In 2010 the California State Assembly and Senate approved Resolution ARC 173 establishing California Native Plant Week. This measure proclaims the third week of April each year as California Native Plant Week and encourages community groups, schools, and citizens to undertake appropriate activities to promote the conservation restoration, and appreciation of California’s native plants.
Admission is free.
Dozens of different native plant flowers will be on display, collected from members’ home gardens and the grounds of the Theodore Payne Foundation.
Native plants and seeds from the Theodore Payne Foundation Nursery will be available for purchase.
Bring the kids! Various children’s activities will be offered throughout the day.
Bring your unknown native plants to key out at our plant keying booth.
Educational displays and activities from various agencies and docent groups will be offered.
Native plant gardening and natural history books will be available for sale, along with t-shirts, maps, and other gift items.
Refreshments will be available for purchase. Cash and checks will be accepted.
Sponsored by the California Native Plant Society (Los Angeles / Santa Monica Mountains Chapter) and the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants.
The Symposium will feature the following speakers:
10:00-11:30am
Kat High, Native American Land Management
Kat teaches traditional land management–a symbiotic relationship. The hope is that all people will become aware of the environment and take that understanding from the outdoors to our patios and our yards. Kat High, a Native American of Hupa descent, is the Director of Haramokngna American Indian Cultural Center in the Angeles National Forest.
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Noon-1:30pm
Lili Singer, Perfect Partners: Gardening with Natives and All Sorts of Edibles
Gardening with natives and growing our own food are two wonderful activities that help us connect with nature and use our land in positive ways. Lili will present how best to combine natives and edibles in the home garden, why this partnership is so rewarding for both the gardener/chef and wildlife, and which plants make the best companions. Lili is director of special projects and adult education at the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants. She is also a Los Angeles native, and an award-winning horticulturist and garden writer.
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2:00-3:30pm
Daniel Cooper, Urban Wildlands in Los Angeles: Botanical Discoveries and Insights
The Los Angeles Basin, despite being part of a global center of biodiversity, remains poorly-studied botanically. Specimens from its hills, valleys, wetlands and dunes are decades old, and few modern regional floras exist that document what species are common, which are rare, and which have already gone extinct locally. Since forming his own consulting practice in 2005, Dan Cooper has had the opportunity to work on multi-species inventories of natural areas throughout the Los Angeles area. Today, he will introduce and discuss some of the more surprising findings from this work thus far, including the discovery of previously-unknown vernal pools in South-Central Los Angeles, dune fragments along the coast near LAX, a foothill chaparral relict atop the highest peak in Griffith Park, and new information on the distribution of two rare oaks, Nuttall’s scrub oak and San Gabriel Mountains leather oak, among others.
Daniel S. Cooper grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, and is an authority on bird identification and distribution in southern California. Since 2005 Daniel has overseen numerous multi-year studies documenting the flora and fauna of the region. Most recently, he has been working on A Conservation Analysis for the Santa Monica Mountains “Coastal Zone†in Los Angeles County, to identify and map biodiversity hotspots and provide conservation recommendations for L.A. County Department of Regional Planning. In 2007, he helped organize the Griffith Park Natural History Survey, and has been coordinating multi-taxa surveys in the area each year since. Dan co-teaches an urban ecology course at Loyola Marymount University, and is a graduate of Harvard University (1995) and the University of California, Riverside (M.Sc., Geography, 1999). Dan lives near Agoura Hills with his wife and two young children.
California native wildflower cuttings from home gardens to be displayed as part of the Wildflower Show are needed. If you would like to contribute cuttings, contact Snowdy Dodson via email: snowdy.dodson@csun.edu or phone: 818-782-9346 for details. The cuttings need to be available for set up on Friday, April 19, between noon and 1:00 pm
For more information about the California Native Plant Society, visit www.cnps.org.
Find the website for the L A / Santa Monica Mountains Chapter of CNPS at www.lacnps.org
Theodore Payne Foundation for wild flowers and native plants, Inc is located at 10459 Tuxford Street, Sun Valley 91352. Phone them at 818-768-1802 or visit them at www.theodorepayne.org.
NOTE: For more information, contact Steve Hartman (naturebase@aol.com) or 818-881-3706.
