May 2011 The Bay Leaf California Native Plant Society • East Bay Chapter Alameda & Contra Costa Counties www.ebcnps.org www.groups.google.com/group/ebcnps MEMBERSHIP MEETING In the Company of Wild Butterflies Speakers: Sal Levinson and Andy Liu Wednesday, May 25, 7:30 pm Location, Conference Center, UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley (directions below) This month's program is sure to be exciting, with some firsts for East Bay CNPS. The focus will be on butterflies, and we'll be showing a 45-minute film, "In the Company of Wild Butterflies: An Intimate Study of the Secret Lives of Wild Butterflies." Through close-up photography the film offers insight into butterfly morphology, physiology, and reproduction, showing details of butterflies in many life stages including hatching from eggs, smelling with their feet, and pushing their heads from their skulls in preparation for molting. It also presents the environmental challenges faced by wild butterfly populations and offers advice about developing butterfly-friendly gardens. The film has been shown at several environmental film festivals and received awards. Following the film, its co-creator Sal Levinson along with butterfly educator Andy Liu will answer questions and provide information about native plants for butterfly gardens. They will bring some butterfly eggs, larvae, and if possible adults to the presentation. Sal Levinson studied Conservation of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley and Entomology at UC Berkeley and UC River- side, and she has done entomological field work in California, Connecticut, and Idaho. She started gardening for butterflies about 20 years ago to introduce her children to the joys of insects and now shares her passion for butterflies with the public in elementary school presentations, teacher training, adult school classes, and butterfly walks at the UC Botanical Garden. She is also publishing a series of butterfly paper-crafts in Butterfly Gardener magazine. Andy Liu earned his BA in Architecture and MA in Land- scape Architecture from UC Berkeley. He wrote his master's thesis on butterfly habitat and has given presentations on butterflies and butterfly gardening to audiences at the San Francisco Landscape Garden Show, Strybing Arboretum, the UC Botanical Garden, and the Master Gardener International Conference as well as to elementary school classes in several communities. A life-long plantsman, he currently works in garden design and landscape architecture and his projects include residential design, native plant community restora- tion, creek restoration, and habitat and landscape design for large planned residential developments. East Bay CNPS membership meetings are free of charge and open to everyone. This month's meeting takes place in the Conference Center of the UC Botanical Garden at 200 Centen- nial Drive, east of Memorial Stadium and west of the Law- rence Hall of Science, above the main campus of the University of California in Berkeley. The garden gate will open at 7 pm; the meeting begins at 7:30 pm. You are welcome to stroll in the Botanical Garden before the meeting. Please contact Sue Rosenthal, 510-496-6016 or rosacalifornica@earthlink.net, if you have questions. Directions to the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley From 1-80: Take the University Ave. exit and proceed east on University toward the hills until it ends at Oxford St. Turn left on Oxford, right on Hearst Ave., right on Gayley Rd., left on Stadium Rim Way, and left on Centennial Dr. The Garden entrance is 3/4 mile up Centennial Dr. on the right. Parking is just past the Garden on the left. Bring quarters for parking. From Contra Costa County: Take Hwy 24 westbound and exit at Fish Ranch Rd. At the end of the off ramp, turn right on Fish Ranch Rd. and follow it to the stop sign at Grizzly Peak Blvd. Turn right on Grizzly Peak Blvd. and follow it 3.1 miles to the stop sign at Centennial Dr. Turn left on Centennial Dr. and continue for 1 mile to the Garden's parking lot on the right. Bring quarters for parking. From Dwight Way in Berkeley: Take Dwight Way east to Prospect St. Turn left on Prospect, which merges with Stadium Rim Way. Turn right on Centennial Dr. The Garden entrance is 3/4 mile up Centennial Dr. on the right. Parking is past the Garden on the left. Bring quarters for parking. Upcoming Programs Membership meetings will be on summer recess during the months of June, July, and August and will resume on Wednes- day, September 28 when Bart O'Brien of Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden will talk on "Reimagining the California Lawn". Have a wonderful summer! CHAPTER MEMBER WINS CONSERVATION AWARD Holly Forbes honored for work with imperiled plants