about world climate deepen, demands
for action will intensify. Easy moves will be made first.
Because most suggested contributions are fraught with
difficult economic, political and social consequences,
not to mention problems of international relations and
enforceability, responses such as planting trees will look
appealing. We must be certain that simplistic, quick
fixes not be substituted for sound long-range planning.
64
WILLIAM BURKE CRITCHFIELD
by Connie Millar
William B. Critchfield died July 11, 1989. He left a
legacy unparalleled in forest genetics. Bill made major
contributions to understanding genetic variation,
hybridization, growth and development, biogeography,
paleobotany, systematics, and taxonomy of forest trees,
especially pines. In each of these fields, Bill's pioneering
work earned him the position of world authority. These
studies were mainly spinoffs from groundwork Bill was
meticulously laying for his primary interest: unraveling
the evolutionary history of conifers. And it is his
evolutionary syntheses that best reveal Bill's breadth as
geneticist and scholar.
Bill was born November 21, 1923, in Minneapolis,
Minnesota, but grew up in North Dakota, where his
father had been among the state's pioneering settlers.
He attended North Dakota Agricultural College (now
North Dakota State University) before serving in the
Navy during World War II. Upon returning from the
South Pacific, he entered the University of California at
Berkeley, where he completed his bachelor's degree with
honors in forestry in 1949 and his doctorate in botany
under Herbert Mason in 1956.
Bill's first position after receiving his doctorate was
at Harvard University, where he worked from 1956-1959
as a geneticist with the Maria Moors Cabot Foundation
for Botanical Research. In 1959, he moved back to
Berkeley, California, to join the Pacific Southwest
Forest and Range Experiment Station of the U.S. Forest
Service. He divided his time for the next twenty-eight
years between his office in Berkeley and the herbaria
and arboreta of the Institute of Forest Genetics in
Placerville. In 1972, he was appointed a Pioneering
Research Scientist, an honor reserved by the Forest
Service to promote the work of its most outstanding
scientists. As one of only seven pioneering scientists in
the agency, Bill was given carte blanche to pursue
research of his own choice and design.
Bill's inferences about conifer evolution were
grounded in an intimate knowledge of genecological
variation. His early work on geographic variation and
subspecific differentiation in lodgepole pine was
seminal in western conifers. He observed and measured
morphological, physiological, and biochemical
variation, and their relation to the environment. He was
convinced of the importance of studying species in their
natural habitat, despite difficulties of access. In his
studies of lodgepole pine in the 1950s, for example, he
traveled the range of the species from California to
Canada to Colorado by public buses, setting off from
remote terminals to reach his forest destination on foot.
				>fiR:;r-
		.*¦¦-''.'.¦¦'	.¦ ¦	'¦''"¦"&
	':>'*,	¦/¦¦'¦^¦^.rX- ""¦	t	
		iPiiiSs-		
	ofl	^F -   ^SBpF1 "isti''		
¦ „«SSj	VHB	F"-. . .,**"'*^'		
				
- <??tiZ3*	^H	|->		
				
'¦4$1	m	r^WWlF*		
¦.*¦ <¦..'*¦¦'
.i*
¦ Sir          .wV<>
Mr., y '.*?»
Bill Critchfield in May 1979. Photograph by Lauren Fins.
He was alone on one collecting trip woods in British
Columbia when he fell out of a tree, broke his back, and
had to crawl to a road for help.
When Bill first joined the Forest Service, the Institute
of Forest Genetics was engaged full-swing in a program
of interspecific hybridization. Pine hybrids were being
produced en masse and tested for their use in forestry
and tree breeding. Jack Duffield, who had been at the
Institute from about 1945-1955 had begun to use
crossability as a measure of phylogenetic relationship
among taxa. Bill continued this work with his own
program of hybridization among pines and firs. Bill was
unrelenting in his demand for experimental controls in
this work. He insisted that only crosses using the same
seed parent were comparable, and he was not willing to
measure crossability by accepting the convention of
counting the number of cones or seeds produced after
artificial pollinations. He insisted instead on growing
progeny in the nursery to confirm or reject their hybrid
condition himself.
An Authority on Pine Hybridization
Bill soon became the leading authority on
interspecific hybridization of pines. In publications
from 1963 to 1988, he shed light on hybridization and
evolutionary relationships among almost all of the
65
subsections of Pinus, including the southern and west-
ern yellow pines, Contortae, Sylvestres, the California
big-cone and closed-cone pines, the foxtail pines, and
the white pines. He even studied hybridization among
the western firs.
Bill's quest to determine evolutionary relationships
among pines led him also to study their biogeography.
Bill became the world's foremost authority on the
geographical distribution of pines, and, with Elbert
Little, he published a monumental book of maps that
detailed the range of every pine species. This book may
well be the most widely cited reference in forestry. At a
regional level, Bill undertook the enormous task of
mapping all eighty-six tree species in California. In this
book, Bill and co-author Jim Griffin mapped the
species in great detail, including both major and minor
populations of the species, and even stands of only a few
trees. For anyone who has relied on finding disjunct or
tiny stands of California trees, Bill's map book is metic-
ulous in its accuracy. The availability of such detailed
information has allowed a standard of accuracy
unprecedented elsewhere. These books are widely used
references in many fields in addition to forestry, and
although they were published years ago, they are still
being requested.
Bill was a world authority on pine systematics and
taxonomy. Since pines were first scientifically described
by Linnaeus in 1753, over 400 classification systems
have appeared. Of these, George Russell Shaw's
evolutionary treatment of pine classification in 1914 set
a new standard. With Elbert Little, Bill continued in the
line of Shaw, and published a revised evolutionary
classification of pines in 1966 and 1969. This system
incorporated modern information on genetic variation
in pines and on evolutionary relationships based on pine
hybridization work. Furthermore, Critchfield and Little
brought the nomenclature of the genus up to botanical
code, an awesome task because invalid Latin names for
pines proliferate wildly in the literature.
Critchfield and Little's classification stands as the
accepted authority for pines. New species that have been
discovered since its publication corroborate the
classification. Bill became the world authority in
identifying pine species, and he spent many hours with
razor blade and dissecting scope making identifications
for colleagues. Bill's botanical training amply prepared
him for investigations of anatomy, and he had lifelong
interests in morphology and ontogeny as subjects in
themselves.
In later years, Bill realized that only when genetic
information is combined with the paleohistoric record
can present phylogenetic relationships of taxa be
elucidated. This came as a personal revelation to Bill,
and he would shake his head in amazement when he
recounted how, as a graduate student in evolution, the
thought of taking a course in paleobotany had never
occurred to him.
Bill more than made up for that lack in his past
during his last ten years. With unbridled enthusiasm, he
dissected the literature on the Quaternary history of
North American conifers, and, in case after case, made
sense of anomalous patterns of genetic variation by
documenting historic migrations and refugia. His
seminal papers on this topic, culminating in "Impact of
the Pleistocene on North American Conifers," were
ahead of their time, with implications still not fully
appreciated by the scientific community. He had begun
work on similar topics for Japan and Western Europe
that unfortunately he will be unable to write.
A True Scholar
Bill's scientific contributions went far beyond the
professional papers he published and lectures he
presented. He devoted long hours to related botanical
efforts. At the Institute of Forest Genetics in Placerville
(now named in his honor), he reorganized and expanded
the collection of herbarium specimens into what is
probably the most complete pine herbarium in the
world. To the National Forest System of the Forest
Service, he contributed much of his time promoting the
Research Natural Areas program, a system of ecological
reserves that protects representative vegetation
communities of the region. And when the California
Native Plant Society was first documenting the extent
of rare and endangered plants in California, Bill was a
major contributor.
The many scientists who were peers or apprentices of
Bill remember him as much for how he conducted
science as for his accomplishments. Bill was foremost a
scholar. He was relentlessly thorough and devastatingly
honest. His literature searches left no lead untraced; his
reviews of manuscripts were incisive. Once when he was
showing me around the basement of the Institute of
Forest Genetics, he pointed to a large collection of
musty boxes containing cones from an old study. "I'm
glad I kept those," he said, "because when I reviewed a
manuscript recently, the author was building a shaky
hypothesis that I wanted to test independently. I brought
out all these old cones and measured them, and sure
enough, the hypothesis didn't hold water." After his death,
in poking through the herbarium, I came across an old
note on a napkin from a colleague, asking Bill a casual
question about pine morphology. Bill's five-page typed
reply, complete with references, was stapled to the napkin.
Bill was one of the best investments the Forest Service
ever made, if for no other reason than the cost/benefit
ratio was so high. He made his most significant
contributions without recourse to highly technical
equipment. His most sophisticated laboratory tool was
a dissecting scope, and his annual supply budget
consisted mostly of new packs of razor blades. His most
well-honed tool was the English language. He had a life-
66
long love affair with words. He treasured them, savored
them, and used them with precision.
