FLAGSTAFF CHAPTER
President Jessa Fisher (928) 814-2644 Treasurer H. David Hammond (928) 523-7242 All talks begin at 7:00 p.m. on the 3rd Tuesday of the month and are held at room 314 of the Biology Building on the NAU campus (unless a room change comes about, which we will alert you to). All walks meet at 10:00 a.m. on either the 3 rd Saturday or Sunday of the month at the Prochnow parking lot on the NAU campus, corners of Milton and Butler Aves. Come prepared with sun protection, water, food, and a car or gas money for carpooling. For information about the Flagstaff Chapter, contact AZNPS Flagstaff Chapter, c/o Deaver Herbarium, NAU, P.O. Box 5640, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5640, (928) 523-7242 or e-mail flagstaff@aznps.org. |
Flagstaff Chapter Garden Contest
The 2007 Native Plant Garden Contest was a huge success! We had eleven entrants from all over the greater Flagstaff area. So we are doing it again! Look at the Flagstaff Chapter listings for the August contest events.
We are looking for judges for the 2008 contest who have experience with garden design and native plant gardening and identification. You must be able to participate in judging sessions during the month of July, and attend the celebratory events in August. If you are interested in being a judge or entering your garden in the contest, please contact garden contest coordinator Elaine Ferris at (928) 527-3702 by June 30th.More Info
Message from Flagstaff Chapter President
Help Needed! As the Flagstaff President, I get several requests all season from different groups in the Northern Arizona area hoping to coordinate with us on weed pulling and other fieldtrips and events. Sometimes they would like a speaker at an event. I can't do it all, though! I would love to have a volunteer coordinator who I could refer these calls to, and who could organize AZNPS volunteers for these important events. As well, it would be great to have someone helping me with publicizing our talks and fieldtrips. Other ideas for help include someone who would want to help us to raise money by selling merchandise. In other words, I need help in every area possible! Interested? Or interested in volunteering in a different capacity? Please do contact me at nightbloomingcactus@yahoo.com and we can connect. After 3 seasons of being president, 2008 will be my last season. So if you think what we do is valuable, and you like attending the AZNPS talks, walks, and activities, it's time for you to be more involved in helping out. I will pass on everything I know and help out as much as I can.
I look forward to your new energy!
-Jessa Fisher, Flagstaff Chapter President
SUMMER SEASON MEETINGS
Evening Program Talk: Tuesday, June 17 Pollinator and Invertebrate Flower Inquiline Diversity in Northern Arizona, presented by Larry Stevens. The evolution of flowering plants has
allowed the radiation of an enormous number of insect pollinators and other invertebrate flower inquilines (organisms like thrips that live in flowers but are not pollinators). This means that individual flowers and certainly inflorescences host unique assemblages of invertebrates, and some of those assemblages are remarkably complex. In this talk, we will explore several of those flower invertebrate assemblages to better understand the role of native and non-native plants in northern Arizona biodiversity. Dr. Larry Stevens is an evolutionary ecologist and Curator of Ecology and Conservation at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. In addition to over 60 peer-reviewed and popular articles and three books, he has a soon-to-be-released book on North American springs ecology and conservation.
Field Trip: Sunday, June 22 Looking for Plants, Pollinators, and Flower Inquilines, led by Larry Stevens. We will look for some of these plant-insect interactions in the Snow Bowl meadow. Meet at the regular meeting place and time to carpool or call 814-2644 for times and a meeting place from other areas.
Evening Program Talk: Tuesday, July 15 Looking at Plants Between Tortoises and Iguanas, presented by Zack Zdinak. The Galapagos Islands off Ecuador are true desert islands. Although astride the equator, these islands are dominated by arid lava flows, with many endemic forbs, thorny shrubs, and a few cacti, but devoid of native palms. We'll explore the general ecology of these weird islands with an emphasis on the native plants and the thriving invasives that Zack encountered during two weeks in May of 2007. Of course we'll also meet some of the unique critters as well. Zack is a talented gardener and botanical illustrator, and his works include the AZNPS Wildflowers of Northern Arizona poster.
Field Trip: Sunday, July 20 Growing Castillejas and Carrots in a Flagstaff Garden, led by Zack Zdinak. Just get us started on how we've grown carrots for years, or how we successfully transplanted dozens of paintbrush from a friend's construction site, and we won't stop. Zack and Robert welcome you to our modest downtown garden for those and other trials and errors with native and food plants. We'll have the coffee ready. Bring a pot luck item to share for a backyard picnic. Meet at our regular spot to carpool, or call for directions: 774-4229 or wildlife@lifedraw.com.
Evening Program Talk: Tuesday, August 19 2008 Native Plant Garden Competition. The 2007 event was so successful and appreciated by the community, we decided to do it again! Photos and descriptions of the gardens and landscapes entered into this second AZNPS garden competition will be featured. The focus of the competition is for the home gardener to demonstrate how plants of the Colorado Plateau can best be used in a garden setting. AZNPS judges will have visited the entered gardens, selected the winners, first and second in non-professional and professional categories, and will share how their decisions were made. See page 6 for an entry form or contact Elaine Ferris at (928) 527-3702 by June 30th if you would like to be a judge.
Field Trip: Sunday, August 24 2008 Native Plant Garden Competition Tour. Entries in the Native Plant Garden Competition will be visited. Gardener hosts will guide us through their gardens, explain their garden designs and answer questions. Number of gardens and locations will determine length of trip; you can decide to visit one garden or all of them. More information will be released about the tour as the season progresses so check your email.
Northern Arizona Native Plant Materials Program
The Arboretum at Flagstaff and the Museum of Northern Arizona will have many volunteer opportunities for AZNPS members to become involved in various aspects of the Northern Arizona Native Plant Materials Program at each institution. The Museum and The Arboretum will be working in conjunction with the Forest Service over the next year to accomplish the main objectives of this FS funded project: to locally collect, process and store seed; to construct six 10 ft X 30 ft seed beds to cultivate and increase native forbs; to establish 5 acres as increaser field plots; to acquire equipment to collect and process native seeds; to provide training on seed collection, processing and storage; and to work cooperatively to develop local native species lists targeting early seral stage species that will become "restoration workhorses."
There will be field surveys and monitoring in September and October on the Coconino and Kaibab NFs involving AZ bugbane, Mogollon thistle, San Francisco Peaks groundsel, AZ cliffrose, and various field projects coordinated by Barb Phillips and Debbie Crisp. During the winter months, the Coconino NF botanists could also use help with plant identification, mounting specimens, and databasing our small FS herbarium. Please contact Debbie Crisp.
The Arboretum at Flagstaff will be conducting seed collecting trips from mid-August through October and we encourage volunteers to join us! Please contact the Research Botanist at The Arboretum, Sheila Murray for more information.
Northern Arizona Native Plant Working Group (NANSA)
In conjunction with the aforementioned Museum, Arboretum, and Forest Service effort, a new working group has formed to address the need for seeds for restoration projects. The Northern Arizona Native Plant Working Group (NANSA) has had several monthly meetings now. The group is comprised of more than 20 people from just as many national, state, educational, and non-profit organizations. NANSA was inspired by and is being modeled after a more regional group with a similar mission, the Colorado Plateau Native Plant Initiative. If you would like more information on NANSA, or would like to get involved, please contact Janet Lynn of the NAU Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Program.