Chapter meetings are open to the public; there is no charge. Come early and browse our books. Stay after the program for conversation and refreshments. We meet in the heart of San Diego, in Balboa Park, in Casa del Prado, room 101 or 104. Casa del Prado can be reached by car from Village Place off of Park Boulevard (served by the #7 bus), and is across from the west entrance of the Natural History Museum. The meeting room is handicapped accessible. (Balboa Park map and driving directions)

We usually carry a small selection of native plants at our monthly meetings. New members who sign up at the meeting will receive a free plant (if available)

New Feature at Chapter Meetings: 

7 - 7:30 pm

Mystery plants identified !

Bring your unknown plant and we will help you learn to identify it!

June 18, 2013

Native Plants at the San Diego Botanic Garden

The natural areas here include southern maritime chaparral, coastal sage scrub, and riparian areas. These and some of the significant species will be presented. Other native plant-related features here include our native plant garden, “California Gardenscapes,” the Fire Safety Garden, and our newly renovated Native Plants, and Native People Trail. Recently developed educational materials will be presented. The challenges of invasive species and their control will be described. Future plans include involvement with the Center for Plant Conservation working with state and federally listed species such as Del Mar Manzanita (Arctostaphylos glandulosa ssp. crassifolia), Encinitas baccharis (Baccharis vanessae) and Orcutt’s Hazardia (Hazardia orcuttii) as well as habitat restoration.

Dave Ehrlinger, B.A. geography, B.S. horticulture, has been Director of Horticulture at SDBG (formerly Quail Botanical Gardens)for for ten years. During this time I have been involved in the development of the native plant garden, fire safety garden and natural area management. I previously was involved in the Midwest in the design and management of several native plant gardens

May 21, 2013

Fire and Flora:
Stories of fire ecology in California shrublands and of new outreach efforts designed to engage hearts and minds through play

It is often said that California shrublands are adapted to fire. However, this deceptively simple statement hides a wealth of important detail. As a start, there are many different strategies for surviving fire. Some plant species have tough root systems, and quickly resprout after fire. Other species have smart seeds that detect the passage of fire, and only germinate when the coast is clear.  Yet it is a mistake to say that these species are adapted to fire. Really, they are not adapted to fire itself, but to patterns of fire, known as fire regimes. With the coming of modern society, urban development, and the resulting population boom, the Southern California fire regime has changed, and this change has dangerous consequences for California landscapes. One way to help protect native landscapes is through outreach. By doing outreach through play, we can simultaneously engage both hearts and minds, and be more effective agents of positive change.
In his talk, Tim will review some of the more interesting and pressing issues of Southern California fire ecology, and then introduce his new game, Fire and Flora, which is designed to teach these issues to the general public. Interested members, friends, and family are invited to attend a botanical gaming session on the day after the talk, at 11AM on 5/22 in room 104, Casa del Prado, Balboa Park (same place as the talk).

Tim Handley is an ecologist, educator, and game designer. He's spent most of the last four years working as a quantitative ecologist for the National Park Service, but has recently switched gears, and begun designing games to promote the understanding and appreciation of science and nature through play.

April 16, 2013
San Diego County Native Plants in the 1830s:
The San Diego collections of Coulter, Nuttall and HMS Sulphur with Barclay and Hinds

Matilija Poppy (genus Romneya), a plant first collected by Thomas Coulter in the San Diego region in 1832

Three expeditions of United Kingdom naturalists collected plants in the San Diego region in the 1830s: Mr. Lightner will discuss who these explorers were, how and why they came to the San Diego region, the plants they collected here, and the natural environment they observed in the 1830s. Images of original herbarium sheets will be presented. Mr. Lightner will also answer any questions about the 2011 edition of the field-guide, San Diego County Native Plants.

March 19, 2013
The California Native Landscape - an introduction to the new book from Greg Rubin and Lucy Warren

Whereas most native books have emphasized plant selection, this work is unique in its emphasis on native horticulture and design. In addition, this book emphasizes a Southern California perspective, with all its challenges. Success in our drier climate should translate well to the more moderate conditions north of us.   Subjects include soil biology, design techniques, garden styles, landscape installation, irrigation, maintenance, pests and diseases, and fire risk reduction. Be prepared to throw everything you were ever taught about ornamental horticulture out the window. Book signing will follow presentation (based on availability).

