JOURNAL OF THE CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY · VOLUME 35:3, SUMMER 2007 The California Native...

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VOLUME 35:3, SUMMER 2007 JOURNAL OF THE CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY $5.00 (Free to Members) VOL. 35, NO. 3 SUMMER 2007 FREMONTIA PLANT DIVERSITY IN THE KLAMATH MOUNTAINS HALLI MASON—NEW CNPS FELLOW REVISITING GUADALUPE ISLAND ANCIENT SUGAR PINES OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY REMEMBERING NATALIE HOPKINS PLANT DIVERSITY IN THE KLAMATH MOUNTAINS HALLI MASON—NEW CNPS FELLOW REVISITING GUADALUPE ISLAND ANCIENT SUGAR PINES OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY REMEMBERING NATALIE HOPKINS

Transcript of JOURNAL OF THE CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY · VOLUME 35:3, SUMMER 2007 The California Native...

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JOURNAL OF THE CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY

$5.00 (Free to Members)

VOL. 35, NO. 3 • SUMMER 2007

FREMONTIA

PLANT DIVERSITY IN THE KLAMATH MOUNTAINS

HALLI MASON—NEW CNPS FELLOW

REVISITING GUADALUPE ISLAND

ANCIENT SUGAR PINES OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY

REMEMBERING NATALIE HOPKINS

PLANT DIVERSITY IN THE KLAMATH MOUNTAINS

HALLI MASON—NEW CNPS FELLOW

REVISITING GUADALUPE ISLAND

ANCIENT SUGAR PINES OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY

REMEMBERING NATALIE HOPKINS

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The California Native Plant Society(CNPS) is a statewide nonprofit organi-zation dedicated to increasing the un-derstanding and appreciation of Califor-nia’s native plants, and to preservingthem and their natural habitats for fu-ture generations.

CNPS carries out its mission throughscience, conservation advocacy, educa-tion, and horticulture at the local, state,and federal levels. It monitors rare andendangered plants and habitats; acts tosave endangered areas through public-ity, persuasion, and on occasion, legalaction; provides expert testimony togovernment bodies; supports the estab-lishment of native plant preserves; spon-sors workdays to remove invasive plants;and offers a range of educational activi-ties including speaker programs, fieldtrips, native plant sales, horticulturalworkshops, and demonstration gardens.

Since its founding in 1965, the tradi-tional strength of CNPS has been itsdedicated volunteers. CNPS activitiesare organized at the local chapter levelwhere members’ varied interests influ-ence what is done. Volunteers from the33 CNPS chapters annually contributein excess of 87,000 hours (equivalentto 42 full-time employees).

CNPS membership is open to all.Members receive the quarterly journal,Fremontia, the quarterly statewide Bul-letin, and newsletters from their localCNPS chapter.

CALIFORNIA NATIVEPLANT SOCIETY

Dedicated to the Preservation ofthe California Native Flora

VOL. 35, NO. 3, SUMMER 2007

F R E M O N T I A

Copyright © 2007

California Native Plant Society

STAFFSacramento Office:

Executive Director . Amanda Jorgenson

Development Director . Melissa CironeFinance & Administration Manager .

Cari PorterMembership & Sales Coordinator . . .

Stacey Flowerdew

At Large:

Fremontia Editor . . . . . Bart O’Brien

Senior Conservation Botanist . . . . . .position open

Rare Plant Botanist . . . . Kristi Lazar

Senior Vegetation Ecologist . . . JulieEvens

Vegetation Ecologist . . . . Anne KleinEast Bay Conservation Analyst . . . . .

Lech NaumovichLegislative Advocate . Vern GoehringLegal Advisor . . . . . . . Sandy McCoy

Website Coordinator . . Mark NaftzgerCNPS Bulletin Editor . . . . . . Bob Hass

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Brad Jenkins (President), Sue Britting(Vice President), Steve Hartman (Trea-surer), Lynn Houser (Secretary). At

Large: Charli Danielsen, Dave Flietner,Diana Hickson, Arvind Kumar, DavidMagney, Spence McIntyre

PROGRAM DIRECTORS

CNPS Press . . . . . . . . . Holly ForbesConservation . . . . . . . position openHorticulture . . . . . . . . . Peigi Duvall

Posters . . . . . . . . . Bertha McKinleyand Wilma Follette

Rare Plants . . . . . . . . . position open

Vegetation . . . . . . Todd Keeler-Wolf

CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY

MEMBERSHIPMembership form located on inside back cover;

dues include subscriptions to Fremontia and the Bulletin

Mariposa Lily . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,500Benefactor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $600Patron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $300Plant Lover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $100

Family or Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . $75International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $75Individual or Library . . . . . . . . . $45Student/Retired/Limited Income . $25

CHAPTER COUNCILJim Bishop (Chair), Larry Levine (ViceChair), Sarah Jayne (Secretary)

Alta Peak (Tulare) . . . . Joan StewartBristlecone (Inyo-Mono) . . . . . . . . .

Sherryl Taylor

Channel Islands . . . . David MagneyDorothy King Young (Mendocino/

Sonoma Coast) . . . . . Lori Hubbart

East Bay . . . . . . . . . . Delia TaylorEl Dorado . . . . . . . . Amy HoffmanKern County . . . . . . . . . Lucy ClarkLos Angeles/Santa Monica Mtns . . .

Betsey LandisMarin County . . . . . . . . Bob SoostMilo Baker (Sonoma County) . . . . .

Liz ParsonsMojave Desert . . . . . . Tim ThomasMonterey Bay . . . . Rosemary Foster

Mount Lassen . . . . . . . Catie BishopNapa Valley . . . . . . . . . . John PittNorth Coast . . . . . . . Larry Levine

North San Joaquin . . James BruggerOrange County . . . . . . Sarah JayneRedbud (Grass Valley/Auburn) . . . .

Marie Bain

Riverside/San Bernardino counties . .Katie Barrows

Sacramento Valley . . Diana Hickson

San Diego . . . . . . . . Dave FlietnerSan Gabriel Mtns . . . Gabi McLeanSan Luis Obispo . . . Lauren Brown

Sanhedrin (Ukiah) . . . . . . . VishnuSanta Clara Valley . . . Kevin BryantSanta Cruz County . . . . Brett HallSequoia (Fresno) . . . . . Peggy Jones

Shasta . . . . . Susan Libonati-BarnesSierra Foothills (Tuolumne, Cala- veras, Mariposa) . . . Patrick Stone

South Coast (Palos Verdes) . . . . . .Barbara Sattler

Tahoe . . . . . . . . . . Michael Hogan

Willis L. Jepson (Solano) . . . . . . . .Mary Frances Kelly Poh

Yerba Buena (San Francisco) . . . . .Jo-Ann Ordano

MATERIALS FOR PUBLICATIONCNPS members and others are wel-come to contribute materials for publi-cation in Fremontia. See the inside backcover for manuscript submission in-structions.

Bart O’Brien, Editor

Bob Hass, Copy Editor

Beth Hansen-Winter, Designer

Kathryn Blassey, Editorial Assistant

Brad Jenkins and Jake Sigg,Proofreaders

CNPS, 2707 K Street, Suite 1; Sacramento, CA 95816-5113

Phone: (916) 447-CNPS (2677) Fax: (916) 447-2727Web site: www.cnps.org Email: [email protected]

F R E M O N T I A

Printed by Premier Graphics: www.premiergraphics.biz

DISCLAIMER:

The views expressed by authors publishedin this journal do not necessarily reflectestablished policy or procedure of CNPS,and their publication in this journal shouldnot be interpreted as an organizationalendorsement—in part or in whole—of theirideas, statements, or opinions.

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CONTENTS

THE COVER: The Klamath Mountains seen from South Fork Mountain. The Trinity Alps are on the horizon. Photograph byJ. Sawyer.

WHY ARE THE KLAMATH MOUNTAINS AND ADJACENT NORTH COASTFLORISTICALLY DIVERSE? by John O. Sawyer ...................................................... 3

The Klamath Mountains of northwestern California and southwestern Oregon have longbeen recognized for their exceptionally diverse floral heritage. By telling the stories of theendemic, rare, and unusual plants of this region, John Sawyer provides an accessible andin-depth discussion of the reasons behind this phenomena.

NEW CNPS FELLOW: HALLI MASON by Jo Kitz and Steven L. Hartman ....... 12

Halli Mason became a CNPS fellow in 2005. Her contributions to the Society run thegamut from fund raising, weed whacking, plant sales, and educational efforts, to statewidechapter relations management. She has managed the gathering and production of theannual reports from all CNPS chapters for many years. Halli has been instrumental inproviding expertise and outreach to diverse groups, often well beyond the Society’s typicalconservation and gardening constituencies.

THE RESTORATION OF GUADALUPE ISLAND, REVISITED by Luciana LunaMendoza, Alfonso Aguirre, Bradford Keitt, Steve Junak, and Bill Henry ................ 14

Our photo essay revisits and provides an update on Guadalupe Island’s remarkable floralrecovery. There is still a long way to go to restore the island’s vegetation but, with thesuccessful eradication of goats from the island, the future looks increasingly bright. Thephotographs document successful regeneration of a number of Guadalupe’s most notableendemic species including the rarely seen or photographed Mimulus latifolius.

LOSS OF 500-YEAR-OLD SUGAR PINES DURING OCTOBER 2003 FIRESTORMS by Thomas Oberbauer ............................................................................. 18

Tom Oberbauer has studied the sugar pines of San Diego County for decades. In thisarticle he documents their presence on the higher peaks in the region and provides apersonal account of their fate during the fire storms of 2003. These ancient specimens area remarkable feature of the coniferous forests of Southern California. The remainingvenerable trees warrant special consideration in planning and management activities.

IN MEMORIAM: NATALIE HOPKINS by Suzanne Schettler ............................. 24

Natalie Ames Hopkins became a professional botanist later in life, after her children weregrown. She received both her Bachelor of Arts degree in botany and her Master of Artsdegree in biology at San Jose State University. After the death of Carl Sharsmith in 1994,she served as curator of the Sharsmith Herbarium at San Jose State until her retirement in2000. She was a founding member and the second president (1973–1974) of the SantaClara Valley Chapter of CNPS.

BOOK REVIEWS ........................................................................................................................ 24

BOOKS BRIEFLY ......................................................................................................................... 28

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USEFUL WEBSITES ANDCONTACTINFORMATION

California Native PlantSociety (CNPS):

www.cnps.org, with links toconservation issues, chapters,publications, policies, etc.

For updates onconservation issues:Audubon Societywww.audubon.org

Center for Biological Diversitywww.sw-center.org

Native Plant ConservationCampaign www.plantsocieties.org

Natural Resources DefenseCouncilwww.nrdc.org

Sierra Clubwww.sierraclub.org

Wilderness Societywww.wilderness.org

For voting information:League of Women Voterswww.lwv.org, includes onlinevoter guide with state-specificnonpartisan election andcandidate information.