The epithet most often used for Bill in addition to
"scholar" is "mentor." Bill gave equally of his time and
scholarship to others. Although he was never formally
a professor or teacher, his professional judgment was
sought by peers and students alike, but students
especially would beat a path to his door, and he always
received them. He had a warm and generous
relationship with students, and was equally capable of
being serious or frivolous with them. Completely
missing from Bill was any formal facade or aloofness
that drives students from seeking counsel of many
established scientists. Bill loved his adventures with
students, and he enjoyed telling jokes on himself as
much as they did. Over the years, summer interns at the
Institute of Forest Genetics developed nicknames for
Bill, including "Critch," "Mr. Bill," and "Mr. Institute."
These names show the range of feeling students felt for
Bill, from endearment to profound respect.
Bill was the glue that held his colleagues together in
the Forest Service. They gathered around him at coffee,
Most of the plant subjects in this column have come
directly from the wild or, at most, they have only grown
in nurseries for a few generations. We are about to
consider one of the happiest exceptions to the norm: the
Pacifica, or Pacific coast hybrid, iris. Unlike the
manzanita, ceanothus or many other popular natives,
iris long ago captured the fancies of systematic amateur
and professional hybridizers, with spectacular results.
Though they still retain many more visible links to their
ancestors than do, say, the modern tea roses, their
flowers now come to us in colors and forms never
contemplated by Mother Nature.
Iris in the Wild
Let us begin with a look at the ancestral species, each
well worth growing in its own right. Three species have
figured most prominently in the Californian hybrids,
and another three or so have made minor contributions
to the rich variety we now see. All belong to the sub-
genus Californicae within the much larger genus Iris.
Fortunately for would-be hybridizers, they are
remarkably interfertile, making abundant natural
hybrids where their ranges overlap. Each provides
they gravitated toward his raspy voice in the hall. He was
the one who regularly gave parties for his colleagues at
his small bachelor apartment in Berkeley. His
hospitality was legendary, despite his grumbling about
people "staying past 10 p.m."
After his retirement from the Forest Service in early
1988, Bill set forest genetics aside. He had too much to
do. He had his lifelong loves of theater and mystery
novels to indulge. And he had ambitions for many new
pursuits. He began taking college courses in literature,
history, and art; he was working on a world gazetteer of
maps for famous crimes, fictional and real, at the time
of his death. In his hobbies as well as his profession, Bill
applied his characteristic thoroughness and honesty.
Bill had a bad heart. In 1974, and Christmas 1988, he
had major heart attacks. A three-way bypass after his
last attack gave the promise of many more productive
years. On July 11,1989, however, a sudden massive heart
attack took his life. Critch died doing one of the things
he loved best, attending theater in San Francisco.
Connie Millar, Institute of Forest Genetics, Berkeley, California
variations on an easily identifiable theme in growth and
bloom: they are long-lived perennials with fountains of
tough, evergreen, rather narrow and tapered leaves
astride a branched rhizome at or just below ground
level. Blooming stems arise in spring or early summer,
each tipped by two or more bracts from which the
flowers emerge. The floral structure is a bit confusing at
first, but really quite simple. There is a basal tube, three
falls, or downward-curving outer segments, three
standards (the upright, inner segments), and three
spreading, petal-like style-branches, ending in forked
crests, which hover over the falls and nearly hide the
stamens. Colors range from deep purple to white or
yellow; often there is an eye, or pencilling, of contrasting
color on each fall.
The best known of the ancestral species is Douglas or
coast iris, Iris douglasiana. It is a familiar sight on hills
and bluffs facing the coast from beyond the Oregon
border to Santa Barbara County. It seems to thrive
equally in woods and coastal meadows, though the
more exposed plants seem more prolific in both growth
and bloom. It may be encountered as a six-inch-high
mat or as a narrow fountain two feet or more tall. In or
out of bloom, it is most easily recognized by relatively
broad (to about one inch) leaves, each dark and shiny
GROWING NATIVES: THE PACIFICA IRIS
by Nevin Smith
67
Iris macrosiphon.    Drawings by Nancy Baron.
on one surface, duller and distinctly paler on the other,
and thick, usually pinkish rhizomes. The flowering
stems are simple or occasionally branched, bearing at
each tip a pair of short-tubed blossoms, two to four
inches; long, broadly parted to rather spidery. Floral
shades range from deep violet or the more usual
lavender to an occasional white, often with contrasting
eyes on the falls. Douglas iris has been extremely
valuable as a hybrid parent, contributing vigor, ease of
culture, and (in better selections) floral form, and is a
fine garden subject in its own right. Horticultural
selections have been made for a variety of features.
'Canyon Snow', a white-flowered clone introduced a
number of years ago by the Santa Barbara Botanic Gar-
den, is still one of the most lovely and popular of all the
native iris. I have made several commercial selections
among the broadly matting forms found along our
North Coast.
Iris innominata is barely a Californian. It is found in
light woods and the margins of conifers forests in Del
Norte County and neighboring Oregon. It forms
profuse clumps, usually six to ten inches tall, of narrow,
grassy leaves, dark and shiny on their upper surface. The
blossoms are often borne singly but may occur in pairs.
They are generally a bit smaller than those of Douglas
iris, though large in proportion to the plants themselves.
The individual segments can be both broad and
pleasingly ruffled, and these traits are imparted easily
to hybrids. There is a wonderful range of colors,
although much of that range is found beyond our
68
borders. The Californians are mostly dark purple to lav-
ender, while the Oregonians also include pale to deep
golden yellows, often with brown to golden veining on
the falls. While less vigorous and certainly less heat-
tolerant than Douglas iris, this species has been
responsible for much of the wealth of colors, and some
of the profuseness of growth and dwarf habit, seen in
our modern hybrids. Surprisingly, there seem to be no
named horticultural selections of the species itself in
current circulation.
Iris munzii has had a more limited, though still
important, role in the modern hybrid mix. It is found in
portions of the southern Sierra foothills, mostly on
wooded slopes. The plants form dense to rather sparse
clumps with broad leaves, carried more or less erect and
up to one and a half foot long. These are colored pale
green to grey-green and lack the sheen of the last two
species described. The flowers are quite large and
broadly parted. Though lavender is the predominant
shade, the falls are often marked with bright to light true
blue, a color rare among the iris and flowering plants
generally. All of the desirable floral features of this
species have carried over into its hybrids. Unfortunately,
so have its tendency to slower proliferation, less
attractive foliage and heightened susceptibility to
various diseases, especially leaf rusts. A compensating
feature is superior heat and possibly drought tolerance,
though the latter is still a matter of some controversy.
Lee Lenz began working with wild-collected seed of this
species in the fifties while director of the Rancho Santa
Ana Botanic Garden. By the early seventies, he had
introduced a series of lovely horticultural selections, of
which 'Sierra Sapphire', with soft blue blossoms, is the
best known. Sadly, these have vanished from
commercial circulation. However, Lewis and Adele
Lawyer of Oakland have continued to carry the 7.
munzii torch, with some wonderful results; we will have
a closer look at their efforts shortly.
Minor roles have been played by three other species.
Iris fernaldii and I. macrosiphon are two very similar
species with overlapping ranges in northern and central
California, their differences further blurred by their
propensity to hybridize and intergrade. They form tight
clumps with short, slender rhizomes. The leaves are
narrow, of dull surface and blue-green to grey-green in
color. The color of the leaf bases is supposed to be a
distinguishing feature, being white in I. macrosiphon
and reddish in I. fernaldii, but there are many
exceptions. The plants in both cases are most often
around one foot tall, though I. macrosiphon has some
charming miniature forms inhabiting large areas of
Lake County. Both have long-tubed, broadly parted to
rather spidery blossoms borne in pairs. Flower color in
I. fernaldii is normally creamy yellow, while I.
macrosiphon ranges from white to deep yellow and,
more commonly, pale lavender to deep purple. Both
prefer a distinct summer drought but are otherwise
rather easily grown. Their role has been mainly to extend
the color range of existing hybrids, but obviously they
have further potential for imparting heat and drought
tolerance as well as small plant size (I have begun using
selected forms of I. macrosiphon with this in mind, and
have had really pleasing results). The third minor
ancestor is I. bracteata from far northern California and
southwest Oregon, almost unknown otherwise in
cultivation. It has usually few shoots, with narrow leaves
up to two feet long. Of more interest are its large yellow
flowers with brown or reddish veining. I know nothing
directly of its culture but would guess from its pine
woods habitat that it needs light shading and very well-
drained soil.