Greg Rubin has been working as a design/build native landscape contractor for over 19 years in southern California, with more than 600 installations to date. His work has been featured in many publications and media outlets.
Lucy Warren is a Master Gardener and well known regional gardening professional/author involved with many horticultural organizations and events. She was past editor of California Garden magazine.

February 19, 2013
Sahara Mustard Control Efforts in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Larry Hendrickson - Senior Park Aide at the Colorado Desert District of California State Parks

Sahara mustard (Brassica tournefortii), a non-native annual plant, has become a serious threat to the annual wildflower fields in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and throughout the Southwestern United States. This talk will focus on practical experiences controlling the mustard in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and the importance of educating the public to threats that all invasive weeds pose to our wildlands.    

Larry Hendrickson is a Senior Park Aide at the Colorado Desert District of California State Parks. He has worked over the last 15 years on non-native plant control within all of the parks within the District.  Larry is a self-taught botanist who has been studying plants in the San Diego backcountry for over 25 years.  He is also a field associate with the San Diego Natural History Museum Botany Department. 

January 15, 2013
San Diego Rare Plant Treasure Hunt: 
thoughts on a "breakable survey"

Speaker - Frank Landis

The San Diego Chapter participated in the CNPS Rare Plant Treasure hunt for the last three years.  Since there are insufficient resources and people to survey all the sensitive plants in the County, we have attempted to identify species that are "falling through the cracks," that have not been surveyed recently or thoroughly, and to survey these plants.  In performing these surveys, over thirty volunteers have found over fifteen million plants, and I will discuss our process and findings.
This work illuminates a bigger idea, which I call "the breakable survey."  Surveys are vulnerable to failures in survey protocols, vulnerable to loss of institutional memory through personnel turnover, and vulnerable to simple lack of communication among interested parties.  The idea of a "breakable survey" is to design a survey that will survive such failures, especially one that uses minimal resources.
In running the rare plant survey, I set out to create a "breakable survey," a program that I could hand off to other people with minimal loss of data and continuity.  I will use the details of the survey, from set up, through execution, to data distribution, to discuss what has and has not worked.  Information sharing has been the key to our successes.  Given the increasing limits on conservation resources, failure-proofing survey protocols will be an increasingly useful part of monitoring sensitive plant populations.

Frank Landis is the conservation and rare plant survey chair, and sits on the chapter board of directors.  He likes to promote t-shirt sales during chapter meetings and solicit donations for the state conservation campaign.  By training he is a botanist, with a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a masters from Humboldt State University.

November 20, 2012
From the Headwaters to the River Mouth, conservation and stewardship of native plant habitats in the San Diego River watershed- 3 case studies

Speaker - by Shannon Quigley-Raymond, San Diego River Park Foundation

Conservation of native plant habitats and connecting the public with their value is one of the highlights of the River Park Foundation’s efforts to Create, Connect and Conserve the San Diego River watershed.
We do that through three avenues of engaging the public in their stewardship: headwaters conservation, urban open space restoration, and community native plant gardens. 
This presentation will focus on 3 sites, one from each type; the audience is encouraged and will learn how to participate in an upcoming urban riparian re-vegetation project in December. 
Eagle Peak Preserve is a 516 acre nature preserve owned by the San Diego River Park Foundation.
While primarily Coastal Sage Scrub, EPP also contains oak woodland (including Engelmann Oak (quercus engelmannii), native grassland, chaparral, and riparian habitats.
In 2007, fire burned approximately 85% of the Preserve. We will share results and photographs from the newly completed 5-year fire recovery photo monitoring completed on November 10, 2012.  
Our Friends of the River Mouth group care for and conserve the coastal dune habitat at the River’s Mouth and have revived and protect a previously undocumented population of Salt Marsh Bird’s Beak (Chloropyron maritimum ssp. maritimum). 
The Point Loma Native Plant Garden hosts a variety of native plant species as well as our native plant nursery and is the base for our newest effort, Home to Nature, a program to engage youth in growing native plants for habitat restoration projects in the watershed. 
  
