Marin Chapter Turns 50!
Marin Chapter’s 50th Anniversary
It’s unlikely that the dozen people who met on Sep. 12, 1974 to establish the Marin chapter of CNPS envisioned what a thriving organization they had started. Within 3 months, there was a governing board, several committees and 115 members; they also offered monthly speakers, led field trips, and submitted J. T. Howell’s name for consideration as a CNPS Fellow. Today the chapter membership is over 450 and we have become an important resource for the county on native plants.
The first task facing the new Marin CNPS chapter in 1974 was to find out what we had: to create a record of the native plants in Marin county, where they grow, and what condition they were in. Led by the indefatigable Wilma Follette, members trekked Marin’s hills and trails identifying and recording what they found. Wilma was self-taught and, in the process of leading plant walks around the county, she interested hundreds of others in our local flora. She led walks for 29 years, which resulted in more than 70 comprehensive plant lists for specific trails, parks, and open spaces in the county. The first vegetation ecologist hired by Marin County Parks, Mischon Martin, was the beneficiary of Wilma’s compendium of knowledge, which became the foundation for the plant inventories of county-managed land. She spoke about this at our 50th Anniversary Dinner celebration. Hired with no resources, no computer, and no budget to speak of, Mischon said, “Wilma and her team did a huge amount of work and we didn’t have to budget for it—it was free. We were so grateful.”
The Marin Chapter’s work to identify the native plants of Marin county became the basis for state records as well. Within its first year, the staff at the CA Dept of Fish and Wildlife’s California Natural Diversity Database (CNDDB) began collaborating with the CNPS Rare Plant Program, and used CNPS rare plant data as the starting point for their rare plant dataset. A search of the CNDDB database turns up 56 submissions by Wilma, resulting in 26 new species being added. Not bad for a housewife turned botanist. Over the years, other members of the chapter also made significant contributions to this effort, including Doreen Smith, Eva Buxton and Bob Soost among others.
Last year we celebrated our 50th anniversary year with several notable events. These included our very successful anniversary dinner, which drew in new and old members. We created several challenges for our anniversary year. People rose to the challenge of finding 50 Plants in the Wild from a supplied list of species. Our 50 Acts of Caring is still posted on Instagram (www.instagram.com/marincnps/) and we urge you to participate. We had a record fall plant sale, proving that people have gotten the message about using native plants in home gardens.
Over the past year, the chapter has discussed what our future looks like and where we need to focus our energies. CNPS has been good at collecting data and protecting endangered habitats but we are facing new challenges, including biodiversity loss and climate change. These call for an “all hands on deck” response quite different from our past decades work of diligently locating and recording our county’s flora. For example, the importance of native plants as the foundation of the food chain essential for biodiversity is not well understood by the average person. As the spokespersons for plants, we need to convey this message about the critical role that native plants play—in open space and also in home and public landscapes.
This means raising the profile of CNPS which, for most people, remains a little-known organization. Our message about the importance of native plants is highly relevant to the preservation of biodiversity. Challenges include how to reach those who have not heard of CNPS and how to educate the public and policy makers about the essential link between thriving plants and thriving people, as well as more balanced climate systems. We encourage you to join us in this effort.