US Senatewww.senate.gov

US House of Representativeswww.house.gov

California State Senatewww.sen.ca.gov

California State Assemblywww.assembly.ca.gov

To write letters:

President George W. BushThe White House1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NWWashington, DC 20500

Senator Barbara Boxeror Senator Dianne FeinsteinUS SenateWashington, DC 20510

Your CA RepresentativeUS House of RepresentativesWashington, DC 20515

M

EDITORIAL: A CALL FOR NAMES

The Need for a Standardized List of Common Namesfor California’s Native Plants

any years ago, when I was in college, I was told that one of thereasons for botanical nomenclature was the stability of these Latinnames. That hardly seems the point these days with the radical

changes to the system wrought by molecular systematists. Don’t get mewrong—I am endlessly fascinated to know the latest interpretation of ourflora. Learning what new lines of evidence have to tell us about the originsand relationships amongst California’s flora is a never-ending process. Un-fortunately, the results of new information can lead to a plethora of namechanges. Many of these will be incorporated into the upcoming new (2008)edition of The Jepson Manual.

A surprising number of these name changes are at the genus level. Someof our former Rhamnus are now recognized as species of Frangula. Californiawill no longer have any native Coreopsis species as these have all beentransferred to the genus Leptosyne. Our palo verdes are no longer in thegenus Cercidium as they have been incorporated into the genus Parkinsonia.It appears likely that we will no longer have any native species left in thegenus Leptodactylon as California’s are almost certainly moving into thegenus Linanthus—and a number of Linanthus species are moving into thegenus Leptosiphon. Some of our native Aster species, including the wellknown A. chilensis, have been moved to the genus Symphyotrichum, anotherAster species goes to Almutaster, and still others are now recognized asspecies of Eurybia, Oreostemma, Eucephalus, and Ionactis.

There are also cases where formerly familiar genera that had been doneaway with in the current edition of The Jepson Manual but will be making acomeback in the next edition. Examples include Benitoa and Munzothamnus.

It’s enough to make even the most dedicated field botanist’s head spin!Faced with the ever-evolving nature of scientific nomenclature, birders

decided that it would be beneficial to create a standardized list of commonnames that generally will not change with the latest updates of scientificresearchers. Yes, these common names are tied to scientific names. Yes, thesystem seems to be working. With the changes in the scientific names of plantscoming at us at such an astonishing rate, I think it is time that CNPS lead theway for the plant-interested public. Create a list of the accepted common namefor every plant native to the state of California. It will be an interesting task, assome of our plants have no readily accepted common name while others havedozens. It will be an exercise for both public relations—common names makea plant more accessible and provide a point of reference to the vast majority ofpeople that need to know more about our natural world—and to correct someof the oft-repeated yet silly “common names” that are anything but common.Examples of uncommon common names include: changeable phacelia (Phaceliamutabilis), and crisp monardella (Monardella crispa). There will be challenges:evergreen currant or Catalina perfume for the delightful Ribes viburnifolium?And what of Tolmeia menziesii—the plant with over 25 recorded commonnames? If CNPS were to take on this task, we would provide a service and asteadying force in the face of rapid change—one that all Californians who seekto know our native plants could appreciate. CNPS has already accomplishedsignificant work on this topic with the publication of common names for all ofthe plants listed in our Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants. Let’s finish thisjob for the rest of our flora.

Bart O’Brien, Fremontia Editor

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WHY ARE THE KLAMATH MOUNTAINS AND ADJACENTNORTH COAST FLORISTICALLY DIVERSE?

by John O. Sawyer

The following is adapted from theideas of the chapter “Beyond the An-cient Meeting Ground” in NorthwestCalifornia, a Natural History pub-lished in 2006 by University Califor-nia Press.

NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA,THE GREAT MEETINGGROUND

he flora of the Klamath Moun-tains and adjacent NorthCoast is diverse in many ways.It is the home of 3,540 both

native and naturalized vascular planttaxa (species, subspecies, and vari-eties), more than grow in New En-gland and adjacent Canada com-

bined. Only one other region ofroughly equivalent size in the na-tion, the southern AppalachianMountains, has a comparably diverseflora. Robert Whittaker, an influen-tial plant ecologist of ecologicaltheory, explained this diversity al-most 50 years ago by noting that ourmountains are a great meetingground. The region’s central loca-tion along the Pacific Coast, its con-tinuity with other mountain systems,its diverse climate, geology, and to-pography, and its long geologicalhistory led to the development of acomplex and diverse flora. The titleof David Rains Wallace’s The Kla-math Knot encapsulates the argu-ment well. Threats to the region’srich flora are less than other parts of

the state, but still forest fragmenta-tion, invasive plants, and habitat lossare important conservation issuesin the Klamath Mountains and adja-cent North Coast.

THE CONTINUITY OFMOUNTAIN RANGES

You can easily see the region’scentral location along the PacificCoast on national maps, but its con-tinuity with other mountain systemsis less evident. Most people think ofthe Rocky Mountains, the Cascades,the Sierra Nevada, and the KlamathMountains as separate ranges, butthey actually comprise an uninter-rupted mountain system that geolo-

T

The Duck Lakes area in the Salmon Mountains, home of the first known stand of subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) in California. Little DuckLake is in the foreground. All photographs by the author unless otherwise specified.

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gists call the western cordillera. TheCascades are volcanic and the Trin-ity Mountains are not, but theirranges are continuous at mid-eleva-tions, and they share many plantspecies. Within the Klamath Ranges,the Trinity Mountains are continu-ous with the Scott, Salmon, andMarble mountains. The KlamathRiver separates the Marbles and theSiskiyou mountains, which are con-tinuous with the Cascades in Or-egon. The Yolla Bolly Mountainsconnect South Fork Mountain withthe northern Coast Ranges.

One way to appreciate the sig-nificance of this meeting place is torecall where you first learned your

region has been greatly aided by theseland connections.

A WIDE RANGE OFHABITATS

Beyond the physical continuity,the multitude of habitats in north-west California offers suitable envi-ronmental conditions for a myriadof species. Granitic, metamorphic,sedimentary, and serpentine sub-strates, including limestone, exist atall elevations. The cool, foggy cli-mate of the coast contrasts with thesun-baked interior. Annual precipi-tation exceeds 120 inches in the westside Smith River watershed in theSiskiyou Mountains but is a modest18 inches in the Stony Creek water-shed in the northern Coast Ranges.Scott Valley’s winter temperaturesare often well below freezing, andsnow is long lasting. On the coast,winters are mild, and snow is a fleet-ing event occurring only about oncea decade.

The maze of mountain rangesand complicated river systems makefor many local climates in the rug-ged terrain, even within a singlewatershed. The variable and patchystructure of the vegetation itself addsto this microclimatic variability.Patches of open woodlands with fil-tered light, well-lighted chaparral,and dark coniferous forests mingleon a single mountain slope alongthe Sacramento River watershed eastof the Trinity Mountains. In the cur-rent jargon of ecology, “environmen-tal heterogeneity is high at all scales.”

AN ANCIENT LAND

The region’s flora is a rich col-lection of long, enduring lineagesmixed with more recently evolvedones. Its lands have been availableto flowering plants since the Ceno-zoic (65 million years ago). Duringthis time, volcanism created the Cas-cades to the east and the hills in theClear Lake area to the south, but the

plants. Was it in the Santa Cruz areawhere you met redwood (Sequoiasempervirens); in the heights ofYosemite National Park when youfirst encountered whitebark pine(Pinus albicaulis) and its partner, theClark’s nutcracker (Nucifraga colum-biana); in southern California thebirch leaf mountain mahogany (Cer-cocarpus betuloides); in Nevada thedesert mountain mahogany (Cerco-carpus ledifolius); in the flower fieldsat Mount Rainier the red heather(Phyllodoce empetriformis); in Alaskathe crowberry (Empetrum nigrum)?All these plants grow in the KlamathMountains and adjacent North Coast.Plant migration into and out of the

Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi) growing on serpentine substrates in the Scott Mountains. Thispine is commonly found in California.

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region has no volcanic deposits. Gla-ciers were not regionally extensive,and in many mountain ranges, theglaciers were spotty. With this geo-logical history, we should expect tohold onto ancestors and yet allowthese residents and new immigrantsto evolve to meet new environmen-tal situations.

Indeed, our flora may be rich be-cause it responds quickly to environ-mental change. Helen Constantine-Shull, who received her Masters de-gree from Humboldt State Univer-sity (HSU) in 2000, surveyed theflora of the San Joaquin RoadlessArea, just north of the town of Mam-moth. She found that, unlike mostof the Sierra Nevada, volcanic rockand ash buried this area in recentgeological time. Some eruptions oc-curred only 650 years ago. Yet, inthis very short period, a new florahas developed that is similar to thatof the central Sierra Nevada as awhole. Gordon Leppig, who receivedhis Masters degree from HSU in2002, came to the same conclusionwhen he studied fens in northernCalifornia.

PLANT GENERALISTS

A surprisingly high proportionof species in California’s larger gen-era grow in the Klamath Mountainsand adjacent North Coast. We findhalf of California’s pines (Pinus spp.),

two-thirds of the oaks (Quercus spp.),and two-thirds of the gooseberries(Ribes spp.) here. Genera of herba-ceous plants show the same pattern.Three-fourths of the state’s sedges(Carex spp.) occur in northwest Cali-fornia, as do 21 of the 24 wild peasin the genus Lathyrus.

Many of the region’s species growthroughout California and the restof the West. Ponderosa pine (Pinusponderosa) ranges from South Da-kota to Mexico and throughout west-ern mountain ranges. Virgin’s-bower(Clematis ligusticifolia) has a simi-lar range. Canyon live oak (Quercuschrysolepis), green leaf manzanita(Arctostaphylos patula), and tobaccobrush (Ceanothus velutinus) also re-side in the Rocky Mountains. Manyspecies whose distribution is cen-tered in the Pacific Northwest haveranges that extend south into north-west California. Mountain alder(Alnus incana ssp. tenuifolia), Pacificyew (Taxus brevifolia), wild ginger(Asarum caudatum), and yellowpond lily (Nuphar polysepala) growfrom Alaska to the Sierra Nevada.We see a southern pattern with theCalifornia poppy (Eschscholzia cali-fornica) and sugar pine (Pinus lam-bertiana), which range from south-ern California to central Oregon.Other species have extensive ranges.For example, madrone (Arbutusmenziesii) ranges from British Co-lumbia, where its common name is

arbutus, to San Diego County, whereit is madroño. Much of northwestCalifornia’s floristic richness comesfrom these generalists.

