Happenings Quarterly Newsletter of AZNPS, the Arizona Native Plant Society   June 2008 – August 2008

 

 

Our mission is to promote knowledge, appreciation, conservation,

and restoration of Arizona's native plants and their habitats.

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Happenings is a forum to promote all chapter news and activities throughout the state in one place. Summaries of the board meetings, committee updates, and information pertaining to the annual meeting will also be presented here. Deadlines for submission are February 1^st for March-May events, May 1^st for June-August events, August 1^st for September-November events, and November 1^st for December-February events. Please contact your chapter president or program coordinator to contribute any relevant information.

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Astragalus cremnophylax            by Dorothy Lamm

Some say:

     Who would bounce many miles on a sandy track through desert scrub lost near the edge of the rez? 

     Who would work all day in a freezing, gray rain, threatening worse?

     Who would fight a blustery wind until famished, parched, exhausted?

     Who would perch on a rim-rock bench overlooking Marble Canyon defying death? 

     Who would crawl on painful hands and ripped knees cross sharp Kaibab Limestone to label, number, count dwarf, purple plants?                                                         

 

 

 

I say: 

     Who wouldn’t value solitude miles away from “civilization”?

     Who wouldn’t marvel at a view of lush Vasey’s Paradise from East Rim above teal-colored Colorado River?

     Who wouldn’t treasure time with friends willing to share knowledge of genus and species? 

     Who wouldn’t wonder at rare, hardy Milkvetch that grow in only one tiny place on this huge earth?

     Who wouldn’t brave the elements, personal discomfort to be

awestruck by Nature’s beauty all around?

 

 

 

 

 

 

AZNPS State Board Meeting held at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum, May 4, 2008

In attendance were Barb Phillips (State President), Mark Bierner (Board Member-at-large), Greta Anderson (Conservation Committee Chair), Jessa Fisher (Flagstaff Chapter Chair, State Recording Secretary), Doug Green (Phoenix Chapter Chair, Membership Chair), Wendy Hodgson (Education Committee Chair), Ken Morrow (State Treasurer), Shawn Pollard (Yuma Chapter President), Douglas Ripley (Tucson Chapter President), Arlene Stigen (Tucson Chapter Treasurer), Nancy Zierenberg (Administrative Assistant to the Board) 

 

Highlights:

* New Board Members!  The board is thrilled to welcome three new board members! Shawn Pollard is the new Yuma Chapter President, Douglas Ripley is the new Tucson Chapter President, and Arlene Stigen has volunteered to be our new State Treasurer.  Thank you so much for helping make our organization run!  And a big Thank You as well to Ken Morrow for being our State Treasurer for seven years!  Ken will stay on the board as a Board Member-at-large; we're glad you are sticking around Ken! See the new board member bios on page 10.

* Arizona Invasive Species Council  Doug Green will be regularly attending the Arizona Invasive Species council meetings in Phoenix as the AZNPS representative.  The Council has plans to showcase their new management program at various locations across the state this spring and summer, including Kingman, the White Mtns. area, Phoenix, Tucson, and Flagstaff.

* PAPAZ (Plant Atlas Program of Arizona)  Wendy Hodgson has developed an intro. PowerPoint presentation for the PAPAZ program, premiered in Tucson this past spring.  Decisions about implementation were made.  Chapters will be responsible for developing their own programs, and all participants must be AZNPS members for insurance reasons.  Contact your chapter president and read the Chapter Happenings to check out new PAPAZ events.

* Conservation Committee  The Conservation Committee will open up its own bank account to be financially independent from the state account.  For more CC info, see pages 8-9.

* Membership  We depend on membership dues to keep afloat!  Please tell all of your friends about our great organization and member benefits like quarterly Happenings, twice annual Plant Press journals, and the knowledge you are contributing to native plant conservation in Arizona.  To prevent membership relapses, your initial date of membership will remain with you even if you slip and renew a few months late- so don't forget to read your postcards and renew on time!

* Book Sale  AZNPS made over $800 from the Ginny Saylor collection book sale at the Arizona Botanists Meeting!  Please save your old books or artwork with a plant, animal, or nature theme so you can donate to this now annual auction. Contact your chapter president to donate.

* Board Meetings To more efficiently organize our board, the autumn meeting will be dedicated to the budget and summer meetings will be brainstorming for our long-term goals. The next board meeting will be a two-day campout in Flagstaff on August 16-17.  You are welcome to attend one or both days!  Contact Barb Phillips at bgphillips@fs.fed.us if you'd like to attend.

