Bulletin of the Native Plant Society of OregonNOTE: This is an archived NPSO Bulletin.
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Bulletin of the Native Plant Society of Oregon[ Return to Bulletin Directory ]
Oct. 19, Sat. State Board Meeting: 10 A.M. Portland. The place to be determined.
Meeting: No meetings in the summer.
Meeting: No meetings until October.
Aug. 24, Sat. Field Trip: To the cool Cascades with Loren Russell. Meet: 9 A.M., parking lot across from the Monroe Beanery. Call Loren for more information.
Sep. 7, Sat. Potluck Dinner & Work Party: Work on the botanical garden at Avery House. Meet: 4 P.M., Avery Park. Call Esther McEvoy for more information.
Meeting: No meetings in the summer.
Disclaimer for Atlas Trips: These trips are designed to generate complete species lists for specific areas. Target attendees are those with high levels of plant identification skills. They are not recommended for the general public as most of the time will be spent keying plant species and compiling lists. Regular field trips will provide much more enjoyment as they are designed for the general plant enthusiast.
Aug. 3, Sat. Field Trip: Trip to Black Crater to view Collomia debilis and other alpine plants. Contact Phil Warner or Dale McBride for further details.
Aug. 10, Sat. Atlas Field Trip: John Koenig leads to Squaw Butte fen to assemble a species list. Leave S. Eugene H.S. (19th and Patterson) at 9 A.M. Contact John for details.
Meeting: No meetings until September.
Aug. 10, Sat. Field Trip: Broken Top Volcano. This is our annual trek to view the spectacular glaciated scenery and the alpine wildllowers in the High Cascades west of Bend. Six-mile, moderate to strenuous hike, with 1,700 ft. elev. gain. Mostly off-trail hiking through Three Sisters Wilderness, so number limited to 12. A Cascades classic! Pre-registration required. Call trip leader Stu Garrett to sign up.
Aug. 16-18, Fri.-Sun. Field Trip: Sycan Marsh. This trip to The Nature Conservancy's preserve to see this wonderful marsh environment and help collect native seeds shouldn't be missed. This huge marsh is being returned to its natural state and we will help collect seeds to start plants for restoration. Includes fun camping, bird watching, marsh and forest hikes. Contact the Conservancy's preserve manager, Linda Rexroat, P.O. Box 797, Silver Lake, Oregon 97638 for details.
Aug. 3 Sat. Field Trip: High Prairie, Barlow Ranger District, Mt. Hood NF. Caitlin Cray leads a moderate (ca. 4 mi.) hike through a lush subalpine rneadow to the rocky site of an old lookout. Great views of Mt. Hood and splendid flowers. Meet: Hood River Ranger District, south of Hood River on Hwy. 35, at 9:30 A.M., or High Prairie trailhead, 10:45 A.M. Preregistration required (wilderness area, limit 11). Call Caitlin to sign up.
Aug. 7, Wed. Meeting: 7:30 P.M. Mildred and Stuart Chapin's house, 464 SW Eyrie Rd., White Salmon, WA. Susan Foster, instructor in biology and wildlife science at Mount. Hood C.C., presents a program on gray squirrels and the plants they need. Susan wrote her Ph.D. dissertation on gray squirrels at P.S.U. For directions, call the Chapins.
Sep. 4, Wed. Meeting: 7:30 P.M. Mosier School. Arlene Larison, a new member of our chapter from the California NPS will give a slide show on the wildflowers of the Sierra Nevada.
Meeting: No meeting in August.
Meeting: No meeting in August.
Aug. 4, Sun. Field Trip: Bald Mountain. See summer wildflowers along a forest trail arriving at subalpine meadow with a great view of Mt. Hood. Moderately strenuous hike; 5.5 R.T.; about 800 ft. elev. gain. Driving: 120 mi. R.T. Limited to 12 persons. Contact Dee White, deewhite@teleport.com, for reservations, meeting time and place.
Aug. 10, Sat. Field Trip: IBarlow Butte. Study influences of geology and fire on the distribution of plant communities, and meet some late-flowering species as we ascend Barlow Butte by car and foot with USFS botanist Lance Holmberg. Driving: 120 mi. R.T. Leave: 8 A.M., from ODOT parking lot, 60th & NE Glisan, after forming car pool. Meet leader: 9:30 A.M., White River snow park, Hwy. 35 east of Mt. Hood. Contact: Mike McKeag, mmckeag@teleport.com.
