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. - 3 P.M., Leach Botanical Garden, 6704 SE 122nd Ave., Portland, OR.
Meeting: No meeting in September.
Meeting: No meeting in September.
Sept. 7, Sat. Potluck Dinner and Workparty: Work on the botanical garden at Avery House. Meet; 4 P.M., Avery Park. Call Esther McEvoy for more information.
Sept. 23, Mon. Meeting: 7 P.M. Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) building, 500 E 4th Ave. (near Ferry St. Overpass) in the Community Room (building left of fountain). Dave Pilz will present research on native edible forest fungi. Call Kathy Pendergrass for more information.
Oct. 28, Mon.Meeting: 7 P.M. Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) building. (see above). Dharrnika Henshel will present the Siskiyou rare p]ants and endemics. Call Kathy Pendergrass for more information.
Sept. 24, Tue.Meeting: 6:30 P.M. Potluck at Barbara and Bob Sherman's house, to plan fall and winter activities. Bring your favorite dish. Call Barbara or Bob Sherman for directions.
Oct. 22, Tue.Meeting: 7:30 P.M. Central Oregon Evironmental Center, 16 NW Kansas, Bend. Member' slide show night. Each member is encouraged to bring ten slides from the past year to share with other members.
Sept. 4, Wed. Meeting: 7:30 P.M. Mosier School. Arlene Larison, a new member of our chapter from the California Native Plant Society, will give a slide show on the wildfowers of the Sierra Nevadas.
Meeting: No meeting in September.
Sept. 10, Tue. Meeting: 7 P.M. First Methodist Church, 1838 SW Jefferson, Portland. Mike Fahey, past chapter president, presents his fascinating program on seeds -- a most appropriate program for the season.
Sept. 28, Sat. Field Trip: Visit Old Maid Flats, a botanically unique area of lodgepole pine and moss-covered ground created by a prehistoric mud flow. Continue on an easy, 5.5 mi. loop, to Ramona Falls and back. Driving: 90 mi R.T. Leave at 8 A.M. from ODOT lot, 60th & NE Glisan, after forming car pool. Call Charlene Holzwarth for more information.
Sept. 19, Thu. Meeting: 6 P.M. Potluck, Lithia Park picnic tables, across the creek from the upper duck pond. 7:30 P.M. Room 71, Science Building, SOSC. Erik Jules, a graduate student from the University of Michigan, will give a slide show on the ecology of Trillium ovatum.
For more information on the South Coast Chapter, contact Bruce Rittenhouse.
Sept. 12, Thu. Meeting: 7 PM. Room 310, Douglas County Courthouse, Roseburg. Come and share your summer botanical experiences.
Sept. 16, Mon. Meeting: 7 P.M. United Methodist Church, 600 State St. NE, Salem. This will be a working meeting to select a committee to organize the 1997 annual meeung, to be held from May 30 to June 1 at Silver Falls. Food for the dinner is the number one priority. If you show up at the meeting you will be expected to be appointed to something. Anyone interested in being vice president please call Mark Quistad before the meeting, so we can set up speakers for future meetings. A speaker for October will be arranged.
Meeting: No meeting in September.
The NPSO Board of Directors met -- during the annual meeting -- on the morning of July 14, at the Joseph Community Center, after a full weekend of getting wild in and enjoying the wildflowers of the Wallowas at their peak! New board members present included Charlene Simpson, Dick Brainerd, John Koenig and Heather Laub.
We dove immediately into the financial aspects of the organizafion. Of the $1500 for one of the Oregon Department of Agriculture internships, $1075 remains to be funded. This money must come from chapters, since NPSO's contnbution to the internships has increased this year. Still on the table for discussion is the possible change in the distribution of funds between chapters and state from 35% / 65% to 25% / 75%, due to the increase in dues. Some chapter financial reports remain to be turned in, so this issue was put on the back burner until the fall meeting. The Jean Davis Scholarship was awarded to Kira Besh, a student of Kareen Sturgeon, who is working toward her bachelor's degree in biology.