ST. LOUIS-Holly Forbes, curator at the University of Cali- fornia Botanical Garden, has won the 2011 Star Award from the Center for Plant Conservation, located at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, for her work with rare and imperiled plant species. The award was presented on April 8 in conjunction with the Center for Plant Conservation's national meeting, held this year in Denver, Colo., and recog- nizes individuals who demonstrate the concern, cooperation and personal investment needed to conserve imperiled native plants. "Holly's contributions to the conservation program pervade every aspect of the Botanical Garden," said Dr. Paul Licht, director of the University of California Botanical Garden. Forbes' tenacity and hard work have shown the recovery potential for even the smallest plant populations. Working with local partners, Forbes helped to augment plants such as the San Mateo thornmint, which exists in a single popula- tion close to an urban center and was once threatened by a proposed golf course. Her contributions in seed banking, cultivation and restoration have clearly demonstrated the role of horticulture in saving imperiled species. Mt. Diablo buckwheat was thought to be extinct until the rediscovery of a tiny population in 2005 by a University of California, Berkeley graduate student. Since then, Forbes' team has worked with University of California researchers, California State Parks and the U.S. Fish and Wild- life Service to produce seeds that are being used in efforts to create more populations of the plant. "Besides having full responsibility for curating our entire collection, she oversees the accession policy and is our main spokesperson for conservation issues - all this when she is not out in the field collecting seeds, cleaning seeds, following the propagation of our 'wards' or supervising the reintroduction programs derived from the seeds collected," Licht said. Forbes' work has secured species facing imminent extinction, and has advanced conservation science. An example is her work with partners to establish new populations of the nearly- extinct Baker's larkspur. The only known natural population of this perennial herb is down to three flowering individuals due to roadside disturbance. "I've known Holly for at least 15 years. It is a joy to watch the career of a real conservation hero," said Dr. Kathryn Kennedy, executive director for the Center for Plant Conservation. "She has poured years of labor and passion in equal mea- sure into work to help California's priceless native plants endure." The Center for Plant Conservation is a non-profit organiza- tion whose mission is to conserve and restore the imperiled plants of the United States to secure them from extinction. It has established a network of 36 leading botanical institutions across the country. By developing standards and guidance, conducting hands-on work and raising awareness, the Center and its partners strive to accomplish the research and resto- ration work needed to return these plants to their natural habitats. The Center coordinates the National Collection of Endangered Plants, securing seed from more than 750 of America's most vulnerable native plants, and is working on more than 200 restoration projects. The Center's program is managed by their national office in St. Louis, Mo. For addi- tional information about the Center for Plant Conservation, visit www.centerforplantconservation.org. Dr. Kathryn Kennedy, executive director of the Center for Plant Conservation presents the 201 1 Star Award to Holly Forbes, cura- tor at the University of California Botanical Garden, for Forbes' work in conserving imperiled native plants. 2 THE BAY LEAF May 2011 FIELD TRIPS Sunday May 8, 11:00 am. Butterfly field trip up Claremont Canyon: meet at Rockridge BART Station Meet Liam O'Brien and other members of the Yerba Buena chapter for this trip to look for butterflies and some of the their host plants that grow in Claremont Canyon. If you have only driven up Claremont Canyon, you may not have had a chance to fully appreciate the public lands in the canyon and the remnant native flora. Because of limited parking at the stops, we will meet at Rockridge BART to consolidate into carpools. Butterflies only fly on sunny days, so rain or fog will reschedule this trip to the same time on Sunday, May 15. Inclement weather on May 15 will cancel the trip. If you have any questions, please e-mail janetgawthrop47@gmail.com Saturday May 14, 9:30 am, field trip to Red Hills (Tuolumne County). Bob Case will lead an all-day field trip to the Red Hills BLM (Bureau of Land Management) ACEC, near Chinese Camp, plus a driving tour of parts of Highway 49, Parrot's Ferry Road, Camp Nine Road and stops along Highway 