PLANTS WITH ANCIENTLINEAGES

Large areas of the KlamathMountains and adjacent North Coastwere well above sea level during thelast 65 million years and were there-fore available to terrestrial plantgrowth. With this kind of geologicalhistory, we might expect to findrelicts—plants surviving after extinc-tion of related groups, or once wide-spread populations now persistingin isolated localities––in our flora.Coast redwood (Sequoia semper-virens) is our most famous example.Its ancestry is a venerable one. Wecan trace the fossils of Sequoia backto the Jurassic 200 million years ago,and ones with the overall appear-ance of the species to the Paleocene60 million years ago. As many ashalf of the modern genera of woodyplants that grow in the KlamathRanges and adjacent North Coastexisted in the Middle Eocene 45 mil-lion years ago (Table 1).

Comparing modern and fossilfloras is not the only way to evaluatethe idea that northwest California’s

The serpentine substrates of Swift Creek in the foreground contrast with granitic substratesof Stewart Fork in the background in the Trinity Alps.

Green leaf manzanita (Arctostaphylos pa-tula), a common shrub in the mountains ofnorthwest California and elsewhere in theWest.

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flora is rife with these ancient lin-eages. Plant geographers also studydistributional patterns of moderntaxa to understand the history ofplant groups. They consider plantsthat share many characteristics, evenwhen found in very different partsof the world to be closely related.Settlers of New England came uponbeech (Fagus), oak (Quercus), andpine (Pinus) trees that were nearlyidentical to those in Britain and Eu-rope. Gold miners were using oakand pine from northwest California’sforests in their mines. When theysaw the fruits of the local chinqua-pin (Chrysolepis chrysophylla), theyrecalled the chestnuts (Castanea) ofEurope.

By the middle of the 1800s, bota-nists had cataloged many regions ofthe world. It was at this time thatAsa Gray, the foremost authority onthe North American flora, receiveda copy of Carl Thunberg’s FloraJaponica. To Gray’s surprise, he dis-covered that maples (Acer), colum-bines (Aquilegia), bleeding hearts(Dicentra), mock oranges (Philadel-phus), plum yews (Torreya), wist-erias (Wisteria), and many other gen-

era in the Japanese flora were simi-lar to those he knew from easternNorth America. In his 1858 paper,“Observations Upon the Relationsof the Japanese Flora to That ofNorth America,” Gray offered an ex-planation: These genera were relicts,he believed, surviving in easternNorth America and in eastern Asia,two areas of similar climate and geo-logical history, but continents apart.

Californian relicts with closerelatives in eastern North Americaand elsewhere are easy to identifyusing current distribution informa-tion. Fossils of sycamore (Platanus)

are widespread in California. Todaythe genus ranges from California andArizona to eastern North America,Europe, Iran, and China. Pseudotsugaincludes the familiar Douglas fir thatgrows in northern California, thePacific Northwest, and the RockyMountains. Other Pseudotsuga spe-cies and close relatives grow insouthern California, Mexico, Japan,and China. Our California spicebush(Calycanthus occidentalis) is closelyrelated to Chinese sweetshrub (Sino-calycanthus chinensis) from China,eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) ofNew England has cones that arenearly identical to those of westernwhite pine (Pinus monticola) of Cali-fornia. Hazel (Corylus cornuta) hastwo subspecies—the western ssp.californica with broadly ellipticalleaves and the eastern ssp. cornutawith narrowly elliptical leaves. Falsebugbane (Trautvetteria carolinensis),grows with little morphological dif-ference in three, isolated parts of theUnited States: the Pacific Northwest,the southern Rocky Mountains, andin the South.

RECENT IMMIGRATION OFSPECIES

Today plant geographers havenew methods to ascertain relation-ships among disparate populations.In 1969, in the Klamath Mountains,Dale Thornburgh, Professor of For-estry at HSU, and I discovered apopulation of subalpine fir (Abieslasiocarpa) in the Klamath Moun-tains of California. It is a commontree in the Rocky Mountains. Wasthis a relict population far out ofrange, or was it the result of a re-cent immigration? Ed Cope, whoreceived his Masters degree fromHSU in 1983, worked with us tocompare the chemical makeup(monoterpenes) of fir needlesamong California, Oregon, andColorado populations. The resultsshowed that the needles from thesouthern Cascades of Oregon and

False bugbane (Trautvetteria carolinensis)growing on the western slopes of NorthTrinity Mountain in the Trinity Alps.Photograph by M. Mesler.

The Klamath Mountains seen from South Fork Mountain. Smoke from the Pigeon Pointfire covers the lands of Trinity River Canyon. The Trinity Alps are on the horizon. Photo-graph by M. Mesler.

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the Klamath Mountains were simi-lar but that they differed greatlyfrom the Colorado needles. Suchevidence indicates that this subal-pine fir population is the result of arecent immigration.

ENDEMICS NEW AND OLD

Botanists use the term endemicfor plants with restricted ranges. Thetwo-flowered pea (Lathyrus biflora)exists only at the Lassics, a set ofhigh peaks in the North CoastRanges, and the Castle Crags hare-bell (Campanula shetleri) exists onlyon north-facing granodiorite cliffs

in the Trinity Mountains. These aregood examples of narrowly restrictedendemics. Botanists use the term fordifferent taxonomic levels and largerareas as well. The diverse and wide-spread genus Penstemon is endemicto North America; giant sequoia(Sequoiadendron giganteum) and val-ley oak (Quercus lobata) are endemicto California; Brewer spruce (Piceabreweriana) is endemic to the Kla-math Mountains.

California’s flora is particularlyhigh in the number of endemic taxa.The California Floristic Province (seemap in The Jepson Manual) includessouthwestern Oregon and parts of

cismontane California (west of theCascade–Sierra Nevada–PeninsularRange crest) and northwestern BajaCalifornia. James P. Smith, Profes-sor of Botany at HSU, reports thatthe California Floristic Province has3,092 endemic taxa excluding BajaCalifornia. Additionally, an area in-cluding just northwest California andsouthwest Oregon has 225. Thesenumbers are very high in compari-son to other areas of comparable sizein temperate North America.

ANCIENT ENDEMICS

The late Ledyard Stebbins, Pro-fessor of Genetics at the Universityof California and one of the foundersof CNPS, and the late Jack Major,

TABLE 1. The fossil record from northern California fossil locations:Paleogene list for California,4 Oligocene or Early Miocene list from theWeaverville flora,1 Middle Miocene list from Upper Cedarville locality inthe Warner Mountains,2 and Pliocene list from a locality near Santa Rosa.3

TERTIARY RECORD

MIDDLE MIOCENEBay tree (Umbellularia)Chestnut (Castanea)Ginkgo (Ginkgo)Hickory (Carya)Maple (Acer)Nutmeg (Torreya)Ponderosa-like pine (Pinus cf. ponde-rosa)Red-like fir (Abies cf. magnifica)Redbud (Cercis)Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)White cedar (Chamaecyparis)

PLIOCENEAvocado (Persea)Elm (Ulmus)Fir (Abies)Hemlock (Tsuga)Holly (Ilex)Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)Spruce (Picea)

1. MacGinitie, H.D. 1937. The flora of the Weaverville beds of Trinity County, California,with descriptions of the plant-bearing beds. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publi-cations 465(3):131.

2. Millar, C.I. 1996. Tertiary vegetation history. In Sierra Nevada ecosystem project: finalreport to Congress, volume II, assessments and scientific basis of management options.Center of Water and Wildland Resources. University of California, Davis.

3. Noss, R.F., ed. 2000. The redwood forest: history, ecology, and conservation of thecoast redwoods. Island Press. Covelo, California. Chapter 2.

4. Wilken, D.H. 1993. California’s changing climates and flora. Pages 59–88. In J.C.Hickman, ed. The Jepson manual. University of California Press.

PALEOGENECycadsFicus-like figPalmsPersea-like avocadoTree ferns

OLIGOCENE OR EARLY MIOCENEBald cypress (Taxodium)Cattail (Typha)Elm (Ulmus)Spice bush (Lindera)Sycamore (Platanus)Tupelo (Nyssa)Walnut (Juglans)Willow (Salix)

Brewer spruce (Picea breweriana) growingat Bear Basin Butte in the Siskiyou Moun-tains.

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TABLE 2. A selection of neoendemics of the Klamath Mountains and adjacent North Coast (Smith andSawyer, 2007). Some species are widespread in California, but their subspecies or varieties are endemic; someendemic species have several subspecies or varieties; some species are restricted to specific mountain rangesor special habitats.

I. Endemic forms of widespread speciesA. Widespread in the region Berry’s penstemon (Penstemon newberryi var. berryi)

Great red Indian paintbrush (Castilleja miniata ssp. elata)Oregon bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa ssp. oregana)

B. Scattered throughout the region Mendocino tarweed (Hemizonia congesta ssp. calyculata)Tracy’s pea (Lathyrus lanszwertii var. tracyi)

Tracy’s tarweed (Hemizonia congesta ssp. tracyi)C. Restricted in the region or habitat

1. Siskiyou Mountains Vollmer’s lily (Lilium pardalinum ssp. vollmeri)Wiggin’s lily (Lilium pardalinum ssp. wigginsii)

2. Salmon Mountains Salmon Mountain wake robin (Trillium ovatum ssp. oettingeri)3. Scott Mountains Scott Mountain bedstraw (Galium serpenticum ssp. scotticum)4. Red Mountain in Mendocino County Red Mountain catchfly (Silene campanulata

ssp. campanulata)5. Humboldt Bay Dunes Humboldt Bay wallflower (Erysimum menziesii ssp. eurekense)6. Serpentine substrates of the northwestern Klamath Mountains

Koehler’s rock cress (Arabis koehleri var. koehleri)Stipitate rock cress (Arabis koehleri var. stipitata)

Yellow-tubered toothwort (Cardamine nuttallii var. gemmata)7. Serpentine substrates of the southern Klamath Mountains Mount Tedoc brush-gilia (Linanthus

nuttallii ssp. howellii)8. Coastal bluffs Whitney’s farewell to spring (Clarkia amoena ssp. whitneyi)9. Serpentine substrates at Kneeland Prairie

Kneeland pennycress (Noccaea fendleri ssp. californica)II. Local forms of endemic species

A. Scattered throughout the region Pale-yellow stonecrop (Sedum laxum ssp. flavidum)Pale-yellow stonecrop (Sedum laxum ssp. heckneri)

Pale-yellow stonecrop (Sedum laxum ssp. laxum)B. Restricted within region

1. Scott Mountains Scott Mountain fawn lily (Erythronium citrinum var. roderickii)2. Trinity Mountains Trinity Mountains triteleia (Triteleia crocea var. modesta)3. Serpentine substrates in northwest Klamath Mountains Serpentine pink (Silene serpentinicola)4. Klamath and Trinity River canyons Howell’s lewisia (Lewisia cotyledon var. howellii)

