For everyone attending the CNPS Chapter meeting on Tuesday evening, January 21 our main speaker is scheduled to be the Executive Director of Calflora.org, Cynthia Powell. It's been through her incredible vision and hard work that we all have access to such an amazing next gen botanical tool for California. The next morning on Wednesday, she is helping to lead the field trip to on the peninsula where she and I will cover the flora of Cabrillo National Monument and we'll get a look at the CalFlora online tools and how it integrates with scientific data collected by researchers and occasionally by citizen scientists. If you have the time, I encourage you to attend both events to get a more in depth look at the state of public engagement tools in person and in the field.

FIELD TRIP to CABRILLO NATIONAL MONUMENT [WEDNESDAY]
The tip of the Point Loma Peninsula has been an icon and important resource for native and introduced San Diegans for centuries. Before Juan Cabrillo sailed into San Diego Bay in 1542, the Kumeyaay hunted and fished the bay and ocean, using the point as the primary means of navigating offshore reed boats, albalone harvesting, and gathering of eggs and seeds. The point later became strategic for shipping with the lighthouses that have stood on the Point since the first in 1854. Point Loma was important during WWII and remains a place of military, cultural, and economic importance today.

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