4 up to Calaveras Big Trees State Park (time permitting), and return via Highway 4. The focus will be on the Red Hills area, with the remainder of the trip as frequent roadside stops for botanical exploration. Bring a lunch, liquids, and standard excursion gear. Expect some walking, a total of six hours of driving, and a return to the Bay Area around 9:00 pm. Five rare plant species occur in the Red Hills which the BLM con- sider as sensitive; three have been listed as threatened under the ESA. These plants are California verbena, Layne's butterweed, and Chinese Camp Brodiaea. Another species. Rawhide Hill onion, has been proposed for listing. California verbena ( Verbena calif omica) is a Red Hills endemic. Its distribution in the Red Hills is confined to the moist areas of stream shoreline and ground water seepage. The Rawhide Hill onion (Allium tuolumnensis) has many, mostly small colonies in the Red Hills, but it is confined to areas with sparse vegetation, south-facing slopes with shallow soils, and intermittent drainages. Layne's butterweed ( Senecio layneae) is one of the three federally listed plant species in the Red Hillls at this time. There are only a few, very small occurrences of this member of the sunflower family in the Red Hills. Elsewhere, this species is often associated with disturbances, like road cuts. Two plants that had been designated as federal candidate cat- egory 2 species were eliminated from the candidate list— those are Congdon's lomatium (Lomatium congdonii) and the Red Hillls soaproot ( Chlorogalum grandiflorum) are locally common in the Red Hills, favoring north slopes and ridge tops, respectively. An additional species proposed for federal listing, Chinese Camp brodiaea ( Brodiaea pallida) grows on a low gradient drainage in soils that remain wet late into the growing season. This species has been located on public lands in the Red Hills, and on private land west of Chinese Camp. Another plant, Hoover's butterweed ( Senecio clevelandii var. het- erophyllus ) has been included in the CNPS Watch List. It grows with California verbena in riparian zones. It may be recognized as a separate taxon that is endemic to the Red Hills, or it may be included as a single taxon with plants found in the coast ranges. Meeting Places: Bob Case can meet a maximum of 3 riders at the Pleasant Hill BART station at 7:30 am. Others can meet at with Bob at 9:30 am at the Dennys located at 1555 East F Street, Oakdale, CA. We will be at the Red Hills site around 10 am, but it could be difficult to meet there as it is a large area. If you have questions, please contact Bob at bobcase@astound.net. Sunday May 15, 10:00 am. Blue Oak Trail at Briones Regional Park Gregg Weber will lead on this trail that includes views of some unusual plants, such as Myrica califomica and Pickeringia montana (think pink). Judging from rainfall so far, there should be quite a few Calochortus pulchellus in bloom also. The Blue Oak loop has a 700 foot elevation change and quite a few ups and downs. The round trip is about 5 miles. Directions: Take Highway 24 to Lafayette, and exit at Pleasant Hill Road north. Go about one mile north on Pleasant Hill Road, and turn left onto Reliez Valley Road. Stay on Reliez Valley Road for about 3.5 miles. The parking lot is on the left, after Withers Ave. Do not go into the park entrance farther north on Reliez Valley Road or you will miss the field trip. Sunday May 22, 10 am. Mount Diablo State Park North Peak trail from Devil's Elbow to Prospector's Gap Meet at the Devil's Elbow parking lot at 10 am. This trial is packed with native plants and relatively few alien species. There may be Calochortus venustus, C. pulchellus, Chorizanthe membranacea, Hydrophyllum occidentals, Arnica discoidea, a few areas of Collinsia tinctoria, Clarkia concinna, plus native Cirsium (thistles), lupines, and Lomatium. There are also large areas of Quercus chrysolepis (canyon live oak). This trip will be most of the day, so bring lunch and water. We should arrive back at the parking lot around 3 pm. The trip leader is Gregg Weber, and you can call him at 510- 223- 3310 if you have questions. Directions: Take 680 to the Diablo Road exit, and go east on Diablo Road At Green Valley Road, only one lane goes straight ahead. After Green Valley Road, go on and do not turn at the Diablo Country Club sign. In about a mile, turn left at the Mount Diablo State Park sign. Continue to the end of Mount Diablo Scenic Boulevard, which becomes South Gate Road as it enters the park. Pay the $10 gate fee at the entrance station (or have your state parks pass visible). Continue to Junction Ranger Station, and turn right. About 3/4 mile past Juniper Camp's large parking area is a small parking area at Devil's