Milo Baker Chapter May 2006

California Native Plant Society

Calendar
Ecological Economics: What is Open Space Worth?
5/9 Chapter Board Tuesday, May 16th, 7:30pm
Meeting,
Land can be valued in many ways: as potential housing, or in board-feet of lumber, for example.
Environmental
What about natural habitat? Environmental economics can provide a framework for measuring
Center**
the potential value of open space in a healthy economy. There is a growing awareness among
economists that destruction of ecological systems impairs our long-term prospect for economic
5/13 Gayle Ranch
development. Jerrell Ross Richer, Ph.D., will identify a wide range of economic values
Restoration
associated with functioning ecosystems, and discuss ways to incorporate these values into public-
and private-sector decision making to create a more sustainable economy. Jerrell's talk will assist
5/16 General Meeting,
environmentalists and planners to understand and collaborate on common ground. Jerrell Ross
Luther Burbank Art &
Richer, Ph.D. is a faculty member at Sonoma State University where he teaches ecological
Garden Center*
natural resource and environmental economics. He also teaches in the Green MBA program at
New College of California, helping budding entrepreneurs create business plans for sustainable
5/20 Rickabaugh Glade
enterprises.
Hike w/ San Hedrin
Chapter and Vishnu Join us for dinner or come to Plant ID Hour before the May General Meeting! Check out “Chapter
Events & Activities” for more details!
5/20 Cunningham Marsh
Workday June General Meeting: Going Native; Landscaping for
5/21 May Plant Sale Sustainability
Preparation Potting Tuesday, June 20th, 7:30pm
Workshop
Peigi Duvall, landscape designer and CNPS Horticulture Program Director will speak to us about
5/26 – Salt Point Weekend Landscaping with Native Plants.
5/29 Trip with Peter Warner
CNPS and the General Plan 2020
6/3 Gualala River Trip
with Peter Baye The Sonoma County General Plan is the policy document that regulates development and guides
land-use decisions in the unincorporated areas of the county. State law requires each county to
6/20 General Meeting, adopt a general plan, which is supposed to reflect the community’s wishes regarding
Luther Burbank Art & development goals.
Garden Center* Beginning in 2002 the county began to revise its current General Plan, which was adopted back
in 1989. Since that time, the Milo Baker Chapter has been involved in the drawn-out process to
6/25 Cunningham Marsh revise the plan. In February 2006 the chapter submitted comments on the Draft Environmental
Workday Impact Report for the plan. We also attended a public hearing before the County Planning
Commission where we presented a brief summation of our key issues. These included:
8/31 Backyard Wildlife cumulative habitat loss, the need for more comprehensive mapping data on plant communities,
Habitat Challenge land corridors and habitat connectivity, vernal pools, and oak woodlands. Hopefully the full text
Deadline of our comments will be posted on the chapter website soon.
The next step in the process begins shortly. The Planning Commission has already started to hear
In This Issue public comments on each “element” or section of the draft General Plan. The section of greatest
President’s Corner…………...……..2 concern to CNPS is the Open Space and Resource Conservation Element, which most likely will
Conservation Report……………….1 be reviewed in June. Just two of us in the chapter--Mac Marshall and myself--are currently doing
Field Trip news…………………..….2 all of the work conducting research and drafting comments. You don’t need to be an expert to
Chapter Events……..……………..2-3
help out. If you can spare any time, please contact one of us as soon as possible (Mac, 542-7811,
Items of Interest.......……….…….….3
Newsletter Submissions & [email protected]; Bob Hass, 938-8868, [email protected].
Website………………………….…...4 º Bob Hass

*General meetings are held on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at Luther Burbank Art & Garden Center, 2050 Yulupa Avenue, Santa Rosa
**Milo Baker Chapter Board meetings 7:00pm, 2nd Tuesday nine months of the year, Environmental Center, 55 Ridgeway Avenue,
Suite A, Santa Rosa. Next meeting is May 9th. Anyone interested in the work of the chapter is welcome to attend!
 Rickabaugh Glade