A Bit of History
The Pacifica iris have a colorful history, involving
extensive world travel and generous sharing of plants
and ideas among enthusiasts.
As with many other American natives, the first
serious work with the Pacificas was done in England, in
this case during the early 1920s by William Dykes. He
was followed in the twenties and thirties by Amos Perry
and others, but their work seems to. have had little
impact here. Rather, the ancestry of the modern
Pacificas appears to have begun with the work of Fred
DeForest and Carl Starker in Oregon during the late
1930s, mostly selecting particularly beautiful clones of
Iris douglasiana and, in DeForest's case, I. macrosiphon;
DeForest took the further step of crossing his best I.
douglasiana clones.
Hybridizing of the Pacificas truly took off when
Sydney Mitchell, at the University of California,
Berkeley, received seeds of DeForest's and others' I.
douglasiana material and I. innominata. He distributed
these seeds to enthusiasts throughout California, other
parts of the U.S. and such far-flung points as England,
Australia and New Zealand. He also began making
interspecific crosses and distributed the seeds of these,
too. The recipients shared the fruits of their efforts, and
the enriching effects of this broad exchange has
continued to the present.
Oddly, considering the northern origins of the
ancestral stock, the center of hybridizing effort from
this point through the 1960s was the Los Angeles region.
We probably owe much of the broad climatic tolerances
of modern hybrids to this period, since southern
hybridizers were necessarily selecting for good
performance in warmer, drier conditions. Eric Nies of
Hollywood and Marion Walker of Ventura were the
stars of the effort in the forties; Richard Luhrsen was
prominent in both the forties and fifties, while Lee Lenz
began his work with Iris munzii in the same period.
Then came George Stambach who, like Sidney Mitchell,
distributed material to fellow enthusiasts around the
69
world, and Jack McCaskill, the first to grow the
Pacificas on a large commercial scale. All of these
individuals introduced named hybrids which clearly
advanced the hybrid state. Notable developments were
new color breaks, seen for example in 'Native Warrior',
a rich maroon two-tone and other selections in reddish
shades; miniature size, as in McCaskilPs 'Fairy Chimes';
and larger, broader flowers in greater abundance.
This is not to say that iris enthusiasts were idle
elsewhere. Marjorie Brummitt's efforts in England
included her Banbury series, with some of the deepest
violets and maroons yet seen in the Pacificas. A Mr.
Hargrave (nobody seems to know his full name)
continued work begun in the thirties by Fred Danks in
Australia, including selection for larger, broader
flowers, ruffling and unusual color patterns like the
plicatas, with sprays of fine dark lines on the falls.
Beginning around 1970, the North began to reclaim
its iris with an energetic burst of effort taking several
directions. Joseph Ghio of Santa Cruz began with a few
plants won at an American Iris Society meeting and a
gift of seed from Jack Craig of Los Gatos. When his
plants bloomed, he was impressed by their variety and
plunged energetically into a breeding program
incorporating local material from the wild and complex
hybrids by the southern Californians, Brummitt in
England and Hargrave in Australia. His first named
introductions came in 1970; by the time I met him in
1976, he already had a dazzling array of yellows,
purples, maroons, whites and bicolors — for example
white standards and violet falls. Incorporating the
Banbury series quickly led to large, ruffled, nearly black
flowers with velvety sheen; the Hargrave material added
beautiful stitched patterns; and Joe's own intuitions led
to some wonderful copper, blue, pink and red shades
(no scarlets yet), often on extremely profuse and
floriferous plants. His goal of huge, round flowers will
likely appeal more to gardeners used to fanciers of All-
America roses than the native plant enthusiast. Yet he
has contributed enormously to the current popularity
of the Pacificas.
There are other current actors of considerable
interest. Lewis and Adele Lawyer of Oakland are
seeking to combine the true blues of Iris munzii
derivatives with vigor and garden tolerance previously
lacking in that group. Their recent introduction, 'Sierra
Dell', is one of the loveliest Pacificas I have seen, with
a profusion of large, soft blue blossoms. Vernon Wood
is working on a broad front, combining material from
Joe Ghio, Hargrave in Australia and other sources to
produce sturdy, prolific plants and bright, clear flower
colors; some of his recent color breaks include rose-pink
shades and blue and purple plicata patterns. Duane
Meek was recently developing a fine line of miniature
hybrids, but suspended efforts in a move last year to
Oregon (fortunately his introductions are being
preserved by Colin Rigby at Portable Acres).
Uses and Culture
The Pacifica iris, together with their ancestral species,
are among the most useful of our native perennials. In
coastal climates they may be planted in sun or shade;
generally speaking, plants will have their lushest
appearance in shadier sites, but flower more heavily in
brighter light. Like the exotic Liriope (better known as
lily turf) and the ornamental bunchgrasses, they make
permanent, boldly textured foliage clumps. They are
appropriate for formal border use but even more
attractive in informal drifts, whether in odd nooks or
large areas of the garden. Just as they do in nature, they
will thrive under oaks, where their minimal water needs
will likely be met with little or no summer irrigation
beyond fog drip. As they are carried away from the coast
and encounter hotter summers, their need for either
irrigation or shading (or both) for good appearance
increases, and their role in the open garden diminishes.
Particular problems will be encountered in the Central
Valley, where supplemental irrigation becomes mandatory,
but the combination of high soil temperatures and
moisture can lead to crown-rotting diseases. It is here that
hybrids heavily involving Iris munzii, for all their problems
near the coast, may really shine.
In any case, the plants require little active care.
Reasonably well-drained, acid soil is appreciated,
particularly if the plants are to be summer-irrigated. Up
to the point where leaf tips begin to die back
prematurely (this is normal in fall and winter with older
leaves), the less supplemental irrigation, the better, for
purposes of avoiding disease. Once a year, in late win-
ter, you may want to tidy up the clumps by removing
dead leaves, which take a while to rot away. Simply grasp
them at the base and pull backwards (away from the
shoot tips). If you find that you have some of the more
rust-susceptible clones, you have the choice of removing
these plants, applying an appropriate fungicide once in
a while, or simply tolerating spotted leaves (the disease
is rarely lethal). The Pacifica iris are seldom troubled by
insects or other animal pests.
It is easy to increase your stock of hybrid iris, with
either of two main methods available according to your
goals. Seeding is the more exciting —sometimes
spectacularly so —since new sizes, shapes and color
combinations are likely to crop up with each generation.
If you have specific parent combinations in mind, you
will find them easy to hybridize; simply snap a mature
stamen (with pollen grains visible on the surface of the
anther) from a flower of one parent and rub pollen on
each stigma (the point where a small lip juts out beneath
the forks of the style-crest) of a well-opened flower (say,
one to two days old) of the second parent. Once the
blossoms have shrivelled, watch the pods as they swell,
turn yellow, then tan, and finally split, and gather them
up in paper bags to dry before the seeds spill out. If you
have no specific plan or want to be surprised, simply let
70
bees do your work, and gather the seeds when ready. In
either case, plant the seeds outside in fall or early winter,
using pots or flats of a light, well-drained medium.
Barely cover them with the same medium, and keep
them moist. The combination of moisture and cold is
essential for germination, which usually takes one to
two months. The seedlings may be potted off separately
when they are large and tough enough to handle
easily—usually at two to three inches tall — and grown
on until they are large enough to fend for themselves in
the open ground. Many will bloom when they are a little
over one year old.
To multiply established plants of particular clones,
simply dig them up in fall with as much as possible of
the root mass intact, and divide the rhizomes at their
natural branching points. If they are to be replanted
directly into the open ground, it is wise to maintain at
least three to four shoots in each new clump. Timing is
the most important factor in this process; new root
growth begins in fall and proceeds rapidly through
winter and early spring. Roots are nearly inactive by
summer, and summer-divided plants, if not lifted with
most of their extensive root systems intact, often shrivel
and die before new root growth can commence.
Iris douglasiana.
Wheire to Find Them
The Pacificas are now available at many retail
nurseries, especially in Northern California, CNPS
plant sales and various botanic garden plants sales
during their spring blooming season, allowing you to
select your favorites. Unfortunately, this is not the ideal
time to plant, as you new plants will have to be watered
frequently through their first summer, sometimes
resulting in losses to disease. Fall plant sales are ideal if
you don't mind taking potluck or can find color-labelled
plants. To find the best of the recent hybrids, you will
want to try the hybridizers themselves, or their
distributors. Current mail-order sources are:
Bayview Gardens, 1201 Bay St., Santa Cruz, CA
95060: Specializing in German bearded, Louisiana and
Pacifica iris hybrids, especially those by the owner,
Joseph Ghio. Send $1.50 for catalog.