Elbow, where we will meet at 10 am. THE BAY LEAF May 2011 3 NATIVE HERE We'll be open for the Bringing Back the Natives Plant Sale Extravaganza April 30 and participating in the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour on May 1, 10 am-5 pm. We'll be sell- ing plants, books, plant labels, and also small bags of oyster shells to protect tender annuals from slugs and snails. The spring list of available plants may be found on the Native Here page of www.ebcnps.org. To get on our email news list for information on plant availability and nursery activities, send a message to nativehere@ebcnps.org. Now that the rains are no longer continuous, we need to water at the nursery. Watering assignments can be from one to two hours. Some volunteers are continuing with their past assignments, but we can always use more waterers, especially when our "regulars" take vacations. Just ask Margot or Charli when you are at the nursery, and we'll find a time and place for your to water. We can always use volunteers in other capacities as well A profusion of tadpoles emerged in some of our water tubs that hold our water-loving plants. They're growing by the week as they feed on the algae in the tubs. Most of them won't make it to froghood, but at least we'll have some frogs later on. May starts our seed collecting season, although the first few weeks may be primarily scoping out what is at various sites. If there are particular plants you'd like to see us growing, seed collecting is how to get them started. Meet at the nursery lower gate to leave at 9 am on Tuesday mornings. Destina- tions vary, but we'll try to keep a week ahead notifying those who are on the seed seekers list. To join, contact nativehere@ ebcnps.org specifying your interest in seed collecting. We are located across the street from the entrance to the Tilden Golf Course. Margot Cunningham and Charli Danielsen 2012 BRINGING BACK THE NATIVES TOUR Gardens Sought for Bringing Back the Natives Garden postage stamp-sized yards to large lots, beautiful California Tour native plant gardens are possible for anyone. Gardens are now being sought to participate in the spring 2012 Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, which show- cases pesticide-free, drought-tolerant gardens that provide habitat for wildlife and contain 50% or more native plants. The gardens featured in this tour will demonstrate that, from POINT ISABEL RESTORATION First Saturday of each month at Pt. Isabel on the Bay Trail. The next one will be on May 7. Our hours are 10 am to 2 pm. We remove invasive plants and re-vegetate with native plants grown from plants found at the site. We are located at the end of Rydin Road just off the 1-580 next to Hoffman Marsh. The weather at our Pt. Isabel work party on April 2nd was about as perfect as one could ask for. The sun brought the warmth and the Bay brought the cooling, and together they blended to make conditions ideal for our 11 volunteer strong work force. After months of welcome rains, we are dealing with sig- nificant amounts of weeds which were the main focus of our volunteers. Several volunteers cleared a significant area of fast growing wild radish and mustard. The cleared area on the bank of Hoffman Marsh will now make it a bit easier for our recent plantings of native plants ( Myrica califomica, Aesculus califomica, Artimesia califomica) to take hold. These plants are settling in well and are beginning to show some Host Applications can be found at www.bringingbackthen- atives.net under Volunteer or Host. Garden visits will start in May, and will be completed by July. Questions? E-mail Kathy Kramer at Kathy@KathyKramerConsulting.net or call 510-236-9558 between 9 am and 9 pm. vigorous growth. One of the indications of the growing pres- ence of the natives is that far more people stop by to ask what we are doing. It becomes a perfect opportunity to engage in a discussion that we hope helps to educate park users about native habitats. Other volunteers weeded the many and varied invasive grasses that are sprouting up in areas that are not covered in mulch. While we use mulch in areas next to the trail, we are cautious about spreading it into areas that house the variety of bumblebees that inhabit the area and spend most of the daylight hours gathering and spreading their life-giving pollens. The invasive grasses grow incredibly fast and are in a hurry to spread their seed far and wide. We have a very short window of opportunity to reduce their impacts and as a result welcome all volunteers who wish to spend an hour or two pulling these interlopers. Contact: kyotousa@sbcglobal.net 510-684-6484. Jane and Tom Kelly 4 THE BAY LEAF May 2011 MEMBERSHIP REPORT Meet Janet Gawthrop, EBCNPS Field Trip Chair and former