III. Species endemic to mountain rangesA. Klamath Mountains1

1. Marble, Scott, and Trinity mountains Copeland’s speedwell (Veronica copelandii)2. Trinity Alps, Scott, Siskiyou, Trinity mountains Mount Eddy draba (Draba carnosula)

Siskiyou fireweed (Epilobium siskiyouense)Siskiyou phacelia (Placelia leonis)

3. Trinity Alps, Scott, and Trinity mountains Mount Eddy lupine (Lupinus croceus)Trinity phacelia (Phacelia dalesiana)

4. Scott and Trinity mountains Klamath manzanita (Arctostaphylos klamathensis)Showy raillardella (Raillardella pringlei)

Siskiyou buckwheat (Eriogonum siskiyouense)5. Trinity Alps Canyon Creek stonecrop (Sedum paradisum)

Tracy’s penstemon (Penstemon tracyi)6. Scott Mountains Nelson’s sandwort (Minuartia stolonifera)

Scott Valley phacelia (Phacelia greenei)Silky ivesia (Ivesia pickeringii)

7. Trinity Mountains Serpentine haplopappus (Ericameria ophitidis)Thread-leaved penstemon (Penstemon filiformis)

Trinity buckwheat (Eriogonum alpinum)

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8. Castle Crags2 Castle Crags ivesia (Ivesia longibracteata)Castle Crags harebell (Campanula shetleri)

9. Greenhorn Mountains Siskiyou mariposa lily (Calochortus persistens)Yreka phlox (Phlox hirsuta)

10.Siskiyou Mountains Klamath Mountains buckwheat (Eriogonum hirtellum)Applegate’s stonecrop (Sedum oblanceolatum)

B. North Coast Ranges1. South Fork Mountain and North Yolly Bolly Mountains Elmer’s lupine (Lupinus elmeri)

Yolly Bolly Mountains trefoil (Lotus yollabolliensis)2. Lassics1 Lassics lupine (Lupinus constancei)

Lassics sandwort (Minuartia decumbens)Two-flowered pea (Lathyrus biflorus)

3. Red Mountain in Mendocino County1 Kellogg’s buckwheat (Eriogonum kelloggii)Red Mountain stonecrop (Sedum eastwoodiae)

McDonald’s rock cress (Arabis macdonaldiana3)IV. Habitat endemics

A. Serpentine substrates1. Serpentines of the northwestern Klamath Mountains Del Norte willow (Salix delnortensis)

Brook wake robin (Pseudotrillium rivale)Siskiyou inside-out flower (Vancouveria chrysantha)

2. Serpentines of the southern Klamath Mountains Dubakella buckwheat (Eriogonum libertini)Stebbins’ tarweed (Harmonia stebbinsii)Niles’ tarweed (Harmonia doris-nilesiae)

B. Other substrates1. Klamath River canyon Siskiyou mountain mint (Monardella siskiyouensis)

Marble Mountains (Silene marmorensis)2. Sacramento River limestones Shasta ageratina (Ageratina shastense)

Shasta snow-wreath (Neviusia cliftonii)3. Coastal bluffs Mendocino Coast paintbrush (Castilleja mendocinensis)4. Alkali seeps Howell’s alkali grass (Puccinellia howellii)5. High elevation habitats

a. Gravelly slopes Heller’s lupine (Lupinus lapidicola)Stebbins’ lewisia (Lewisia stebbinsii)

b. Forest openings Tracy’s lupine (Lupinus tracyi)6. Creek beds and disturbed areas Dimorphic snapdragon (Antirrhinum subcordatum)7. Recently disturbed forest sites Humboldt milk-vetch (Astragalus agnicidus)

Tracy’s sanicle (Sanicula tracyi)1. Many mountain endemics, also serpentine substrate endemics

2. Also, granite substrate endemics

3. Also, grows in northwestern Klamath Mountains

Professor of Botany at the Univer-sity of California, in their 1965 ar-ticle, Endemism in the CaliforniaFlora, recognized two classificationsof plants: paleoendemics, plants thatcome from ancient stock, and neo-endemics, plants that are recentlyevolved. Relicts represent a specialsubset of an area’s paleoendemics,in that their occurrences are nowhighly limited. For example, Brewerspruce probably originated some-where other than in northwest Cali-fornia, since fossils exist in the Mi-

ocene deposits in Oregon and Ne-vada 15 million years ago. Today itonly grows naturally in the KlamathMountains. Engelmann spruce (Pi-cea engelmannii) and Sitka spruce(Picea sitchensis) are distant relativesof Brewer spruce. Both grow nearBrewer spruce in the Klamath Moun-tains. Brewer spruce’s closest rela-tives are two highly restricted spe-cies in the Mexican highlands. Sadleroak (Quercus sadleriana), only growsin the Klamath Mountains, and looksto distant Japan for its closest rela-

tives. The closest relative of the lime-stone-loving snow-wreath (Neviusiacliftonii), found around Lake Shasta,lives in the southeastern UnitedStates. These plants fit the very spe-cial category of being both relictsand paleoendemics.

Paleoendemics are variouslydistributed in the rest of the Cali-fornia Floristic Province: redwood(Sequoia sempervirens), California bay(Umbellularia californica), Californianutmeg (Torreya californica), Califor-nia sycamore (Platanus racemosa),

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Oregon ash (Fraxinus latifolia), sto-rax (Styrax redivivus), and westernburning bush (Euonymus occidentalis)are all paleoendemics of the prov-ince. Populations of Sierra bladder-nut (Staphylea bolanderi), spicebush(Calycanthus occidentalis), and cobralily (Darlingtonia californica), a plantmost botanists associate solely withthe Klamath Mountains, also growsin the Sierra Nevada. Western leath-erwood (Dirca occidentalis) grows inthe hills around San Francisco Bay;Sierra sweet-bay (Myrica hartwegii)occurs only in the central SierraNevada. Northwest California is notdistinct in the CaliforniaFloristic Province in havingpaleoendemics.

NEW ENDEMICS

While relicts and paleo-endemics have a specialplace in the hearts of bota-nists, most of the endemictaxa from the California Flo-ristic Province are, in fact,of recent origin at the spe-cies level. Botanists arguethat relatives of newlyevolved taxa often livenearby. As the range of a

species expands, different popula-tions come under distinctive selec-tion pressures due to slight differ-ences in their environments. Plantsin these distinct populations mayeventually establish detectable dif-ferences. Botanists then categorizethese distinct entities by recogniz-ing them as subspecies or varietieswithin the species. If the popula-tions are sufficiently distinct, bota-nists may recognize them as newspecies. If the process has occurredrecently, the taxa will have smallranges. The Klamath Mountains andadjacent North Coast have many

closely related taxa because of thisongoing speciation process.

Geographic isolation and/orhabitat isolation can be responsiblefor speciation. The following are ex-amples of this phenomenon: Berry’spenstemon (Penstemon newberryivar. berryi) and Oregon bleedingheart (Dicentra formosa ssp. oregana)are local versions of species that arewidespread in the western moun-tains of California. Henderson’shorkelia (Horkelia hendersonii), amember of a moderately large ge-nus, grows only on granite talusslopes high in the Siskiyou Moun-tains. Geographic isolation is a likelyexplanation. Yellow-tubered tooth-wort (Cardamine nuttallii var. gem-mata) grows only on serpentine sub-strates in the upper Smith River wa-tershed. Other toothwort speciesgrow on many substrates through-out the region’s mountains. Shastaeupatorium (Ageratina shastense), amember of a widespread genus, ex-ists on limestone in the SacramentoRiver watershed. Habitat isolation isthe probable reason. Kneeland pen-nycress (Noccaea fendleri ssp. cali-fornica) thrives on only two localslices of serpentine in the NorthCoast, far from other serpentine out-crops and other Noccaea species.Geographic and habitat isolation areprobable factors.

Another interesting example isthe Del Norte race of lodgepole pine

(Pinus contorta) that growson serpentine substrates inthe Siskiyou Mountains.Specimens do not key to anyone of lodgepole pine’s foursubspecies. Mignonne Bivinand Jim Oliphant, who re-ceived their Masters degreesfrom HSU in 1986 and 1992,found the trees to be inter-mediate in both morphologi-cal and allozyme characteris-tics. Surprisingly, Del Nortespecimens have more traitsin common with the RockyMountain subspecies thanthey do with either the Sierra

Cobra lily (Darlingtonia californica) growing in the Scott Mountains.

Serpentine pink (Silene serpentinicola), a recently describedendemic from the Smith River watershed.

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Nevada subspecies or with thecoastal subspecies. They hypoth-esized that Quaternary events overthe last million years, the many gla-cial epochs—the last one, the LittleIce Age, ending just 150 years ago—alternating with periods of warmth,allowed long-isolated populations tomingle in the western KlamathMountains. A future lodgepole pinetaxon may be the result. These re-cently evolved taxa are most numer-ous on the region’s serpentine out-crops. The chemical compositionmakes serpentine a very difficult sub-strate for plant growth. The nutri-ents needed for growth (nitrogen,phosphorus, and potassium) are inlow supply and heavy metals (mag-nesium, iron, chromium, and nickel)are at high, or even toxic levels.Soils tend to be thin and dry quickly.Over time, some plant populationshave evolved to take advantage ofthis habitat. The 70 endemics grow-ing only on serpentine substrates inthe Siskiyou Mountains outnumberendemics on any other serpentineoutcrop in North America. The ma-jority come from only a handfulof families that have solved the evo-lutionary problems posed by theseinhospitable substrates: mustardfamily (Brassicaceae), the generaArabis and Streptanthus; buckwheatfamily (Polygonaceae), the genusEriogonum; parsley family (Apia-ceae), mostly in the genera Loma-tium and Perideridia; and waterleaffamily (Hydrophyllaceae), the genusPhacelia.

However, not all newly evolvedplants in northwest California inhabitserpentine substrates. We find themon different substrates and in differ-ent habitats including alkali seeps,canyon walls, coastal bluffs, and sea-sonal dry creek beds (Table 2). Someare widespread in the region, andothers occur in scattered localities.Both endemic species and subspe-cies are restricted to mountain ranges.Each serpentine outcrop has its ownrarities. Some of these plants occupygranitic and sedimentary substrates;

still others favor temporary environ-mental conditions following fires andlogging. Most of the endemics innorthwestern California are at thespecies, subspecies, or variety levelswith their close relatives growingnearby. This ancient, environmen-tally diverse land is an area of activeadaptive radiation at this time.

CONSERVATIONIMPERATIVE

Northwest California’s flora is agreat treasure trove worthy of thefocused attention and efforts of themembers of the California NativePlant Society; we have a good chanceof preserving it. The Klamath Moun-tains and much of the North Coastnow comprise one of the largest in-tact forest habitats in the nation.Working with the California Wil-derness Coalition, Save-the-Red-woods League, and other conserva-tion organizations to keep the Kla-math Mountains and adjacent NorthCoast wildlands roadless will go along way in preserving the floristicdiversity of these grand forests.