The $7000 Challenge Cost Share to publish the proceedings of last November's conference is being applied for by Cheryl McCaffrey. The project is on schedule and on budget. The first drafts of the 40 contributors are in and are 80% edited. The editing and quality check will occur in October and the paper should be out by November, 1996. It will be published by the OSU Bookstore Press. The number of copies to be printed is still undecided, but they will sell for $20 each. Tom Kayc will continue to keep us posted on this undertaking.
Mike Igo announced that the 24th annual Natural Areas Conference will be held on August 27-30, 1997 at the Lloyd Center Red Lion in Portland. Since they are branching out of the southeastern part of the country, the board agreed that it would be nice to show our support for this organization. If NPSO were to donate $500 from the 1997 budget, our name would be on all the outgoing literature and journals and we could set up a booth in which to show our new video. This internationally attended conference would be an excellent outreach opportunity and the money we invest might be paid back by our selling of our conference proceedings.
The subject of the Environmental Federation of Oregon was revisited. Projected revenues for 1996 are $9500, but $2600 does not reach us because of fees and outreach costs. Maya Muir, the NPSO contact, has already contributed 20.5 hours for the quarter, while only three volunteer hours have been donated by other members. The remaining 76.5 hours of volunteer time will be easy to achieve due to the increase in activities during the fall campaign. This is a time when volunteers will be able to explain to employers and employees about EFO as an alternative to other large nonprofit organizations such as the United Way. When the fall campaign draws nearer, be looking for information about how you can help.
The sixteen minute video about the goals and history of NPSO is nearly finished. A copy will be sent to each of the chapter presidents in the Fall and additional free copies will be available on request. A cadre of speakers who are willing to go to schools and other organizations with the video to talk about our conservation values and issues, and NPSO as a vehicle for these goals is needed. If you want to offer your help or comments, contact the chair of the Education and Outreach Committee, Jerry Igo.
The report from the Conservation Committee was deferred until Dave Dobak speaks with Cheryl McCaffrey As a side note, she asked him to mention that the botany departments are being downsized and that citizens and groups like NPSO need to demonstrate support for, and call attention to, the importance of botanists in public institutions, by letter writing.
There is still a need for an active person to chair the Rare and Endangered Committee. A brief description of duties has been written by Bruce Newhouse which includes giving assistance to chapters in their R&E programs.
The Native Plants in Landscaping Committee was reactivated due to the number of questions we are being asked about this topic. The board decided that a stronger information network about native plant propagation is needed. Information gathered by this committee may drum up good information for our World Wide Web page, since contributions of content are needed. The web site could also be used to answer questions, or be used as a bulletin board. Submit any ideas or questions to Mike McKeag.
The NPSO name mistakenly appeared on a list of endorsements for the Clean Stream Initiative and this has been corrected. Furthermore, after hearing a moving testimony from an individual who felt that the initiative would only further polarize the grazing issue and close down communication and projects between landowners and agencies, the board decided to remain neutral and decided that any endorsements of this initiative would have to be made at chapter or individual levels. A proponent of the initiative will attend the Fall meeting to educate the board on details.
The July 11, 1996 article on the Warner Creek fire., "It's time to learn from the burn," by Timothy Ingalsbee, that appeared in the Eugene Register-Guard, was discussed. He wants to turn the burned area into a Research Natural Area, but the forest supervisor has overturned this decision and now it may be "salvaged." Since the RNS proposal follows our forest policy, the board decided unanimously to endorse the proposition.
It is a busy summer, with a full inventory of field trips for the Atlas Project. Many plant lists have not been entered into the computer due to fewer work-study students and volunteers in the summer. Keep the lists coming despite the backlog. They will be entered by the next field season so that data gaps can be tilled There is a possibility of matching our funding for the Oregon Flora Project with other agencies, so please keep donating to this project as often as possible Checks should be made out to the OSU Foundation and mailed to Scott Sundberg.
Bob Ottersberg will be given a check for the Gangloff Park grant. This project involves the restoration, back to a Festuca idahoensis and Agropyron spicatum plant association, of a weed-infested park outside of La Grande. The trail has just been paved and the area will be burned this fall. The money will cover the printing cost for a brochure on native plants.
