Native Flora of the Northcoast: Artwork by Rosemarie Bauman

During the month of December and January, the works of Rosemarie Bauman will be on display at Six Rivers National Forest in Eureka. Her original watercolors feature plant species of the northcoast and include among the collection, California pitcher plant, Calypso orchid, Bolander's lily, Coast aster, Douglas iris and Big-leaf maple. A few of these paintings also include various butterfly species. Rosemarie's works have been published by the California Native Plant Society and Bug Press of Arcata. She has also contributed her talents to the Redwood National Park's interpretive association.

Once a resident of Crescent City, her inspiration rose from exploring the seascapes and forested highlands of that area. Since her tenure here, she has returned to her homeland of where she continues her as a botanical illustrator and an advocate of native plant diversity. Rosemarie devoted her time and talents to raising awareness the native flora of the northcoast. Her works will "last be seen" in this part of the world through the end of January and are available for purchase. Prices range from $100-$300. The artist will donate 10% of the sale price to the North Coast Chapter of CNPS. For more information contact Liz McGee at 443-5139.

Evening Program Reviews: NOVEMBER PROGRAM

A BOTANICAL TOUR OF BLM PROPERTIES IN NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA

By Carol Ralph

On the evening of November 9th botanist, Jennifer Wheeler from the local Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office, took us via slides on a rapid, fun, informed tour of wildflowers she has known and loved on BLM land throughout Northwestern California. Her photos covered a wide. variety of plants in various habitats. These plants ranged from wallflowers in the sand dunes to clintonia in the mature redwood forest, from the lowly slime mold to the sublime lilies, from buckwheat along the seashore to buckwheat in the montane serpentine areas, from tofieldia in the bog to stonecrop on the rocks. She shared with us her garden of singing flowers, including starring scarlet monkeyflower, in a real life version of Walt Disney's "Alice in Wonderland."

We saw plants found on BLM land from Hoopa to Laytonville. All these properties are technically open to the public, but some are not accessible because of bad roads or locked private gates on the access roads. Samoa and Manila Dunes and Wailaki Campground in the King Range are among the more accessible. Headwaters Forest is among those with difficult access. Red Mountain, east of Leggett, Mud Springs, west of Laytonville, and Lack's Creek out of Hoopa are particularly enticing. Maps of BLM land can be found at the BLM office on Heindon Road in Arcata.

Activities of the BLM botanical program include inventorying, restoration, and monitoring. Ms Wheeler mentioned that her BLM district is the only one that does not clearcut its timbered properties. They are managing the forests, such as at Lacks' Creek, by thinning to accelerate the development of old growth attributes. The quantity and quality of photos and the presentation spoke of countless hours on the road and on foot, eyes open and camera ready with the plant guides and keys. Ms Wheeler's expertise and experience were well worth sharing.

Evening Program Reviews: OCTOBER PROGRAM

EDGE EFFECTS IN OLD GROWTH REDWOODS

By Carol Ralph

With plenty of data and graphs Will Russell, a candidate for PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, showed us that the effects of a clear-cut are evident 200-meters into an adjacent old growth stand. This so called edge effect was studied at nine different sites in Redwood National Park. At each site a clearcut was bordered on one side by an old growth stand. At three of the sites the clearcut was recent, at three it was 20 years old. The other three were 50 years old, so the second growth was well developed. At each site he ran ten transects across the boundary or edge and spaced ten plots along those. Then he counted and measured everything you can think of, including density of alders (of various sizes), density of redwoods (various sizes), shrub height, ground cover, frequency of bear damaged trees, frequency of (dead) spire tops, solar radiation and several other variables. After considerable computer analysis with 40-odd variables he found some things you would expect, such as red huckleberry was only in the old growth, salmonberry only in the second growth. Other results were more surprising, Shrub height averaged highest at the boundary and decreased for 160 meters into the old growth, even if the neighboring forests were both well developed. Species richness was lowest near the edge and increased gradually for 200 meteres into the old growth stand. Bear-stripped trees were most frequent in the second growth and decreased in frequency along the transect to be zero in the old growth. Spire tops, indications of dying redwood crowns, peaked 40 metersinto the old growth and were still found at 120 meters.