Portable Acres, 2087 Curtis Drive, Penngrove, CA
94951: A source for many iris species, as well as Pacifica
hybrids, with particular emphasis on marketing hardier
selections to enthusiasts in severe climate areas. Partner
Colin Rigby maintains a collection of older hybrids now
otherwise unavailable. Write for current listings.
Finally, if you are truly bitten by the iris bug, join the
Society for Pacific Coast Native Iris, c/o 4333 Oak Hill
Road, Oakland CA 94605. A bulletin subscription is $4
per year, and the Society supplies seeds of both species
and hybrids, as well as articles and books on the subject.
(The author wishes to thank Joseph Ghio, Lewis
and Adele Lawyer, Vernon Wood and Colin Rigby for
their personal interviews, in which they described
both the history and current state of Pacific Coast
iris hybridizing.)
BOOK REVIEWS
Nevin Smith,   Wintergreen Nursery, 358 Merk Road,
Watsonville, CA 95076
tloonnoomffllf
"   WILDFLOWERS     *"fc
Serving the gardener since 1981.
Congratulations to the
CN&S on your 25th
anniversary
<fc
\
rC
Seed catalog available $2
P.O.Box 34, Morro Bay, CA. 93443
(805) 772-2473
Plant Migration: The Dynamics of Geographic Patterning
in Seed Plant Species: by Jonathan D. Sauer. 1988. 282 pp.
University of California Press, 2121 Berkeley Way, Berkeley,
CA 94720. $45 hardcover.
For Jonathan Sauer, professor of geography at UCLA, an
understanding of the variables that explain the distribution
of plant life is better served by facts derived from direct
observation than by hypothetical constructs. To this end, he
has assembled here a fascinating and wide-ranging set of case
studies of how the real world works, of how migration of
individual species of dependent on either the means of dispersal
or the physical environment or both. For him, irregularities and
uncertainties clearly add to the spice of life. He is pleased rather
than disappointed that he sees no prospect of easy
generalizations about seed plant migration. It is a feeling and
point of view that many aficionados of California native plants
will doubtless appreciate.
For those whose curiosity ranged across the broad spectrum
of plant geography this volume offers rich, even exciting fare.
Although due attention is given in the latter pages to the distant
past as recorded in the fossil record and to the interplay of
processes of migration and evolution, the largest part of the
book is devoted to modern or historically confirmable examples
of migration, defined as any change in the distribution of
successfully established plants. Much of the text is devoted to
nearly one hundred synopses or case studies, either abstracted
from the literature or based on the author's own world-wide
field experience (and with his plant geographer eyes he has been
almost everywhere, though with some bias toward tropical coasts
and islands). Many involve California examples, including
naturalized exotics, the colonization of vernal pools, roadside
weeds, aquatics gone amuck, and succession following
overgrazing by feral livestock.
Migration is considered in the broadest sense, from very local
micro-migrations to dispersals on an intercontinental scale.
Retreats as well as advances are considered. The "centrifugal"
forces facilitating dispersal of pioneering plants and the
"centripetal" environmental influences that control seed
germination and plant development are equally involved.
Historical biogeography, Sauer argues, has been too largely in
the hands of taxonomists working with museum collections,
themselves poor clues to processes. He gives special attention
to colonizing processes on open shoreline habitats — mangrove
swamps, ocean beaches, salt marshes, and riparian situations.
Debris avalanches, landslides, volcanic eruptions, treefalls, and
recurrent fire are among the categories of natural perturbations
under which migration and colonization has been considered.
The section on "invasion and elimination" reviews the
replacement of California native bunch grasses by introduced
annuals. Intensified grazing by European livestock appears only
partly responsible.
Artificially modified habitats, too, offer prime opportunity
for the colonization and establishment of "weedy" species.
Roads and railroad right-of-ways, salted highways, mine
dumps, abandoned fields, and the overgrazed western range
are all considered.
Cases of exploitation of the catastrophic effect of human
72
disturbance and human-aided seed dispersal dominate this fine
work. To the extent the earth's flora consists of colonizing species,
it has been pre-adapted to survive with Homo sapiens. The
author is clearly more ready to accept long range dispersal,
whether by wind, ocean currents, birds or human agency, as
the explanation of the disjunct patterns of plants that the
fragmentation of formerly continuous ranges (vicariance) and
the uncertainties of climatic change proposed by some ecologists.
"The former," says Sauer, "are not only more plausible but more
interesting." Readers who have fallen under the spell of California
native plants are likely to agree.
James J. Parsons
Department of Geography
University of California at Berkeley
Plant Communities of Marin County: by W. David Shuford
and Irene C. Timossi. 1989. 32 pp., 43 b/w photographs.
Available from CNPS, 909 12th Street, Suite 116, Sacramento,
CA 95814. $8.95 + $2.25 tax & shipping, softcover.
Preserving the plant communities of California is at least
as important as preserving individual species in the flora. The
problem is how to describe the seemingly endless array of subtle
variations in community composition and structure. Those
variations make us unsure of what we are attempting to preserve
and greatly complicate the political and legal status of natu-
ral communities. An excellent first attempt at rigorous
description was provided by Terrestrial Vegetation of California
(Michael Barbour and Jack Major eds., 1977), in which experts
used the available, quantitative data to make generalizations
on a large, regional scale. But regional generalizations are difficult
to apply to specific pieces of vegetation across a state as rich
and varied as this one. Ultimately, an exhaustive, systematic
approach such as that of Robert Holland at the California
Department of Fish and Game will be needed, supplemented
with plenty of figures on cover, density, canopy heights, and
spatial pattern. This will allow us to determine the biological
significance of unusual species assemblages and architectures—
the local patterns—that may be important to the flora and fauna
of individual drainage basins or isolated mountain peaks, for
example. Such an effort will take many years to complete. In
the meantime, we urgently need to describe our natural
communities on a local scale, using the available data and systems
of classification.
In addition, this information needs to be presented in an
appealing form, with inviting text and illustrative photographs,
so that the wisdom and beauty of this approach to biological
conservation is not lost in a technical morass. Plant Communities
of Marin County, by Shuford and Timossi, does just that. Local,
accurate and attractive, this publication should serve as a model
for community conservation efforts throughout the state.
Beginning with a short section on geology, soils, topography,
climate and plant diversity, the authors proceed with descriptions
of Marin County's major plant communities. The basic
organization is by vegetation architecture—forests, woodlands,
chaparrals, grasslands, marshes —into which specific
communities are classified. For example, there are four types
of chaparral (chamise, manzanita, mixed and serpentine) and
two types of grassland (coastal prairie and valley grassland)
commonly found in Marin County. These are usually named
floristically by one or several dominant species and described
with respect to canopy heights, cover, life forms, and other
standard features of vegetation. In this regard, the book assumes
a knowledge of how such features are defined and measured
and why they are of such concern to ecologists. This assumption
is probably unwarranted for a large portion of the intended
audience and could have been avoided by adding a small section
on vegetation after the introduction (e.g. "The Why and How
of Plant Communities").
It is not difficult, however, to read through the descriptions
and compare them with the beautiful, often engaging,
photographs that follow. The most important photos are
of landscapes (rather than individual species), shot in specific
Marin County locations that are identified in the captions. (I
wish a date had also been included as part of the record.) A
note should be added here — photographing vegetation is
considerably more difficult than photographing individual plants
or their flowers. Representative examples must be carefully
selected, and the shot must make the most of landscape textures,
contrast, and patterns on both large and small scales. Illustrative
images are even more difficult to capture in black and white
because the subtle hues of green that characterize different species
among the canopies are usually lost to blurry gray scales of little
value to the eye. Nevertheless, most of the photographs by
William Follete, Fraser Muirhead, Ian Tait, and Phyllis Faber
succeed in showing us the plant community and not just
collections of individual species.
Fortunately, ecological processes are not ignored in
the community descriptions. Wind and wave action are related
to the architecture of coastal beach and dune vegetation. Fire,
fog, and soil properties are used to explain patterns of forest
distribution and composition. These relationships allow us to
interpret and understand the landscapes we see (e.g. why there
is Bishop Pine Forest on Mount Vision instead of Redwood
Forest), and, therefore, to transcend the realm of observation
and description (some would say natural history). Surprisingly,
the scientific basis for the discussion has changed little since
the publication of Terrestrial Vegetation of California, from
which Shuford and Timossi draw heavily. (Oh, U.C., where forth
art thou and thine legions of graduate students and professors
of synecology?)