P resident's Corner Let's go with San Hedrin chapter and our

knowledgeable leader, Vishnu, on Saturday May 20th
to this interesting site. We almost got there last year, but the
ranger had not unlocked the gate! However we found many
It is with great regret that the Milo Baker
cool plants in spite of the dratted ranger. (In his defense, he
Chapter says farewell to Reny Parker. We
may have been trying to protect the very soggy area from
are all going to miss her and the active motorcycle damage.) This will be another one where we meet
leadership. She organized two board retreats that we called at the River Road park and ride for the trip up into Mendocino
"Vision to Action", and indeed, many good actions were taken County. E-mail ML: [email protected] or phone 792-1823.
as a result of those meetings. First, a board manual was created Salt Point
and this quickly brings new board members up to speed on the Memorial Day weekend (Fri. May 26 - Mon. May
chapter, the chapter history, and the tasks that they are expected 29) with our good friend and excellent botanist, Peter
to accomplish. Second, the chapter organized two wildflower Warner. Group camping at Salt Point State Park. There will be
festivals. Reny was the primary force behind the festivals that restoration work, a plant survey and field trip. Attend all or
were held at the Luther Burbank Center. They were very well part. Contact Peter Warner at 937-2278 or
attended and gave the Milo Baker Chapter and native plants an [email protected] for details. Let me (ML) know if you
important public platform. Reny is an excellent wildflower want to carpool from the Santa Rosa or Petaluma area.
photographer and her love of wildflowers and wild places is the [email protected] or 792-1823.
reason that she joined the CA Native Plant Society. Her Gualala River
photographs have graced this newsletter and her excellent June 3. Dr Peter Baye, whom some of you have had
website. She understands the Internet and that was another way the pleasure of meeting and listening to, will lead us in
that she benefited the chapter. She worked closely with our investigating the botanical features of the mouth of the Gualala
web-master, Ralph Johnson, with the design of our web-page River. This is an opportunity not to be missed! We'll have to
and she hosted the listserve that keeps the board members in leave early, and you probably won't get home until late. So e-
touch with what is going on in the chapter. Gary Hundt has mail or call me and I'll fill you in on the time and exact
agreed to take on this responsibility and we thank him for location. This trip is subject to river level. [email protected] or
volunteering for that. We will always be grateful to Reny for 792-1823.
her capable administration of the board meetings. She leaves a Kangaroo Lake
really good well functioning board and Lily and I can only A July multi-day field trip to Kangaroo Lake with Ann
hope that we can continue. Most members know me because I Howald, botanist extraordinaire, is in the planning
have been active in the chapter for over 25 years. I am happy stages. Kangaroo Lake is approximately half-way between the
to help Lily Verdone with the duties of President. Lily is a town of Weed and the Oregon border.
relatively new member, but she is a very capable and intelligent º ML Carle, Field Trip Organizer
person. Lily is finishing work on her Master's degree at
Sonoma State University. Her thesis is on the Ludwigia
problem in the Laguna de Santa Rosa. She is very
Chapter Events & Activities
knowledgeable about local environmental issues and will serve It’s Been A Wet Spring, So What’s In Flower? Come
as an excellent liaison to the academic, civic and environmental Find Out At Plant ID Hour!
communities in Sonoma County. Lily and I look forward to Come early at 6:30, an hour before the May 16th General
working with all members of the Milo Baker Chapter and Meeting, and bring specimens of plants you want to identify.
appreciate your good wishes and support. You’ll see some current plants of interest from the local area,
º Liz Parsons have a look through a dissecting microscope, and discover the
differences between our many native plants. I’ll bring some
Chapter Field Trips field guides, and can help you work through the keys in The
Jepson Manual and A Sonoma County Flora. Keying can be
Gayle Ranch Restoration fun, even if you get stuck! The best-learned plants are those
The April Gayle Ranch restoration trip was cancelled learned with friends. Bring your dinner if you want to, a hand
due to the wet conditions, but we haven't given up! lens and a copy of Jepson or Sonoma Co. Flora if you have
The Gayles care for their land for the benefit of the plants and them. A copy of each and glossaries will be available. The
animals, both wild and domesticated. On May 13th we'll help native plants are what CNPS is about—come get to know
rid this certified organic ranch of distaff thistle. We'll be joining them and some fellow chapter members too!
other organizations at 10:00 and work until 12:00. After lunch º Lynn Houser
we'll take a tour of the ranch's wildflower locations. We'll not
only have a chance to engender good relationships with Plant Sale News
landowners and other organizations in the area, but we'll have a The potting workshop for the plant sale will be at Cal Flora in
darn good time. There will even be some music to keep us Fulton on Sunday, May 21 at 10 AM. At this workshop, we
going. The Gayle Ranch is at 5105 Chileno Valley Rd, will be putting cuttings of Arctostaphylos, Ceanothus, Myrica
Petaluma. Those of us who want to go together will meet at and other slow growing shrubs into gallon containers. We need
9:30 at Noah's Bagels in Petaluma. Take the Washington exit people to come help with the potting up and also members to
from Hwy. 101, turn left and go over the overpass to take plants home to grow on until the plant sale on October 14.
McDowell. Turn right at the light and turn left into the This is a very important plant sale activity; all members are
Safeway parking lot. Noah's is just to the right of Safeway. It encouraged to participate. We will also need gallon containers.
would be neat if you'd let me know if you are going. ML Carle For more information call Liz 833-2063.
[email protected] º Liz Parsons

