Milo Baker Chapter October 2009

California Native Plant Society

lo Baker Chapter
Calendar California Native Plant
SocietyMilo Baker Annual Plant Sale
October 10th, Saturday
10/09 Volunteers buy plants I hope that everyone who received the plant sale flyer in their September
before the sale. newsletter will place it on a bulletin board in their neighborhood. In this way,
we should cover the county with our publicity. Thank you.
10/10 CNPS Plant Sale
(Continued on page 2.)
38th Annual
Veterans Hall
Santa Rosa Tarweeds of Sonoma County
Lynn Houser, Milo Baker Chapter President
10/13 Board Meeting
October 20th, 7:30
10/15 Submissions deadline: At the October General Meeting,
October Newsletter we will explore the many tarweeds
of Sonoma County with botanist
10/20 General Meeting, Lynn Houser. The tarweeds and
Luther Burbank Art & tarplants are a large group of the
Garden Center
Asteraceae (Sunflower family)
with chaff in the heads and
resinous glands. Farmers and
ranchers know the tarweeds and
anyone who has spent time in the
In This Issue fields of Sonoma County will know the tarry smell and black stain on their
pants that comes with walking through a field of our local Hayfield tarweed
Guest Speaker 1
Plant Sale News 1
(Hemizonia congesta ssp. luzulifolia). Lynn will talk about the many genera
President’s Report 2 that encompass the tarweed tribe and talk about the local flora as well as some
Plant Sale News 2 of the recent name changes in the new Jepson Manual.
Conservation 2 It’s late season, and somewhere, a tarplant is still blooming, providing dry
Invasives Corner 3 season nectar and pollen and giving us something sticky to look at under the
State News 4 microscope. Madia elegans is one of our easiest to grow, strikingly beautiful
Weed Workers 4
and tall Is it a Centromadia, Hemizonia, Holocarpha, or Madia? Come join
Events/Items of Interest 5
Board Contacts 6
us and bring your questions and plant specimens, if you have them.  April
Owens Plant I.D. Hour begins at 6:45

Join us fo r Dinn e r b efo re the Me et ing:

We'll gather for dinner at 6PM at Kirin Restaurant, 2700 Yulupa Ave. We hope our speaker
will join us, but we always have an enjoyable group of fellow members and a delicious
Northern Chinese meal in any case. Please contact, Liz Parsons, 833-2063.

General Meetings are held on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at Luther Burbank Art & Garden Center, 2050 Yulupa Avenue, Santa Rosa.
Milo Baker Chapter Board meetings start at 7:00pm, 2nd Tuesday nine months of the year, Environmental Center, 55 Ridgeway Avenue,
Suite A, Santa Rosa. The next Board meeting is October 13th. Anyone interested in the work of the chapter is welcome to attend!
P resident's Report
In October many of the tarweeds and spikeweeds
are still blooming. Shown here is Parry’s
spikeweed,Centromadia parryii ssp. rudis, which used
to be a Hemizonia. Come out to the general meeting
and learn about other tarweeds and name changes.
Bring in some tarweed specimens!
October is a very
exciting time for
the Milo Baker
Chapter. In
addition to our
annual plant sale
(October 10th at
the Vet’s
Memorial Center
in Santa Rosa),
which funds the
majority of our programs, the
Illustrated by Slow chapter has been actively
awarding educational
scholarships. Three chapter members will attend a
CNPS vegetation mapping workshop this month
with Milo Baker Chapter funds (they pay $75) so
that we can enrich our chapter with the latest
training and science. The board also approved two
Milo Baker Merit scholarships, thanks to review by
Joan Schwan and the Scholarship committee, of
$500 each to Andrew Kleinhesselink and Amber
Parsons.
Andrew Kleinhesselink is a graduate student at
Sonoma State University, with research interests in
“community ecology, ecological restoration and
invasive plants; steady states and positive and
negative feedbacks in ecosystem restoration and
species invasion [and the] role of herbivores in
structuring terrestrial ecosystems”.
Amber Parsons, a student at the Santa Rosa Junior
College, is focused on horticulture and education
about Sonoma Co native plants. She is hoping to
continue her education at U.C. Davis. Amber wrote
on her application, “I would like to focus on Plant
Taxonomy and Classification. My goal is to teach
Plant Systematics, while at the same time,
researching canopy epiphytes of Sequoia
sempervirens in Humboldt County.”
