CALENDAR OF EVENTS Field Trips p. 5 Sunday, April 2, 10 am, Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge Saturday, April 8, Falls Trail, Mount Diablo Sunday, April 9, 2 pm, Butano State Park, San Mateo County Saturday, April 15, Snell Valley, Napa County Sunday, April 16, 2006, East Trail, Mount Diablo Sunday, April 23, 2:30 pm, Sunol Regional Park Board of Directors meeting Wednesday, April 5, 7:30 pm, home of Barbara Leitner, 2 Parkway Court, Orinda Native Here p. 8 Nursery open, Fridays, April 7, 14, 21, 28, 9-noon and Saturdays, April 1,8, 15, 22, 29, 10 am-1 pm See collection forays, Tuesdays, April 4, 11, 18, 25, approximately 9:00 am to 1 pm Native Plant Restoration Team p. 2 Saturday, April 8, 9:30 am Membership meeting see below Wednesday, April 26, 2006, 7:30 pm, Orinda Public Library Auditorium Membership p. 4 Helpers needed for mini plant sales on Sunday, May 7 at the Bring Back the Natives Garden Tour MEMBERSHIP MEETING The Diablo Grand Loop: The Hunt for Brewer, Buck- wheat and Bowerman Speaker: Seth Adams Wednesday, April 26, 2006, 7:30 pm Orinda Public Library Auditorium (directions below) On May 29, 1862, William Brewer of the Whitney Geological Survey was the first person to document the Mt. Diablo buckwheat [Eriogonum truncation) in the mountain’s eastern foothills on John Marsh’s rancho. Brewer and Whitney believed Mt. Diablo was the key to understanding California’s geology and they witnessed the beginnings of both tourism and mining booms there. Soon afterwards, a surge of development speculation would threaten and ultimately save vast tracts of land on and around the mountain. Seventy years later, UC botany student Mary Bower - man began studies that would convince her, too, of the mountain’s importance. Her research would lay the groundwork for Diablo’s preservation, but as in Brewer’s time, the effort would take place in competi- tion with development threats. In 1936, Bowerman was the last person to see the Mt. Diablo buckwheat alive. Until the mid 1960s, Contra Costa County had just one significant park, 6000-acre Mt. Diablo State Park. Mary Bowerman co-founded Save Mount Diablo in 1971 and for 34 years that organization has worked with agencies, individuals, and even developers to ex- pand Mt. Diablo State Park and help create nineteen more Diablo parks. Their combined area now totals 88,000 acres. Seven of the parks were created or opened in the past ten years, including Round Valley, Brushy Peak, and Vasco Caves Regional Preserves; the Los Vaqueros watershed; and Cowell Ranch State Park, the remnant of Marsh’s rancho where the buckwheat was discovered. In 1994, Save Mount Diablo created the 30-mile Diablo Trail across six parks. Next year, the organization will publish a map of an extended route — a 60 -mile “Diablo Grand Loop” — that can be established across three more preserves if two small gaps can be acquired. continued on page 2 continued from page 1 Join Seth Adams, Save Mount Diablo’s Director of Land Programs, as he shows images and threads his way through the mountain’s natural and cultural his- tory, the characters who have been drawn to Diablo, and the spectacular new areas that have been protected in recent years. The story ends with the rediscov- ery of Brewer’s and Bowerman’s buckwheat seventy years after it was thought extinct, on land Save Mount Diablo preserved, and two months before Bower - man passed away. Seth Adams was Save Mount Diablo’s first professional staff member. His responsibilities include land acquisition, land use planning, land stewardship, grassroots activism, and legisla- tion and public policy. Among his proudest accomplishments are the preservation of thousands of acres of threatened habitat throughout the East Bay through acquisition and grassroots advocacy, creation of new recreational trails such as the 30-mile Diablo Trail, reintroduction of endangered peregrine falcons to Mt. Diablo, and media work publicizing the Mt. Diablo buckwheat rediscovery. Seth has received a number of significant awards for his work, including the Year 2000 John Muir Conserva- tion Award from the John Muir Memorial Association, the Stars of the Greenbelt award from the Greenbelt Alliance, a 2001 Conservation Medal from the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the 2001 Mountain Saver Award for lifetime achievement from Save Mount Diablo. place in the Auditorium of the Orinda Public Library at 24 Orinda Way (in Orinda Village). The Auditorium is on the second floor of the building, accessible by stairs or an elevator. The Au- ditorium will open at 7:00 pm. The meeting begins at 7:30 pm. Refreshments will be served after the presentation. Please contact Sue