Other local conservation issuesinclude saving the heritage of thearea’s coastal dunes, oak woodlands,prairies, salt marshes, and othermore localized habitats through res-toration, active monitoring, and con-tinued care.

This beautiful wildland and itsrich flora are unique and irreplace-able. I am confident that after evenone visit you will be hooked, andthat you will come back many times.Ancient and newly-evolved plantsawait your visit.

I wish to thank and acknowl-edge my colleagues and graduatestudents for their helping me to bet-ter understand the natural historynorthwest California.

SELECTED READINGS

Graham, A., ed. 1972. Floristics andpaleofloristics of Asia and eastern

North American. Symposia at XI In-ternational Botanical Congress andthe Japan-United States CooperativeScience Program 1969. Elsevier Pub-lishing Co. New York, New York.Introduces Asa Gray’s papers to to-day’s readers.

Noss, R.F., ed. 2000. The redwood for-est: history, ecology, and conserva-tion of the coast redwoods. IslandPress. Covelo, California. Chapter 2reviews the geological history of red-wood.

Raven, P.H. and D.I. Axelrod. 1978.Origin and relationships of the Cali-fornia flora. University of CaliforniaPublications in Botany 71:1–134.

Smith, J.P. and J.O. Sawyer. 1988. En-demic vascular plants of northwest-ern California and southwesternOregon. 1988. Madroño 35:54–69.Emphasizes the high number ofnewly-evolved plants in the KlamathMountains.

Smith, J.P. and J.O. Sawyer. 2007. Achecklist of the vascular plants ofnorthwestern California. Miscella-neous Publication No. 2, 21st edi-tion. Humboldt State University Her-barium. Arcata, California. The 18thedition (2002) of this list is currentlyavailable at the Humboldt State Her-barium website.

Stebbins, G.L. and J. Major. 1965. En-demism in the California flora. Eco-logical Monographs 35:1–35. Theclassical statement on the topic.

Stuckey, R.L., ed. 1978. Essays onNorth American plant geographyfrom the nineteenth century. ArnoPress, New York. A reprint of nineessays 1840–1879 on temperate for-est geography by Asa Gray.

Wallace, D.R. 1983. The Klamath knot:explorations of myth and evolution.Sierra Club Books. San Francisco,California. A 20-year anniversaryedition was published in 2003 byUniversity of California Press.

Whittaker, R.H. 1961. Vegetation of thePacific Coast states and the centralsignificance of the Klamath region.Madroño 16:5–23.

Wolfe, J.A. 1969. Neogene floristic andvegetation history of the PacificNorthwest. Madroño 20:83–110. Thelist of Neogene taxa is extensive.

John O. Sawyer, 3673 McMillan Drive,Arcata, CA 95521. [email protected]

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NEW CNPS FELLOW: HALLI MASONby Jo Kitz and Steven L. Hartman

riting, hiking, guid-ing, teaching, fund-raising, organizing,plant-selling, weed-

whacking, phoning, emailing, edu-cating, and advocating, since 1987Halli Mason’s contributions have ad-vanced the protection of natural ar-eas, appreciation of native plants bythe public, and the efficiency andfinancial fitness of the California Na-tive Plant Society both locally and atthe state level.

A member of Los Angeles/SantaMonica Mountains (LA/SMM) Chap-ter of CNPS, Mason’s activism runsthe gamut from the grassrootslevel—in her case weed roots level—to fund-raising and state offices.

Halli’s childhood, in an idyllictown in northern Germany’s HarzMountains, provided a rich naturalenvironment that stimulated her in-terest in flora. Her mother was apowerful influence. As Halli recalls,“When my mother was restedenough to deal with me, our pas-time consisted of exploring beyondthe boundaries of the little town,with my mother naming every greengrowing thing she saw. How did sheknow, I often wondered. But shewas my authority. I accepted whatshe said. And she would test me onour next exploration to see what Ihad retained.”

Halli and her friends, in turn,made a game of devising their ownnames for grasses and wildflowers,then checking their memories in thisname game. After settling in LosAngeles, it didn’t take long for Hallito develop an interest in California’snative plants.

First tackling chapter plant saleresponsibilities in 1987, Masonmoved to the role of CorrespondingSecretary to what was then the Ex-ecutive Council in 1989. She hascontinued in that role for the chap-

ter, answering countless email ques-tions and requests from residents ofthis vast urban area. Mason hasserved as Chair of the chapter’sNominating Committee since 1991and has been a tireless ongoing mem-ber of several state-wide commit-tees: State Chapter Support, Fund-raising, Membership, and the Fel-lows Committee, plus overseeing thetimely preparation of the LA/SMMChapter’s Annual Report for theCNPS State Board.

Mason is highly effective at rais-ing funds for native plant programs.Her primary commitment for morethan ten years has been spearhead-ing CNPS participation in EarthShare of California (ESC). (EarthShare, representing mostly environ-mental not-for-profit groups, suchas CNPS, conducts workplace-giv-ing campaigns.) As Earth Share liai-son for CNPS for the past decade,she attended meetings and volun-teered countless hours making EarthShare presentations to potential do-nors. ESC member groups are re-quired to give presentations to em-ployees at their job sites to explainESC and to promote the mission and

goals of CNPS. Mason shoulderedthis responsibility, delivering Los An-geles-area presentations herself. Fur-ther, she arranged for other CNPSmembers in the San Diego and Sac-ramento areas to handle presenta-tions there, a feat of phone and timejuggling. At the height of the ESCcampaigns, under her leadership,there were two to three CNPS pre-sentations per week. This dauntingeffort paid off, with over ten thou-sand dollars per year coming to CNPSthrough the generosity of individualemployees at participating compa-nies. Beyond presentations at ESC-affiliated companies, Mason workedto secure several new participatingcompanies, ensuring that CNPS re-ceived a percentage of that company’sundesignated donations.

Mason was the key CNPS playerin the recent Aveda promotion ofCNPS, again donating countlesshours to the cause. Aveda, an inter-national personal care products cor-poration, uses native plants grownspecifically for use in their beautyproducts. Aveda invited CNPS topartner with them for their EarthMonth campaign in Southern Cali-fornia. The first year’s success led toan invitation for a second year. Ma-son co-conducted the campaign forthe first year; the second year Ma-son was on her own, devoting anincredible amount of computer,phone, and personal appearancetime to schedule many presentationsby numerous CNPS volunteers totalk to Aveda’s professional salonstaff and also to give visual and ver-bal presentations at their Aveda re-gional meetings.

Many visual props and promo-tional materials were developed ex-pressly for the Aveda campaign.Under Mason’s direction, CNPS pub-lications showing off California’sbeauty were shipped to Aveda sa-

W

Halli Mason in Caballero Canyon in theSanta Monica Mountains. Halli became aCNPS Fellow in 2005. Photograph by M.Mason.

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lons and spas for their personnel toshare with their clientele. These in-cluded “Wildflowers of California,”“The Best Spring Ever,” and “Flow-ering Plants of the Santa MonicaMountains.” Her efforts generatedover $100,000 for CNPS during thistwo-year collaboration.

A major interest of Mason’s ispublic outreach. She passionatelybelieves that a strong visual compo-nent of any education or outreachprogram is paramount to winningpublic support. Mason comments,“When doing presentations, be it inan elementary school classroom, theboardroom of a corporation, a lun-cheon gathering for a regional meet-ing, or talking to employees withmany different backgrounds, graphicprops are essential. Audiences re-spond to beautiful pictures. Showingthe diversity of California’s topogra-phy from the desert to the sea, show-ing the many different landscapesCalifornia has to offer, showing offthe uniqueness of the Golden State,it is absolutely essential to have those‘props.’ You are essentially acquaint-ing groups of people with the con-cept of California native plants andthe importance of their preservationand protection in their habitat.”

She creates visual montages thatboth display the work of CNPS andteach the public about the beautyand function of native plants in thewild and in the garden. Mason haspitched in for native plants wher-ever CNPS has been invited to makea presentation, be it convention cen-ter, zoo, environmental educationfair, college, or Earth Day event.

A teacher in the field, Masonwas there when, for four weeks, acrew from the Camarillo-based Cali-fornia Conservation Corps (CCC)battled milk thistle (Silybum mari-anum) in Point Mugu State Park. Inexchange for CCC’s pro bono work,CNPS agreed to provide an elementof environmental education for thecrew. Halli is an excellent teacher,and presented lessons on the partsof a plant, their functions, and their

importance in the chain of life. TheCCC crews were fascinated—asmuch by the presenter as the sub-ject matter.

Mason takes an active role in re-claiming natural sites from invasivespecies. For more than fifteen years,she has been involved in weed-whacking in the Santa Monica Moun-tains. The first weed wars werestarted in the area at the request ofSuperintendent Bud Getty, to removemilk thistle in Big Sycamore Canyonof Point Mugu. Mason, armed with aweed whip, chopped the six-footstalks to the ground. This was thetraining ground for the later assaulton the milk thistle of Solstice Can-yon, where pet goats had destroyedmost of the native vegetation.

Mason went on to destroyingweeds in Caballero Canyon. Shemakes weekly treks into the canyonto monitor and, of course, weed.She has recruited dedicated friendswho help with trail maintenance.Working at the advocacy level, Ma-son secured a grant in 2004 fromthe California Wildlands GrassrootsFund of the Tides Foundation forremoval of invasive weeds in Cabal-lero Canyon.

An avid hiker, Mason has led theThursday morning “Chaparral Chat-ter Hike” through the Cold CreekPreserve Loop in Calabasas. She hasguided these hikes, now offered inCaballero Canyon, almost everymonth for the past ten years.

Mason leads the Easter weekendwalks at Malibu Bluffs Park, show-ing visitors fifty-plus species of wild-flowers in the park. She is one ofseveral leaders from the LA/SMMChapter who lead monthly walks inthe park for the public, which thechapter initiated in June 2003 as away to increase public awareness ofthis incredible site.

Since 1987, Mason has chairedor co-chaired the annual two-dayplant sale, volunteering for thatimportant role shortly after joiningthe chapter. She organizes volun-teers, arranges for participation by

environmental groups to provideeducational booths, invites vendors,deals with publicity, coordinates theselection and delivery of plants, andof course helps with set-up, oper-ates the cash register, and helps withcleanup. Mason always assemblesa strong crew for the big plant saleevent, supervises a fast set up, anda smoothly-run, successful event.

Mason has contributed ten ar-ticles to the Toyon, the chapter’smonthly newsletter. These articlescover subjects from “Making YourYard Less Toxic” to “Prescribed Firein Southern California,” severalpieces on wildflowers, and wrap-ups of the chapter’s annual plantsale.

