FLAGSTAFF CHAPTER
President Jessa Fisher (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 328 of the Biology Building on the NAU campus (unless a room change comes about, which we will alert you to). All walks meet at 10:00 a.m. on either the 3 rd Saturday or Sunday of the month at the Prochnow parking lot on the NAU campus, corners of Milton and Butler Aves. Come prepared with sun protection, water, food, and a car or gas money for carpooling. Please let me know if you are receiving Happenings but are not yet on our local email list! Thanks, and see you soon! --Jessa For information about the Flagstaff Chapter, contact AZNPS Flagstaff Chapter, c/o Deaver Herbarium, NAU, P.O. Box 5640, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5640, (928) 523-7242 or e-mail. |
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 Jessa Fisher 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
FALL SEASON MEETINGS
Evening Program Talk: October 21 The Sweetest Sand Verbena presented by Meredith Jabis. Meredith is a biology graduate student at NAU under Dr. Tina Ayers. She is doing her thesis work on the rare and spectacular Ramshaw Meadows sand verbena (Abronia alpina), which is endemic to some high elevation meadows in the eastern Sierra Nevadas. Her presentation will discuss the taxonomy, biology, pollination, and reproduction of this lovable and special plant. This will be held at our NEW regular meeting place, BIO 328, the newly renovated botany classroom.
Workshop: Sunday, October 26 PAPAZ Herbarium and Basic Botany Training Continues presented by AZNPS volunteers. Thank you to everyone who joined us this summer on our two PAPAZ (Plant Atlas Project of AriZona) programs: a collection camping weekend at Barbershop Canyon and introduction to botany and herbarium mounting workshop held at the Museum of Northern Arizona. We will be having another beginning to intermediate level training on this day, open to everyone, whether you participated in the past or are new to all this. We will be teaching basic botany skills, and will continue mounting specimens. This will be held at our NEW regular meeting place, BIO 328, the newly renovated botany classroom.
Northern Arizona Native Plant Materials Program
The Arboretum at Flagstaff and the Museum of Northern Arizona will have many volunteer opportunities for AZNPS members to become involved in various aspects of the Northern Arizona Native Plant Materials Program at each institution. The Museum and The Arboretum will be working in conjunction with the Forest Service over the next year to accomplish the main objectives of this FS funded project: to locally collect, process and store seed; to construct six 10 ft X 30 ft seed beds to cultivate and increase native forbs; to establish 5 acres as increaser field plots; to acquire equipment to collect and process native seeds; to provide training on seed collection, processing and storage; and to work cooperatively to develop local native species lists targeting early seral stage species that will become "restoration workhorses."
There will be field surveys and monitoring in September and October on the Coconino and Kaibab NFs involving AZ bugbane, Mogollon thistle, San Francisco Peaks groundsel, AZ cliffrose, and various field projects coordinated by Barb Phillips and Debbie Crisp. During the winter months, the Coconino NF botanists could also use help with plant identification, mounting specimens, and databasing our small FS herbarium. Please contact Debbie Crisp.
The Arboretum at Flagstaff will be conducting seed collecting trips from mid-August through October and we encourage volunteers to join us! Please contact the Research Botanist at The Arboretum, Sheila Murray for more information.
Northern Arizona Native Plant Working Group (NANSA)
In conjunction with the aforementioned Museum, Arboretum, and Forest Service effort, a new working group has formed to address the need for seeds for restoration projects. The Northern Arizona Native Plant Working Group (NANSA) has had several monthly meetings now. The group is comprised of more than 20 people from just as many national, state, educational, and non-profit organizations. NANSA was inspired by and is being modeled after a more regional group with a similar mission, the Colorado Plateau Native Plant Initiative. If you would like more information on NANSA, or would like to get involved, please contact Janet Lynn of the NAU Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Program.