Look for our merit scholarship recipients at a future
general meeting, where they will report back.
Thank you to all our members and the public for
your donations and support at our plant sale: you
make these scholarships possible.
Lynn Houser
Milo Baker Chapter Newsletter – October 2009
P lant Sale News
(Continued from page one.)
An almost complete list of plants is on the website
(www.cnpsmb.org).
PRICING FOR THE SALE
Becky Montgomery, Mary Aldrich, Kathi
Dowdikan, and I will be pricing and labeling plants
the week before the sale. Anyone who has some
free time during the day on Tuesday (Sebastopol),
Wednesday (Cal Flora), or Thursday (Santa Rosa),
please call Liz at 833-2063. These vital tasks go
faster if we have a lot of help. The plants will be
collected at the usual collection centers. If you are
growing plants for the sale please bring them to any
of the following collection centers on the weekend
before the sale:
1. Mary Aldrich, 4775 Newanga, SR, SR, 539-9005
2. Cal Flora Nursery, D/Sommers, Fulton, 528-8813
3. Hale's Apple Farm, 1526 Gravenstein Hwy, N,
Dave Hale, 823-4613
On Friday night, we will need truckers to transport
plants from the collection center to the Vet's
Memorial Building. Call Liz if you have a truck
and can help.
We welcome everyone to our sale and want to
provide the plants that they need for their
particular purpose. I welcome suggestions. If you
have any plant that you would like to see at our
sale, let me know and perhaps we will be able to
fulfill your request.
If you helped at our sale last year, Judy Hartwig
(823-1821) will be calling you soon to ask you to
volunteer. I hope that all members will help
us again. This is a huge effort and WE NEED YOU!
Call Judy and volunteer. We need cashiers,
salespersons, drivers, and help in many areas.
Please mark your calendars for October 10 and plan
to help us by working at the sale. If you can't work,
please come by and shop for plants. Workers only
can purchase plants on Friday evening before the
sale, so make plans to work for the sale.
The work of the Milo Baker Chapter depends on the
success of our plant sale. Our members are our best
customers. Please tell your friends to attend and
buy plants.
Fall is planting season in California. The soil is still
warm and the roots will grow slowly through the
rainy season. The following spring, the plants are
ready to survive the summer heat. A plant planted
in the spring does not have a well-developed root
system and will have difficulty surviving through
the summer.  Liz Parsons
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C onservation
Rincon Ridge Park
Monday, Oct. 19th
Starting on Monday October 19th, we will be having
regular work parties at the adopted area of Rincon
Ridge Park from 10:00 – noon.
The work days will be planned for
each third Monday from 10-12,
with the following actions
planned:
October 19th: Work on overgrown
trails and Coyote Brush removal.
November 16th: Continue with
brush removal
December 14: Douglas firs:
thinning and limbing for Chapter
Wreath-making event.
Rincon Ridge Park’s 2 acre fenced
area has been stewarded by the Milo Baker Chapter
for over five years and represents a small remnant
of rare vegetation dominated by Rincon manzanita
(Arctostaphylos stanfordiana ssp. decumbens) and
Rincon Ridge Ceanothus (Ceanothus confusus)
which features a diverse group of associated plants
and animals. A plant list is available at our website,
www.cnpsmb.org and additions are welcome. The
park is located off of Fountaingrove Parkway and
Rincon Ridge Drive (at the stoplight). Go east on
Rincon Ridge Dr. then right on Park Gardens drive
and park. You can contact me at 695-4063 if you
can’t find us. Bring loppers, gloves, pruners, and
saws. Hope to see there.
Pat Sesser
Invasives Corner
Follow-up on Shollenberger Park
Destruction
Illegal Marijuana on Public and Private
Lands
Here is information excerpted from e-mails by
Gerald and Mary Edith Moore, who have been the
leaders in the restoration efforts at Shollenberger
Park.
"My best understanding, after talking to city staff, is
that the city hired an "industrial mower” for some
other projects around town and the water Dept.
asked him to also mow the uplands and disk some
more areas in the dried central pond prior to
removing dirt from the pond. The guy got carried
Milo Baker Chapter Newsletter – October 2009
away and tried to please by "doing a little extra"
which is frequently considered a good deed when
industrial sites are being cleared prior to some kind
of development. No one from the water Dept
bothered to monitor what he was doing." (One
wonders how that plays out in other places where
the EIR has required the protection of plants on the
development property.)
