About
California Native Plant Society, Orange Co. Chapter
P.O. Box 54891
Irvine CA 92619-4891
Orange County is one of 35 chapters of the California Native Plant Society. OC CNPS is a volunteer organization, depending on the dedication, hard work and incredible initiative of our members. We are governed by an elected Board of Directors, each with a two year term. Chapter teams guide many of the activities and functions of the chapter.
Get involved. Assisting with a team is a great way to get started. You can help as much or as little as you wish and your time allows. Volunteering may be a single task or an ongoing committment. We are effective because of volunteers like you. As you read the team descriptions below, send a note to the team chair indicating your interest.
Help grow CNPS and support our mission to protect, conserve and enjoy California's native plants and their habitats
Officers & Directors
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Brad Jenkins
Term: 2022/2023
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Rebecca Crowe
Term: 2022/2023
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Treasurer
Lewis Marchand
Term: 2021/2022
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Elizabeth Wallace
Term: 2022/2023
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Ron Vanderhoff
Term: 2022/2023
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Board Member
Laura Camp
Term: 2021/2022
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Board Member
Matt Garrambone Term: 2021/2022
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Jennifer Mabley
Term: 2021/2022
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Board Member
Chapter Council Representatve
David Pryor
Term: 2021/2022
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Dan Songster
Term: 2022/2023
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 Board Member
Gabriel Verduzco
Term: 2022/2023
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Board Member |
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Board Member
Josie Bennett
Term: 2022/2023
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Terms are two years, ending Dec. 31.
Your Chapter Teams & Responsibilities
(Click a title to see more)
Chapter Council Representative: David Pryor
Our chapter representative to the state organization. They attend quarterly Chapter Council meetings, read the state bylaws, various staff reports and review meeting minutes. These meetings promote communication and coordination between groups and are attended by representatives from each chapter, the Chapter Council officers, the State Board of Directors, the Executive Director, and key staff members of CNPS. Council meetings are often the source and final approval for CNPS policies. As our representative, they forward any important communications from council meetings and report on any important state business, especially so that we can vote appropriately if necessary.
Gardening and Horticulture Committee Chair: Dan Songster
Horticulture
Lead: Dan Songster
This team may have the greatest number of enjoyable and worthwhile opportunities for chapter volunteers! We strive to improve and expand efforts in engaging, educating, and involving people in growing native plants, designing native gardens, and maintaining native landscapes. Whether increasing habitat for birds, butterflies, and other animals, using less water and fertilizer, or for the beauty they provide-we believe native plants should be an important aspect of every landscape in Orange County.
Volunteer Opportunities: Many opportunities exist for individuals with a love of native plants. These opportunities include:
- Serve to provide the homeowners and businesses of Orange County a nexus to learn about the horticultural use of native plants.
- Work with local governments, agencies, water districts, park districts, etc., to increase and improve the use of native plants in public gardens.
- Assist with Chapter Plant Sales (spring and/or fall events) and/or at monthly meetings.
- Assisting with our chapter’s Spring Garden Tour.
- Assist with developing and implementing any Horticulture based symposia, conferences, or workshops.
- Promote the development of new avenues of Horticulture related events, serving to expand our efforts involving Orange County’s citizens interested in gardening with our wonderful native plants.
Lead: Robin Huber Members: Dori Ito, Mabel Alezard, Jennifer Beatty, Sarah Jayne
The Orange County Chapter has offered a garden tour annually since 2002, excepting for the years 2005 and 2006, usually on the first Saturday in May. Preparation for the garden tour begins in the fall and early winter with a call for gardens with notices in our newsletter and announcements at the chapter meetings. The team follows up on all offers and visits to the gardens to assess their suitability. The team produces solicits sponsors, develops promotional materials, organizes information on the website, creates a tour brochure and secures liability insurance. Prior to the tour, directions are finalized, signs are created and publicity is generated.
Volunteer Opportunities:
- This is one of our most important and fun events with many ways for volunteers to get involved.
- If you have or know of a great native plant garden, perhaps you can connect us to the homeowner/gardens or even makes the connection yourself.
- We prefer to have two docents as greeters for each garden, which allows each an opportunity to visit other gardens.
- Perhaps you know a potential sponsor (water district, garden business, etc.) or are willing to help solicit sponsors.
