California native PlantVOL 47 So / CNietyO 1 JANUAR• VolY-MAR 47 / nCHo 20171 January-MarCh 2017 CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY BULLETIN California Consulting Botanist Certification Program What you need to know: FAQs Upcoming Tests • Nor Cal - March 6, 2017 NPS has been working to develop with those that are certified, as well as Curry Canyon Ranch (near Clayton) a certification program for producing and distributing educational botanists since 2004. It is now a and informational materials, such as the • So Cal - May 2017 C Location and date TBA reality! The main goal of this certification newsletter, keeping track of professional is to formally recognize botanists who: development credits (PDCs). Collaborating Organizations • Incorporate scientifically sound bo- Will there be a distribution list sent inform- tanical principles in decision-making. ing the public of who has been certified? • Meet a minimum set of standards in No. However, CNPS will maintain a list knowledge and experience. of all persons certified and their contact • Adhere to high ethical standards. information, and this list will be published on the botanist certification webpage. Will these exams be offered in a wider vari- ety of locations? Demand will be a large determining fac- Photograph by Julie Nelson Photograph tor in when and where certification exams northern and southern California. Exam will be held; however, an effort will be dates will vary by demand as well. T Botanists in the field. made to move the venue around the state, hDavid Magney, CNPS Here are a few frequently asked questions with at least one set of exams each year in visit www.cnps.org/botanistcertification about the program. More can be found on our website. What sort of input was provided by the Saved from the Brink of Extinction: larger botanical community in the develop- ment of this program? The story of the Mount Diablo Buckwheat The current certification program has he story of the Mount Diablo buckwheat actually starts out as a geology story with been under development since 2002 in the creation of our state's first Geological Survey of California. In the wake of the collaboration with botanists, the academic TGold Rush, the state legislature passed an 1860 act establishing the Survey and the community, consulting firms, government Office of the State Geologist. The act assigned Josiah D. Whitney (for whom Mount Whitney agencies, and conservationists statewide is named) to fill the new office, and (see our partners in the sidebar). The Whitney quickly assembled a team certification idea has been presented that included William H. Brewer as and discussed at major conferences and chief botanist and field party leader. smaller symposia too. While in the field, Brewer kept a de- What do the exam fee and annual dues tailed journal of the party's travels, later cover? published as the book, Up and Down The exam fee covers the costs associated California. In his notes, he described with developing and administering the approaching the Central Valley from examinations. The annual dues cover the Clayton, California the day before he cost of maintaining the records associated discovered Mount Diablo buckwheat: Mount Diablo buckwheat. continued on page 4 PAGE 1 California native Plant SoCiety • Vol 47 / no 1 January-MarCh 2017 From the Executive Director "A single simple action…” inally, I did it, and it native plant lovers who generally can’t write (done), and 2) F feels good. It’s been a big check right now but want to make sure tell CNPS you on my personal “to do” CNPS is protecting our plants and places have done so lists, and without any good reason I have long into the future. (I’m doing that, just procrastinated and stalled for far too What got me to finally take action? fairly publicly, here). You can also choose long. It feels so good! Finally, I’ve made Elizabeth Schwartz. As you read in the to give guidance on how the gift is to be CNPS a beneficiary of my (all-too-meager) last Bulletin (and see page 10) Liz made applied: I want my gift used wherever it is estate. a special gift. She also showed me how most needed to support CNPS’s unique For more than four years I have had the incredibly simple it is to add CNPS as a and essential mission, to celebrate and save honor of working for CNPS. During that beneficiary to life insurance or retirement California’s amazing plants and places. time I have witnessed the enormous good accounts. I could do it anytime I login I am mindful of something Elizabeth done by Legacy Donors: those who chose online or return the annual insurance Schwartz once told us: “Please, go out and to include CNPS in their wills, trusts, enrollment forms, requiring no will, trust, be our ambassadors. A single simple action life insurance, or retirement accounts. attorneys, or fancy language. So, I did it. can start the ball rolling...” Thank you Liz Jenny and Scott Fleming, June Billisoly, The California Native Plant Society is now for the inspiration. T Beatrice Brown, Elaine