Aug. 24, Sat. Field Trip: Cloud Cap. Leisurely walk among alpine wildflowers along Timberline Trail, starting at Cloud Cap on the north side of Mt. Hood and continuing as far as enthusiasm and flowers carry us. Bring lunch and other day hike essentials. Driving: 160 mi. R.T. Form car pool and leave at 8 A.M. from Lewis & Clark State Park on the Sandy River. Limit: 12 persons. Preregistration required. Contact: Charlene Holzwarth.
Aug. 25, Sun. Field Trip: Elk Meadows. Join USFS botanist, Heather Laub, on a 2.5 mi. hike, with easy grade, modest elev. gain (450 ft.) through mature forest, arriving at a subalpine meadow with an abundance of wildflowers and views of Mt. Hood. We will study habitat transitions along the way, passing through a variety of plant communities. Driving: 140 mi. R.T. Meet: 8 A.M., ODOT lot, 60th & NE Glisan, to car pool from Portland. Gorge residents meet Heather at Hood River RS, 9:30 A.M. We'll all meet at the trailhead at 10 A.M. Contact Heather Laub, or Mike McKeag, mmckeag@teleport.com.
Meeting: No meeting in August.
Aug. 3, Sat. Field Trip: Hinkle Lake (south of Applegate). Richard Brock will lead a working trip to this glacial cirque lake. It is in a very varied botanical area with wetlands, serpentine, and rare plants. Livestock grazing has caused sedimentation of the lake. The U.S. Forest Service is currently formulating an allotment management plan for the area; our comments on this plan are essential. It will be a long day and the hike is moderately strenuous. Meet: 8:30 A.M., behind Pizza Hut in Ashland, or 9:30 A.M., at the Applegate Store in Applegate. Contact Richard for details.
Aug. 17, Sat. Field Trip: To the Siskiyou Crest to talk about grazing issues on the Crest. Barbara Mumblo will lead the trip and Jeanette Williams, Range Conservationist for the Rogue River National Forest, will be there to talk about the unique issues of this area. This will be a car caravan, getting out at various places and walking short distances. Meet at the Bamett Rd. McDonald's in Medford at 8:30 A.M., or Ashland Ranger District office at 9 A.M.
Aug. 24, Sat. Field Trip: Page Mountain (southeast of Cave Junction). Anita Seda will take us on a trip to see California globe-mallow (Iliamna latibracteata). This is one of the most showy of all rare plants in Oregon. Meet: Interagency Visitor's Center, Cave Junction, 9 A.M. Contact Anita for details.
For information on South Coast Chapter, call Bruce Rittenhouse.
Meeting: No meeting in August.
Aug. 17, Sat. Field Trip: Explore the Mt. Bailey trail, a glacial cirque, or Silent Creek. Leave at 7 A.M., BLM parking lot 777 Garden Valley Blvd., just off I-5 exit 125, or rendezvous, 9 A.M., Diamond Lake Lodge. For information call Alan Romeril.
Aug. 24, Sat. Field Trip: Drive to Calamut Lake just south of the Cowhorn-Sawtooth Divide that separates the Umpqua and Willamette watersheds. For subalpines explore near lake, or hike to Sawtooth Mountain. Leave, 7 A.M., BLM parking lot (see above) or rendezvous. 9 A.M., Kelsay Valley road junction. For information call Alan Romeril.
Jul. 27, Sat. Field Trip: Snow Peak. This trip, announced in July, has been canceled because of landslides, making trails impassable.
Meeting: No meetings in the summer.
Aug. 10, Sat. Field Trip: : "Three Lady Lakes Area." East of the Bull of the Woods Wilderness area is a group of three lakes not previously botanized by the Willamette Chapter. Help develop the plant list for this area. Meet: BLM parking lot (south of Kubler Rd.), 1717 Fabry Rd. SE, at 8 A.M. Travel distance 120 mi. Leader: BLM botanist, Claire Hibler. Contact: Don Roberts.
Meeting: No meeting in August.