Rosenthal, 510- 496-6016 or rosacalifornica@ earthlink.net, if you have any questions. Directions to Orinda Public Li- brary at 24 Orinda Way: From the west, take Highway 24 to the Orinda/ Moraga exit. At the end of the off-ramp, turn left on Camino Pablo (toward Orinda Village), right on Santa Maria Way (the signal after the BART station and freeway entrance), and left on Orinda Way. From the east, take Highway 24 to the Orinda exit. Follow the ramp to Orinda Village. Turn right on Santa Maria Way (the first signal) and left on Orinda Way. Once on Orinda Way, go 1 short block to the parking lot on the southeast side of the new 2-stoiy building on your right. There is additional free parking beneath the building as well as on the street. From BART (4 blocks): Exit the Orinda station, turn right and cross a pedestrian bridge, then cross a sec- ond pedestrian bridge on the left. Go 1 short block on the sidewalk to the third pedestrian bridge. Go 2 blocks on Orinda Way to the Orinda Library. Next month’s speaker: Seth Adams Photo by Lynn Johnson East Bay CNPS membership meetings are free of charge Kathy Ann Miller, specialist in seaweeds of California and open to everyone. This month’s meeting will take and adjacent coastlines NATIVE PLANT RESTORATION TEAM Making a Difference On a wet Saturday morning in early February, students from Fremont’s Irvington High School gathered at the Skyline Staging Area of Redwood Park for a briefing on the basic characteristics of their enemy target: French broom. Although the topic of the moment was weeds, the larger lesson they were learning was about the power to create positive change. Joining the students for the day was a contingent of East Bay Chapter weed warriors led by Greg Wolford. We had come along to lend a hand and learn more about how people come together to create an effective conservation effort in their community. Fully briefed and rarin’ to go, we picked up our weed wrenches and started out on a muddy trek, slip-slid- ing our way along the East Bay Skyline Ridge Trail, following Wendy Tokuda, the woman who first spear- headed the broom removal program. We were literally following in Wendy’s footsteps, retracing a path that she has walked and worked every first Saturday of the 2 THE BAY LEAF April 2006 month for two years. When Wendy first discovered this trail, it was choked with such a dense monoculture of broom that the canopy closed over the trail. On one of those early walks, she made a personal decision to begin the enormous task of reducing the broom and restoring the trail. Initially, she worked alone. Then one day someone out on a walk stopped to help her weed. He came back again the next month. More people joined, and Wendy asked the Park District for field support. They supplied weed wrenches and snacks for volunteers. They also listed Wendy’s project in their volunteer programs published on-line. The Irvington High School freshmen saw Wendy’s list- ing when they were choosing their Change Projects, a required student activity in which “freshmen make a personal investment in their community by identify- ing an area of environmental concern and designing a way to make a positive change.” This was the second Saturday that they had worked, and the trail was lined with pile after pile of broom that they had pulled on their first work day. How do we measure this change? The Park District and Wendy have photos that show the dramatic transforma- tion in vegetation along the trail where the understory was once dense with broom and now is open to the light. No doubt the students could generate intriguing math problems estimating the number of foot-miles of cleared trail or billions of seed never germinated or any number of ways of counting the impact. Here then are some of my memories of the day from moments when I sat back on my heels and watched people fully engaged in making a difference: the look of grim satisfaction on the mud-flecked face of the girl next to me on her hands and knees ripping up handfuls of broom; laughter riot- ing from a group of boys as one of them wrenched a huge broom plant out of the bank tumbling head over heels onto the trail with the plant still clutched in his arms; the occasional calls of joyful discovery amid the pillage from up and down the trail, Snakeroot! Wood strawberry! Soap plant! If you would like to be part of the change happening with Wendy’s broom removal project, bring gloves and meet at the Skyline Staging Area of Redwood Park at 9:30 am on the first Saturday of each month. Directions: Take Highway 13 to the Park Boulevard exit. Go east to the first intersection, Mountain Bou- levard. Left onto Mountain, a short distance to Snake