Restoration Chair (photo by Igor Skaredoff) I have been obsessed with the unique public lands in the San Francisco Bay Area ever since I moved to the East Bay, just after the Foma Prieta earthquake. While I travel and enjoy biota of other areas from time to time, I prize the one-of-a-kind array of East Bay flora available for all to see. Since the year 2000, 1 have been coordinating field trips for the East Bay chapter of CNPS, usually after Thanksgiving, when winter rains start the year's greening and loosening of clay cement soil, to better appreciate this annual spec- tacle. For the past several years, I have also been weeding to protect indigenous flora in the Oakland-Berkeley hills. At least twice a month, I don my patched jeans and reacquaint myself with the crews that "garden without walls", as Jake Sigg aptly puts it. On weekends, friends no longer invite me to cafes or shopping trips, but to their prized restoration projects. Growing up in Indiana, gardening always conjured up im- ages of fighting with the lawn mower pull cord on muggy afternoons, or digging up luxuriant dandelions to uncover pencil-thin carrots. In my memory, I am always sweating like a pig and the air is filled with grit from the steel mill a few miles away. Not the place to be when I could be in the park, or at Lake Michigan shores. Now, I live in an apartment with a balcony, and lawn mowers are relegated to suburban weekends of the past. I can't be out- doors unless I'm in a park, and I weed in parks to save public lands from the landscaping industry discards and escapees. A morning spent weeding is a morning in East Bay Regional Parks (or Garber Park in Oakland, or Point Isabel, also cool places). Back east, the saying was the worst morning fishing is better than the best day at the office. Plants do it for me. Whether on a field trip or a restoration crew, I can meet friends, enjoy the open sky, pat a curious dog— and if I'm lucky, find an unusual or new plant. Land around San Francisco Bay is known for its quality open spaces next to urban dwellings. It goes without saying that we find both unusual indigenous flora and invasive plants hailing from across the globe, often growing cheek by jowl. So, free time permitting, my idea is to go out on field trips to enthuse over western leather wood flowers one day, but also to give back to public lands by ripping out cape ivy and French broom. It is important to know where and when to go to the parks, both for field trips and restoration crews. For that reason and many others, I find it best to recruit field trip leaders for our chapter and to coordinate weeding efforts with regional park staff. That same trail with clay soil may yield a wealth of suncup flowers in March, only to solidify in May to a cement floor, too rigid to uproot French broom. Cheers, Janet New Members Please join us in welcoming our new members for the Febru- ary/March time frame, Elizabeth August-Schmidt, Raphaela Floreani Buzbee, Susan Hampton, Alma Johnson, Ann Mor- rison, and Michael Strandberg. As always, a huge thank you to our renewing members Upcoming Events ~ Opportunity to meet and greet the public for CNPS June 11th, Heritage Day at Borges Ranch (Walnut Creek) ~ Lead volunteer Christine Pyers Reminders • Still looking for join dates prior to 1986 • Outreach Coordinator position still vacant • Restoration Chair, vacant • Be sure and visit our updated membership page at http:/ / ebcnps.org/ index.php/ membership/ Elaine Jackson, elainejx@att.net 925-.372-0687 We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us even in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavour. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Henry David Thoreau THE BAY LEAF May 2011 5 East Bay CNPS Volunteers at the CNPS membership table at the Sunol Wildflower Day, which took place on Saturday, April 2. Photo by Dianne Lake. NEW CONSERVATION ANALYST MACK CASTERMAN Mack Casterman, our new Conservation Analyst , was selected from a field of outstanding candidates by the Hiring Committee composed of Heath Bartosh, David Bigham, Charli Danielsen, Lech Naumovich, Tina Wistrom, and me. Mack introduces himself in this article. Laura Baker, Conservation Chair. My name is Mack Casterman, and I am the new Conservation Analyst of the East Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. I am looking forward to meeting and working with you. A little bit about me: I was born and raised on the Peninsula in Redwood City. I attended high school at Bellarmine College Prep and went on to earn my Bachelor of Science Degree at UC Davis, majoring in Environmental Biology and Natural Resources Management. During college, I spent my summers working for the San Mateo County Department of Parks as a seasonal park aid