"Because of the public furor (this anger has not
subsided yet) over the devastation of Shollenberger,
the Petaluma water department apologized
profusely, and agreed to make some restitution and
form a steering committee. The steering committee
includes them, Petaluma Parks & Recreation,
Petaluma Wetlands Association, and PRBO
Conservation Science; the committee will meet on a
quarterly basis to talk about activities and plans we
all have for the wetlands so that we can coordinate
our efforts and make the sum greater than the
parts."
Gerald and Edith are asking for professional
application of an appropriate seed mixture to begin
restoring the area: "The seed mix we propose is the
same mix that will be used this autumn to seed the
levees at the polishing wetlands and according to
the EIR will be: California poppy, California brome,
California oat
grass, blue wild
rye, purple needle
grass, meadow
barley and red
fescue."
"What about the
contractor? How
are companies
who do this work
not informed about the existing laws and policies
for prudent land management? Ignorance, even if
the issue at hand is not regulated, is no excuse for
destructive practices. Because of the hazards
associated with running power equipment on
public land, contractors should be trained, licensed,
and regulated. If we’re not going to be serious
about protecting what’s left of the natural world,
we will have betrayed the future.”
Well said!
*Illegal marijuana plantings*
I read the recent article in the Press Democrat about
the commandeering of private and public lands for
the cultivation of marijuana. Besides the danger to
humans and the encouragement of criminal
elements, there is an impact on native plants.
Native plants are destroyed both in the planting
and the construction of trails and camp sites by the
marijuana grower. The application of fertilizer,
Page 3
chemicals and water change the environment for
native plants in the vicinity. Furthermore, as the
article pointed out, the landowner may feel brush
(perhaps manzanita, etc.) must be removed to make
planting marijuana too obvious to be considered
safe for the grower. Clearly government removal of
the plants has not solved the problem, and is
hugely expensive. I think we need to do something
to make the raising of marijuana much less
profitable, especially with so many out of work.
ML Carle, Invasives Chair
S tate News
Chapter Council Meeting
in San Diego
On the week-end of September 12-13, I attended the
quarterly Chapter Council meeting. This is a
chance for our chapter to meet with representatives
from other chapters and share the issues that are
affecting us. It is also a chance to meet the staff
from the Sacramento office and find out what is
going on at the state level. At the last meeting in
March, the main conservation issue was the solar
and wind energy development that was about to
occur in the Mojave Desert. Our new Conservation
Director, Greg Suba, and the Rare Plant Botanist,
Nick Jensen, are working together to identify those
areas where the renewable energy projects would
have the least impact on plants and intact habitat.
In our area, there is a wind project proposed for
Walker Ridge near the Lake County border in
Colusa County. This is located just above Bear
Valley, a botanical preserve. I feel confident that
Nick and Greg and the other staff members of our
Society are doing their very best to protect the
native flora.
The horticulture program is becoming a very
important part of the Society. Our new executive
director, Tara Hansen, has been working very hard
in this area. There will be an e-mail only
horticulture newsletter available at the end of
September with articles on pruning by Ted Kipping
and gardening by Ellen Zagory. Go to the CNPS
web site and click on horticulture. The program
needs funding in order to be more effective. Grants
are being investigated to fully fund a staff person
dedicated to horticulture.
The Society is beginning a membership drive. The
current number of members state-wide is 9,366.
This is a stable core group whose dues fund about
40% of the work of the Society. The members also
contribute 90,000 hours of volunteer work! The goal
is 20,000 in three years. Milo Baker Chapter has 423
Milo Baker Chapter Newsletter – October 2009
members. Let’s do our best to increase that number-
-talk to your friends about what an effective
conservation organization CNPS is and don’t forget
to renew. It is easier than ever using the web-site.
Maintaining your membership is an important
contribution!
Liz Parsons
Plant Science
Training Program
Workshops, 2009
To find out more information about the following
and other CNPS workshops, go to:
cnps.org/cnps/education/workshops
or call Josie Crawford at (916) 447-2677 ext 205.