Road, right on Snake (uphill) straight through onto Shepard’s Canyon. Take Shepard’s Canyon all the way to Skyline Boulevard. Right on Skyline Boulevard a short distance to the Skyline Gate Staging Area. If you frequent Sibley and Huckleberry Preserves, Skyline is the next major staging area/parking lot beyond them going southeast. Laura Baker ALBANY SHORELINE INITIATIVE The future of the Albany shoreline is at stake, and environmentalists are ready to take action — by quali- fying for this November’s ballot the Albany Shoreline Protection Initiative. Albany’s city government is preparing to process an application from the Los Angeles developer Caruso Af- filiated to build a shopping mall on the waterfront at Golden Gate Fields. The north side of the GGF property, where the mall is slated to be built, borders on the Albany mudflats, which are fed by Cordornices Creek and Marin Creek and teeming with wildlife. Three environmental groups have organized to oppose the proposed shoreline mall. Citizens for the Albany Shoreline (CAS), Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP), and the Sierra Club will be collecting signatures to put the Albany Shoreline Protection Initiative on the November 2006 Albany city ballot. The initiative is designed to protect and plan for preserving the entire Albany Waterfront to the maximum extent possible as an open-space resource. The initiative calls for restoring wetlands and other habitat and supporting natural expansion of the existing beach and dunes. It also allows for establishing a nature interpretive center. Development would be minimized and set back at least 600 feet from the shoreline. Barbara Ertter, curator of Western North America Flora at the Jepson Herbarium at UC Berkeley, expressed concerns: “Any sizeable construction precludes the possibility of a place for native species to become es- tablished and to make a new habitat to support other wildlife.” The initiative would establish a planning process for the entire waterfront. A committee of Albany voters, including representatives of several environmental groups, would meet in open public meetings to create a plan for the waterfront that preserves open space and recreational access to the shoreline. The plan would then be submitted to the voters. In the meantime, the initiative would place a moratorium on consideration of any development plans for the Albany Shoreline. continued on page 4 THE BAY LEAF April 2006 3 continued from page 3 “If Golden Gate Fields racetrack stays and a shopping center is built on the parking lot, there would be lim- ited opportunities for habitat restoration,” says Steve Granholm, wildlife biologist, Albany resident, and long- time member of the City of Albany Waterfront Com- mittee. “I’d like to see substantial habitat restoration within any park or open space that is planned for the waterfront.” There is a good-sized tidal salt marsh at the mouth of Cordornices Creek where it flows west under 1-80 and then north to the mudflats. Native cordgrass, pickle- weed, gumplant and other typical San Francisco Bay salt-marsh natives grow there. A small area of non- native cordgrass is present and would need to be re- moved. Other native plants in the area include willows, coyote brush, toyon, bush monkey flower, beach-bur, spearscale, western goldenrod, telegraph weed, jaumea, tarplant, and others. CESP, CAS and the Sierra Club were instrumental in lobbying to have the Albany Bulb become part of the Eastshore State Park. The beach, neck, and plateau were purchased by East Bay Regional Park District in 1998 and then deeded to the state for a park. The Shoreline Initiative is essential for further protecting these lands and for maximizing the restoration potential of the Albany shoreline. Volunteers and donations are much appreciated. For more information, visit www.albanyshoreline.org or call 510-461-4665. Sally Douglas Arce PLANT SALE ACTIVITIES We’ve made some progress in our search for a new home for our plant sale and growing grounds. We have been actively investigat- ing three possible locations — Lakeside Park Garden Center in Oakland, the old Santa Fe right-of-way at the intersection of West Street and Francisco Street in Berke- ley, and the Dunsmuir Estate in Oakland. We’re keeping all our options open until we have a solid agreement for a new location. During the past two weeks, we met at the Lakeside Park Garden Center site with City of Oakland Parks and Recreation Department staff. They were not optimistic that they would be able to give us as much space as we need. For the West Street site in Berkeley, we are hop- ing to put together a packet of information, including a nice sketch of what our