Thank you for your membership and dedication to YOUR Native Plant Society!   -AZNPS board

 

 

 

 

 

Phoenix Chapter

President—Doug Green (480)998-5638 or azbotman@yahoo.com; Treasurer—Suzanne Cash, (602)942-0727 or roxiep@msn.com; Postcards—Sandy Zetlan, (602)363-6098 or sandy.zetlan@emcmail.maricopa.edu  Regular meetings of the Phoenix chapter of AZNPS are at 7:00 pm on the second Tuesday of each month in Webster Hall at the Desert Botanical Garden. 

Message from new Phoenix Chapter President

The Phoenix Chapter is going through some tweaking exercises in the change from Doug Newton to Doug Green as president, which took place in March 2008.

Doug Newton did an excellent job as President for his two to three years in office. His forte was getting outstanding speakers for our monthly meetings. The "well" that he drank from was ASU, Dept. of Biology, where he is currently working on/acquiring his graduate degree in Botany. Since Doug has been working on the Flora of the Eagletail Mtns, he has spent a great deal of his weekend time botanizing that area. As a result, he had limited time to run the Phoenix Chapter, and attend AZNPS Board Meetings, etc. So in February, we had an official presidential election. Since I was the only one who volunteered to run for President, it was a close election--or was that a "closed" election? Nevertheless I won, only because no one else ran. So here I am, writing the Chapter report. The major point here is that Doug Newton did an admirable job as President, and all our Phoenix Chapter members thanked Doug for his services at our March '08 meeting.

By vote of our Membership @ our March Chapter Meeting, we decided to give a monetary donation to the following:

$300 to the Desert Botanical Garden as an appreciation of DBG permitting ourPhoenix Chapter to use Webster Hall for 9 months of the year for our meetings. They've been great to us, and we wanted to make this donation to their General Funds Program. It's not much, but we don't have a lot to give. It’s the thought that counts. Right?

$300 to "Desert Plants," a joint venture of Boyce Thompson Arboretum and University of Arizona. Dr. Les Landrum of the ASU Herbarium made this suggestion as the "Desert Plants" publication can always use the monies. Dr. Margie Norem, Editor of "Desert Plants" was really taken aback by this donation of the Phoenix Chapter. She said we really made her week. She will acknowledge our Chapter donation in the next edition in June '08.

Where didthe Phoenix Chapter of AZNPS get the above $600.00 contributions? As the TV ad says --"We earn it the hard way--we sell AZNPS goods!" at events such as plant-related shows in greater Phoenix. It is mostly my efforts--as no one seems to want to help out, except occasionally--so it really pleases me to see our hard earned monies go to those deserving organizations. I'm really happy to see our efforts going to other non-profits.  Our next season of talks and field trips will start up again in the fall, so please contact me if you want to help out!

                                                                             -Doug Green, Phoenix Chapter President

 

Yuma Chapter

Shawn Pollard is the new Yuma Chapter president. Meetings are held at 7:00 pm on the first Thursday of each month at the BLM office (2555 East Gila Ridge Road). Field trips meet the Saturday following the meeting at 8:30 in the BLM office parking lot, unless otherwise noted. For more information contact: yuma@aznps.org or aznpsyuma@yahoo.com.  Season- October to May.

The Yuma Chapter has adjourned for the summer.  We will reconvene in October.  Have a safe and fun summer!

 

Prescott Chapter

President: Carl Tomoff (928) 350-2255 or ctomoff@prescott.edu.

If you are reading this and you are a Prescott Chapter member and you care about plants in your area and want to see your chapter continue, please contact us!  Carl is on sabbatical and has struggled to maintain interest despite organizing great events.  Please contact State President Barb Phillips at at bgphillips@fs.fed.us.