October 13-15 Vegetation Mapping
Primary Instructors: Todd Keeler-Wolf, Julie Evens,
Anne Klein, and Jennifer Buck, Rachelle Boul, and
John Menke
Location: Mulford Hall, UC Berkeley and Marin
Municipal Water District, Fairfax
Course Description: Please join CNPS and
California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG for
a three-day, vegetation mapping workshop, hosted
by University of California Berkeley’s Geospatial
Imaging and Informatics facility and Marin
Municipal Watershed District (MMWD), Mount
Tamalpais. This workshop will be a combination of
field and computer exercises in fine-scale
vegetation mapping. Participants will learn about
vegetation sampling, classification, and photo
interpretation. They will collect reconnaissance
samples to support a Vegetation classification and
map and practice techniques of photo
interpretation, delineation, and attribution. They
will use accuracy assessment to validate a
vegetation map.
Cost: Members $570
Non-members $595
Josie Crawford, Education Program Director
California weed workers
As you may know, the USDA has recently
proposed revisions to their Q-37 guidelines for
screening plant imports. They propose creation of a
category called NAPPRA -- "not authorized
pending pest risk analysis" -- where risky plant
species could be listed and these species would
need a full-on risk assessment before they could be
cleared for import. There are weaknesses to the
proposal, but overall it would be a huge step
forward in stemming the tide of new introductions.
The comment period closes in one month, on Oct.
21. It is simple to comment online, and it is essential
that we generate a high number of comments (some
Page 4
say weed worker support for the measure was
outweighed by resistance from the nursery trade
when USDA first went out for comments on this 5
years ago, and that's why progress has been so slow
since then). Go to www.regulations.gov, search on
"nappra", and then click "submit comment" for the
item labeled "proposed rules". Comments can be
brief, simply stating that screening of risky plants is
good policy and important to protecting the
country's natural resources. You don't have to
prepare a detailed critique. We just need to give
USDA strong backing for moving forward on this
important revision.
This comment period also provides an excellent
opening for contacting USDA leadership to stress
the importance of prevention and control programs
for invasive plants, so if you are able to send a letter
from your organization, all the better.
We have everything you need -- background on the
issue, instructions on how to comment, a sample
letter, and talking points -- on our website at:
www.cal-ipc.org/policy/federal/Q37.php.
Please consider weighing in on this important issue.
It's not often we have the opportunity to influence
national prevention policy. Thanks!
Doug Johnson, Executive Director
California Invasive Plant Council
www.cal-ipc.org
1442-A Walnut St., #462, Berkeley, CA 94709
(510) 843-3902
dwjohnson@cal-ipc.org
E vents and Items of Interest
Dear Birding Friend,
Halloween is just a few weeks away,
so we want to see and hear spooky
things about birds! This is the latest
environmental challenge from the
Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s
Celebrate Urban Birds citizen-science
project in conjunction with the Encyclopedia of Life
website. Go to site: Celebrate Urban Birds
Karen Purcell, Project Leader
urbanbirds@cornell.edu
Milo Baker Chapter Newsletter – October 2009
California Oak Mortality
Task Force
News Advisory
FREE SUDDEN OAK DEATH
PREVENTATIVE TREATMENT
TRAINING SESSIONS
BERKELEY—Free Sudden Oak Death (SOD)
preventative treatment training sessions are being
offered this fall at UC Berkeley. Sessions will cover
basic SOD information, integrated pest
management approaches to managing SOD, how to
select candidate trees for treatment, and proper
preventative treatment application.
Berkeley, CA. Pre-registration is required.
SODtreatment@nature.berkeley.edu, and provide
your name, phone number, affiliation and license
number (if applicable), and the date for which you
are registering. For more information on the
training sessions, go to
http://nature.berkeley.edu/garbelotto/english/so
dtreatmenttraining.php.
For questions regarding the training or Sudden Oak
Death, contact Katie Palmieri at (510) 847-5482 or
Palmieri@nature.berkeley.edu.
2009 State of the Laguna Conference &
Science Symposium
October 14-16, 2009
Sonoma Mountain Village, Rohnert Park
Main theme: Early response to proposed climate
change impacts on ecosystem function and services
through watershed scale conservation, restoration
and resource management actions.
Three days of presentations, panels and workshops
about the current state of climate change science,
and developing a plan to address the proposed
implications of climate change in the Laguna de
Santa Rosa watershed and the North Bay .
Maggie Hart, (707) 527-9277 x.107,
maggie@lagunafoundation.org
Cotati Creek Critters
Sunday, October 25, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.: Trash PickUp
along the Laguna de Santa Rosa in Cotati and a
section of Rohnert Park. Gloves and trash grabbers
provided.
