Ranges, beach and dune plant com-
munities, and coastal prairies.
ing and expanding wilderness ar-
eas, taking inventories of rare plants,
protecting delicate serpentine plant
habitat, and using all means avail-
able to preserve individual species
as well as the habitat of two en-
demic endangered plants. Through-
out the 1970s and 1980s our chap-
ter actively attended meetings and
wrote letters to establish the Trin-
ity Alps Wilderness area and to add
acreage to existing wilderness areas
through the Forest Service Roadless
Area Review and Evaluation (RARE
II) process.
tablishment of several botanical
areas including Horse Mountain,
North Fork, Smith River, and Bear
Basin Butte. During the 1970s, J.P.
Smith spent many years collecting
data in our area and throughout
the state for the first edition of
the CNPS Inventory of Rare and
Endangered Vascular Plants of Cali-
fornia. Many members, including
many HSU botany graduate stu-
dents, were kept busy filling out
forms and traveling throughout the
north coast to determine which
plants warranted inclusion in the
Inventory. This effort continues to-
day with the participation of many
area botanists on the state CNPS
Committee.
Smith River area just south of the
Oregon border. On Gasquet Moun-
tain, the site of 40 CNPS-listed
species, Cal-Nickel Corporation
planned a mining operation to strip
the mountain for nickel, cobalt,
chromium, and magnesium depos-
its. In 1977 the chapter was alerted
to these plans, and in 1979 joined
with the Smith River Alliance to
head off the project. In 1984 Dwain
Goforth resigned from his position
as chapter president to work on this
issue full-time. Although this land
is still owned by Cal-Nickel, it is
now protected in many ways by the
Wild and Scenic status of the Smith
River and the establishment of the
Smith River National Recreation
Area in 1990.
occidentale) and its natural habitats
has been a part of our conservation
goals. The western lily grows pri-
marily along the coast in boggy
areas, wetlands, and coastal prai-
ries. It is threatened by housing
development and by competition
from the overgrowth of shrubs in
bogs and in coastal prairie or coastal
scrub. Key members of the North
Coast Chapter have tended to
the small populations of western
lily in Humboldt and Del Norte
counties.
the Nature Conservancy, a small
patch of western lily habitat was
fenced in Humboldt County in
1985. A larger area (1.5 acres) was
fenced in 1994 and monitoring and
habitat improvement projects con-
tinue today. Every winter Dave en-
tices many of us to venture into lily
habitat for shrub and tree removal,
building fences, planting bulbs, and
for the first time this year, burning.
corner of the state.