Flagstaff Chapter

President—Jessa Fisher, nightbloomingcactus@yahoo.com or (928) 814-2644;

Treasurer—H. David Hammond (928) 523-7242

All talks begin at 7:00 p.m. on the 3rd Tuesday of the month and are held at room 314 of the Biology Building on the NAU campus or LA 135 of the Liberal Arts Building.  All walks meet at 10:00 a.m. on the 3rd Sunday of the month at the Arizona State Credit Union, corners of Beaver and Butler Aves., unless otherwise noted.  Come prepared with sun protection, water, food, and a car or gas money for carpooling. Join our chapter email events listing!   Please let me know if you are receiving Happenings but are not yet on our local email list!  Thanks, and see you soon!  --Jessa

Message from Flagstaff Chapter President

Help Needed!  As the Flagstaff President, I get several requests all season from different groups in the Northern Arizona area hoping to coordinate with us on weed pulling and other fieldtrips and events.  Sometimes they would like a speaker at an event.  I can't do it all, though!  I would love to have a volunteer coordinator who I could refer these calls to, and who could organize AZNPS volunteers for these important events.  As well, it would be great to have someone helping me with publicizing our talks and fieldtrips.  Other ideas for help include someone who would want to help us to raise money by selling merchandise.  In other words, I need help in every area possible! Interested?  Or interested in volunteering in a different capacity?  Please do contact me at nightbloomingcactus@yahoo.com and we can connect. After 3 seasons of being president, 2008 will be my last season.  So if you think what we do is valuable, and you like attending the AZNPS talks, walks, and activities, it's time for you to be more involved in helping out.  I will pass on everything I know and help out as much as I can.

I look forward to your new energy!

                                                                              -Jessa Fisher, Flagstaff Chapter President

Flagstaff, cont.

Evening Program Talk: Tuesday, June 17 Pollinator and Invertebrate Flower Inquiline Diversity in Northern Arizona, presented by Larry Stevens. The evolution of flowering plants has

allowed the radiation of an enormous number of insect pollinators and other invertebrate flower inquilines (organisms like thrips that live in flowers but are not pollinators). This means that individual flowers and certainly inflorescences host unique assemblages of invertebrates, and some of those assemblages are remarkably complex. In this talk, we will explore several of those flower invertebrate assemblages to better understand the role of native and non-native plants in northern Arizona biodiversity.  Dr. Larry Stevens is an evolutionary ecologist and Curator of Ecology and Conservation at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. In addition to over 60 peer-reviewed and popular articles and three books, he has a soon-to-be-released book on North American springs ecology and conservation.

Field Trip: Sunday, June 22  Looking for Plants, Pollinators, and Flower Inquilines, led by Larry Stevens. We will look for some of these plant-insect interactions in the Snow Bowl meadow.  Meet at the regular meeting place and time to carpool or call 814-2644 for times and a meeting place from other areas.

Evening Program Talk: Tuesday, July 15 Looking at Plants Between Tortoises and Iguanas, presented by Zack Zdinak. The Galapagos Islands off Ecuador are true desert islands. Although astride the equator, these islands are dominated by arid lava flows, with many endemic forbs, thorny shrubs, and a few cacti, but devoid of native palms. We'll explore the general ecology of these weird islands with an emphasis on the native plants and the thriving invasives that Zack encountered during two weeks in May of 2007. Of course we'll also meet some of the unique critters as well.  Zack is a talented gardener and botanical illustrator, and his works include the AZNPS Wildflowers of Northern Arizona poster.

Field Trip: Sunday, July 20  Growing Castillejas and Carrots in a Flagstaff Garden, led by Zack Zdinak. Just get us started on how we've grown carrots for years, or how we successfully transplanted dozens of paintbrush from a friend's construction site, and we won't stop. Zack and Robert welcome you to our modest downtown garden for those and other trials and errors with native and food plants. We'll have the coffee ready. Bring a pot luck item to share for a backyard picnic. Meet at our regular spot to carpool, or call for directions: 774-4229 or wildlife@lifedraw.com.

Evening Program Talk: Tuesday, August 19  2008 Native Plant Garden Competition.  The 2007 event was so successful and appreciated by the community, we decided to do it again! Photos and descriptions of the gardens and landscapes entered into this second AZNPS garden competition will be featured. The focus of the competition is for the home gardener to demonstrate how plants of the Colorado Plateau can best be used in a garden setting. AZNPS judges will have visited the entered gardens, selected the winners, first and second in non-professional and professional categories, and will share how their decisions were made.  See page 6 for an entry form or contact Elaine Ferris at (928) 527-3702 by June 30th if you would like to be a judge.

Field Trip: Sunday, August 24 2008 Native Plant Garden Competition Tour. Entries in the Native Plant Garden Competition will be visited. Gardener hosts will guide us through their gardens, explain their garden designs and answer questions. Number of gardens and locations will determine length of trip; you can decide to visit one garden or all of them.  More information will be released about the tour as the season progresses so check your email.