facilities could look like, to use in talking with and gaining support from neighbors of the site. The Dunsmuir House and Garden site remains the most promising option. We are beginning the process of de- veloping a legal agreement with the nonprofit Dunsmuir House and Gardens, Inc. board, which manages the Dunsmuir Estate under contract with the City of Oak- land. This involves not only negotiating with Dunsmuir House and Gardens, Inc. and the City of Oakland, but also working with the state CNPS office on insurance and legal issues. If all goes well, we hope to have an agreement in place this summer. Depending on our progress toward finding a new home, we may or may not be able to hold our annual fall sale this year. Watch this column for updates each month. Feel free to contact me if you have questions or com- ments about our plant sale: rosacalifornica@earthlink. net or 510-496-6016. Help CNPS Sell Plants at the Bringing Back the Na- tives Garden Tour Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour Sunday, May 7, 10 am to 5 pm We are looking for helpers to sell plants, books, and T- shirts at five carefully selected gardens on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour on Sunday, May 7. These are gardens that attract lots of enthusiastic visitors and they are located in various parts of the East Bay: El Cerrito, El Sobrante, Berkeley, Richmond, and Walnut Creek. Proceeds from the sales will benefit the East Bay Chapter of CNPS and will help tide us over until we have a new home for our big plant sale. What’s needed: Helpers for morning or afternoon shifts at each sale What we’ll provide for each volunteer: Orientation beforehand and a Bringing Back the Natives T-shirt. In addition, volunteers will be invited to visit the gardens on this tour over the course the next few months at monthly private “Garden Soirees”. Contact: Delia Taylor at deliataylor@mac.com or 510- 527-3912. Sue Rosenthal 4 THE BAY LEAF April 2006 CONSERVATION What is heating up to become the East Bay’s largest land based conservation issue of the decade is the fate of the inland portion of the Concord Naval Weapons Station. Positioned at the base of the Los Mendanos hills, the 5,170-acre grassland dominated landscape provides current or potential habitat for 23 globally and statewide rare species and 80 species that are locally rare or rare in the East Bay. In addition to these plant species there are plant communities, animals, and geological features worthy of preservation. As the local reuse authority, the City of Concord will play an enormous role in the fate of the single largest parcel of unprotected open space in the East Bay. The Concord General Plan, which is currently open to com- ment, seeks to urbanize 53% of the property. This type of unconstrained growth could effectively eliminate any functional habitat for our many species of concern. It is important to underscore the need for development of new social and economic resources in the East Bay. We can support these needs while simultaneously pre- serving pivotal open space that would be impossible to reclaim once developed. Concord has been granted the privilege of setting a great precedent in the Bay Area: that burgeoning cities can be environmentally friendly cities. Of the three alternatives described in the Concord General Plan, one would protect most if not all of the Mt. Diablo Creek watershed within the former Weapons Station. In Alternative 3, about 70% of the former Weap- ons Station would be protected as a single contiguous ecologically functional habitat. By adopting this alter- native, Concord could establish a reputation as a truly ecological city, while continuing to provide avenues for growth and increased revenues. Concord could only gain by embracing such a develop- ment plan, a plan which recognizes what people love about California. At its best California is beautiful, clean, and environmentally conscious — a state that reveres its natural endowment. Alternative 3 is an ex- ample of balanced progressive city planning that pro- tects an important part of this heritage and guarantees a sustainable future to every single constituent of this project, from human to animal to plant. The deadline for public comment on the Environmental Impact Report is April 20, 2006. The entire report is locat- ed at www.ci.concord.ca.us/about/zoningupdate.htm. If you would like to send a letter of support for Alterna- tive 3, please visit www.ebcnps.org for a sample letter. Your input helps let Concord know that we all care about the future of this indispensable landscape. Lech Naumovich, East Bay Chapter Conservation Ana- lyst FIELD TRIPS Sunday, April 2, 10 am, Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge Start the switch to daylight savings time with a combi- nation field trip/ weed bash at the Antioch Dunes Na- tional Wildlife Refuge. Join US Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Rachel Hurt at the Stamm Unit to see poster child Antioch dune evening primrose , along with gilias, naked-stem buckwheat, and Contra Costa wallflow- ers. After the tour and lunch, stay about an hour and a half to help with weed removal (easy work in sandy soil). Bring lunch and water, but poison oak remedies are probably not necessary. Group maximum is 15, so e-mail a reservation to Janetg24@excite.com, and also say if you are interested in carpooling (and whether you need a ride, or can offer a ride). Directions: Take Highway 4 east from most East Bay locations and exit at Lone Tree Way/A Street. Follow A Street north to Wilbur Avenue. Turn right onto Wilbur Avenue and follow it to Fulton Shipyard Road. Turn left onto Fulton Shipyard Road, cross the railroad tracks, and go to the gate for the Stamm Unit, which is the second gate on the right. If you arrive before 10 am wait for Rachel Hurt as the gate is usually locked. Saturday, April 8th, Falls Trail, Mount Diablo. Meet at 9:30 am at the end of Rialto drive in Clayton. We will walk some great wildflower trails on Mount Diablo when they are at their peak flowering time: Clayton Oaks trail, Bruce Lee Spring trail, lower Donner trail, Wasserman trail, Falls trail, Middle trail. This is a moderate round trip of 5 miles with 1200 feet elevation gain on the way out. It will be mostly downhill on the return trip. The trip will take 3-5 hours. Bring lunch and water. Directions: Take 24 or 680 to Ignacio Valley Road. Con- tinue on Ignacio Valley Road into the city of Clayton, turn right on Clayton Road. Take Clayton Road past the first intersection with Marsh Creek Road. In about a mile, Clayton Road becomes Marsh Creek Road. Continue straight on Marsh Creek Road. Turn right continued on page 6 THE BAY LEAF April 2006 5 continued from page 5 on Regency Drive. Go three blocks, turn left on Rialto drive. Go to end of Rialto Drive and park. Sunday, April 9, 2 pm, Butano State Park, San Ma- teo County. This often overlooked park, with second growth redwoods along little Butano creek, is located at the southern end of San Mateo County. It has many interesting plants that are often hard to find elsewhere in the Bay Area, many packed into a relatively small area (so this is a perfect trip for people who do not like to walk long distances: you can see a lot in a short space, and then enjoy the picnic area and the visitor’s center while we take a longer hike) . Among the plants are California burning bush, skunk cabbage, Clintonia, and calypso orchid (we do not guarantee we will see the orchid). Get to the park by going down Highway 1 from San Francisco to Pescadero (it is south of San Gregorio). Turn east onto Pescadero Creek Road. Shortly after passing through the village, turn right (south) on Cloverdale Road and follow it to the park (which will be on the left, 5 or so miles south of Pescadero. Go into the park (and pay the parking fee). Proceed to the restrooms on the right and park there. We meet at 2:30 pm. After seeing Butano, we can go to other parks on Pescadero road, such as Portola State Park and Heritage Grove. The trip will be led by David Margolies. Contact him at 510-654-0283 or divaricatum@aol.com for more information. The walk will take place rain or shine. Children are welcome. Saturday, April 15. For those not shopping or helping with the Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sale, Jake Ruygt of Napa CNPS will welcome East Bay hikers on their chapter trip to Snell Valley. Call Jake at 707- 253-1839 for further information. Directions: To carpool, meet at the Blockbuster Video in north Napa at 9:00 am. To join the carpool, take Highway 29 north through Napa, and exit at Trancas/ Redwood Road. At the end of the off-ramp, turn right and drive about 2 blocks until you see Blockbuster Video on the left. Turn left at the stoplight and left again just past Caffino kiosk. The carpool assembles there and leaves about 9:10 am. To drive directly to Snell Valley: Go north on Highway 29, passing through St. Helena until you reach Deer Park Road. Turn right at this point and cross the val- ley until you reach a flashing red light. Cross the in- tersection and follow Deer Park Road, which becomes Howell Mountain Road at Angwin, and continues down to Pope Valley Road (10-12 miles). At the Pope Valley Garage, turn left and follow Butts Canyon Road for 8 miles until you see Snell Valley Road to your right. Follow this road about 1.5 miles until you