Saturday, November 14, 9 a.m. - 12 noon and
Sunday, November 29, 10 a.m.- 1 p.m. Creek
Stewardship Days. Also some new Friday
afternoon "Prep" Days 1-4 p.m. For details,
directions, etc. see www.CotatiCreekCritters.info or
contact jenny@creeks.cotati.info or 792-4422.
Page 5
 We invite you to join CNPS
Milo Baker Chapter Officers & Board of Directors 2009-10
President, Lynn Houser, 568-3230, housers@sonic.net
Name________________________________
Vice President, Liz Parsons, 833-2063, LizPar8993@aol.com
Secretary, Patricia Sesser, 528-9197, ptrisha@sbcglobal.net
Address______________________________
Treasurer, Jim Piercy, 539-3441, terrapenecarolinamajor@yahoo.com
Book Sales, Wendy Smit, 431.7913, wendysmit@hughes.net
City/Zip______________________________
Conservation Chair, Michael Hogan, milobakerflora@gmail.com
Cunningham Marsh, Marcia Johnson, 829-3808, owlsnest@hughes.net
Phone________________________________
Director at Large, Lea Davis, 538-1499
Director at Large, Beth Robinson, 490-4951, bethysmail@gmail.com
Email________________________________
Director at Large, Joan Schwan, 823-0446, jschwan@sonic.net
Chapter affiliation:
Director at Large, Cindy Tancreto, 528-9225, cindytancreto@pacbell.net
 Milo Baker (Sonoma County)
Field Trips, Cassandra Liu, cassandra@sonomaecologycenter.org
 Other county ______________________
and Cindy Tancreto, Tancreto: cindytancreto@pacbell.net
Membership category:
Hospitality, Becky Montgomery, 573-0103, montyb@sonic.net
 Student or Limited Income…….… $25
Hospitality, Liz Parsons, 833-2063, lizpar8993@aol.com
 Individual………………………….$45
Invasive Plant Chair, ML Carle, 792-1823, mlml@sonic.net
 Family, Group or Library………….$75
Legislative Chair, Katy Redmon, 762-3961, trypledee@comcast.net
 Plant Lover………………….……$100
Membership/WebAdmin., Gary Hundt, 542-4972, ghundt@gmail.com
 Patron…………………………….$300
Newsletter Editor, Katy Redmon, 762-3961, cnpsmbnewsletter@yahoo.com
 Benefactor………………………..$600
Plant Sale, Liz Parsons, 833-2063, lizpar8993@aol.com
 Mariposa Lily………………… ..$1500
Poster & T-Shirt Sales, Wendy Smit, 431.7913, wendysmit@hughes.net
Programs/Lectures, April Owens,707.331.2070,Aprilleeowens@yahoo.com
 New Member  Renewal
Publicity, Leia Giambastiani, 322-6722, leiagia@gmail.com
Rincon Ridge Park, Lynn Houser, 568-3230, housers@sonic.net
Make check payable to CNPS and mail to:
SCCC Rep., Wendy Krupnick, 544-4582, wendyk@pon.net
CNPS, 2707 K Street, Sacramento, CA 95816
Southridge Preserve, Jeffery Barrett, barrett8@sonic.net
SRJC Representative: Joel Grogan, joel@sonomaecologycenter.org
To pay by credit card or for more info call
SSU Representative, Frederique Lavoipierre, 829-0751,lavoipie@sonoma.edu
916.447.2677 or visit www.cnps.org
Vine Hill Preserve, Sarah Gordon, 833-1243, Sarahpgordon@gmail.com

NON-PROFIT
CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY ORGANIZATION
Milo Baker Chapter www.cnpsmb.org U.S. Postage Paid
P.O. Box 892 Santa Rosa, CA
Santa Rosa, CA 95402 Permit #470
NON-PROFIT
ORGANIZATION
U.S. Postage Paid
Lilium pardalinum ssp. pitkinense
Santa Rosa, CA
Pitkin lily Permit #110

Newsletter & Web Site Info:

Send newsletter submissions to:
Katy Redmon, cnpsmbnewsletter@yahoo.com
Deadline for inclusion in the November
Newsletter is October 15th.
The chapter web site www.cnpsmb.org
contains a wealth of information plus
current and archived newsletters.
To receive notification of the online newsletter,
or for newsletter mailing/membership issues,
contact: Gary Hundt, ghundt@gmail.com