Also of importance are the effects of human-induced changes
in natural communities. The authors describe the destruction
and/or modification or coastal beach, prairie, salt marsh and
riparian forest communities, citing some of the obvious agents
of change (grazing, logging, filling and other forms of "land
development"), and some of the not-so-obvious agents
(eucalyptus, Scotch broom, European beach grass). The recent
battle over eucalyptus removal on Angel Island was fought
because many did not see these trees as agents and also because
they did not understand the significance of natural communities
in the first place. This should be the next major arena for CNPS
in terms of public (and politician) education, and publications
like "Plant Communities of Marin County" will be essential
to making the point that biological diversity must be preserved
on a community, as well as on a species-by-species basis.
Bruce Pavlik, Biology Department,
Mills College, Oakland, CA
Complete Garden Guide to the Native Perennials of California:
by Glenn Keator. 1990. 303 pp. Available from Chronicle Books,
275 Fifth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. $14.95 softcover.
About ten years ago I had the delightful experience of
reading and reviewing a new edition of Lester Rowntree's
Hardy Californians; first issued in 1936. It was an almost
73
poetic ode, in the tradition of John Muir, to the flowering
perennials of California and their potential as garden subjects.
Surprisingly, it has had no important successor until this year,
with the publication of Glenn Keator's Complete Garden
Guide to the Native Perennials of California. Mr. Keator's
book has been a similar delight to read, though for rather
different reasons. He has begun by anticipating virtually every
question a gardener interested in our native perennials is likely
to ask, then answering clearly, point by point. The result is a
book both informative and entertaining.
Part One contains a wealth of informative about both nat-
ural and garden settings in California and uses, propagation
and culture of native perennials. It outlines the basic features
of herbaceous (non-woody) perennials and discusses various
growth and dormancy cycles and how they affect a plant's
performance in the garden. There follows a section even non-
gardeners would find fascinating, on California's land forms
and their effect on climate in various regions of the state. Next
comes a treatment of microclimates (basically, conditions at
plant level in your own back yard). This is by far the most
thoughtful and comprehensive discussion I have seen on how
vitally such things as orientation of a slope, location of
buildings and presence of overhanging trees can affect the
performance of particular plants in the garden.
His notes on plant sources give us similarly valuable
information. He discusses the factors governing commercial
availability and warns that the times certain plants are
most available in retail nurseries (usually spring and summer
bloom) may not be the best times for planting in the garden.
His treatment on plant collecting provides us with good,
practical information on collecting of seeds and cuttings
and carefully distinguishes between the impact of these
"gentle" methods and that of actual digging in wild plant
populations. I wish he had included a few good horror stories
about the decimation of various bulbs and orchids through
commercial and private collecting.
I have no such reservations about the cultural sections which
follow. Using both ordinary prose and bulleted lists of specific
points, he provides most of the information the typical gar-
dener will need for successful propagation, planting and
aftercaire (watering, pruning, and so forth) of native perennials
in a wide range of settings. The only glaring omission here (as,
I confess, in some of my own articles in Fremontia), is the
thorny issue of saline or highly mineralized water and soils in
portions of southern California. Last in this series is a section
on design, subdivided into design categories (for example, the
mixed border, woodland garden and water garden). In each
case he provides a thoughtful outline of both aesthetic and
practical considerations, ever arguing against formality and
in favor of freedom and diversity. Each discussion ends with
a list of appropriate plants for that category. One minor prob-
lem is that a few difficult plants, like prickly poppy
(Argemone) and Washington lily (Lilium washingtonianuni)
are included without distinction from their more reliable
associates. For reasons not quite clear to me, a section
on grasses, sedges and rushes is appended here, rather
than in the main encyclopedia of Part Two. However, a goodly
number of ornamental species are beautifully described.
Having segregated this group, one might wish Mr. Keator
had similarly sorted the ferns (another group often given
separate treatment), which are a bit difficult to locate in the
encyclopedia proper.
Part Two, titled "Encyclopedia of Families, Genera, and
Species," contains the actual item-by-item descriptions for
which most gardeners will buy the book. It begins with a
condensed list of genera to be discussed, grouped under their
families listed alphabetically by common name (for example,
borage family); this provides a good overview, but a particular
genus will be easier to locate through the index. Actual plant
descriptions, at both the genus and species levels, are
beautifully written. He captures the essence of plant habitats,
ornamental and botanical features, garden uses and
combinations, culture and any odd quirks (such as invasive
tendencies), in remarkably few words. The novice gardener
may occasionally be confused by flurries of botanical terms
like "cauline leaves.. .digitately divided," but these are easily
found in the glossary. Certain standard features such as plant
height and flower color, means of propagation, exposure and
watering are grouped at the beginning of each major
description, with abbreviated headings. I met many personal
favorites here and noticed only a few important omissions
(Lilium pitkinense, for example); more important, there were
a number of new acquaintances, like Eriastrum densifolium,
a perennial blue gilia. Here and there are sprinkled delightful
line illustrations taken from an old classic, The Wildjlowers
of California by Mary Parsons.
Still more useful lists—of companion plants, plant and seed
sources, and reference books — are presented in appendices at
the end of the book. I would offer only two minor complaints:
The "Commercial Sources" list includes several wholesale
nurseries, which would not welcome individual inquiries, and
a couple of nurseries no longer in existence (Beechers and
Leonard Coates); and the most important predecessor of this
book, Lester Rowntree's Hardy Californians, is not mentioned
in the bibliography.
A few minor additions might be made. The author mentions
the existence of superior cultivars in passing, as when
describing the lewisias; however, some of these — for example,
Zauschneria 'U.C. Hybrid'—are now widely circulated and
deserve specific mention. Gardeners in the Central Valley and
southern California would benefit from further discussion of
heat and related cultural tolerances of individual species; some
coastal natives, like Erigeron glaucus, require excessive shading
or simply won't survive in hot-summer areas. And it would be
nice to find occasional mention of his own vast personal
experience, in addition to third-person descriptions and
educated guesses. But this is minor quibbling. Glenn Keator
has already treated us to a horticultural feast.
Nevin Smith
Wintergreen Nursery
Watsonville, CA
BOOKS RECEIVED
The Wildflower Gardener's Guide: Pacific NW, Rocky
Mountain, and Western Canada Edition, by Henry W. Art.
1990. 160 pp. color photos and line drawings. For those
interested in growing wildflowers in their gardens, this well
researched, informative and attractive book will be extremely
useful. Plant description, culture, propagation and companion
74
plant information is provided for thirty-three of the most
beautiful and easily cultivated wildflowers of northwestern
North America. Available from Storey/Garden Way
Publishing, Schoolhouse Road, Pownal, Vermont 05261.
$12.95 softcover.
Vernal Pool Plants: Their Habitat and Biology, by Diane H
Ikeda and Robert A. Schlising (Editors). 1990. 178 pp. Based
on a symposium in 1989, eight contributors cover much of what
is known about vernal pools in California in this attractive
volume. Available from the Herbarium, California State
University, Chico 95929-0515. $11.00 postage paid, softcover.
Proceedings of the California Riparian Systems Conference:
Protection, Management, and Restoration for the 1990s
(September 1988), by Dana Abell (Tech. Coord.). 1989. 543 pp.
Nearly 100 papers aimed at a diverse audience of resource
managers, environmental consultants, researchers, landowners
and environmental activists. Available from Pacific Southwest
Forest and Range Experiment Station. Box 245, Berkeley, CA
94701. Free.
In Our Own Hands: A Strategy for Conserving Biological
Diversity in California, by Deborah B. Jensen, Margaret Torn
and John Harte. 1990. 210 pp. For those interested in the
relationship between the future of plant and animal species
(biodiversity) in California and state policy, this report to the
California Policy Seminar is a very important document. It
spells out threats, barriers to conservation and develops a
strategy for the 1990s with ten recommendations, a "must list"
if California's great natural resource is to persist. Available
from California Policy Seminar, 109 Moses Hall, Berkeley, CA
94720. $10 postage paid, softcover (checks to U.C. Regents).
Point Reyes National Seashore Checklist, by Gary Fellers,
Virginia Norris, and Wilma Follette. 1990. 41 pp. Available from
Point Reyes National Seashore Association, Point Reyes National
Seashore, Point Reyes, CA 94956. $2.75 postpaid, softcover.
Children's Books
The Tree Giants, the Story of the Redwoods, the World's
Largest Trees, by Bill Schneider. 1988. 32 pp. An attractive and
informational book in a series, Interpreting the Great
Outdoors. Available from Falcon Press, Box 1718, Helena, MT
59624. $4.95 softcover.
California Wildflowers, A Children's Fieldguide to
the State's Most Common Flowers, by Beverly Magley. A
beautifully illustrated and interesting book about common
wildflowers organized into habitat types; another in the series,
Interpreting the Great Outdoors. Available from Falcon Press,
Box 1718, Helena, MT 59624.
$4.95 softcover.