The Acorn School Garden Grant
Leads: Sarah Jayne, Elizabeth Wallace
We realize that the future health and diversity of our state’s flora will depend upon the youth of today. It is hoped that given engaging educational opportunities, students will begin to appreciate how mankind fits within the network of ecology, biology, and of course, botany. The purpose of the Acorn Grant is to encourage such understanding. See additional information in the Education section of this website.
Lead: Elizabeth Wallace
A group developing education, training, and resources to county homeowners associations, property managers and landscape committees to help them embrace native plant landscaping. And offerring encouragement and support to those interested in the same.
Conservation Committee Chair: Rebecca Crowe
The Conservation team is the focus of the Chapter’s goal to conserve, protect and enhance Orange County’s native plants and habitats. We work effectively both independently and with other conservation organizations on such issues as vegetation management, appropriate natural area landscaping, invasive-plant management, wildfire issues and much more. The committee monitors and comments on development activities, provides testimony, engages in occasional litigation and communicates regularly with public agencies, land managers, stewardship and advocacy organizations and others on native plant conservation issues.
Currently, we are working on a strategic conservation plan for OC CNPS. We are collecting feedback from land mangers, land stewards, volunteer groups, biologists, allied organizations and other to best understand our role in local conservation. Once this is complete we will articulate a clear vision, set of goals and criteria for OC CNPS involvement and leadership. The final step in this process will be the formulation of an OC CNPS Conservation Team. If you would like to join us inn this process or just share some input, please drop us a note.
Volunteer Opportunities:
- Monitor local projects of conservation concern, in cooperation with other county and regional environmental groups. This may include reading Environmental Impact Reports and similar documents, and, as the Chapter’s representative, writing comment letters on and speaking about the issue at public hearings, workshops, and similar sessions. As appropriate, these are done with advice and assistance from the Rare Plant Committee, the Invasive Plant Committee, and/or the stewardship/advocacy groups most concerned with the issue.
- Attend hearings, meetings, conference calls, workshops and forums on OC Parks, watersheds, flood control, and similar issues that relate to native-plant conservation in OC.
- Maintain communication and coordination with public agencies, land managers, stewardship and advocacy organizations and others on native plant conservation issues including vegetation management, appropriate natural-area landscaping, invasive-plant management and much more.
- Engage in occasional litigation, under CNPS Policy guidelines.
- Write brief reports on chapter-related conservation issues, monthly for the Chapter Board, bi-monthly for our newsletter and website, as-needed for email blasts. Present a selection of information on the issues at our monthly membership meetings.
Leads: Ron Vanderhoff & Josie Bennett Members: Joan Miller, David Pryor, Matt Major
A very active team that administers all aspects of invasive plant detection and management for the chapter. The team monitors and comments on various invasive plant matters, but is especially involved in Emergent Invasive Plant Management. This aspect of the team is quite active in the Early Detection of new, high-priority invasive plant species as well as the coordination and communication of these detections to various land managers, agencies and stewardship organizations. The team maintains priority species lists, reviews new detections, provides invasive plant training, maps colonies and communicates with many allied groups, agencies and volunteers. The team maps and updates state databases and our OC CNPS website as well as maintains a rigorous data-driven scoring protocol for existing and candidate emergent species. Additional information available on OC CNPS invasive plant programs can be found here.
Volunteer Opportunities:
- Volunteers to assist with new invasive plant scouting in the field or to field-check and report on existing known invasive colonies.
- Help organizing and conducting occasional invasive plant “pulls” of high-priority emergent species.
- Transcribing and updating the Calflora database and our OC CNPS records from data supplied to us by members, organizations, land managers, etc.
- Invasive plant detection and reporting for members, docents and volunteers as well as agency and land manager staffs and support organizations. More here.
- Many other volunteer opportunities abound. If you have an idea or want to help, email us at
Plant Science Committee Chair: Ron Vanderhoff
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We are always looking for people to lead or assist on trips. Often our members have inside knowledge of particular areas.
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If you know an expert in an area, have a relationship with a ranger, a land manager or a botanical or natural history expert this can be especially helpful. You may be able to connect our committee to this person or even help to organize the trip. These are often our best field trips.
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Scouting an area in advance of a field trip is especially helpful.
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During the trip we need volunteers to keep plant lists or play the role of a “sweep”. After the trip, volunteers can write a brief summary for the website or social media.
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This is one of the easiest and most fun ways to get involved in your chapter.