Flagstaff, cont.

2008 Flagstaff Native Plant Garden Contest

The 2007 Native Plant Garden Contest was a huge success!  We had eleven entrants from all over the greater Flagstaff area.  So we are doing it again!  Look at the Flagstaff Chapter listings for the August contest events.

We are looking for judges for the 2008 contest who have experience with garden design and 

native plant gardening and identification. You must be able to participate in judging sessions

during the month of July, and attend the celebratory events in August.  If you are interested in

being a judge or entering your garden in the contest, please contact garden contest coordinator

Elaine Ferris at (928) 527-3702 by June 30th.

__________________________________________________________________

The Flagstaff Chapter of The Arizona Native Plant Society

Announces The 2008 Native Plant Garden Competition

 

  The following general guidelines will apply to judging of gardens in this competition:

• Gardens are to demonstrate how plants native to the Colorado Plateau can best be used in a garden setting.    A majority of plants used should be native, with some adaptive plants permitted. 
• Entries are to be located within the Greater-Flagstaff area.
• Gardeners will be classified as Professional or Non-Professional, with one winner and one runner-up in each category.    Winners will receive garden plaques; runners-up will receive certificates. 
• Entries may be an entire property or a portion of a property.  
• Past winning entries may not be re-entered, but may be included in the Garden Tour. 

   The timing of the competitive process is as follows:

• Send the completed entry form below to the Arizona Native Plant Society (AZNPS),                c/o Elaine Ferris at 5622 Velvet Valley Road, Flagstaff,  AZ 86004 by July 1, 2008.
• Gardens will be visited, photos taken, and entries judged between July 1 and July 31.
• After a slide show of photos of the entries, winners will be announced and awards presented at the Tuesday, August 19 regular monthly program of the AZNPS. 
• A tour of garden entries, with each gardener’s approval, will be held in association with the Flagstaff Xeriscape Council contest entries on Sunday, August 24.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL ELAINE AT 928- 527- 3702.

Visit the AZNPS website at www.aznps.org.

 

 

Tucson Chapter

Monthly programs are held on the 2nd Wednesday of each month from September through May, beginning at 7:00pm at the Arizona Game & Fish Office, 555 N Greasewood (west side of road between Speedway & Anklam). Look for the ANPS sandwich board that marks the driveway. We often have raffles for native plants or related books at each meeting, so be prepared! For information about the Tucson Chapter, please email our chapter President, Doug  Ripley, at  DouglasRipley@cox.net

JOIN OUR CHAPTER E-LIST

To keep up with the latest, join the chapter e-list. Send me your e-mail and I will add you to the AZNPS Tucson Chapter information service letting you know from time to time about events, conferences, outings, workshops, and volunteer opportunities in our area.  Send to: Nancy Zierenberg at nzberg4@cox.net to be added, or subtracted!

Message from new Tucson Chapter President

            Hello, my name is Douglas Ripley and I am the new Tucson chapter president of the Arizona Native Plant Society. I’m really excited about the many interesting and worthwhile projects and other activities sponsored by the Tucson Chapter.  I hope that I will be able to contribute toward the continuation those fine traditions and also help to develop new undertakings as well.  Opportunities for conservation of our native flora, public outreach and education, and activities for our individual members are just some of the areas in which I hope we’ll continue to excel. 

            In an effort to chart the course for the new season starting in the fall, Nancy Zierenberg, our dedicated administrative assistant and tireless promoter of the AZNPS, and I will hold an informal chapter planning meeting on Tuesday evening, June 3rd.  We’ll meet at 6:00 PM at Gentle Ben’s restaurant & brewery on University (just one block south of campus).  The purpose of this meeting, which is open to all, will be to discuss and chart the course of the Tucson chapter in the coming season.  I’m hoping many members will be able to attend the planning meeting and provide their unique insights and ideas for the continued building and strengthening of the Chapter.                     

                                                                            -Douglas Ripley, Tucson Chapter President

NO TALKS are scheduled for the summer months.