For over twenty years, HalliMason has brought expertise andenthusiasm to every aspect of herwork for the benefit of her chapterand of native plants of California.As her chapter colleague, StevenL. Hartman, stated, “Words aren’tenough to describe Halli’s impor-tance to CNPS!”

Jo Kitz, 6223 Lubao Avenue, Woodland Hills,CA 91367. [email protected];Steven L. Hartman, 6117 Reseda Blvd., Ste.H, Reseda, CA 91335. [email protected]

Halli Mason in Caballero Canyon in theSanta Monica Mountains, site of one of theLos Angeles/Santa Monica MountainsChapter’s ongoing weed eradication pro-jects. Photograph by F. Cookler.

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THE RESTORATION OFGUADALUPE ISLAND, REVISITED

by Luciana Luna Mendoza, Alfonso Aguirre, Bradford Keitt,Steve Junak, and Bill Henry

uadalupe is a large (26,000 ha) oceanic island off the Pacific Coast ofBaja California, Mexico. It is home to over 200 native plant species ofwhich 34 are endemics, found nowhere else on Earth. Guadalupe’sfloral affinities are greater to Southern California and the Channel

Islands than to other Mexican islands, making the island an important remnant ofthe highly threatened Southern California coastal flora. However, goats wereintroduced to the island over 100 years ago by sealers, likely to provide analternative food source for their long sea voyages and while hunting seals on theisland. The devastation of the Guadalupe ecosystem by the goats is a familiar eventplayed out on thousands of islands worldwide, where damaging non-nativemammals wreak havoc on islands with native species that have lost their defensesto predation and herbivory. Fortunately, damaging invasive mammals can beremoved from islands, and islands can recover. Mexico is a world leader in islandrestoration and the Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas (GECI) togetherwith its partners1 has removed damaging invasive mammals from 28 islands innorthwestern Mexico. Guadalupe Island is the largest and most important projectundertaken in Mexico to date.

In order to develop support for the removal of goats from Guadalupe and learnwhat to expect from the plants in their absence, 12 fenced exclosures were builtacross the island to keep goats out of sensitive areas. The dramatic events insidethose exclosures are more fully discussed in an earlier article in Fremontia, by Keittet al. (2005). In 2004 the eradication of the goats was begun and it is believed thelast of the goats were removed in early 2007. GECI will continue to monitor theisland for several years to make certain that no goats remain.

With the goats gone, the island continues its dramatic recovery, but, no longerrestrained within the fenced exclosures, recovery is occurring across the island.Once again young pines, cypresses, oaks, and palms are sprouting, promising torestore the forests to the grandeur described by the first botanical visitors to theisland. Beneath these trees and out in the barren exposed rock, numerous speciesare thriving, stopping the inexorable erosion of years past, creating soil where therewas once only rock and initiating the cycle of recovery that will enable the plantsand the native birds and insects that rely on them to persist. In these photos, andtheir captions, we attempt to share some of the spectacular recovery of GuadalupeIsland. To learn more about Guadalupe Island we recommend the followingreading: Moran 1996, Moran 1998, Keitt et al. 2005, Jehl and Everett 1985. To learnmore about the Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas and Island Conservationplease refer to the sidebar for contact information and website address.1 Island Conservation, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, The Nature Conservancy, Conserva-

tion International, Secretaria Marina, Centro de Investigación Científica y de EducaciónSuperior de Ensenada, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Seacology.

G

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ABOVE: Toro Islet, also known as Adentro or Inner Islet. This massiverock lies just off the south end of the main island and its sheer cliffsmake it accessible only by helicopter. • INSET, UPPER LEFT: Cistantheguadalupensis on Afuera Islet; named the “pride of Gudalupe” by ReidMoran, this species was thought restricted to the offshore islets, thoughwe recently encountered a specimen on the south end of the mainisland adjacent to the offshore islets. INSET, UPPER RIGHT: North ridgeGuadalupe Island. A Conservacion de Islas biologist hikes up thesteep north ridge underneath the island oaks (Quercus tomentella) andpines that thrive in these frequently wind blown and cloud drapedcliffs. Only about 250 pine trees and 50 oaks remained on the island.All three top photographs by B. Henry. • BOTTOM ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT:Mimulus latifolius. Rarely reported by Moran and other botanists, weencountered a small population of this beautiful plant in flower insidethe cypress forest in 2004. • Reid Moran encountered Senecio palmerionly a few times during his 40 years of visiting Guadalupe, yet theearliest botanical visitors described this “white sage” as incrediblyabundant. We found a small population thriving on an inaccessiblecliff. • Senecio palmeri in the cypress forest. Now that the goats aregone, thousands of these plants have sprouted across the north end ofthe island. • Island snapdragon (Galvezia speciosa), previously confinedto cliff faces on the main island and the offshore islets, is now spreadingto flat areas on the main island. Its stems can be brittle and were easilybroken by goats. All photographs by GECI staff unless otherwise noted.

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THIS PAGE, TOP: The endemic Guadalupe Island fan palm (Braheaedulis) is a popular landscaping tree in Southern California.Adult trees are still fairly common on the island althoughseedlings like the one pictured in the foreground were extremelyrare until the goats were removed. • RIGHT: Fenced exclosureswere built to see how plants would respond in the absence ofgoats. The answer: rapidly. In the six years since the fenceswere built we have counted more than 9,000 pine seedlings,such as those pictured here. Now that goats have been removed,pine seedlings are beginning to appear outside the fences. •OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP: Cypress seedling. It was odd to walk in thecypress forest on Guadalupe Island and see only large trees andthe skeletons of dead trees that have fallen, it was a forest indecline with no regeneration. However, in the last three yearswe have seen an estimated 50,000 cypress seedlings with somereaching 20 feet in height. • BOTTOM: Senecio palmeri. • RIGHT:The endemic Deinandra frutescens (a perennial tarweed), onceconfined to steep cliffs, is starting to colonize flats on the island,often in association with the rare San Clemente Island hazardia(Hazardia cana) and Phacelia phyllomanica (a perennial phaceliathat is endemic to Guadalupe Island).

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GYOU CAN HELP

rupo de Ecología y Conservación deIslas (GECI, Mexico) and Island Con-

servation (IC, USA) are non-governmentalorganizations working together to restoreGuadalupe Island by removing feral goats.Together GECI and IC, in partnershipwith the Mexican Government, MexicanNavy, and local fishing cooperatives, haveremoved damaging invasive mammalsfrom 28 islands in northwestern Mexico,helping to protect 30 taxa of seabirds, 48endemic taxa of terrestrial mammals, and29 taxa of endemic plants from the threatof extinction. You can learn more aboutGECI and IC at www.islandconservation.org. IC is a US 501(c)3 not-for-profit andyou can make tax deductible contribu-tions to the Guadalupe Island project orother worthy projects by contacting BradKeitt or visiting the website listed above.In Mexico you can contact Alfonso Aguirreat [email protected].

REFERENCES

Jehl, J.R. and W.T. Everett. 1985. History and sta-tus of the avifauna of Isla Guadalupe, Mexico.Transactions of the San Diego Society of NaturalHistory 20:313–336.

Keitt, B., S. Junak, L. Mendoza, and A. Aguirre.2005. The restoration of Guadalupe Island. Fre-montia 33:20–25.

Moran, R. 1996. The flora of Guadalupe Island, Mex-ico. California Academy of Sciences, San Fran-cisco, CA.

Moran, R. 1998. Guadalupe Island and its flora.Fremontia 26:3–12.

Luciana Luna Mendoza, [email protected]; Alfonso Aguirre, [email protected]; Bradford Keitt, [email protected]; Steve Junak, [email protected]; Bill Henry, [email protected]

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LOSS OF 500-YEAR-OLD SUGAR PINES DURINGOCTOBER 2003 FIRE STORMS

by Thomas Oberbauer

ugar pine, Pinus lambertiana,is known for extreme size: Itis the largest growing mem-ber of the pine genus, and

supports one of the largest cones ofany pine. The cones up to a foot-and-a-half (45 cm) long, danglingfrom the branch tips are familiar toanyone who has visited Yosemite orSequoia National Parks. I recall apark ranger stating that unopenedcones heavy with sap have been

S

Burned forest on Middle Peak, Cuyamaca Mountains. All photographs by the author unless otherwise specified.

known to shatter car windshields.This five-needle member of the whitepine group has relatives in Asia anda long fossil history (Critchfield,1986). But when I first studied thistree in college, at San Diego StateUniversity, I had never seen one inSan Diego County.

That changed quickly, as myproject was to draw a detailed mapof the species’ distribution, use anincrement borer to measure age, cre-

ate growth charts, and measure theheight of the trees by triangulation.In San Diego County, Griffin andCritchfield (1976) generally mappeda population on the CuyamacaMountains in central San DiegoCounty, including Cuyamaca Peak,Middle Peak, and some near JapachaPeak, as well as Hot Springs Moun-tain above Warner Springs in thenortheastern portion of the county.Their maps were the basis for my

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explorations. The Cuyamaca andHot Springs Mountains contain thehighest peaks in San Diego Countyand are over 6,500 feet (1,964 m) inelevation.

A fire road traverses Middle Peak,and after a climb of several hundredfeet in elevation, I encountered thefirst sugar pines of a few dozen yearsin age. Further up, enormous pinesgrew that were greater than six feet(182 cm) in diameter and 150 feet(45 meters) tall. In an effort to de-termine the lower limit of sugarpines, I walked down the north slopeof Middle Peak encountering moreenormous sugar pines. What is moreimportant, I found a stump of a treethat was five and a half feet in diam-eter, approaching the size of the six-foot trees. I carefully counted 475growth rings. These huge trees grewon the southern fringes of the spe-cies’ range, within sight of the desertin an area that receives between 30and 40 inches (760 and 1,000 mm)of rainfall. The six-foot trees hadbeen growing at the time that JuanCabrillo landed in San Diego Bay in1542. Of course, compared to thegiant sequoias in the Sierra Nevada,they were not of such great signifi-cance, but these grew in San DiegoCounty mountains far from their tra-ditional forest strongholds. It wastruly remarkable that such old treesflourished in the southern reachesof their range.

RECORD HOLDERS

Even larger sugar pines were de-scribed in old newpaper accountsfor Cuyamaca Peak in the first halfof the 1900s. There, some were esti-mated at 180 feet (54 m) tall priorto the Conejos fire in 1950 whenflames were visible from San Diego,40 miles (66 km) away. The Boul-der Creek fire in September of 1970burned part of that area again, fur-ther reducing the population ofsugar pines.

The record age for sugar pines,without much supporting documen-

tation, has been described in thegymnosperm database as 760 or 800years by John Muir in his Mountainsof California and by Carder (1995).The largest tree currently growing isten feet (352 cm) in diameter nearthe general store in Dorrington, Cali-fornia, and the tallest, at nearly 250feet (81 m), is near Hogden Meadowin Yosemite National Park.