The NPSO Board of Directors enthusiastically endorsed a proposal to reactivate the Native Plants in Landscaping Committee. Originally a subcommittee of the Conservation Committee, this subcommittee has been dormant for years. The first meeting of this new Native Plants in Landscaping Committee will immediately follow the October NPSO State Board meeting, to be held in Portland on Saturday, October 19. We will select a chairperson, explore potential projects, and define near-term goals.
Interest in landscape use of native plants is expanding rapidly. NPSO played a pivotal role in fostering this interest. Workshops such as the 1989 "Designing, Maintaining & Restoring Natural Landscapes," co-sponsored by NPSO, are credited with bringing restoration and landscape design professionals together with nursery owners; bringing potential consumers together with potential producers of commercial native plant materials. A new Oregon industry was spawned, and Oregon is now one of the major producers of these materials. Another project of the original Native Plants in Landscaping Committee developed into an independent publication, now known as Hortus West, the definitive directory of commercial native plant sources in the western United States.
NPSO still has much to offer, and a critical role to play, as interest in native plant landscaping goes mainstream. The opportunities for public education are considerable, as is the challenge of protecting wild populations against inappropriate cxploitation. Bring your ideas, enthusiasm and energy on October 19 and breathe life back into the Native Plants in Landscaping Committee.
Suzanne Fouty, a Ph. D. student in the Department of Geography at the University of Oregon, gave an outstanding talk to the Portland Chapter in July, and I felt that her message was so important I wanted to share it with the whole NPSO. As a streams activist myself, I had heard bit~ and pieces of Suzanne's points before, but had not come across anyone who so enthusiastically put so much together in one place before.
Suzanne stressed that her goal was to give us such a solid understanding of rivers and streams that we would be able to go into any USFS or BLM office with it and ask for changes in land management. She said that in terms of stream function a stream should be able to carry its sediment load, access its floodplain during high water and recharge its floodplain water table.
Suzanne maintains that since the 1950's nearly all streams in Oregon have been damaged and cows have limited the recovery process on many. The trapping out of the beaver -- largely completed in Oregon by 1887-- had a dramatic effect on stream ecology. "When beaver are in the system and you have five years drought, so what?" She said that beaver impound the water and keep groundwater tables high. Her slide show included postcards of degraded streams that we unwittingly take for granted as the way streams should look.
A stream can be healthy even without beaver. In wide valleys, streams should have well-vegetated, overhanging banks bound with deep root systems. The channel should contain distinct pools, well-sorted bottom sediments, and be narrow, deep and sinuous rather than wide, incised and shallow. The valley floor should have lush riparian vegetation, a result of frequent flooding and high water tables. A healthy stream has rapid access to a wide, well-vegetated floodplain where it can infiltrate the soils and water table. This floodplain access reduces the stream's erosive power by slowing its velocity through friction with thick vegetation.
Although her first solution might be to bring back the beaver, Suzanne does favor streambank planting restoration. In fact, she feels this is the first key step in restoring streams and decreasing flood damage -- but only when the restoration plan addresses the watershed scale. She agrees with the scientists of the Pacific Rivers Council who say "protect the headwaters first." To plant streambanks without protecting or restoring what is upstream is a waste of money, she says. Your time and effort would be much better spent working for protection upstream.
Suzanne has a passion for making measurements and recruiting others into the data collection process, because so little data has been collected, allowing the USFS and BLM to get by on their "professional judgement" -- not data. We know all too well how this professional judgement seems to be weighted toward timber and cattle. She asks us to start demanding from our land management agencies that we be able to see riparian photo-points, stream channel cross sections. "Monitoring must be a line item in the budget," she insists.
I have rarely encountered such a knowledgeable, positive, thoughtful and dynamic speaker in all the streams workshops I have attended -- nor one so helpful. When I mentioned a problem regarding beaver, or at least attitudes toward beaver, in one of the local streams I work on, Suzanne took a personal interest and sent me three research papers from her files.