Field Trip: Saturday, June 14  Explore Bamboo Ranch  with owner Matt Finstrom. Matt will enlighten us about bamboo as we stroll through the grounds of his west side bamboo forest. This is limited to 15 people, so please register with Nancy Zierenberg (882-7663 or nzberg4@cox.net). Plan on spending a couple of hours. We will meet there at 9am: 1901 N Azahar. Here are directions: Go west on Ironwood Hills (Grant & Silverbell) to Saddlewood Ranch, which is just west of Greasewood, and turn left. Go 3 blocks, then turn right onto Azahar. You’ll go perhaps a block and a half to get to the ranch. Note that the addresses make no sense for the first block!  There is a nice gift shop on the premises sporting bamboo products, so you may want to come prepared—bring cash or your checkbook. No charges!  For more information go to:  www.bambooranch.net

Weekend Field Trip: Friday-Sunday, August 1-3.  Botany, bats and bugs in Ruby.  It doesn’t get better than this! We’ll be meeting at Ruby on Friday afternoon to set up the black-light and white sheet system in order to discover the myriad of moths, beetles, and other night flying insects out on a monsoon summer’s night. We’ll do this both nights so if you can’t come on Friday, join us on Saturday!  There is a summer Mexican Free-tail bat colony and we’ll get to watch the evening flight. We’ll spend day time botanizing to expand on the Plant List begun last Fall (we currently have over 200 species listed) and do some herbarium collecting, so bring your plant presses and field notebooks. Greta Anderson, our Conservation Committee Chair, will give a brief overview on making herbarium collections.

We’ll meet at the townsite by 4pm Friday evening to set up camp.  Everyone must check in with the Caretaker as you enter the property. Follow the sign!  You’ll need to bring your own food, water and gear. There are maintained pit toilets at the site. We’ll start botanizing Sat. morning.  We’ll be camping on sand between the pond and the lake. There is very refreshing swimming available in the lake, so you may want to bring a suit. Plan on botanizing again Sunday morning. We’ll recap afterwards and people can leave as they wish.  Please register for this trip by contacting Nancy Zierenberg in Tucson at 882-7663 or nzberg4@cox.net

Field Trip: Saturday, August 23 Botanical Exploration of Ft. Huachuca led by Douglas Ripley.

Historic Fort Huachuca is located near Sierra Vista, Cochise County, Arizona.  Mr. Sheridan Stone, Fort Huachuca’s natural resources manager, will supervise the visit and provide background information on the rich biological diversity to be found on one of the U.S. Army’s most historic and biologically rich installations.  We will explore the many diverse habitats to be found on the post, including the eastern grasslands and the famous Garden Canyon.  The trip will be suitable for all levels of hiking as cars can be positioned at various points in Garden Canyon for those not up to hiking the entire distance.

Things to Bring:  camera, binoculars, sunscreen, water, field guides, lunch, and a government-issued photo ID for all persons over 18 years of age.  

Meeting Time & Location:  9:30 AM at Fort Huachuca main gate, Sierra Vista
Trip Leader:  Douglas Ripley, 520-207-6077, e-mail:  DouglasRipley@cox.net

Note:  Foreign nationals are welcome on the trip but must bring a photo ID and be escorted by someone from the fort during the visit.  Please inform the trip leader (Doug Ripley) in advance if a foreign national will be participating and Doug will arrange for the escort.

 

 

 

The Conservation Committee continues to work on resource protection issues related to native plants. Our recent efforts have been focused mostly in southern Arizona, but we're always open to helping folks get started with local projects elsewhere in the state. Contact conservation@aznps.org for more information.

We will meet throughout the summer on the fourth Wednesday of each month at various locations in central Tucson. If you'd like to attend a meeting or get on our mailing list, contact conservation@aznps.org. We've always got a long list of ways to get involved.

State Conservation Committee, cont.

Solstice Festival:Saturday, June 21, 4:30-9:30 pm. This event is a lot of fun and we plan to set up a table highlighting the monsoon blooms of devils' claw. We've got seeds for a giveaway. Come on down and say hi, or better yet, stay awhile and help us turn people on to native plants! www.statemuseum.arizona.edu/events/solstice/index.shtml

Ruby Fieldtrip. See description under the Tucson Chapter section- we'll be teaming up with a broader group to continue documenting the plants of Ruby, Arizona.

Keep an eye out for the new "Native Plants for Desert Tortoises" brochure on our website. Conservation Committee member Dennis Caldwell spearheaded this project, solicited input from committee members, and brought this beauty to fruition this spring. We've already had to print more, and Arizona Game and Fish Department has been helping us get them out to people with captive tortoises.