Lead: Fred Roberts Members: Bob Allen, Sandy Leatherman, Mike Simpson, Ron Vanderhoff
Monitors impacts or potential impacts to California Rare Plant Ranked species within the county and participate in state Rare Plant meetings. These rare plants usually have special conservation protections afforded to them. This team contributes to our knowledge of the status, distribution and abundance of these rare plants. The Rare Plant team works closely with the Conservation team coordinating comments on EIR’s, restoration and vegetation plans, fire abatement impacts, land management decisions affecting rare plants and in other ways. They also provide critical research, population data and other information to the state CNPS Rare Plant Program.
Members of the Rare Plant Committee maintain various Access and Collection Permits from US Fish & Wildlife, US Forest Service, CA Dept of Fish & Wildlife, OC Parks and others. We regularly monitor rare plant populations, report data to CDFW and for other science based uses.
Lead: OCCNPS Board of Directors Reviewers: Elizabeth Wallace, Dan Songster, Ron Vanderhoiff
The Acorn School Garden Grant is awarded to Orange County public schools with students in Kindergarten through 12th grade. The grant is designed to fund school gardens that feature California native plants.
Traveler's Grant
Lead: OCCNPS Board of Directors Reviewers: Same
Education and Communication Committee Chair: Vacant
Lead: Sarah Jayne
Responsible for producing the electronic email newsletter, which is generally distributed monthly. Responsibilities include editing the content, writing original content, collecting content from various members and teams (programs, conservation, horticulture, plant science, etc.), formating and distributing.
Lead: Gabriel Verduzco
Responsible for producing social media and blogs to support chapter goals, activities and interest areas. Current platforms include Facebook and Instagram.
Volunteer Opportunities:
- Posting and curating content on our social media platforms.
Leads: Rich Schilk, Brad Jenkins
Manages all aspects of the chapter website, which is a critical communication tool for the chapter. This includes website development, structural changes to the site, page management, de-bugging of the site, the quality of the user experience and maintaining current software, hosting relationships and certificates. This team works with most other chapter committees as well in order to coordinate their portion of the site. The committee also trains other chapter users to post articles, makes edits and perform other on-going maintenance. Our OC CNPS website is written on a Joomla platform, a popular and user-friendly open-source content management system.
Volunteer Opportunities:
- If you have experience with website development we can always use your help to improve the site and make the user experience even better.
- Updates and changes that are generated by the various committee need to be incorporated an updated on the site. You can help.
- We would like to develop an assistant webmaster.
- If you are familiar with Joomla and the many extensions available you may have some ideas for enhancements to our site.
Public Events Committee Chair: Vacant
Lead: Dan Songster Audio-Visual: Bob Allen Refreshments: Sarah Jayne, Elizabeth Songster Greeting: Dori Ito
Manages our monthly general meeting speakers. Contacts potential presenters and works with them on their content, program, etc. Writes the description of the program that is used in chapter publicity, including any photography. Often coordinates a pre-meeting meal or reception for the speaker and a few invited guests.
Volunteer Opportunities:
- Purchase refreshments and/or snacks for general meetings.
- Be a greeter to welcome members and the public at our general meetings and other events.
- Serve as speaker liaison, helping to welcome the speaker and make sure they have everything they need for their presentation.
Supports our public outreach activities by soliciting volunteers and hosts. This includes several activities around the county, such as chapter booths and displays at garden shows, environmental fairs, water conservation workshops, etc.
Volunteer Opportunities:
- Help to staff an OC CNPS booth or table at a public event, like The Green Scene or The Spring Garden Show at South Coast Plaza.
- Help to set up or take down our booth and displays at various outreach events.
Maintains inventories of chapter brochures, posters and other printed materials.
Jennifer Mabley
Responsible for all sales, including merchandise like books, plants, posters, t-shirts and hats, etc. These sales frequently occur at our monthly chapter meetings, but also at offsite native plant sales events and outreach events such as The Fullerton Green Scene and the South Coast Plaza Spring Garden Show. The team sets the sakles area and processes all transactions, whether cash, check of PayPal.
Volunteer Opportunities:
- Staffing sales tables at chapter meetings or other events.
- Setup and takedown of sales tables.
- Storing inventory of books or other sales merchandise.
Other Volunteer Specialists
Open (Laura Camp)
Volunteer Recognition
Dan Songster
Open