see a metal gate on the left and meet there. Sunday, April 16, 2006, East Trail, Mount Diablo. Meet at 9:30 am across from the Divide reservoir sign on Marsh Creek Road in Clayton. We will see a great diversity of native plants, and lots of wildflowers. There is an interesting interior live oak forest. This walk has a 1600 feet elevation gain on the way out. It will be all downhill on the return trip. Round trip is about 5 miles. Figure on returning around 3-4 pm. Bring lunch and water. We will take Three Springs Road, Olympia Trail, and East Trail. Directions: Take 24 or 680 to Ignacio valley road. Continue on Ignacio Valley Road into the City of Clay- ton, turn right on Clayton Road. Take Clayton road past the first intersection with Marsh Creek Road. In about a mile, it becomes Marsh Creek Road. Continue straight on Marsh Creek Road. Go about two miles past Regency Drive. As you go uphill, look for the Divide Reservoir sign on the left side of the road (not the Nob Hill reservoir sign) . Park on the right side of the road across from the Divide Reservoir sign. There is plenty of space to park. Sunday, April 23, 2:30 pm, Sunol Regional Park. Meet at the trailhead by the bridge crossing Alameda Creek, near the Visitor’s Center. We will walk the Canyon View Trail and then back on the fire road from Little Yosemite. This walk of several miles has about 500 feet elevation gain and crosses meadows and woodlands. Bring water and good hiking boots or shoes. It’s has been a wet year so the flower display should be good. Directions: From San Francisco /Oakland/ Berkeley, take 580 east (stay to the right if you cross the Bay Bridge), all the way to the 580/680 junction in Pleas- anton, a distance of at least 25 miles. At the 580/680 junction, go south on 680 and exit at Calaveras Road/ Highway 84. Turn left onto Calaveras Road and proceed to Geary Road, which leads directly into the park. There is a fee to park, and parking is often tight on pleasant Sundays. Allow sufficient time to get to the park and note the 2:30 start time. The trip will be led by David Margolies. Contact him at 510-654-0283 or divaricatum@aol.com for more information. The walk will take place rain or shine. Children are welcome. Janet Gawthrop 6 THE BAY LEAF April 2006 Board of Directors President Elaine P. Jackson 3311 Estudillo Street, Martinez 94553 925-372-0687 Elainejx@mindspring.com Vice President Laura Baker 79 Roble Road, Berkeley 94705 510-849-1409 Lbake66@aol.com Treasurer Holly Forbes 7128 Blake Street, El Cerrito 94530 hforbes@berkeley.edu h 510-234-2913 w 510-643-8040 FAX 510-642-5045 Recording Secretary Barbara Malloch Leitner 2 Parkway Court, Orinda 94563 925-253-8300 bleitner@pacbell.net Corresponding Secretary George McRae 5810 Barrett Ave. El Cerrito CA 94530 510-233-7374 elegans@aol.com Past President Joe Willingham 2512 Etna Street, Berkeley 94704 510-841-4681 pepel 066@comcast.net Education/Outreach Bay Leaf Editor and Webmaster Joe Willingham 2512 Etna Street, Berkeley 94704 510-841-4681 pepel 066@comcast.net Bay Leaf Mailing Holly Forbes 7128 Blake Street, El Cerrito 94530 510-234-2913 hforbes@berkeley.edu Education Linda Hill 1002 Park Hlls Rd. Berkeley CA 94708 510-849-1624 Lhilllink@aol.com Field Trips Janet Gawthrop 360 Monte Vista Avenue #214 Oak- land 94611 Janetg24@excite.com Gardens Regional Parks Botanic Garden Liaison Sue Rosenthal PO Box 20489 Oakland CA 94610 510-496-6016 rosacalifornica@earthlink.net Grants Sandy McCoy 1311 Bay View Place, Berkeley 94708 sandymccoy@mindspring.com Hospitality open Membership Delia Taylor 1851 Catalina Avenue, Berkeley 94707 510-527-3912 deliataylor@mac.com Plant Sale Interim Chair Sue Rosenthal PO. Box 20489, Oakland 94620 510-496-6016 rosacalifornica@earthlink.net Former Chair Shirley McPheeters 104 Ivy Drive, Orinda 94563 925-376-4095 Programs Sue Rosenthal PO. Box 20489, Oakland 94620 510-496-6016 rosacalifornica@earthlink.net Publicity/Media open Conservation Conservation Committee Chair Laura Baker 79 Roble Road, Berkeley 94705 510-849-1409 Lbake66@aol.com Conservation Analyst (Staff) Lech Naumovich 5718 Dover St. Oakland, CA 94609 510 734-0335 conservation@ebcnps.org Stewardship Native Plant Restoration Team Greg Wolford 2945 Otis Street, Berkeley 94703 510-848-6489 californica@mac.com Native Here Nursery Project Manager Charli Danielsen 101 Golf Course Drive, Berkeley 94708 510-549-0211 charlid@pacbell.net Sales Manager Margot Cunningham Plant Science Bryophytes John Game 1155 Spruce Street, Berkeley 94707 510-527-7855 jcgame@lbl.gov Rare Plants Heath Bartosh 112 Gilbert Court, Martinez 94553 925-957-0069 hbartosh@nomadecology.com Unusual Plants Dianne Lake 1 050 Bayview Farm Road #121, Pinole 