Aug. 3, Sat. Work Day: Rebarrow Forestry. Join us for a day of forest land management. We will be cutting and piling slash for fire prevention. There is always weed pulling to do. Maintenance of the nature trail is an ongoing project.
Non-native plants have arrived in Oregon in a variety of ways. Written records concentrate on deliberate introductions, and many of our naturalized plants were brought here as crops, ornamentals, medicines, or for soil erosion control. Examples include food crops such as Himalayan blackberry (Rubus discolor); hay crops such as timothy (Phleum pratense) (A single bushel was brought overland in 1825); Fuller's teasel (Dipsacus sativus) cultivated in Clackamas County (the only center of cultivation west of the Mississippi) to raise the nap on wool cloth; medicinal herbs suc as tansy, mint and catnip; gorse for fencing sheep; clovers planted to fix nitrogen; and European beach grass (Ammophila arenaria) for controlling the movement of sand dunes.
Perhaps more intriguing are the species introduced unintentionally. An overlooked apple core initially brought in by mistake in the late 1820's became the progenitor of Oregon's first Orchard.
An interesting variant on the theme of accidental introductions involves an extension agent who sent letters to ranchers in the Intermountain West, asking whether or not certain serious weeds had become established in their areas. To ensure correct identification, he included a sample of each weed. Seeds from those plants helped expand their range.
No doubt a variety of seeds were introduced as contaminants in crops, a process that continues today. Before 1880, cheat (Bromus secalinus) was introduced as a contaminant of rye, but for a time cheat itself was cultivated as a forage crop. Just this year the first Oregon record of the sedge Carex chordorrhiza was reported from a cranberry crop established from Wisconsin stock.
Livestock are effective plant transporters, carrying seeds entangled in wool or hair, stuck in hooves, or in the digestive system. Horses brought overland from the Midwest probably brought some seeds, but probably more important were drives that, beginning in 1841, brought hundreds of cattle, sheep and horses north from California. These animals must have brought seeds of the Mediterranean plants that were already transforming California's grasslands.
Farm equipment can carry plant propagules between farms and occasionally across long distances. About 1872, a thresher that was brought from the East introduced Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) to Marion County.
Traveling long distances quickly, railroads have been important in the spread of major weeds like downy brome (Bromus tectorum) and minor curiosities like Oregon's only record of wild hair fescue (Festuca filiformis).
Ships are perhaps less important transporters of land plants now than they were when they took on soil or sand as ballast. In 1915, James D. Nelson reported 213 species on ballast at Linnton (now an industrial area of Portland). Over 60 of them, such as iceplant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum) and sand sedge (Carex arenaria) were new to Oregon.
As you can see, plant species can arrive in Oregon in a wide variety of ways, and they continue to arrive.
[Reprinted from Oregon Flora Newsletter, Vol. 2, Nbr. 1, January, 1996.]
Bill McMillan of Nanaimo, B.C., is conducting research on Clarkia amoena (all varieties), and would like to build a collection from many populations. If you can collect plants that have mature seed capsules (or collect just the capsules), Bill will supply you with a stamped, addressed envelope in which to mail him the seeds. Bill's email is mcmillan@mala.bc.ca
The Ashland Tree Commission is looking for volunteers to survey the riparian areas in Ashland. Those interested should contact John McClendon at 541-488-2918, after August 1st.
The Native Plant Society of Oregon now has a site on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.teleport.com/nonprofit/npso/.
We hope the site will become a valuable communications tool for members, and a vehicle for reaching a wider audience, attracting new members, and providing educational content to schools and anyone else interested in native flora.
The "wired" among you are invited to visit the site, and those not yet "on-line" are encouraged to take the plunge (the water's fine). Web sites are dynamic things, always under construction, always changing, and ours is no exception. The basic structure is in place, but there remains much to do in putting flesh on its bones. I'm sure you will discover "bugs" too. Let me know when you do. Offer suggestions for new content or improved form. And better yet, roll up your sleeves and help by producing and submitting your own content. I don't plan on keeping the site alive and dynamic single-handed. The Internet is a powerful medium for collaboration. We can now make it serve our purposes.
Webmistress@NPSOregon.org
© Copyright 1996 Native Plant Society of Oregon, All Rights Reserved
Last Modified July 21, 1996