Audio Cassettes
The Desert Smells Like Rain, by Gary Paul Nabhan. 1990.
Two tapes. Selections of stories read by the well known
ethnobotanist and author Nabhan about the Sonoran Desert,
its moods, native plants and cultivation by the indigenous
people of southern Arizona and northern Mexico. Available
from the Audio Press, Box 935, Louisville, Colorado 80027.
$15.95.
NOTES AND COMMENTS
Congratulations From Fish and Game
The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) congratulates
CNPS on its first twenty-five years of dedication to preserving
California's native flora. This year also represents the tenth
anniversary of the Department and CNPS's successful
cooperative efforts in our offices in Sacramento. We look
forward to continued collaboration with CNPS.
These are exciting times for the Department of Fish and
Game. Even though we are facing severe budgetary constraints,
the Department has made great strides toward our mutual goal
of conserving California's unique natural heritage. The
importance of biodiversity conservation programs within the
Department has never been greater.
The Nongame-Heritage Program of 1989 is now the Natural
Heritage Division, one of six divisions in the Department.
Your support has helped us secure a total of fifteen new
Natural Heritage positions in the five DFG regions this year.
These include six new plant ecologists which we've needed
for so long.
The California Natural Diversity Data Base has improved
its ability to track rare plants, animals and natural
communities by recently acquiring a Geographic Information
ROBINETT BULB FARM
In honor of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of
FREMONTIA, we are happy to announce
a Special Introductory Offer, while our
supplies last—
For New
Customers Only
15 (or more) native bulbs
7 packets of native bulb seed
XS              —For $20 including tax
\JY         and shipping (a $30 value)
\s           sent via First Class or UPS
(your choice). At this price
the selection must be ours, but
is guaranteed to include a species from
each of these genera: Allium, Brodiaea,
Calochortus, Dichelostemma, Erythmnium,
Fritillaria, and Triteleia. Stocks are limited;
no order accepted after November 15th.
Send check or money order, stating
preferred shipment method, to:
P.O. Box 1306
Sebastopol, CA 95473-1306   USA
75
System (GIS). This new computer system will enable us
to provide more accurate products to CNPS and other
data base users.
Last year, the Endangered Plant Program recommended to
the Fish and Game Commission that they designate as threat-
ened or endangered twenty-five plants which CNPS had
petitioned for listing. The Commission placed twenty-two of
these plants under the protection of the California Endangered
Species Act. The Department is also attempting to recover
numerous endangered plant species.including the extremely
rare large-flowered fiddleneck (Amsinckia grandiflora) near
Antioch. An experimental population of the fiddleneck is
being established at Black Diamond Mines Regional Park in
Contra Costa County to supplement the two remaining natural
populations. So far the results are very promising, as more than
1,000 flowering plants were established last year.
The Department now manages more than 500,000 acres of
land in California, including 121,000 acres of wetlands and
32,000 acres for rare, threatened and endangered plants and
animals. With your endorsement and financial support, the
new California Wildlands Program had a successful first year
and is continuing into the new budget year to meet the
overwhelming demand for naturalist-led wildlife education
programs on DFG lands around the state.
Together I am confident that we can meet the challenges
facing wildland conservation in California. Your continued
support in the coming years is essential for us to be successful.
Susan Cochrane,
Natural Heritage Division Chief,
Department of Fish and Game.
\'i 1/1/(4'/ vuwt/R      .. ^    /
Of   M        /'   -4i;^-
! woe wfr                   $
\sOihn\,\A,hvPt\
Contest winner Brent Carkeet's "Best in Show" wildflower poster.
Annual Poster Contest Winner
Congratulations to the winners of this year's CNPS poster
contest, "Wildflowers of my Favorite Plant Community."
Brent Carkeet, Twain Harte, age 10, from the Tuolomne
County Independent Study Program won the "Best in Show"
prize. CNPS organizer Kay Antunez de Mayolo thanks the
CNPS members that have helped get the annual contest into
their children's schools and hopes for even more next year.
Nursery Sources For California Native Plants
Between May 1988 and June 1989, eighty-three nurseries
that stock native plants were queried for plant availability
information. Information supplied by the responding
nurseries was used to generate a list of available taxa. The Open
File Report 90-04, "Nursery Sources for California Native
Plants," by Gail A. Newton, Laura Laidet, and Aliza Nayan,
consists of a thirty-page list of approximately 870 California
native plant taxa, organized alphabetically by scientific name,
with cross references to nurseries that supply those species.
Addresses and phone numbers are also supplied for the
referenced nurseries.
The report will assist land use planners and revegetation
practitioners in the identification of suppliers of native species.
This list can be used to determine plant availability for
revegetation designs associated with various types of land
rehabilitation and restoration; and it can be used by those
interested in gardening with native plants.
Open File Report 90-04, "Nursery Sources for California
Native Plants" by Gail A. Newton, Laura Laidet, and Aliza
Nayan, is available for reference at Division of Mines and
Geology (DMG) offices in Los Angeles, Pleasant Hill, and
Sacramento. A copy may be purchased by mailing $5 to the
Division of Mines and Geology, P.O. Box 2980, Sacramento,
CA 95812-2980.
44444444444444
4	Not ready for Christmas?	4
{	Let CNPS help you Give your family and friends:	{
	•  A CNPS membership •  A CNPS poster •  A CNPS book	
4	• Fremontia—Year of the Oak issue	4
4	• A chapter T-shirt	4
4	ORDER FROM:	i
4	California Native Plant Society 909 12th Street, Suite 116 Sacramento, California 95814	4
44444444444444
76
Historic Anecdotes
Susan Fruge reports that the panamint daisy logo of CNPS
was chosen by the CNPS State Board. Wayne Savage presented
a snaphot of the daisy (then Enceleopsis argophylla var.
grandiflora) to the board from Cliff Schmidt, a fellow faculty
member from San Jose State University in the Bay Area. The
photo had been taken by Cliffs father on a earlier camping trip
to Wildrose Canyon with Cliff (then age 4). When the Board
chose the daisy for its logo, the plant was considered extinct
from burro browsing. With the browsing removed, the daisy
has since recovered and now grows in that one canyon. Joyce
Burr drew the logo from the small faded photograph.
Susan also reports that the name Fremontia was chosen by
the board in a name contest. Robert Ornduffs winning entry
was agreed upon by all but Jim Roof, a history buff, who
vehemently objected to General Fremont's name being used,
even though it was the plant that was under consideration.
Conservation Collection Grant
The Save the Redwoods League has generously provided an
endowment to the conservation collection of the coast
redwood {Sequoia sempervirens) which was described in the
article, "Genetic Conservation of Monterey Pine and Coast
Redwood" by William J. Libby, Fremontia, April 1990. The
League has also expanded their endowed support to include
a conservation collection for the giant sequoia (S. gigantea).
By restoration I meant the process of reinstating more-or-
less original taxonomic composition or community type(s).
This is a broader concept than reintroduction, putting back
an entity (form, subspecies, species) that formerly occurred at
a site. By relocation I meant moving a population from one
site to another. These terms would have been understood on
the basis of context by virtually all readers of Fremontia.
When I used the words "conservation" and "preservation,"
I did not intend to restrict these terms to the very narrow
definitions demanded by Mr. Hoekstra; and I see no reason
to do so in the future, unless I intend to discuss the history of
the words. Restoration can be a conservation tool, in the sense
that we may wish to restore a site to a certain level of diversity
and/or balance, without also making the site off-limits to human
intrusion or to harvesting. An ultimate goal of botanical gardens
is preservation, in the sense that we do hope to "preserve" the
very existence of certain species (either in situ or ex situ) by saving
them from extinction. There was no contradiction in my final
paragraph. It recognizes the fact that restoration is a growing
conservation tool which can be useful in "preserving" rare
plants — i.e., saving them from extinction. Then it reiterates the
focus of gardens on preserving rare plants.
I do feel that to perfect the language is to perfect the
understanding, and I hope this brief letter can make a
contribution in that regard. But my overall response to Mr.
Hoekstra's letter is as follows: Sapientis enim est non curare
de nominibus (Scriptum Super Libros Sententiarum, Bk. Ill,
Dist. 3,1,1, Thomas Aquinas).
Letters To The Editor
Dear Editor:
I was rather surprised by the summaries put forth as researched
fact on the Santa Ana River Woolly-Star study. The geographic
range of the plant is much wider than that given in the paper.
I've seen it in several areas of Cajon Wash and that information
has been public record since 1987, when the Verdemont Planning
area study was done for the city of San Bernardino.
To finish the article with a conclusion that the subspecies
will become extinct because of the construction of flood
control dams is questionable since the Cal State Fullerton
study was limited in its geographical extent.