BAJA PINES

Sugar pines in the southern limitof the range, in the Sierra de SanPedro Martir of northwestern BajaCalifornia, are quite a bit smaller,generally less than 100 feet (30 m)in height and half the diameter ofthe big trees in San Diego County,

and the cones are roughly half thelength of those from the more north-ern trees. There they grow in a cli-mate with an estimated 28-30 inches(710-760mm) of rainfall at most,high on the rocky ridges up to nearly10,000 feet (3,000 m). It has beensuggested by the gymnosperm data-base that some of them could be ofgreat age because the rocky peaksprotect them from fire.

DENSITY PROBLEM

Over the years, I have lead groupsof the California Native Plant Soci-ety San Diego Chapter, and otherinterested parties, on hikes up tosee the big trees on Middle Peak asthe forest grew more dense. Shade-

Lake Arrowhead sugar pine section. In the photographs, please note thatthe author is six-feet-eight-inches tall.

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tolerant incense-cedar (Calocedrusdecurrens) and white fir (Abiesconcolor) were encroaching in theunder-story openings. In some loca-tions, young sugar pines were ableto grow in the mix. Because of thisincreasing density there also wereproposals by Cuyamaca Rancho StatePark (Cuyamaca Rancho State Park,1983) to conduct controlled burnsin the State Park. Though attemptswere made that encountered localresistance, lawsuits, and funding is-sues, some of the first of these wereinitiated during the summer of 2003on the East Mesa portion of the park

by the State Park in cooperation withCalifornia Department of Forestrystaff. The concern about overly denseforests is that they are unnaturallyvulnerable to fires. During fire events,small dense trees become burningfuel that carries flames into the up-per portions of mature trees result-ing in mature tree-killing crown firesrather than low-burning ground fires.

RAIN PROBLEM

For six years, from 1998 to fall2004, rainfall was far below normalin the mountainous regions of South-

ern California, especially the San Ber-nardino, San Jacinto and San DiegoCounty mountains. Cuyamaca Lakereceives on average—over a recordof more than 110 years—36 inches(910 mm) of precipitation at its 4,600foot (1,390 m) elevation. During thisperiod there was a cumulative deficitof 90 to 100 inches (2,200 to 2,540mm) of precipitation that created acritical level of stress for the trees.(The 2001-2002 season was the dri-est, with only 10.8 inches (274 mm)including a 1.5 inch (38 mm) thun-der-storm.) Two factors, this droughtstress and overly dense forest growth,caused a major loss of trees withmany of the young and a few of themoderately aged trees dying.

FIRE PROBLEM

In the summer of 2002, a fire,started by a National Guard heli-copter clipping a power line, burned60,000 acres (24,000 hectares) in astrip up and down the east side ofthe San Diego County mountains,including forests on Volcan Moun-tain. One of the major concernswas that the fire might burn theCuyamaca Mountains, with theirstanding dead trees, but the fire wasstopped before that happened. Withthe rainfall level of the 2002-2003season closer to average, though stillbelow, there was hope by fire agen-cies and local conservationists thatthe worst had passed even though alarge number of dead trees remainedin the forests.

FIRE OCTOBER 2003

The third week of October 2003began with predictions that a hotSanta Ana wind condition would be-gin by the weekend. There were termssuch as “the hottest days of the year”and “red flag alert” bantered about inthe media. Comments were made atthe end of the day on Friday that wewould all see one another on Mon-day if the county does not burn downover the weekend.

Surviving 500-year-old sugar pine on Cuyamaca Peak.

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OCTOBER 25, SATURDAY

Saturday dawned foggy andmoist along the coast, and when itwas still foggy on Saturday night, Ichecked the weather report on thelocal page of the National WeatherService. I hoped that the weatherservice might be over-predicting aSanta Ana wind as they often over-predict rain in winter. One line inthe weather report, however, caughtmy attention. It stated, “A small firehas been observed near Cuyamaca.”

OCTOBER 26, SUNDAY

The next morning, Sunday, Oc-tober 26, 2003, there was a heavyhaze in the sky. Ash was falling. Atfirst, it seemed this could be ashfrom several blazes already burningin the San Bernardino National For-est. However, a quick check on thenews indicated a fire was racingthrough central San Diego Countycarried by 50-60 mph winds andhumidity below nine percent. At myhome in Point Loma, wind wasgentle from the east, but it was verydry, very warm, and especially, verysmoky.

TECATE CYPRESS

Another fire that had just bro-ken out on Otay Mountain on Sun-day morning was also visible. OtayMountain is home to the world’slargest stand of Tecate cypress(Cupressus forbesii). Tecate cypressneeds fire to heat its cones and openthem to release seeds, but the treesneed to be 30 to 50 years old beforethey are large enough to produceenough cones for reproduction.Much of Otay Mountain burnedtwice already since 1977 with thelast time only seven years ago. Thesetrees were too young to benefit fromfire. Rather, another fire could causethe elimination of the cypress onportions of the mountain. The en-tire mountain burned in a matter ofa few hours. It consumed roughlytwo-thirds of the Tecate cypress onthe mountain.

OCTOBER 26, LATER IN THE EVENING

The larger fire burned more than10,000 acres an hour at its peak,spreading toward my mother’s homein eastern San Diego County. Itburned community after communityon its way: Wildcat Canyon,Harbison Canyon, Crest, as well as anumber of suburbs of San Diego,Poway, and El Cajon. After mymother was warned by the sheriff toevacuate the home of my childhood,I made an apocalyptic-like lateevening drive toward the creepingline of flames to evacuate my motherto stay with my family in Point Loma.

SUGAR PINES BURN

OCTOBER 28, TUESDAY

The fire continued and a daylater, a quick shot from one of thenews helicopters showed a line ofsmoke creeping up a familiar moun-tain range from the west: theCuyamacas. That day, Tuesday the28th, the wind shifted back west-ward from the coast, which pushedthe fire faster to Middle Peak. Theevening newscast showed footage ofMiddle Peak consumed in a raging,towering firestorm. The distincttwisted-branch outlines of the sugarpines were visible protruding abovethe forest canopy in front of a creep-ing wall of swirling flames reachinghundreds of feet in the air. It was avision of Dante’s inferno combined

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: Ancient sugarpine in 1985 on Middle Peak, CuyamacaMountains (inset). • The same sugar pinein 2004, after the catastrophic fires of 2003.• Burned 1,000-year-old sugar pine. • Baseof an ancient sugar pine near Lake Arrow-head.

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with the surface of the sun. Theramifications of the devastation fromthis forest fire were very clear.

OCTOBER 29, WEDNESDAY

By the next day, the fire hadalready moved toward Pine Hills and

Pine Valley to the north and east ofthe Cuyamaca Mountains. Countyfield crews reported that no green-ery of any kind remained in the areaaround Cuyamaca Lake and very fewstructures remained in Cuyamacavillage as well. That meant the 500-

year-old trees were gone, along withhundreds of homes.

The Cedar fire, named for theCedar Creek location where itstarted, had turned into the largestCalifornia fire in over a century(280,000 acres) and took the livesof 14 people including a NorthernCalifornia fire fighter.

EXPLODED TREE

Six weeks later, I had the oppor-tunity to travel with State Parkpersonnel to view Middle Peak,Cuyamaca Peak, West Mesa, andEast Mesa within Cuyamaca RanchoState Park. We slowly drove the oldfire road up Middle Peak, whichhad supported, at a minimum, sev-eral dozen trees of great age. Westopped at some of the old familiartrees and confirmed that they wereindeed killed by the fire. We thenwalked to a small cluster of oldgrowth trees. Near the center was atree of awesome size that had alsobeen killed by the fire. It appearedto have exploded. All that remainedwas a fire-hollowed 25 foot highbase that brought to mind one ofthe sequoias that one could drive acar through. The 100-foot top por-

Post-fire base of 1,000-year-old sugar pine, November 2003.

1,000-year-old tree before the fires. Photo-graph by G. Reece.

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tion of this tree had been blownoff and lay in pieces up the slope.Brett Goforth, a student at Uni-versity of California, Riverside,had studied and photographedthe tree before the fire and mea-sured it at 107 inches in diam-eter. Based on my old growthcharts for sugar pines, in whichthe number of rings per inch ofdiameter increases as the treesage, this tree would have beenapproaching 1,000 years old. Itmay have been the oldest sugarpine in existence and was only 14inches smaller than the largest sur-viving sugar pine on record.

REMAINING TREES

Later we traveled up the firelookout road to the top of CuyamacaPeak. For some reason, possibly asmall wind change due to topo-graphic position, some of the foreston the east side of Cuyamaca peakwas not killed by the fire. There, atleast one old growth sugar pine re-mained. At 74 inches in diameter, itmust be well over 500 years old. Itslower trunk was slightly scorchedand a small sugar pine sapling nearits base was killed by the fire, butnow it and its immediate surround-ing represent the remaining oldgrowth forest in the CuyamacaMountains. That same day, we alsoobserved where the recently con-ducted controlled burns contributedto stopping the spread of the fire.

Unfortunately, these trees arenot the only old growth trees in SanDiego County to succumb to thedrought and excessively high treedensity. On Palomar Mountain,white fir, four-and-a-half feet in di-ameter, have been killed outrightby the drought, though one old in-cense-cedar, 7.1 feet in diameter,still survives as a grizzled old mon-arch. It is noteworthy that this treeis certainly older than the 542 yearslisted as the oldest recorded incense-cedar in the Forest Service’s SilvicsManual. In the San Bernardino

Mountains, near Lake Arrowhead,the drought-caused loss of conifershas been extreme. More than 60%to 70% of the trees have been killed,including one very large sugar pine.This sugar pine was more than sixfeet in diameter with a wider base.In August 2004, sections of its trunkremained. I counted 562 annualgrowth rings.

SITUATION IN 2007

I have revisited the peaks morethan once since the fire, recentlyhiking up the familiar road onMiddle Peak and up to the top ofCuyamaca Peak. Around the edgesof Middle Peak, new growth is vis-ible. Here and there California blackoak (Quercus kelloggii), and canyonlive oak (Quercus chrysolepis), haveresprouted from their bases. How-ever, in the center of the formerforest, conifer seedlings includingsugar pines appear to be totallyabsent and are replaced by thicketsof chaparral consisting of Palmer’sceanothus (Ceanothus palmeri). Thebark has begun peeling away fromthe dead trees, hanging loose, withwhite wood exposed like bleachedbones. The sweet scent of sugarpine wood carries through the air.The old sugar pines still stand indeath but intact for now and thehollow shell of the nine-foot treeserves as a reminder of this formerglory.

On a positive note, a very smallgrove of sugar pines was recently

found by Brett Goforth on Palo-mar Mountain.