at Huddard, Wunderlich, and Edgewood County Parks. After I graduated, I was fortunate enough to get an internship at the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District where I assisted the operations department in manag- ing the district's 60,000 acres of public open space preserves. Since then, I have been working with the open space district as a special project volunteer, surveying district preserves for the invasive weed slender false brome ( Brachypodium sylvaticum), which was recently found in the Woodside and Portola Valley area. This appears to be the only occurrence of the weed in California, and the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District has received federal funding to manage removal of the weed before it grows beyond the district's control. My surveys and report will assist the district with understanding the extent of the infestation and allow them to draw up a management plan for their preserves before the summer growing season. When I'm not saving the world from environmental doom I like to go freestyle skiing with my friends, ride my bicycle, take pictures, grow plants in my garden, and cook. I have always been interested in the environment and finding ways to ensure that precious natural resources remain pro- tected, even as economic and social motivators spur develop- ment farther into the remaining natural areas of our world. I believe that the Conservation Analyst position will allow me to do just that, and I am honored to be given the opportunity to work with CNPS on this task. Please feel free to e-mail me or call me if you need to contact me for any reason. I will get back to you as soon as possible. In my brief experience in this position so far the importance of representing conservation interests to city councils and plan- ning committees as they outline future development has been driven home with me. Development interests have the ear of the city planners, and it is very easy for valuable biological resources to be overlooked in the interest of short-term job opportunities or economic development. I view this position as a challenging but particularly important opportunity to speak for these natural resources. Once our precious natural communities are gone there is no getting them back. I will do my best to ensure that the interests of the California Native Plant Society are heard loud and clear and provide a voice that speaks to the value of preserving California's native plant heritage. 6 THE BAY LEAF May 2011 Chapter Directory Officers President David Bigham david@hjuliendesigns. com, 1 544 La Loma, Berkeley, CA 94708, 510-843-4247 Vice President and Chap- ter Council Delegate Bill Hunt wjhunt@astound.net Recording Secretary Tina Wisfrom cmwistrom@yahoo.com, 510- 207-0370 Corresponding Secretary Christine Pyers idoradesign@gmail.com Treasurer David Margolies 510-654-0283 dm@franz.com Committees Bayleaf Newsletter Bay Leaf Editor and Web- master, Chair Joe Willingham 510-788-4177 pepel 066@comcast.net Bay Leaf Assistant Editor David Margolies 510-654-0283 dm@franz.com Bayleaf Mailing Holly Forbes hforbes@berkeley.edu h 510-234-2913 w 510-643-8040 Conservation Laura Baker, Chair 510-849-1409 Lbake66@aol.com Conservation Analyst Mack Casterman conservation@ebcnps. org 510-734-0335 Funds Development Carol Castro, Chair Grant Management Sally de Becker 510-841-6613 sallydebecker@comcast. net Field Trips Janet Gawthrop, Chair janetgawthrop47@gmail. com Hospitality Howard Julien Arendt- son, Chair 510-548-7400 howard@hjuliendesigns. com Information Infrastruc- ture Peter Rauch, Chair peterar@berkeley.edu Membership Co-Chairs Elaine Jackson elainejx@att.net Carol Castro 510-352-2382 carol bcastro@ hotmail,com Volunteer coordinator Delia Taylor volunteer@ebcnps.org Programs Sue Rosenthal, Chair rosacalifornica@earth- link.net Publicity (vacant Rare Plants Heath Bartosh, Chair 925-957-0069 hbartosh@nomadecol- ogy.com Bryophytes John Game, Chair 510-527-7855 jcgame@stanford.edu Unusual Plants Dianne Lake, Chair 510-741-8066 diannelake@yahoo.com EBCNPS Sponsored Activities Book & Poster Sales Joanne Orengo greentheglobe@juno. com Native Here Nursery 510-549-0211 Manager — Charli Dan- ielsen nativehere@ebcnps.org Sales — Margot Cunning- ham bunchgrassmarg@gmail. com Plant Fair Charli Danielsen, Chair 510-549-0211 nativehere@ebcnps.org Lesley Hunt, Native Here/ Plant Fair-East Bay Chapter Board liaison 925-937-6791 ldhunt@astound.net Restoration Projects Leaders: Huckleberry — Janet Gawthrop Point Isabel — Torn and Jane Kelly 510-704-8628 (w) 510-684-6484 c) kyotousa@sbcglobal.net Strawberry Creek — Tom and Jane Kelly Officers and Commit- tee Chairs serve on the Board. RICHMOND DROPS POINT MOLATE CASINO PLAN April 5th saw history in the