Steward Appreciation Night

Thursday night, January 8, is the night WNPS Native Plant Stewards have an opportunity to show and tell the Chapter membership about their projects and accomplishments. We have graduated 396 stewards who are involved in a number of large and small restoration, conservation and education projects throughout the Puget Sound area. This is a wonderful chance for the Chapter membership and guests to learn about the difference our Stewards make in the restoration and appreciation of native plants and native plant habitat. Three projects will be presented:

1. WNPS Stewards Initiate Biocontrol Research to Control Purple Loosestrife on Whidbey Island, by Cleveland Hall (2000); Mark Fessler (2001); and Barbara Kolar (2001).

2. Getting Homeowner Associations Engaged in Habitat Restoration: A Community Stewardship Challenge, by Terry Jongejan (2008)

3. Daylighting Madrona Park Creek: It takes a Neighborhood, by Peter Mason (2008)

Grazing on Public Lands, presented by Tip Hudson.

Join us for a brief history of grazing in Washington and a discussion of the various benefits of grazing.  Our speaker will discuss how grazing practices can be used while also maintaining environmental quality and providing a sustainable food source.  Mr. Hudson’s discussion will emphasize the use of grazing on public lands.

Mr. Hudson is a rangeland and livestock management educator at Washington State University Cooperative Extension.

Pollination Ecology, presented by Priya Shahani

Without pollination – the movement of pollen from flowers’ tiny anthers to minute stigmas – most flowering plants would be unable to reproduce.  How exactly does pollination work?  What are the different methods of pollination, and what are the roles of various insect pollinators?  Why does it occur?  Priya Shahani will reveal some of the secrets of this important process, and discuss how plant ecologists such as herself study insects and plants that engage in this fascinating step in plant reproduction.

Ms. Shahani is a conservation biologist, currently employed with the Natural Areas Program of the Washington’s Department of Natural Resources.  She currently conducts research and monitoring to improve knowledge and protection of sensitive plant species and communities in eastern Washington preserves.  Priya received a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from UC Santa Cruz, exploring the effects of forest management on pollination and population biology of a serpentine specialist plant in the Sisiyou Mountains of southwestern Oregon.

This lecture is co-sponsored by WNPS and Yakima Valley Community College.

Monday, Feb. 2, 2009; 7 PM

Room 119, Glen Anthon Hall, Yakama Valley Community College, Yakima (for map, see www.yvcc.edu/Map/campusmapcolor.pdf

To be announced.

Program to be announced.

Program to be announced.

Suksdorfia