Conze, Carlyn a beneficiary of my life insurance-not the h Dan Gluesenkamp Halde, Freda King, Marion McMahon, all only one, as I do want to make sure my child CNPS Executive Director deserve our deepest gratitude for gifts that is supported, but CNPS is also in my heart See page 10 for more on the supported CNPS conservation, rare plant and now is in my estate. Elizabeth Schwartz Fund research, education, gardening, and chapter It feels good, and I encourage you to needs. They ensured that we can continue consider doing the same-for one thing, I this important work even during major now get to wear the fancy cloisonné pin CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY economic downturns. I have also been reserved for Legacy Donors! We can provide 2707 K Street, Suite 1 inspired by friends and, yes, coworkers, who more info if you need, but really there are Sacramento, CA 95816-5113 have named CNPS in their wills –dedicated just two steps: 1) add CNPS as a beneficiary Phone: 916-447-2677 t Fax: 916-447-2727 Email: [email protected] Website: www.cnps.org CNPS Bulletin Email: [email protected] Dan Gluesenkamp, Executive Director 2016 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Steve Hartman, President Bill Waycott, VP Gabi McLean, Treasurer Carolyn Longstreth, Secretary At Large: Johanna Kwan, Julie Clark DeBlasio, Cari Porter, Brett Hall, Jean Robertson, Gordon Leppig, Cris Sarabia, Vince Scheidt CHAPTER COUNCIL Chair, Marty Foltyn Vice Chair, Larry Levine Secretary, Judy Fenerty CNPS BULLETIN Liv O'Keeffe Marketing & Communications Director Michael Kauffmann, Editor & Designer David Chapman, Snowdy Dodson, Dave Flietner, & Allison Poklemba, Proofreaders MAILING LABEL CHANGES Send to: [email protected] PAGE 2 California native Plant SoCiety • Vol 47 / no 1 January-MarCh 2017 Struggle for survival on the Algodones Dunes ocated in one of the hottest and almost exclusively found driest regions in the United States, in the western inte- Lthe Algodones Dunes measure 40 rior portions. Colonies of Photographs courtesy of Steve Hartman miles long and three to five miles wide. Peirson’s milkvetch north Portions of the dunes have been shown to of Hwy 78 are smaller be migrating southeasterly at an average than those further south rate of 15 feet per year for large dunes and become much less and 60 feet per year for smaller ones. The continuous. constant shifting sand has resulted in After the Center for interesting adaptations. The Algodones Biological Diversity, the Astragalus magdalenae var. peirsonii. dunes sunflower (Helianthus niveus ssp. Sierra Club, and others tephrodes) handles this by growing and reached a settlement with federal authori- flowering throughout the year. ties limiting off-road vehicle use on the Even more spectacular, and more dif- Algodones Dunes in 2000, there has been ficult to find, is the bizarre parasitic sand a contentious battle regarding the designa- food (Pholisma sonorae). In 1980, this tion of critical habitat for the species. In unusual flowering plant made the cover 2003 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of CNPS’ journal Fremontia (Sand Food: proposed 52,780 acres as critical habitat. A Strange Plant of the Algodones Dunes That was cut by more than 60 percent by Wayne P. Armstrong, 7(4):3-9 Janu- in 2004, revised down to a proposal that ary 1980 and More About Sand Food by identified only 16,108 acres, and then in Wayne P. Armstrong, 8(2):30-31 July 2008 a final rule was published reducing 1980). the species’ critical habitat to just 12,105 Dunes meet ATVs. Of all the rare plants of the dunes, the acres. After losing the lawsuit, the case was ap- species in most peril is Peirson’s milkvetch In 2012, the BLM released a new rec- pealed and upheld by a three-judge panel (Astragalus magdalenae var. peirsonii). reational plan for California’s Algodones of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. This state (1979) endangered and federal Dunes that would eliminate protections In 2016, CNPS filed an amicus brief to (1998) listed threatened plant is limited to on more than 40,000 acres of crucial the Ninth Circuit in support of a request the Algodones Dunes in the United States. habitat for rare and vanishing species— for an en banc rehearing (a rehearing by Within the dunes, Peirson’s milkvetch is including more than 6,000 acres of rare the full Ninth Circuit Court, not just desert woodlands—by the three judge panel that ruled against allowing off-road vehicles the conservation organizations), but that unlimited access to areas hearing was denied. previously off-limits. In The goal of protecting the critical 2013 the Center for Bio- habitat of an endangered species per the logical Diversity, Public Federal Endangered Species Act is to Employees for Responsi- facilitate recovery, not merely to ensure bility, Desert Survivors, the survival of individuals or occurrences and the Sierra Club filed within a fragmented and disturbed land- a lawsuit against the scape of unsuitable or destroyed habitat.