I will be bringing her back to Portland to speak to streams groups here. Watch for an announcement about it in the Bulletin and The Oregonian. If you would like to reach Suzanne to ask her to speak to your NPSO chapter, or to join her as a volunteer in doing stream and floodplain measurements, you can reach her at scfouty@darkwing.uoregon.edu. Keep in mind that as a graduate student she is extremely busy and has no income, so she'll need both plenty of advance notice and an honorarium.
Steve Amen, producer of the award winning "Oregon Field Guide," will speak at the annual membership meeting of the Friends of Forest Park. The meeting takes place, on Saturday, October 19 at 10 A.M., at the Portland Audubon Society, 5151 NW Cornell Road. A hikes in the park will follow the meeting. Refreshments will be served and admission is free. For more information contact Lee Kellogg, Project Coordinator.
Senator Mark Hatfield will hold a Congressional hearing on the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area, at Skamania Lodge, Stevenson, Washington, on Friday, September 13, beginning at 9 A.M. It is vital that supporters of the NSA be well represented at this hearing, because we can be certain that opponents will also be there, as well as the media. NSA promotion buttons (pins) will be available so people can identify themselves as pro-NSA. The important part of the hearing will be over by about noon. To reach Skamania Lodge from Portland, take I-84 to the Bridge of the Gods, cross the river and go east on Highway 14 a mile or two until you see the sign for the Lodge.
NPSO's new Web site was launched in July, at http://www.teleport.com/nonprofit/npso/. If you have Internet access, visit the site. You will find a framework with limited content. The Bulletin is being published each month on the Web. There is an on-line membership application form, a list of officers, a map showing locations of chapters, with links to individual chapter pages, and more. But many branches on the site lead to empty cul-de-sacs waiting to be populated. Browse the site and see for yourself. If you ar inspired to offer new content, suggest other sites should link to, propose better ideas for page design, create new graphics, write trip descriptions, submit book reviews, create plant lists; if you can imagine it and help create it, we can publish it on our site.
Now for the mechanics. If you are skilled in HTML and want to create new pages, let me know by e-mail. We can work out the details "off line." Plain text or graphics offerings in electronic form are also welcomed. E-mail transmission or DOS format 3.5" floppy disk sent by "snail mail" will work just fine. I can also cope with hard copy offerings of text (which must be clean, crisp and typewritten) or graphics (line drawings, color graphics, color and b&w photographic prints). I can also deal with color transparencies and even color or b&w negatives, but I must take them to a service bureau for scanning, and the Webmaster has no budget as of yet. If you are considering sending hard copy from your computer printer, stop. Save the file on a floppy and send the disk instead. If you are a Mac user, remember to save in DOS format. (Sorry, the dominant culture rules.)
A Web site's value is in its content. Ours has great potential. I need your help to make it actual. Besides, where else can you have your work published world-wide, so easily, so quickly, and for free?
I work for the Alberta Environmental Centre in the weed biocontrol section. This is the first year of a project testing the ability of a European gall mite (Cecidophyes galii) to successfully attack Galium spurium (false cleavers). This is a weedy species that invades canola fields and lowers yields, because its seeds are the same size as canola seeds and are impossible to separate out. We have determined the mite will form galls on G. spurium. The next step is to ensure that it will not attack other North American plants, since it will be an introduced species with no natural enemies. The plants selected for testing have been chosen because they are endangered or are economically important. From the literature on Eriophyid mites, we know they are fairly host specific. If they don't attack these species they shouldn't attack any others. We need to send the seeds to Europe because the mite has not been approved for binging in to North America yet.
We need enough seeds for about 100 plants of each species and are prepared to compensate collectors. If you are interested in collecting seeds for this study, please contact me by mail, phone or email, for a species list and other details.
Jennifer Thompson, Alberta Environmental Centre, Bag 4000, Vegreville, Alberta Canada T9C 1T4, Telephone: (403) 632-8217, Email: jennifer@aec.env.gov.ab.caNote: After August 30, contact Dr. Alec McClay at alec@aec.env.gov.ab.ca
Webmistress@NPSOregon.org
© Copyright 1996 Native Plant Society of Oregon, All Rights Reserved
Last Modified August 31, 1996