These and many other variables showed that the removal of the neighboring forest did indeed affect the adjacent old growth. Both the health of the redwoods and the structure and composition of the vegetation appears to change. Current law requires a 200-ft buffer between logging and parks. Mr. Russell's work suggests 200 meters or 600 ft. would be more effective. A buffer of 200 meters or more is especially important when an old growth patch is small or an irregular shape. Land managers trying to decide which species they need to manage will debate the width of the buffer zone in the future.

This was an informative talk on an important topic and a good example of how tedious data collection can yield truly useful information

December Program

LICHENING AT LANPHERE

by Andrea Pickart

On December 11th, Doub Glavitch taught a one day workshop on dune forest lichen identification. co-sponsored by CNPS and the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge, the workday included a half-day of indoor activities at the Manila Community Center and an afternoon walk led by Doug at the Lanphere Dunes. Over 20 enthusiastic people (mostly amateurs) attended. Doug, who is soon to graduate from Humboldt State with a degree in biology, is a talented lichenologist who just completed his senior thesis on lichens of the Samoa peninsula. He spent the morning going over basic lichen biology and morphology, and had the group key out specimens using a key to the lichens of the North Spit that he had constructed just for this purpose. The participants oohed and aahed over the beauty and diversity of lichen architecture.

But the highlight of the afternoon was the field trip to the dunes, where we were able to see the incredible lichen communities in situ. Both epiphytic and terrestrial, foliose and fruiticose lichens abound. Fruiticose lichens are those that are three dimensional and coral-like, and these are perhaps the lichens most think of in association with the lichen-draped beach pines of the dunes. We learned that the most common of these is Ramalina Another is the rare Bryoria, once believed endemic to the peninsula's forests, it has recently been located in Oregon and San Luis Obispo County.

Foliose lichens are rag-like or dorsal-ventral in form. Peltigera canina and P. britannica are two lobed, foliose, terrestrial lichens that can be found on the forest floor. The former is brown and the latter bright green. You can spot them near the other very common terrestrial fruticose lichen, Cladina portentosa ssp. pacifica, or Reindeer lichen, which forms extensive mats and is strongly associated with bearberry.

If you missed the workshop, don't despair. Doug is leading another walk at the Lanphere Dunes on January 22, 2000 (see field trip announcements). Don't miss this chance to have your eyes opened to an extraordinary new world.

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JANUARY PROGRAM PREVIEW

The Great Sand Waste: Natural History of San Francisco's Sand Dunes

by Pete Holloran

The Great Sand Waste: Natural History of San Francisco's Sand Dunes By Pete Holloran Pete Holloran is the president of the Yerba Buena Chapter and is a volunteer restorationist at Golden Gate National Recreation Area. He has also written about dune restoration for Fremontia. He is a professional writer and resides in San Francisco Pete will be presenting a program on the sand dunes of San Francisco on January 11th. The following is a preview of this presentation.

Two centuries ago massive sand dunes covered much of San Francisco, extending all the way to the bay shore seven miles inland. As the city grew, the fourth largest coastal dune system in California was transformed beyond recogniton into Golden Gate Park, the Sunset, Richmond, and Filmnore districts, and other neighborhoods. Dune lakes, mobile dunes, dune scrub, and coast live oak woodlands provided habitat for a diverse and interesting flora and fauna, including endemic species. Though much has been lost, pockets rernain at the Presidio, Fort Funston, and in neighborhood parks. In recent years, with the advent of natural areas stewardship programs run by the National Park Service and the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, hundreds of volunteers have begun restoring the remnant dunes by removing invasive plants and planting natives. Pete Holloran will review the natural history of San Francisco's dunes and current stewardship efforts. His talk will include dramatic historic photographs from the collection of local historian and photographer Greg Gaar.

