Chapter Meeting: June 2017

Exploring the Revillagigedo Archipelago and Chapter Celebration

Date: Thursday, June 15, 2017

Location: Duck Club, Irvine (Directions)

Speaker: Sula Vanderplank, Ph.D.

Ready for a fun and educational evening? Join the adventure that Ms. Vanderplank and her group of researchers and citizen scientists recently experienced on an 18-day boat trip to the Revillagigedo Archipelago. Only 250 miles off the tip of Baja California peninsula, it is often referred to as Mexico's Galapagos Islands. Rich in plant and animal endemism, these volcanic islands seem to hark back to the beginning of time. One has a flora of just a handful of species and on another, steaming vents and fumaroles rise above a tropical forest near the summit!

The effervescent Ms. Vanderplank will provide an overview of the natural history of the three of the six main islands, their floras, and doubtless some interesting insights on her travels. It is always an enjoyable evening when Sula speaks to the chapter!

As a field botanist, Ms. Vanderplank focuses on natural history, floristics, and conservation science in Baja California. She actively collaborates on both sides of the US/MX border and serves as adjunct faculty at Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (CICESE) and San Diego State University. She is an active research associate at the San Diego Natural History Museum and Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. For the last 12 years Sula has published broadly on the flora of this region including a field guide to the endemic plants and animals of the Baja California Pacific Islands, a book on quail-friendly plants, and a coauthored a field guide to the Maritime Succulent Scrub of Baja California. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside, where she studied under Dr. Exequiel Ezcurra, one of Mexico's leading conservation scientists.

This evening in June is also our annual chapter celebration. For any one who can arrive a little early, Rich Schilk will lead a bird walk in the preserve starting at 6 PM. The Duck Club will open at 6:45 for potluck refreshments. Early comers may bring something savory while later arrivals might bring something dessertish. (Or just bring a friend.) The chapter will supply drinks, utensils, and paper goods. Celia Kutcher wants your great photos of 2016-17 chapter activities for our year-end picture show. Send them to at .

Enjoy with us a great speaker and this special celebration of the year’s achievements.

Conservation Report: May/June 2017

CONSERVATION

SANTA ANA MTS: The Trabuco District, Cleveland National Forest, (which encompasses our backyard Santa Ana Mts.) has issued a draft Environmental Assessment (EA) for the proposed South Main Divide and Greater El Cariso Fuels Management Project. The project calls for doing brush clearing (aka “fuel management”) on a total of 855 acres, in several sites along South and North Main Divide Rds. and Long Canyon Rd., extending from the intersection of Long Canyon and North Main Divide Rds. in the north to the La Cresta community in the south. The EA is at pains to point out that the entire fuel management area is about 0.06% of the total District acreage. Maps and details: www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=23080 and click on TRD_SMDGEC_FuelsManagement_DraftEA_03232017.

The project:

  • Is a continuation of 3 decades of fuel management projects in the area. The District is obliged to act to protect the communities and infrastructure in the area. There is a long discussion of the fire effects and fire behavior that would be expected in the project area.
  • Promises to be extra careful around the rare plants around Elsinore Peak. There is a long discussion of most of these rare species.
  • Will use a suite of techniques to remove the “excess/unwanted vegetation” [sic]: cutting, crushing, mastication, herbicide. The resulting trimmings will mostly be stacked for eventual burning.
  • Contains a long discussion of use of herbicide and the precautions, and Best Management Practices that will be used with it.
  • Also includes long discussion of invasive non--‐natives in the project area and how their removal will be part of the project, and Best Management Practices to keep them from spreading.

Native Gardener's Corner: May/June 2017

Native Gardener’s Corner - Members’ Tips, Tricks, and Techniques This column is a regular newsletter feature offering chapter members and local experts a chance to briefly share information on many things related to gardening with natives. The question for this newsletter is: “What are your three ‘Go-To’ native plants when designing or renovating your garden?”

Leon Baginski – “Malosma laurina, Rhus integrefolia, Rhamnus cultivars. Rhus is very drought friendly, Rhamnus grows fast and takes well to pruning and Malosma has interesting fragrance and when in bloom attracts multitudes of pollinators. Can't go wrong with these three but Catalina Cherry is also so easy.”

Susan Krzywicki – “St. Catherine’s Lace (Eriogonum giganteum), Coyote bush (Baccharis pilularis ‘Pigeon Point’) for slopes and “wall-to-wall shag carpeting”, Verbena lilacina ‘De la Mina’ for color.”

Laura Camp – “Buckwheat, Manzanita, and Dudleyas.”

Rama Nayeri – “My 3 ‘go to’ native plants that I have had lots of success with over the past year are Cleveland Sage, Catalina Silverlace, and Seaside Daisy.”

Greg Rubin - “Although I use hundreds of different species, selections, and cultivars, if I had to narrow it down to just a few plants that occur in almost all of my gardens, I would say Salvia 'Pozo Blue', Arctostaphylos 'John Dourley', and Baccharis 'Pigeon Point' are three of the most common. But I am also trying to call attention to a few native plants that are fantastic performers but are little used, such as Forestiere neomexicana (pubescens)  -  Desert olive; Ceanothus 'Heart's Desire’  -  groundcover wild lilac; Constancea nevinii  -  Catalina silver lace; and Tetraneuris acaulis - Angelita daisy.”

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