Shannon Quigley-Raymond, Healthy River Healthy Communities Program CoordinatorIs a San Diego native with a B.S. Environmental Systems: Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, from UCSD, and has been with the Foundation for 5 years.  She is involved in riparian habitat restoration, invasive non-native citizen plant surveys, biological monitoring, and habitat assessments for the Foundation’s conservation lands.   

October 16, 2012
Ceanothus in San Diego County
Threats and Endemism

Speaker - Jim Rocks

Ceanothus is a diverse North American genus in the Rhamnaceae, whose members occur in habitats ranging from sub-tropical rainforests to snow covered ridgelines. 
California, with its climatic, edaphic, and topographical diversity, is the center of the distribution of Ceanothus with more than 80% of known taxa. 
The remarkable variety of habitats in San Diego County support at least 17 Ceanothus taxa, several of which are endemic to the region. 
The ecological complexity of the genus and its distribution within the County will be discussed followed by a focus on the endemic and near-endemic Ceanothus taxa within the region (C. cyaneus, C. otayensis, C. verrucosus, C. ssp. nov.). 
These species have unique distributions and life histories and face challenges and threats due in large part to urbanization and population growth. 
The wide variety of Ceanothus species and cultivars for the garden and landscape will also be briefly discussed. 

Jim Rocks is an independent biologist in San Diego with over 13 years experience working throughout California and is a Botany Department Associate at the San Diego Natural History Museum.  Through the Museum, he has taught classes on several plant families in San Diego County.  Of particular interest is the Rhamnaceae because of its wide distribution, unique and beautiful species, and rare taxa.

September 25, 2012
Experience the Inaugural 2012
San Diego Native Garden Tour

Speaker - Susan Krzywicki

The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) San Diego County Chapter hosted the first annual CNPS San Diego Native Garden Tour, sponsored by Hunter Industries, on April 28 and 29, 2012. The two-day, self-guided tour offered exclusive access to 25 unique home gardens, private nature parks, art gardens, restoration landscapes, and public botanical gardens. The event was the region’s largest public open house of native gardens and featured on-site lectures by native landscape designers as well as expert docents who interpreted each garden.

Gardens showcased in the 2012 CNPS San Diego Native Garden Tour extended from Fallbrook to Chula Vista and were designed by landscape architects, landscape designers, master gardeners, and garden enthusiasts.

Over 550 registrants attended and the feedback was excellent.

Now you can see highlights from the tour and learn how the event was received in the press, the public and amongst professionals and homeowners. Join us for a virtual tour of the properties and the event.

Susan Krzywicki, Chair of the CNPS SD Chapter Gardening Committee will present. Our gardening Committee formed several years ago and the high-profile project we identified was a Native Garden Tour. The tour took a tremendous group effort and I look forward to sharing our experiences with you.

July 17, 2012
The Live Forevers of San Diego County & adjacent Southern California and Baja California, Mexico

Speaker - Fred Roberts

Fred Roberts previously worked as an Assistant Herbarium Curator at UC, Irvine and a botanists for the US Fish and Wildlife Service but is now an botanical consultant, author, and artist.  Fred is better known for his work on Orange County plants and oaks but he has always had a passion for the genus Dudleya.

June 19, 2012
Border Field Restoration

Speaker - Phil Roullard

Border Field Restoration
The presentation gives a brief history of the impacts that have occurred at Border Field State Park from natural influences, agriculture, the military and DHS infrastructure construction projects.

Using aerial images and  images that illustrate the above impacts, a short explanation is given as to what events have led to the alteration of the habitat at Border Field and what has and is being done in order to restore the habitat of a five acre parcel of land with native plants using community sourced volunteer labor. 

Phillip Roullard has worked for California State Parks for the last 11 years.  For the last six  years Phil has worked at Border Field removing invasive plants, then restoring habitat by revegetating with native plants.

May 15, 2012
Awakening the Wildness Within

Speaker - Rick Halsey

Join us to discover and explore what led Everett Ruess to write, "During the last few weeks, I've have been having the time of my life. Much of the time I feel so exuberant that I can hardly contain myself. The colors are so glorious, the forests so magnificent, the mountains so splendid, and the streams so utterly, wildly, tumultuously, effervescently joyful that to me at least, the world is a riot of intense sensual delight." We all have stories to tell about why a favorite natural place, a particular species, or our personal alchemist inspires us. It's time to consider those stories, to rejoice in the lessons nature can offer, and  embrace the wildness within.