I think it is important that academic researchers give their
input into rare plant issues, but they need to be aware of a
larger picture involving land use and the findings of others,
which may not be published in an abstracted journals or even
in the Natural Diversity Data Base. To cry "extinct" with
insufficient data only hardens to the bygone days of the Tellico
Dam issue and the Snail Darter and the negative public
reaction it fostered.
R. Mitchel Beauchamp
Principal Consultant
Dear Editor:
In response to Mr. B. Hoekstra's comments (July 1990) on
my article "The Role of Botanical Gardens in a Deteriorating
Global Environment," my intention was to write a paper that
would describe some of the new roles that botanical gardens
are playing in the world as it is.
GEOSTAR presents...
DISTINCTIVE TOURS 1991-1992
PORTUGAL & MADEIRA
Mediterranean & sub-tropical gardens with
SHIRLEY KERINS. MAR 1991.
ENGLISH GARDENS & CHELSEA SHOW
Grand country estates, cottage gardens, romantic
inns-then Chelsea. MAY 1991.
BRITISH GARDENS OFF THE BEATEN PATH
Isles of Scilly; Jersey; Scotland's islands &
Highlands; Northumbria. With MAI ARBEGAST.
JULY 1991.
NAMAQUALAND
"The Rarest Garden on Earth". Truly, a spectacular
wildflower experience. SEPT. 1991.
MADAGASCAR
Wild orchids-and lemurs in the wild. Explore with
PAUL GRIPP. SEPT. 1991.
FLORIADE '92
World Garden Festival in Holland.
GEOSTAR TRAVEL
1240 Berglund Court, Santa Rosa, CA 95403
(800) 624-6633
77
I would also to comment on the Editor's note at the end of
Mr. Hoekstra's letter. I did not know of the existence of his
letter until I saw it printed in Fremontia. I was surprised by the
Editor's remark, as if speaking for me, that "the author.. .will
strive for greater linguistic precision." As explained above, the
language in my article was appropriately precise for the
journal, the article, the audience, and the time.
Stephen W. Edwards
East Bay Regional Park Garden
Dear Editor:
Upon noticing Dan Cheatham's review of Hale's Lichens of
California in the recent issue of Fremontia, a book that I had
been looking forward to seeing in print, I could not believe that
we had read the same book. As a professional botanist and a
specialist in cryptogamic botany, I think that certain comments
made in the review warrant some critical perspective.
First off, Cheatham writes "the book is filled with terms that
make the keys hard to use without significant knowledge or
effort." While I appreciate the wariness about so much new
terminology, the truth is that if a person is interested in a
specialized group of organisms, he needs to make some effort.
Reading the introduction and consulting the glossary should
be a turn-on, not a "turn-off (fide Cheatham) to anyone that
is truly interested.
Secondly, lichens are classified as members of the Fungus
kingdom, not the Plant kingdom. It should not be unexpected
that they have an entirely different set of characters that
are defined by an entirely different set of terms. The first
time most of us tried to identify a wildflower using a key we
had to look up the same word more than once in the glossary.
Even common botanical terms can be difficult for the
beginner. It's like learning a foreign language—you must learn
vocabulary to become conversant.
As for Cheatham's concern at having to use a microscope
to identify lichens, he need not worry. More often than not a
hand lens is adequate to make determinations to at least the
genus level. Lichens are small and some of the differentiating
characters are indeed difficult or impossible to see with the
naked eye. This, however, is just as true for numerous species
of flowering plants. When internal tissues of lichens must be
investigated, this can often be accomplished using a single
edged razor blade and a hand lens.
The equally considerable fear of having to conduct chemical
tests can also be readily allayed. A person sees the word
"chemistry" and panic sets in; yet, all botanists are adequate
chemists when it comes to identifying plants. Floral color is,
in fact, a chemical character. The only difference with lichens
is that sometimes one drop of a common reagent must be
added. I have been using this book to identify lichens nearly
once a week for over a year and on only a few occasions have
I needed to perform a potassium hydroxide or calcium
hypochlorite test. These chemical reagents sound intimidating
but dilute solutions of Draino and household bleach give the
needed reactions. The bottom line is, these chemical tests are
seldom needed to identify lichens to at least the genus level.
Many amateur botanists are more than happy to identify
lichens to genus.. .especially since very few lichen species have
common names.
Cheatham says that Hale and Cole "would do well to study
the progress of the Jepson Manual Project" which, in his view,
simplifies terminology for the lay audience. As I understand
it, the purpose for simplifying the terminology in the Jepson
Manual Project is not necessarily for the ease of the lay
audience, but to standardize terminology between the different
groups of plants. For example, various terms for different types
of pubescence may mean different things to different authors
treating different plant families. The terms are standardized
throughout the manual for consistency. As with the ferns,
grasses and composites (groups of plants that do not have
reproductive structures consisting of flowers with typical petals
and sepals), the lichen's diagnostic features must be described
by special terms.
To be of significant value to our readers, book reviews
should give a balanced assessment of the strengths and
weaknesses of a publication. As a novice who may have some
interest in, but little or no knowledge of, the complexity of
lichen taxonomy, Cheatham has done neither. I would have
welcomed a review of this book by someone who has had some
experience working with lichens. Harry Thiers and Dennis
Desjardin at San Francisco State University; Michelle Seidl
and Isabelle Tavarez at University of California and Jepson
Herbaria; Frank Almeda and myself at the California
Academy of Sciences to name just a few, are such people from
the Bay Area. Outside the Bay Area many taxonomically
trained mycologists would be suitable to review a book on
lichens. They would have a good understanding of what it
might take to make a good field guide at the beginner and/or
professional level.
I hope any readers of Fremontia who have considered learning
more about lichens are not been discouraged by this review.
Mona Bourell
Senior Curatorial Assistant
California Academy of Sciences
Dear Editor:
I appreciate Mona Bourell's excellent comments. We now
know two things: the established lichen community likes and
uses the book (Bourell classifies herself as a professional
botanist, specializing in cryptogamic botany); an
inexperienced user finds it frustrating (myself). As Bourell
points out, the same can be said for traditional floras too,
Munz included. But Munz wasn't peddled as a natural history
guide. We all knew from the beginning it is a technical flora
and we judged it appropriately.
I really wanted to like the lichen book, but it was like
having my mouth watered up for a certain dish only to discover
it is no longer on the menu. In this case, the disappointment
is associated with a spectrum of expectations. On the one
hand, there are technical books (Munz for example), and on
the other are natural history guides. My expectations were on
the wrong end of the spectrum. Or perhaps I should say,
considering the source {California Natural History Guides),
the book was on the wrong end of the spectrum. My review
was colored by my disappointment. I am sure the book is
needed and is useful to the specialists, but my concern is that
a natural history guide should educate the outdoors and
nature-oriented public in a magic sort of way that turns them
on even more to their natural surroundings.
As I stated in my review, lichens need more devotees,
professional and amateurs alike. Because this book is all we
have for now, let's put it to maximum use, but it is limited by
78
its technical nature to a technical audience and, I hope, an
audience of keen amateurs who will hang in there and learn
how to use it. Combined, I hope they will swell the flow of
useful information that can be used for a second volume that
captures the magic seasoning to flavor the dishes on my menu.
Norden (Dan) Cheatham
UC Natural Reserve System
CLASSIFIED ADS
Classified ad rate: 75 cents per word, minimum $15; payment in
advance. Address advertising inquiries and copy to: Dal Leite, Box
2157, Walnut Creek, CA 94595, (415)939-4911.
Nurseries and Seeds
WILDFLOWER seed catalog. Beautifully illustrated, over 60
wildflowers are described in this useful reference booklet, including
many California favorites. Send $1.00 for catalog and price list. Moon
Mountain (FR), Box 34, Morro Bay, CA 93442.
CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANTS, SEEDS, AND BOOKS: Available
through Theodore Payne Foundation Nursery. Wildflower seed
varieties, seed blends, and informative books also available by mail
order. To receive catalogs and information, please send $2.00 to
Theodore Payne Foundation, 10459 Tuxford Street, Sun Valley, CA
91352. (818) 768-1802. Nursery hours are Tuesday to Saturday
8:30-4:30.
"MOSTLY NATIVES NURSERY" Growers of coastal natives and
drought tolerant plants. Open Wednesday-Saturday, 9-4; Sunday, 12-5.
Located in Northwest Marin at 27215 Hwy. One, Box 258, Tomales,
94971. (707) 878-2009.
SEEDS FOR THE WESTERN LANDSCAPE. Native Plant seeds,
including wildflowers, grasses, trees, shrubs. Emphasis on the gardener
as mini-restorer of native plant communities. Informative pamphlets
include: Catalog $2.50, Notes on Growing California Wildflowers
$2.50, Notes on Native Grasses $1.50, Seed Propagation Techniques
$1.00. Larner Seeds, P.O. Box 407, Bolinas, Calif. 94924. (415)
868-9407.
