Chapter Meeting Archive

Guest Speaker: Tanya Baxter, Principal at Baxter Botanical, Botanist and Natural Resource Management Specialist

“Prioritizing California Native Plants for Butterfly and Moth Conservation” Guest Speaker: Christopher Cosma, PhD candidate UCR

Monarchs Make Their Home in Marin Again
by Ole Schell (Founder of the Bolinas Monarch Sanctuary), Audrey Fusco (SPAWN Nursery Manager and Restoration Ecologist), and Mia Monroe (Xerces Society Volunteer)

Our December meeting is also our official Annual Meeting to elect a slate of officers for the 2023 Marin Chapter Board of Directors. Following the brief business meeting enjoy this month's presentation, “Pinnacles Jewelflower”. We have space on the board and call for...

Guest Speakers: Drew Kerr and Simon Gunner, California State Coastal Conservancy’s Invasive Spartina Project (ISP)

Guest Speaker: Frédérique Lavoipierre, Author of Garden Allies

Guest Speaker: Ginna Meyer, El Dorado Chapter CNPS

Guest Speaker: Toni Corelli, Botanist, Photographer, Author

Guest Speaker: Stephen McCabe

Guest Speaker: Christina Toms

Guest Speaker: David Nelson

Guest Speaker: Pat Reynolds – River Partners Native Seed and Plant Program Director

Guest Speaker: Glen Holstein

Guest Speaker: Brent Mishler

Guest Speaker: Mia Monroe

Guest Speaker: Susan Karasoff, Yerba Buena Chapter CNPS

Guest Speaker: Saxon Holt, award-winning photographer

Guest Speaker: Nicole Ibañez, Masters candidate, University of San Francisco

Guest Speaker: Daniel Gluesenkamp, Executive Director of the California Institute for Biodiversity

Guest Speaker: Jeff Bisbee

Marginal Survival? Preparing Marin Bayland Edges for Native Plant Conservation During Rapid Sea Level Rise and Climate Change

Guest Speaker: Bruce Homer-Smith

Guest Speaker: Gretchen LeBuhn

Guest Speaker: Pete Veilleux

Guest Speaker: Tom Bruns

Guest speaker: Jim Bishop

Guest Speaker: Dick O’Donnell

Guest Speaker: Josie Iselin

Guest Speaker: Laura Cunningham

Guest Speaker: Bob Mauceli, Marin Master Gardener

Plant ID for the Curious
Guest Speaker: Bruce Homer-Smith

Guest Speaker: Jim Bishop

Guest Speaker: Dr. Hesh Kaplan

Guest Speaker:  Cynthia Powell

Guest Speaker: Dr. Saul-Gershenz

Guest Speaker: Jeff Bisbee

Beauty and the Beast: California Wildflowers and Climate Change

Nita Winter and Rob Badger take you behind the scenes of their 27-year journey photographing wildflowers throughout California.

Dick O’Donnell on Exploring the Siskiyou Crest

Our January membership meeting program will be a medley of pictures from botanical forays in California and beyond.

Guest Speaker: Mike Palladini, Stewardship Program Manager, Land Trust of Napa County

Guest Speaker: Jerry Meral Ph. D.

Guest Speaker: Dick O’Donnell

Guest Speaker: Ted Kipping

Guest speaker: Kurt Rademacher

Guest speaker:  Eva Buxton

Guest Speakers: Doreen and Vernon Smith

California Mushrooms

Guest speaker: Michael Wood

Michael Wood, a California native, is a retired computer consultant by profession, and a mycologist and photographer by obsession.

Our January membership meeting program will be a potluck medley of your best pictures from botanical forays in California and beyond.

“Water, Fire, and Mt. Tamalpais”
Guest Speaker: Andrea Williams

The Marin Municipal Water District (MMWD) is continuing to take action to minimize fire hazards and maximize ecological health on its watershed lands.

Measuring the Health of a Mountain:  Vegetation indicators for ecosystem health of Mt. Tamalpais

Guest Speaker: Andrea Williams

Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County is a biodiversity hotspot, hosting over 1,000 plant taxa in more than 100 recognized communities—as well as the animals and physical processes that maintain this rich landscape.

New Calflora Tools for CNPS Users
Guest Speaker: Cynthia Powell, Calflora Executive Director

Join Calflora’s new Executive Director Cynthia Powell to discuss new Calflora tools for CNPS Calflora users.

Gardening for Butterflies

Guest Speaker: Charlotte Torgovitsky

How can you invite the winged jewels into your garden
sanctuary?

Our Pals, the Pollinators

Guest Speaker: Dick O’Donnell

The enjoyment of flowers seems to expand the more we know about the lives of flowering plants.

The California Wildflower Superbloom—                

A Garden Photographer’s View

Guest speaker: Saxon Holt

Saxon Holt has been a professional garden photographer for 30 years, and a CNPS member 35. In recent years he has been seeking to combine these two passions to inspire gardeners to use the diverse palette of native plants.

SaxSaxon Holton Holt

 CNPS Members’ Photos from 2017 Botanical Adventures

“North American Cercis (Redbud): A Study of Evolution and Adaptation”                          

Guest Speaker: Camille Nowell

For many centuries, Cercis, a genus of attractive woody plants that includes our native western redbud, has been a focus of botanical study and appreciation.