Exotics Report

by Andrea Pickart & Kyle Wear

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Parentucellia viscose, or yellow glandweed, is an annual hemiparasite which we had proliferating in seasonal dune hollow wetlands at the Lanphere beginning in the late 1980s. Parentucellia has not been listed by the California Exotic Pest Plant Council, and we found no other land managers aware of this problem, Prompting us to carry out a 3-year research Program funded initially by The Nature Conservancy and continued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. We recently completed this project, with some interesting results. Parentucellia invasion is apparently a highly localized phenomenon restricted to herbaceous dune hollows of the North Spit of Humboldt Bay. Although the plant was f ound in or near other dune wetlands in northern California and southern oregon, it was not invasive at these sites.

The other sites lacked the most common host for Parentucellia at Humboldt ]Bay, the annual nafive Lotus purshianus var. purshianus. Parentucellia plants parasitizing Lotus were larger and produced more fruits than those on other host species. However, our research did not directly examine whether this was due to host preference or simply to similar habitat preferences of the two species. Although Parentucellia was present in all of the dune hollows of the North Spit, it was most abundant in those at the Lanphere Dunes. These hollows are uniquely broad and flat, and dominated by herbaceous vegetation with abundant Lotus purshianus. Our research documented that Parentucellia occurs in a one-meter-wide band at the lowest elevations of our dune hollows, where it is highly correlated with Lotus purshianus. Elevation was not the sole predictor of abundance, and we would expect this elevational band to fluctuate in response to annual rainfall variation. We mapped the extent of Parentucellia on Lanphere Dunes in 1989, 1995 and 1999, and detemined that the areal extent increased ahnost 300% over the first six years, but then declined in the following four year period, for a net increase of 200%.

This trend was closely tied to the extent of herbaceous hollow habitat available for colonization. Herbaceous hollows had increased dramatically on the site during the first interval, and then declined as vegetation succeeded to a woody condition. We also examined the effect of Parentucellia invasion on dune hollow species composition. We found that the vegetation changes accompanying invasion are not unlike those that occur during the naturally rapid succession of dune hollows. No native species were negatively correlated with Parentucellia. We established that Parentucellia has an abundant, Persistent seedbank, and that fecundity is very high, with an average plant producing 12,000 seeds. As expected, this makes control extremely difficult, and our experimental efforts at manual and mechanical control were ineffectual. We conclude that Parentucellia is indeed an invasive species, but that, given its restriction to a narrow range of habitat conditions and the relatively benign nature of the invasion, it does not merit management. We will continue, however, to monitor this species in the future as part of our overall dune hollow monitoring program.

Plant Super Heroes Effect Great Changes

By Gordon Leppig

To the North Coast Chapter Board of Directors and members, thank you so much for all your time and hard work. Much was accomplished in 1999. The Spring Wildfower Show was a great success and attracted over 1000 participants. Many volunteers made it happen, but I would like to specifically thank Larry Levine, Nezzie Wade, and Kim Hayler for all their effort. Many letters were written on numerous issues pertaining to native plants.

Comments on the inadequacies of rare plant protection in local THP's are having an effect on how rare plant issues are dealt with. Thank you Jennifer Kalt and Melissa Brooks for talking this on.

Plant sales will continue in Y2K, thanks to Jennifer for coordinating the Adopt-a-Plant propagation program. We continue to undertake, assist in, or comment on, many native plant landscaping projects, due in large part to Pete Haggard's skilled and unflagging efforts.

Ken Anderson, General Secretary of the chapter moved on to study higher elevation habitats in the Lake Tahoe area. It was in part, his dedication and insightful work that led to the Winship School native plant propagation and restoration program. We miss him, thank him and wish him all the best in the Sierras.

Carol Ralph has graciously moved over to Secretary, and Robin Bencie is joining the board as Treasurer. Thank you Carol for keeping our books in order, and Robin, for becoming the next keeper.

Felicity Wasser has outstripped Amazon.com in native plant book and poster sales. It's interesting to think how we change the world simply through people staring at wild flower posters andreading our books.