NATIVE BULBS: S.A.S.E., business envelope for July mail order list.
Shipments made in the fall. C.H. Baccus, 900 Boynton Ave., San Jose,
CA 95117.
PACIFIC SOUTHWEST NURSERY-Native plants for wetland and
upland habitat restoration. Also revegetation plan preparation and
implementation. Wholesale only/$200 minimum purchase. P.O. Box
985, National City, CA 92050. (619) 477-5333. CA Lie. #C-27 531247.
Services and Positions Available
NURSERIES, RESTORATION CONSULTANTS, PRACTITIONERS:
I am maintaining a data base of resources in California native plant
restoration as part of my consulting business. If you wish to be
included in this listing, send information to: Charli Danielsen, 10 Kerr
Ave., Kensington, CA 94707.
PROFESSIONAL NATIVE LANDSCAPE PLANS by mail? Yes,
indeed! All areas of state; large budgets or small; homeowner or
professional installation. Dal Leite, POB 2157, Walnut Creek, CA
94595. Lie. contr. 361554.
Two positions, Assistant Horticulturist (Salaried) and Gardener
(Hourly wage) are currently available at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic
Garden. These positions are in the Horticulture Department and
require a background in horticulture and botany of California native
plants. All candidates must possess demonstrable skills, interest, and
knowledge pertaining to the following: cultivation of California native
plants in Southern California; field work (collection and identification
of seeds, cuttings, etc. for the Garden); pruning, pests, and diseases
of California native plants; plant propagation; and plant identification
skills. Candidates with degrees in horticulture/botany or direct
experience with growing California natives preferred. All interested
applicants are urged to contact Bart O'Brien, Horticulturist; Rancho
Santa Ana Botanic Garden; 1500 North College; Claremont,
California 91711; or phone him at (714) 625-8767, for full job
description, desired qualifications, and additional information.
Deadline for applications is November 1, 1990.
Publications
A TREAT FOR PLANT LOVERS, Pacific Horticulture is the West's
own gardening magazine. Handsomely printed, excellent color
photographs. Quarterly, $12 year. P.O. Box 485, Berkeley, CA 94701.
FLORA OF THE TAHOE BASIN, NEIGHBORING AREAS, and
SUPPLEMENT. Gladys L. Smith, 1983. Published by Wasmann
Journal of Biology, University of San Francisco. $11.85, ppd. Available
from author, 355 Serrano, Apt. ML, San Francisco, CA 94132.
THE FOUR SEASONS, occasional journal of the Regional Parks
Botanic Garden, founded by celebrated writer-conservationist James
Roof, the only journal devoted to California native plant botany and
horticulture presenting both technical and popular articles in every
issue. $10 for 4 issues. Regional Parks Botanical Garden, Tilden
Regional Park, Berkeley, CA 94708. (415) 841-8732.
FREE CATALOG —Out-of-print fiction, nonfiction books, Gene
Straton-Porter, other authors located. Postage Appreciated. Pierce,
4400F Pine Cluster, Oroville, CA 95965.
SIERRA WILDFLOWERS OF FOOTHILL AND VALLEY, Color
book. Line drawings, 75 flowers. $3.00 Heidi Marsh, 810 El Caminito,
Livermore, CA 94550.
COMMON RIPARIAN PLANTS OF CALIFORNIA by P. Faber &
R. Holland. 1988. Common Wetland Plants ofCoastal California by
P. Faber. 1982. Available from Pickleweed Press, 212 Del Casa, Mill
Valley, CA 94941. S18/S12 respectively plus tax and $2 shipping.
F L
NURSERY
Natives & Mediterraneans
Congratulations
CNPS
25 Years
?
Somers & D Street (P.O. Box 3)
Fulton, CA 95439
Just north of Santa Rosa
707-528-8813
79
California Native Plant Society
MEMBERSHIP
Dues include subscriptions to Fremontia and the Bulletin.
Life (Individual/Couple)... $450/500     Individual or Library .. $18
Supporting...................$50     Student or Retired.....$12
Household...................$30     Retired Couple........$15
ADDRESSES
Memberships: Address Changes; Officers; General Society
Inquiries: CNPS, 90912th St., Suite 116, Sacramento, CA 95814.
(916) 447-CNPS
Fremontia (Editor): Phyllis M. Faber, 212 Del Casa Drive,
Mill Valley, CA 94941. (415) 388-6002
Fremontia (Advertising): Dal Leite, Box 2157, Walnut Creek,
CA 94595. (415) 939-4911
Bulletin: Carol LeNeve, Box 1012, Carmel, CA 93921,
(408) 624-8497
CNPS Botanist, Data Base: Mark Skinner, 90912th St., Suite 116,
Sacramento, CA 95814. (916) 324-3816 or (916) 447-CNPS
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
President.............................Suzanne Schettler
Vice President, Administration...........Joanne Kerbavez
Vice President, Finance.....................Bob Wunner
Vice President, Conservation..................Ray Butler
Vice President, Legislation....................Bob Berka
Vice President, Rare Plants..................Bruce Pavlik
Vice President, Publications.................Phyllis Faber
Legal Advisor..............................Kathy Janes
Recorder.................................Bart O'Brien
Corresponding Secretary....................Halli Mason
DIRECTORS-AT-LARGE
Mark Bagley, David Magney, Cyndi Roye, Joan Stewart, Marlyce
Myers, David Chipping
CHAPTER PRESIDENTS (AND DIRECTORS)
Bristlecone (Inyo-Mono)....................Vince Yoder
Channel Islands ......................Patricia McDaniel
Dorothy King Young (Gualala)................John Horn
East Bay................................David Bigham
Kern County ...........................Laura Stockton
Marin................................Fraser Muirhead
Milo Baker (Sonoma County)............Shcrrie Althouse
Monterey Bay............................Patti Kreiberg
Mount Lassen........................Marjorie McNairn
Napa....................................Evelyn Allen
North Coast..............................Bob Wunner
Northern San Joaquin Valley (Modesto) .. Virginia Goodrow
Orange County .........................Charles O'Neill
Riverside/San Bernardino Counties..........Keven Moore
Sacramento Valley.......................Pam Kareofelas
San Diego.................................James Dice
San Gabriel Mountains ....................Melanie Baer
Sanhedrin (Ukiah)......................Robert C. Jones
San Luis Obispo ............................Joe Clokey
Santa Clara Valley........................Brenda Butner
Santa Cruz............................Stephen McCabe
Santa Monica Mountains........................Jo Kitz
Sequoia (Fresno).........................Jeanne Larson
Shasta................................Marlys Richman
Sierra Foothills.............................Peg Carkeet
South Coast (Palos Verdes)...................Ellen Frank
Tahoe .....................................Lela Joslin
Yerba Buena (San Francisco)...................Jake Sigg
MATERIALS FOR PUBLICATION
Members and others are invited to submit material for publication to
Fremontia. Two copies of manuscripts, double-spaced, (plus an IBM-
compatible floppy disc in WordPerfect or ASCII file) should be submitted
to Fremontia with name, address, phone number, and an identification
line for Notes on Contributors. Botanical nomenclature should conform
to Munz, A California Flora, with common name followed by botanical
name. Black-and-white photographs, preferably 8-by-10 or accompanied
by negatives, are preferred over color slides.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The California Native Plant Society—
Then and Now       3
by G. Ledyard Stebbins
The CNPS Rare Plant Program       9
by James P. Smith, Jr.
Role of CNPS in Sacramento        13
by Ken Berg and Mark Skinner
Monitoring Forest Service Planning       16
by Mary Meyer
A Cooperative Project
at Point Reyes National Seashore       23
by Gary M. Fellers and Virginia Norris
A View from the Outside       27
by Steve McCormick
Chapter Histories 33
Ancient Forests       54
by Catherine Caufield
Planting Trees to Change Climate:
Is It a Good Idea?       63
by Jacob Sigg
William Burke Critchfield       65
by Connie Millar
Growing Natives: the Pacifica Iris       67
by Nevin Smith
/$**%.			
A 1,  vhiA			
mkjm			
V»^3			
\J^   J/			
>3		w 1* n	
S-S		ft)   O tu	
9-5		lifor 9 12t cram	
Si Bo » DO			
om		re  sr =	
T Postage Guaran orrection Request		a Native St., Suite nto, CA 9	
		Plant 116 5814	
o.		Soc	
			
		n>	
		**	
	-<		
	Nonprofit U.S. Post PAID San Francisc Permit No.		
			
	Org. age o, CA 10318		
			
80