 

 

LANDSCAPING BOOKLETS

Don’t forget that AZNPS has helpful landscaping booklets for sale. These contain good information and give nice ideas for creating or adding to your urban landscape. Think habitat & connectivity! We are now carrying a new book that nicely takes the place of our Desert Accents booklet which is out of print. This book, Cacti, Succulents, and Unusual Xerophytes of Southern Arizona, was written by member Matt Johnson and covers many of our Arizona species. It is available for $10 plus $2 for shipping ($12 total).  Order information is on line: www.aznps.org/merchandise

LETS MOVE OUR MERCHANDISE!

You all can help move our AZNPS merchandise, and thus earn money for our organization, by sending me (Nancy Zierenberg, nzberg4@cox.net) contact information of your local businesses that may want to consider carrying our goods (booklets, posters). Please email the store name and address. If you talk to someone there, please send me a name! Many thanks for pitching in on this project.

ENVIRONMENTAL FUND for ARIZONA   (www.EFAZ.org)

Another way you can help AZNPS is through workplace giving. AZNPS is a member of the Environmental Fund for Arizona (www.EFAZ.org) which is part of the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) and also the state campaign (ECAP). That means if you or your friends work for the federal government or state of Arizona, you can donate to EFAZ, or directly to AZNPS, through your workplace. EFAZ is an umbrella organization composed of 29 member groups who can all receive funding through environmental giving in the workplace. If you don’t have a giving program in place, we can help you start one! Contact EFAZ directly through the website or your AZNPS representative, Nancy Zierenberg: nzberg4@cox.net or 520-882-7663.

PLEASE WELCOME OUR NEW AZNPS BOARD MEMBERS!

 Yuma Chapter President Shawn Pollard

I am an adjunct professor in music at Arizona Western College in Yuma.  My full-time job is job hunting.  A certifiable plant freak, I have been a member of the AZNPS since around 1996.  I was the field trip coordinator for the Tucson chapter on two separate occasions. I've been involved with several bulb societies for even longer, serving as the vice-president for the Pacific Bulb Society for several years. After my new landlord ordered me to get rid of my plants after three years of accumulating them at my present address, I convinced the authorities at AWC to let me take over five neglected garden beds at the college.  I am maintaining them on my own as xeriscape and not-so xeriscape gardens, with some assistance from the biology faculty.  The remainder of my plants ended up in the cramped AWC greenhouse.  To make room for the agriculture faculty to use the greenhouse for its intended purpose, we had a plant sale of my plants earlier in the year, putting many native plants in the hands of Yuma's other green thumbs (as well as a few black thumbs, I'm sure).

Tucson Chapter President J. Douglas Ripley

         J. Douglas Ripley has 16 years experience in developing policy and overseeing the management of natural and cultural resources conservation programs for the Headquarters United States Air Force and the Air National Guard.  His military and civilian career spans 35 years with the U.S. Air Force, Air National Guard, Department of the Army, and the Office of the Department of Defense Inspector General.  Prior to going to Washington, DC, he was a member of the Biology Faculty at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado, for ten years and also served at other Air Force assignments in Florida, California, Oregon, Washington State, Taiwan, the Republic of China, and Germany.  A native of San Francisco, California, he holds the B.A. and M.A. degrees in biology from San Francisco State University and the Ph.D. in plant ecology from Oregon State University. He retired from the Federal Civil Service in July 2004 and now works part time as an environmental consultant and volunteer for various environmental organizations.  In July 2007 he and his wife Arlene moved from their home in Calvert County Maryland to Tucson, Arizona.  They are now building their retirement home in the Dragoon Mountains, Cochise County, Arizona.

                                                                          State Treasurer Arlene Stigen

Hi. My name is Arlene Stigen. I moved to Tucson from Virginia two years ago after falling in love with the desert during a year's journey of visiting national parks. Last year I started a bookkeeping service, which gives me flexibility in scheduling my time. That, in turn, has allowed me to volunteer in areas of interest, notably with water issues. Recently I completed the Master Watershed Steward program and plan to be involved with conservation education. I am also a docent for The Nature Conservancy Rainwater Harvesting project in Tucson. I have over 25 years of accounting experience--in public accounting, internal audit, banking, and property management. I am Treasurer of the Tucson chapter of AZNPS, and I'm looking forward to working with the members of the AZNPS Board of Directors.


     CONTEST!

AZNPS needs a tagline that we can use for name- recognition, which we will put on our new merchandise and in our publications, etc.  Submit your two to five word tagline to nzberg@cox.net The board will vote on our favorite one, and the winner will get a prize!

The winner will be announced in Happenings.