making as the City Council of Richmond voted 5-2 to discontinue consideration of a casino at Point Molate. The casino was first proposed 7 years ago and initially enjoyed the support of a pro-casino majority on the council, but a growing disaffection with the project and a strong coalition of community activists ultimately defeated the project. The East Bay Chapter of CNPS joined forces with grassroots groups like the Citizens for a Sustainable Point Molate and the Richmond Progressive Alliance to shine a light on the impor- tance of Point Molate as a unique treasure along the Richmond shoreline. The San Pablo Peninsula is a key component of our Richmond Shoreline Botanical Priority Protection Area. Along with CNPS and the Committee to Save the Refuge, the California Native Grasslands Association emphasized the importance of the remnant coastal prairie and the eelgrass beds that make Point Molate a rich natural resource. Anti-gambling interests and gambling establishments alike also advocated against the casino. Last November, the pro- casino majority was replaced with an anti-casino majority, and in the same election voters turned out to defeat Measure U, a citizens' advisory vote on whether to approve a casino at Point Molate. In the months since the election, momentum to dump the casino project increased. The City Council had voted to certify the final EIR in March, but pointedly reserved the option to drop the casino. The developer has 120 days in which to propose an alternative project. The only non-casino option that is covered by the EIR is a housing development that could cause massive adverse impacts to Point Molate. EBCNPS is on record as opposing this alternative as well. We agree with many Richmond citizens that it's possible to have sustainable development in keep- ing with the San Pablo Peninsula Open Space Plan. We have come a long way down this winding road, and the struggle to protect Point Molate is not over yet, but the alliances that we forged are powerful. In a letter to EBCNPS, Mayor McLaughlin noted, "I want to personally thank all involved with the California Native Plant Society for standing strong and consistently in opposition to a casino at Point Molate. I look forward to continuing to work with you as we move forward into a better future in Richmond for our residents and for our environment!" We share that eagerness and are committed to finding a wise solution to the challenge of protecting Point Molate. Laura Baker, Conservation Committee Chair THE BAY LEAF May 2011 7 California Native Plant Society East Bay Chapter P.O. Box 5597, Elmwood Station Berkeley CA 94705 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage Paid Oakland, CA Permit No. 2018 Time Value May 201 1 issue Lech Naumovich recently left the staff position of East Bay Chapter Conservation Analyst after five years of distinguished service. Lech and his wife, Drea Beale, have a beautiful daughter, Kaya Evelyn, born March 23. Go to lecn.wordpress. com see some amazing photos of her. Congratulations, Lech and Drea, and welcome, Kaya Evelyn! Laura Baker CALENDAR OF EVENTS Bringing Back the Natives Sunday May 1, 10 am-5 pm. Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour Members Meeting (see page 1) Wednesday, May 25, 7:30 pm, at the Conference Center, UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley. Sal Levinson and Andy Liu: "In the Company of Wild Butterflies". Native Here (see page 4) Tuesday mornings— seed collectors leave Native Here at 9 am (starts May 3) Tuesday afternoons— nursery open noon to 3 pm Friday mornings— nursery open 9 am to noon Saturdays— nursery open 10 am to 2 pm Native Plant Sale Extravaganza — Saturday Apr 30, 10am-5pm Field Trips (see page 3) Sunday May 8, 1:00 pm Butterfly field trip up Claremont Canyon: meet at Rockridge BART Station. Saturday May 14, 9:30 am, field trip to Red Hills (Tuolumne County). Meet in Denny's parking lot in Oakdale. Sunday May 15, 10:00 am. Blue Oak Trail at Briones Regional Park. Sunday May 22, 10 am. Mount Diablo State Park North Peak trail from Devil's Elbow to Prospector's Gap. Restoration (see page 4) Saturday, May 7 10 am to 2 pm, at Point Isabel. May Board Meeting May 18, 6:30, House of David Margolies, 288 Mather St. Oakland CA 94611 (510-654-0283). Membership Application and Renewal Form Name Address Zip Telephone Email I wish to affiliate with: East Bay Chapter (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties) Other Membership category: Individual, $45 Family, Library, Group or International, $75 Plant lover, $100 Patron, $300 Benefactor, $600 Mariposa Lily, $1500 Limited Income or student, $25.00 Other Mail application and check to: California Native Plant Society, 2707 K Street, Suite 1, Sacramento CA 95816