Milo Baker Chapter Newsletter – May 2006 Page 2

Horticulture Group as Ralph implements changes, help new content providers use
The horticulture group met at Mary Aldrich's on Wednesday, the submission forms, or just watch as we make this site shine?
April 12. We started seeds of Lilies, Clarks, Collins, and other Join Adele Wikner, Bob Haas, and Gary Hundt in a newly
wildflowers. On April 26, we went to Cindy Trancreto's reconstituted web site committee! Contact
garden in Santa Rosa and learned more about starting seeds. [email protected] or call 763-387.
We will be meeting again on a Wednesday in May when we
will go to Kathi Dowdakin and Rob Fox's garden near How You Can Help Preserve Native Plants With A
Sebastopol where Kathi will show us the PCN Iris that she has Small Amount Of Time - Or More, If You Have It!
hybridized and other marvels in their garden. We are planning to distribute information on invasive nursery
Call Liz, 833-2063, for more details. plants to all the nurseries in Sonoma County and would like
º Liz Parsons volunteers to visit nurseries and fill out a short information
sheet for us. You can visit just one nursery for us or several,
Book Sales Person Needed and it will be much appreciated. Contact ML [email protected] or
Are you are attracted to the book sales table at general 792-1823 to get a copy of the form and choose the nursery or
meetings? If so, this volunteer opportunity will interest you. nurseries.
The chapter currently needs a Book Sales Chairperson. As the
books sales person you would be previewing the latest Extended Broom-Removal Season: Take Advantage!
publications in the native plant field and ordering them for the Consider all this cold and rainy weather an opportunity to get
chapter. About 10 hours a month is needed, including selling yourself a weed wrench and take out the Scotch broom or
books at the general meetings. Access to a computer with French broom that may be invading your local hillside. The
Microsoft Excel is extremely helpful. If you are interested, chapter uses three weed wrenches that do wonders on our
please talk to Adele Wikner 869-3024, or Ruby Herrick, 887- preserves, and they may be available for borrowing; contact a
8542. Plant books rock! board member for more info. You can do your part by taking
º Ruby Herrick advantage of the long rainy season, when they still can be
pulled. Use gloves for small seedlings or visit
Cunningham Marsh Volunteer Days www.weedwrench.com to order the size that suits your size
Please come & help on the following scheduled workdays. weeds. Scotch Broom (Cytissus scoparius) is toxic to wildlife,
Come prepared for poison oak & blackberries. invasive, and is impenetrable once it gets established. Small
DATE: May 20, June 25, July 16 populations need immediate action; large ones need a
TIME: 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. successful plan and follow-up. All the wet weather means
BRING: Water, lunch & your favorite weeding tool brooms can still be pulled from the roots successfully,
WHERE: 1460 Big Cedar Lane, Sebastopol (off Lone Pine especially with a weed wrench. Target those woody shrubs
Road from Hwy. 116) with yellow pea flowers; if you can’t do it now, flag your plants
For further info.: [email protected] or 829-3808 now for removal later when the blooms fade and then you can
º Marcia Johnson find them.
CNPS Steward, Cunningham Marsh º Lynn Houser