Eelgrass Ecosystems: Understanding Impacts of Climate Change and Human Activities

Guest Speaker – Sarah Lummis

Eelgrass is one of 72 species of seagrass, a group of flowering plants whose ancestors evolved from land back into the ocean.

“Citizen Scientists, Conservation Gardening, and Superbloom Photographers: How Will We Save California’s Incredible Flora?”

Guest speaker: Daniel Gluesenkamp

For over 50 years, CNPS has protected our native plants and celebrated California’s wild gardens. 

“Sierra Nevada Plants”

Guest Speaker: Eva Buxton

CNPS Marin Chapter Conservation Chair, Eva Buxton will speak about native plants of the Sierras.

“A Botanical and Horticultural Potpourri”

Guest Speaker: Bart O’Brien

Bart O’Brien, the Manager/Director of the Botanic Garden in Tilden Regional Park, will speak about several of his larger ongoing projects as well as some of his more recent distractions.

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Ina Coolbrith’s love of California Wildflowers

Guest Speaker: Aleta George

The California poppy was ten years away from being named California’s official state flower when poet Ina Coolbrith wrote “Copa de Oro” in 1893.

Regrowth and Recovery from the North Bay Fires of 2014 – 2015
Guest Speaker: Dick O’Donnell

Wildfires in Napa and Lake Counties in 2014–2015 destroyed over 150,000 acres of chaparral and woodland. 

CNPS Members’ Photos from 2016 Botanical Adventures

Our January membership meeting program will be a potluck medley of our members best pictures from botanical forays in California and beyond.

Muir Woods—A Close Look at Park Health During NPS Centennial                        

Guest Speaker: Mia Monroe

Muir Woods was set aside as a primeval forest over a
century ago and is now one of the most loved places in California.

“Indian Baskets of Northern California and Oregon“  

 Guest Speakers: Ralph and Lisa Shanks

Ralph and Lisa Shanks are Marin CNPS members who have studied Native American basketry for decades. Working in museums across America and in Europe and with skilled native weavers, a major focus of their research is on how California native plants were used in basketry.

“The Floral Riches of Kit Carson Pass“                          Guest Speaker: Ted Kipping                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Carson Pass through the Sierra Nevada Mountains is a
byway not just for humans but for plants and animals as
well.

“A Snapshot of Marin’s Fauna”                              Guest Speaker: Jake Kurzweil

It is clear Mt. Tamalpias is a biodiversity hot spot. 

“Interrelationships of Flora and Fauna in Southeast Arizona”                                                     Guest Speaker: Bob Stewart

The extreme southeastern part of Arizona contains a high diversity of plants insects, reptiles and birds.

Calochortus Pursuits: A Spring and Summer in Search of “Beautiful Grass”                      
Guest Speaker:Kipp McMichael

California is home to the lion’s share of species in the genus Calochortus – they grow in every county of the state.

“Looking Down
– Mosses in the California Flora”

Guest Speaker: Stephen P. Rae, Ph.D.                                                                                                                                                                    

A journey into the world of mosses with side trips to rocks, tree, streams and fens. Dr Rae will explain how mosses differ from “real” plants and why you should be interested.

“2015 Botanical Highlights” of Chapter Members                              

January’s program will feature the botanical trips and activities of several of our chapter members, including a special presentation by Doreen and Vernon Smith: “Plant Safari Expeditions in 2015 on the Lands of the MMWD on Mt. Tamalpais.”

“Some Plants from the land of Linnaeus”
Guest Speaker: Eva Buxton

Carl von Linné, the King of Flowers, as he is known in Sweden, is sometimes called the Father of Botany. Linnaeus was convinced that God had created all species and that his own role was to classify plants by putting them in classes based on the number of stamens, and within the classes, in orders based on the number of pistils.

“Pollination Biology”
Guest Speaker: Bob Stewart

Come learn about studies regarding how the shape and color of native plants relates to the plant’s pollinators.

“Steens Mountain, Oregon”
Guest Speaker: Dick O’Donnell

“Fathers and Sons: Famous Families in Western Botanical Pursuits”
Guest Speaker: Dr. Peggy L. Fiedler

Learn about some father-son duos who were famous botanist, including John & William Bartram, William Jackson and Joseph Dalton Hooker, and others. Understand better their roles in Western Botanical Science, Art, and Exploration.

“Highlights of Cook & Green Pass”
Guest Speaker: Ted Kipping

Come join us for an intimate look at this amazing place. The area has a phenomenal concentration of native plant species, with possibly as many as 300 species present.

“Vertic Clay Soil Endemic Plant Species of the Inner South Coast Ranges”
Guest Speaker: Ryan O’Dell

Learn about some of California’s rich diversity of edaphic (soil-influenced) endemic plant species, including those restricted to physically and chemically extreme substrates. You’ve heard about the challenges of serpentine soil and gypsum-rich soil; come learn about vertic clay soils that present a unique extreme stress to plant growth and some f the plants adapted to this environment.

The Tiburon mariposa lily (Calochortus tiburonensis) in a rapidly changing climate:
an ecological and evolutionary perspective
Guest Speaker: Dr. Sarah Swope

“Botanizing Western North America: 160 Years at the California Academy of Sciences”
Guest Speaker: Debra Trock

“Native American Uses of California Native Plants”
Guest Speaker: John Kipping

The West: A Closer Look
Guest Speaker: Ted Kipping