Tony Labanca has coordinated a dazzlingly diverse array of programs and field trips, though, after many years on the job, Tony is suffering from 'source depletion' (a curable disease, but one that requires rest ). He would like to pass either programs or fieldtrips on to another. Programs and fieldtrips are kind of fun to coordinate so contact either Tony or I if you are interested.

Thanks so much to Claire Golec and Liz McGee for doing a superb job with the newsletter and to, Liz for taking over membership. (Note: Liz needs someone to take over membership duties please call her at 443-5139 if interested). The ever-vigilant troika of Dave Imper, Annie Eicher and Andrea Pickart, continue heading up our rare plant, conservation, and invasive exotics action teams.

Wildflower Show Seeks Special Volunteers

The 17th annual Spring Wildflower Show, to be held May 5-7 at the County Office of Education in Eureka seeks knowledgeable volunteers in three areas:

1. Collection. Most collecting will be be done a day or two before the show. Routes will be assignedcooperatively. As always, population conservation is the overriding principle governing collecting.

2. Identification. Specimen labeling begins at 7 am on Friday, and should be substantially fmished by the time we open to the general public at one PM. With 400 or more taxa, this is no mean feat. We need numerous plant keyers, and anyone skilled at naming plants on-sight is doubly urged to participate. Any amount of time you can contribute is welcome. Let us know if we can expect You.

3. Elementary education. Visiting classes take part in docent-led discussions on pollination, seed dispersal, edible plants, and conservation, and receive pre-visit study guides on these topics. Anyone wishing to contribute is urged to contact us now. We particularly want to develop conservation study materials that parallel the concerns of our chapter. These efforts can serve as a basis for curriculum support year-round. For collection and ID call Nezzie Wade at 445-5883 or Larry Levine at 822-7190. For education call Kim Hayler at 839-3481.

Evening Programs

January 11th, 2000       THE GREAT SAND WASTE: THE HISTORY AND CONSERVATION OF SAN FRANCISCO'S SAND DUNES   By Pete Holloran, President, Yerba Buena Chapter of CNPS

February 8th    HOW HABITAT FRAGMENTATION CAN INFLUENCE PLANT POPULATIONS AND COMMUNITY DYNAMICS: A CASE STUDY OF TRILLIUM OVATUM IN THE KLAMATH REGION    Erik Jules, HSU Biology Professor

March 14th     BOGS, FENS, MIRES, MOORS: PEATLANDS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA    Gordon Leppig, HSU Herbarium Botanist

April 11th     ASTAGALIS AGNICIDUS, THE HUMBOLDT MILKVETCH   Robin Bencie

Field Trips

The meeting place for field trips is the south parking lot behind Harry Griffith Hall on the HSU campus

January 22, 2000    Lichens and Mosses of the Coastal Dune Forest    Doug Glavich will lead a walk at Lanphere Dunes. Meet at HSU field trip location at 9:00 AM to carpool to the dunes.

February 26    Redwood Forest Walk, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park    Led by Jennie Hanson. Meet at HSU Field trip location at 9:00 AM to carpool to Prairie Creek, or 10:00 AM at the park.

March 25    Community Sampling Workday, Willow Creek Area    Led by John Sawyer. No experience necessary to collect data on plant communities. Meet at HSU field trip location at 9:00 AM to carpool.

Grass Workshop Saturday April 8th

CNPS and the HSU Natural History Museum are co-sponsoring this intensive work shop. The emphasis will be on keying local grasse s in the Jepson Manual and leaming to sight-recognize important genera. Basic grass morphology and terminology will be covered in the first hour or so and the rest of the day will be spent keying as a group and individually. Learn to tell Agrostis from Calamagrostis, Festuca from Bromus, and Poa from Glycefia and Melica. Fun for all! For more specific infommfion on the workshop contact Gordon Leppig. The workshop is $40 for HSU Natural History Museum Members and $50 fbr non-members. To sign up contact the HSU Natural History Museum @ 826-4479