Items of Interest Sonoma County Faces Nationwide Backyard Habitat

The Environmental Center has moved! Challenge
The meeting place for the Milo Baker Chapter Board and its The National Wildlife Federation has challenged Sonoma
committees will now be 55 A Ridgeway Ave. Santa Rosa (west County to compete with three other counties nationwide to
of 101 off Cleveland, north of College Ave.) Come by and see certify the highest number of Backyard Wildlife Habitats by
the Sonoma County Conservation Council (SCCC) in a August 31, 2006. Join 200+ others in Sonoma County and
beautiful new space! We will be moved out of the Mendocino create wildlife habitat in your own backyard. For information:
Ave. office by the end of April. The new building costs less see http://www.theforestvillejoyfullivingcenter.org/ and follow
and offers more: free parking, office space, good lighting, and the links to the Sonoma County Wildlife Habitat Project, or call
two conference rooms for CNPS and the other member groups. Elaine Neiswender (707) 887-8129 M-F, 9 a.m. to noon.
Thanks to all who helped move our stuff to the new place; the
CNPS file cabinet is heavy and treasure-laden! Come check us California Native Plant Book for Gardeners
out in May; there will be an EC party on the evening of Finally a book has been written dealing with just California
Monday, May 22nd to celebrate our new location. Visit the native plants. When I started gardening I looked for just such a
Center’s website: www.envirocentersoco.org (Note: Chapter book, but it was not to be found. “California Native Plants for
programs will be held at 2050 Yulupa Ave. as usual). the Garden” is a big step forward for every California
º Lynn Houser and Wendy Krupnick gardener. Not only does it comprehensively describe some of
my favorite plants, but it also has hundreds of beautiful photos
showing close-ups and landscape views in California gardens.
New Web Site Committee forming The pictures are so stunning that this book could easily reside
As you may have noticed, our chapter website at
in the place of honor on a coffee table. All the authors - Carol
www.cnpsmb.org, has been redesigned from the ground up this
Bornstein, David Fross, and Bart O’Brien -, have over 25 years
past year. What you may not know is that members can now
experience with California native plants. The book has 271
submit content without having to even bother the webmaster!
pages and is published by Cachuma Press, Los Olivos,
This has been accomplished thanks to the skillful efforts of
California. The book and most of the plants in the book are
Ralph Johnson. Would you like to help in this process? Either
available at California Flora Nursery at Somers and D Street in
by offering your vision as to what our site should be, offering
Fulton.
to test-surf the site on Safari or Firefox or IE on the Mac or PC
º Victoria Wikle
Milo Baker Chapter Newsletter – May 2006 Page 3
 Milo Baker Chapter Officers & Board of Directors
Co-President, Lily Verdone, 573-3967, [email protected] We invite you to join CNPS
Co-President, Liz Parsons 833-2063, [email protected]
Secretary/SRJC Rep, Suzanne Butterfield, 575-9861, [email protected]
Name________________________________
Treasurer. Jim Piercy, 539-3441, [email protected]
Book Sales, Adele Wikner, 869-3024, [email protected] Address______________________________
Conservation Co Chair, John Herrick, 887-8542, [email protected] City/Zip______________________________
Conservation Co Chair, Bob Hass, 938-8868, [email protected]
Phone________________________________
Cunningham Marsh, Marcia Johnson, 829-3808, [email protected]
Director at Large, Barney Brady, 433-0485, [email protected] Email________________________________
Director at Large, Dea Freid, 824-8165, [email protected] Chapter affiliation:
Director at Large, Marianne Perron, 887-1362, [email protected] † Milo Baker (Sonoma County)
Director at Large, Jeff Woodward, 765-0245 † Other county ______________________
Director at Large/SSU Rep, Sarah Gordon, 575-3979, [email protected] Membership category:
Event Photographer/Website Admin, Gary Hundt, 763-3387, [email protected] † Student or Limited Income……… $25
Field Trip Coordinator, ML Carle, 792-1823, [email protected]
† Individual………………………….$45
Hospitality, Becky Montgomery, 573-0103, [email protected]
Hospitality, May Miller, 538-4551, [email protected] † Family, Group or Library………..$75
Membership, Wendy Born, 829-7519, [email protected] † Plant Lover………………………$100
Newsletter Editor, Heide Klein, 820-1024, [email protected] † Patron…………………………….$300
Plant Sale, Liz Parsons, 833-2063, [email protected] † Benefactor………………………..$600
Poster & T-Shirt Sales, John Akre, 833-1243, [email protected] † Mariposa Lily…………………..$1500
Programs/Lectures, Betsy Livingstone, 887-8873, [email protected]
Publicity, Pauline Haro, [email protected] † New Member † Renewal
Rincon Ridge Park, Lynn Houser, 568-3230, [email protected] Make check payable to CNPS and mail to:
SCCC Rep., Wendy Krupnick, 544-4582, [email protected] CNPS, 2707 K Street, Sacramento, CA 95816
Southridge Preserve, Jeffery Barrett 573-0271, [email protected]
To pay by credit card or for more info call
Vine Hill Preserve, Jay Pedersen, [email protected]
Volunteer Coordinator, Ruby Herrick, 887.8542, [email protected] 916.447.2677 or visit www.cnps.org
Webmaster, Ralph Johnson, [email protected]

NON-PROFIT
CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY ORGANIZATION
Milo Baker Chapter www.cnpsmb.org U.S. Postage Paid
P.O. Box 892 Santa Rosa, CA
Santa Rosa, CA 95402 Permit #110

Lilium pardalinum ssp. pitkinense

Pitkin lily

Newsletter & Web Site Info

Send newsletter submissions to:
Heide Klein [email protected]
Deadline for inclusion in the June newsletter
is May 15.
For newsletter/membership issues contact:
Wendy Born [email protected]

The chapter web site www.cnpsmb.org

contains a wealth of information plus
current and archived newsletters.
To receive notification of the online newsletter
sign up at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cnps