94564 510-741-8066 diannelake@yahoo.com Vegetation Susan Bainbridge 2408 Parker Street, Berkeley 94704 510-548-2918 suebain@ssci.berkeley.edu Members at Large Carol Castro 890 Estudillo Avenue San Leandro, CA 94577 510-352-2382 carollbcastro@hotmail.com Gregg Weber 4186 B San Pablo Dam Rd. El Sobrante, CA 94830 510-223-3310 Roy West rwest@monocot.com 1635 Posen Ave. Berkeley CA 94707 650-906-1100 California Native Plant Society East Bay Chapter PO Box 5597, Elmwood Station Berkeley CA 94705 Chapter web site www.ebcnps.org Recorded Chapter Infor- mation 510 - 464-4977 State CNPS web site www.cnps.org Membership Application Name Address Zip Telephone I wish to affiliate with: East Bay Chapter (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties) Other Membership category: Student, Retired, Limited income, $20 Individual, Library, $35 Household, Family, or Group, $45 Supporting, $75 Plant lover, $100 E-mail Patron, $250 (optional) Benefactor, $500 Mariposa Lily, $1000 Mail application and check to: California Native Plant Society, 2707 K Street, Suite 1, Sacramento CA 95816 THE BAY LEAF April 2006 7 NATIVE HERE By the time you read this, the nursery will have ex- panded. Over the years that Native Here has been in place, trees have grown, which is a good thing, but they are giving more shade than young seedlings need to germinate and get growing. The new space gives more flexibility for providing sunny and shady areas. There will probably be six-packs of the later germinat- ing annuals available through April, and lots of flow- ering perennials. If you want to purchase shrubs and trees to hold in pots over the summer for fall planting, they are available, too. We have stopped selling iris until the fall, letting them rest through the summer in the shade. Fridays 9-noon and Saturdays 10 am-1 pm are the times the nursery is regularly open. Volunteers have been busy, not just building fences, constructing protection and display places for plants, but potting up hundreds of seedlings. We are providing some plants for the sales at the gardens on the May tour, as well as our usual stock. Dave Caniglia has been working with us most Fridays. He is in charge of the greenhouse at Mitchell Canyon in Mt Diablo State Park. We are discussing cooperative arrange- ments for promoting the use of plants native to Mt. Diablo in the areas surrounding the mountain. He welcomes volunteers there, too, in case Native Here is too far away for you to visit regularly. Dave’s email address is cani@mindspring.com; his phone number is 925-287-9733. Although we have a great crew of volunteers, we always welcome more. Margot could use help on Saturdays writing up sales and talking to customers, as well as with potting, watering and grooming plants. Mark your calendars for Tuesdays next month, as we start collecting seed during daylight savings time. Usu- ally the seed forays start at 9 and are over by about 1 pm, sometimes later if we go farther afield. May 2nd will most likely be to Mount Diablo for grass seeds. Meet at the gate of Native Here across from Tilden Park Golf Course parking lot exit. If you want to meet us later nearer the mountain, please e-mail Charli, charlid@pacbell.net. The phone number at Native Here is 510-549-0211, the address is 101 Golf Course Drive, Berkeley, CA 94708, directly across from the golf course in Tilden Park on the Berkeley side. Charli Danielsen ACTIVITIES OF OTHERS Spring Plant Sale, Regional Parks Botanic Garden Saturday April 15, 2006, 10 am to 3 pm Admission is free Tilden Regional Park, Berkeley Wildcat Canyon Road and South Park Drive near the Brazil Building 510-841-8732 or www.nativeplants.org Registration is open for the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour. Free! Sunday, May 7, 2006, from 10 am to 5 pm at 64 gardens throughout Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. Register for passes and a printed guide to a variety of bird- and butterfly- friendly, pesticide-free, water conserving, low maintenance gardens that contain 30% or more native plants. Native plants will be available for sale at more than twenty gardens, and more than 50 talks will be offered throughout the day. Registration is required atwww.BringingBackTheNatives.net prior to April 20. Volunteers are needed and rewarded with free, private tours of beautiful native gardens. For more infor- mation visit the website, email Kathy@KathyKramerConsult- ing.net or call 510-236-9558 between 9 am and 9 pm. California Native Plant Society East Bay Chapter P.O. Box 5597, Elmwood Station Berkeley CA 94705 Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage Paid Oakland, CA Permit No. 2018 Time Value April 2006 issue