Our presenter, Richard W. Halsey, is a photographer, writer, and director of the California Chaparral Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving native shrubland habitats throughout the world and supporting the creative spirit as inspired by the natural environment.
Mr. Halsey has been a teacher of natural history for over thirty years.

April 17, 2012
On The Brink:
The Ten Most Endangered Plants In San Diego County

Speaker - Vince Scheidt

San Diego County, near the southern end of the California Floristic Province, has long been recognized as one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. The County’s rich botanical diversity includes an extraordinary number of rare plant species, some of which have become critically endangered due to the region’s extreme growth during the 20th Century. This presentation will describe the ten most endangered plants in San Diwego County, all of which are bear extinction in the wild, based on an analysis of relevant data sources and the presenter’s thirty years of local field experience.

Vince Scheidt has been a local environmental biologist for over 30 years. He is a member of the CNPS State Board of Directors and the Chair of the 2012 Conservation Conference Committee. He is also a recovering herpetologist.

March 20, 2012
Watershed Avengers

Speaker - Carla Pisbe

“Watershed Avengers”

The Ocean Discovery Institute empowers young people from urban and diverse backgrounds to create safe and healthy habitats. These efforts focus on City Heights’ canyons, where the community is actively transforming nature into safe and healthy places for urban youth to play, learn and explore. 

Carla Pisbe is the Environmental Stewardship Coordinator at Ocean Discovery Institute. Her work engages the community she grew up in, involving toddlers through seniors in science and conservation programs. She holds a B.A. in Politics and Latin American Latino Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. 

February 21, 2012
Archaeoethnobotany: Plants in San Diego's Archaeological Past

Speaker - Dr. G. Timothy Gross

This presentation will examine what archaeologists have found in the archaeological record in the San Diego region that informs us about the use of native plants.  Stone and ceramic artifacts give clues to plant use, and the remains of plants help to fill in the story.  Charred seeds, charcoal, pollen and phytoliths give information on plants used by prehistoric Native Americans, as well as those used in the historic period.  Although food is the most often considered aspect of ethbnobotany, other aspects of plant use such as their use as building material, firewood, and mastics will also be discussed.  The San Diego area will be compared to other areas like the Southwest and Great Basin where much more detail is preserved in the archaeological record about the interaction of plants and humans.

Dr. Gross earned his bachelor's in Anthropology from San Diego State University.  His masters and doctorate are from Washington State University.  He has been involved in the archaeology of the Western US for over 40 years.  He teaches at the University of San Diego and consults for Ecology and Environment, Inc.

January 17, 2012
San Diego Canyonlands - Current and Future Activities

The presentation will focus on two main topics. The first is SDCL’s proposal to dedicate approximately 10,000 acres of city-owned land for permanent open space and parkland. His second topic will be about aspects of their Canyon Enhancement Planning (CEP) Committee, created in 2009, as a guide for community stakeholders that facilitates a systems approach for integrating our natural open spaces with the fabric of the urban environment. These aspects include visual and physical canyon access, restoration, preservation, environment-based education and ecologically sensitive recreation. The pilot for the program is Manzanita Canyon in City Heights and the on-the-ground benefits are already materializing.

Eric Bowlby, a Massachusetts native, moved to San Diego in 1976. He got involved in environmental activism when he and a group of SDSU Urban Planning students started  a non-profit to oppose the trolley route through the wetlands in Mission Valley. He served as Executive Chair of the Sierra Club, San Diego Chapter in 1999 and 2000 and stepped down to take a part time job running the Sierra Club’s San Diego Canyons Campaign.  In 11 years Bowlby built the Canyons Campaign to three full-time staff positions and developed over 45 neighborhood-based friends groups for San Diego's canyons and creeks.  In 2008, along with several other community leaders, Bowlby established a new non-profit, San Diego Canyonlands, dedicated to restoration, preservation and protection of San Diego’s wonderful canyons.  Bowlby has also served for over eight years on the City of San Diego Wetlands Advisory Board and the City’s Open Space/Canyons Advisory Board.