On Cuyamaca Peak, the onelarge remaining tree and severalother sugar pines greater than fourfeet in diameter seem to be surviv-ing now even with the continueddrought. Following the wet sea-son of 2005, cones have formedon the ends of branches for thefirst time in a number of years.The California State Park staff hasindicated that there will likely bea need to reestablish some nodes

of conifers in their former growthareas. The State Park personnel havealso worked on creating a more ag-gressive controlled burn program aswell as a program for thinning someof the trees in Palomar MountainState Park. In an era of drought andpotential climate change, aggressiveaction will be necessary to providefor the survival of old growth coni-fers in Southern California.

In October 2007, once againmajor fires raged in San DiegoCounty mountains. Fortunately, fewof the forested areas were heavilyaffected. However, a previously un-known six-foot-plus DBH incensecedar (Calocedrus decurrens) onPalomar Mountain was extensivelydamaged by the fire and had to becut down for safety purposes.

REFERENCES

Carder, A.C. 1995. Forest giants of theworld: past and present. Fitzhenryand Whiteside. 208 pp.

Critchfield, W.B. 1986. Hybridizationand classification of the white pines(Pinus section strobus). Taxon 35:647–656.

Griffin, J.R. and W.B. Critchfield 1976.The distribution of forest trees inCalifornia. Research paper PSW-82.USDA, Forest Service, Pacific South-west Research Station, Berkeley, CA.

Muir, John. 1894. The mountains ofCalifornia. Many editions available,from various publishers.

Thomas Oberbauer, 3437 Trumbull Street,San Diego, CA 92106. [email protected]

Correlation of diameter at breast height (DBH)measured in inches and age measured in years forsugar pines in San Diego County.

Years

Sugar Pine Ages

DBH

(Inc

hes)

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BOOK REVIEWS

Northwest California: A Natural His-tory. John O. Sawyer. University ofCalifornia Press. 2006. 264 Pages, 73illustrations. $75.00 hardcover.

That the ecology of the northwest

corner of the state of California is in-ordinately complex is widely knownto CNPS members.

You have to be a long-time resi-dent in order to even begin to piece

IN MEMORIAM:NATALIE HOPKINS

atalie Hopkins passedaway on April 15 after abrief illness. She was 87.I met her in the early

1970s when she was the secondpresident of the Santa Clara ValleyChapter and I was a new member.She was the person who got me ac-tive in CNPS, when she asked me tobe Vice-President with the under-standing that VP was a training po-sition for President. She actuallycame to my workplace (at that time,Yerba Buena Nursery) to broach thesubject. I was so flattered that thishandsome woman whom I admiredhad gone out of her way to ask me,that it never occurred to me to de-cline. Such is the value of personalcontact when recruiting new peopleto take on CNPS roles!

Natalie was born in Wellesley,Massachusetts, one of four sisters.Her mother was a homemaker andher father was engaged in educa-tion and social work. She graduatedfrom Oberlin College in 1940 witha BA degree in English Literature.Later that year she married MarkHopkins, and after several wartimerelocations they raised their son anddaughter in San Jose, near herhusband’s family home. Natalie wasactive as a social work volunteerand served on the boards of a non-profit orphanage and other youthservice organizations. Family vaca-tions included several weeks eachsummer in the northern Sierra Ne-vada, where Natalie developed a

deep love of the natural world andits plant life in particular.

After her children were grown,she entered the Bachelors programin botany at San Jose State Univer-sity and then the Masters programin biology. She had an inquiringmind and was an early fan of LynnMargulis’ ideas on microbial biol-ogy, including symbiogenesis—themerging of organisms into new col-lectives as a major source of evolu-tionary change on earth. Her thesison the endomycorrhizae of Plantagoerecta, a native plantain of serpen-tine grasslands and the principal hostof the threatened Bay CheckerspotButterfly (Euphydryas editha ssp.bayensis), was published in the Ca-nadian Journal of Botany.

During the time of her Mastersstudies, the internet was in its earlystages. Natalie foresaw the impor-tance of online access to botanicalresources, so when she completedher graduate work she stayed on todigitally catalogue the 15,000 sheetsof specimens in the Carl Sharsmith

Herbarium. Dr. Sharsmith had beenher mentor and after his death shewas named curator of the herbariumat San Jose State. She was also amajor volunteer in the project topublish the first edition of The JepsonManual and was its newsletter edi-tor in 1987 and 1988. On her retire-ment she moved to Pacific Grove,where she was active at Point Lobosas a docent (even after a total kneereplacement) and worked to curatethe herbarium there.

She was plucky and forward-thinking beneath a native New En-gland reserve. She saw what sheneeded to do, researched it, wentabout it quietly, and never spokeabout herself. She was a violinistwho loved orchestral and chambermusic. Her long-time friend and fel-low botanist Sally Casey taught mu-sic for years, but Natalie never men-tioned to her music-teacher friendthat she herself was a musician.That’s the kind of person Nataliewas. She was a woman who had agracious ability to implement talentand conviction within an under-stated exterior.

An endowed scholarship is be-ing established in her honor for rareplant research by women. Furtherinformation is available from herdaughter-in-law, Julie Anne Hopkins,585 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA95060, or from the author.

Suzanne Schettler, P.O. Box 277, BenLomond, CA 95005. [email protected]

N

this complexity together. Author JohnSawyer fits the bill. His insights arefurther sharpened by being the “go-to-guy” among the Humboldt State Uni-versity natural sciences faculty. Now

Natalie Hopkins in the Galápagos Islandslast year with her son Tom and a Galápagostortoise. Photograph by D.C. Powell.

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those insights are captured in bookform by the University of CaliforniaPress. I doubt if there is anyone elsewho could have written this book withsuch vision.

Noting that natural history booksare always overflowing with facts, Saw-yer points out that “. . . the real naturalhistory of northwest California is inthe field, bring this book along on avisit, and get to know the region first-hand.”

In your own outdoor ramblings,how many times have you asked your-self, “Why does this area look the wayit does?” And, how many years of re-visits has it taken you to satisfactorilyanswer that question? In Sawyer’s caseit has been forty years or more, andyou are the beneficiary. The book runsthe gamut from natural history to hu-man history and interactions betweenthe two.

It starts with a landscape point-of-view, laying the groundwork for theecological point-of-view. He describesthe regions and the sub-regions from ageologic and topographic perspective,setting the scene for the climatic andsoil parent-material perspective, which,of course, sets the scene for the vegeta-tion, which in turn sets the scene forthe animal communities.

His chapter called “Agents ofChange” provides historical insightsinto natural as well as human impactsat various locations. These insightshelp you answer the above questionof why an area looks the way it doesby recounting the sequence of histori-cal events.

Starting on page 116 is an articu-late discussion of the process of standdynamics. If you have already partici-pated in basic ecology classes, you willfind this an interesting and easy-to-follow alternative discussion on theconcept of plant succession. You willfind his perspective interesting andprobably, from time to time, nod yourhead up and down in agreement.

The combination of photographsand the chapter “Looking for Patternsin Vegetation” do a good job of de-scribing the ecological variety of theregion. Starting at the broadest level,we learn of the forests with closedcanopies growing on well-developedsoils and having high colonizing abili-ties and wide ecological tolerances. By

contrast there are localized areas withspecialized environmental conditionsthat are so much a part of the region’sdiversity.

Drawing on parallel descriptionsof the Sierra Nevada, Sawyer takes usthrough elevation belts from low el-evation to subalpine and through west-ern to eastern portions of the Klamathand Siskiyou mountains includingplaces like the Trinity Alps, MarbleMountains, and the watersheds of themajor rivers such as the Smith, Kla-math, and Trinity rivers.

Although in varying degrees ofcondition, he says that, “A great bio-logical treasure trove still exists innorthwest California, even after nearlytwo centuries of mining, logging, graz-ing, changes in fire regimes, and dambuilding. Many aspects are not greatlydifferent from those at the time of [earlyexplorer] Jedehiah Smith. Nearly all ofthe plant and animal species remain,as do the original patterns. Those thathave been degraded can be restored.We can save not only fragments ofnatural tapestries but make them com-plete again.”

For those who want further detailon specific points, there is an exten-sive list of selected further reading.

Norden H. (Dan) CheathamEast Bay Chapter

Indian Baskets of Central California:Art, Culture, and History. NativeAmerican Basketry from San Fran-cisco and Monterey Bay North toMendocino and East to the Sierras.Ralph Shanks and Lisa Woo Shanks.Novato, Costano Books in associationwith Miwok Archaeological Preserveof Marin (MAPOM publication no. 8),distributed by University of Washing-ton Press. 2006. 176 pages. Lavishlyillustrated. $45.00 hardcover.

Basketry is more than an art formor survival technique. It is a way of lifethat the Indians of California lived tothe fullest in ancient times and con-tinue to live today. Baskets tradition-ally were an integral part of daily life,from cradle to grave. They were andare made with exacting attention todetail, exceptional mastery of tech-nique, and exquisite design. Thoughperishable, California baskets expresson multiple levels an imperishable rev-erence for the natural world and they

manifest deep knowledge of naturalprocesses. Merely assembling the ma-terials, California native plants reflect-ing the regions where the baskets weremade, required a long history of tend-ing the land, and continuous collect-ing, curating, and preparing, for whichunderstanding of natural history andattention to seasons, rainfall, animal-plant interactions, and plant produc-tivity were fundamental and indispens-able prerequisites.

California basketry, certainly thepinnacle of achievements in nativeCalifornian material culture, is argu-ably the world’s most magnificent. Thisbook does full justice to this tradition.Based on more than 30 years of bas-ketry research, Ralph and Lisa are emi-nently qualified to provide the com-prehensive treatment lovers of Cali-fornia basketry have been longing for.Beginning with the collection at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, theytraveled the world to record basketsthat had been dispersed around theglobe since the early days of Europeanconquest. Ohlone baskets are a case inpoint. Very few survived the early andrapid destruction of indigenous cul-ture in the San Francisco Bay Area,and those that did survive ended upall over the map: the Smithsonian In-stitution in Washington, D.C., thePeabody Museum at Harvard, theAmerican Museum of Natural Historyin New York, the British Museum, laMusée de l’Homme in Paris, and sev-eral collections around California.Ralph and Lisa pursued them.

Most residents of the Bay Area

2 6 F R E M O N T I A V O L U M E 3 5 : 3 , S U M M E R 2 0 0 7

T h e C a l i f o r n i a N a t i v e P l a n t

S o c i e t y N e e d s Y o u !

Melissa CironeDevelopment Director of CNPSphone: (916) 447-2677 x 15fax: (916) 447-2727email: [email protected]

Amanda JorgensonExecutive Director of CNPSphone: (916) 447-2677 x 12fax: (916) 447-2727email: [email protected]

B

I

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equests are an important part of CNPS fundraising

efforts. Generous donors from all regions of the state and

from all walks of life have helped CNPS achieve its goals

and have helped fund important CNPS programs.

n addition to naming CNPS in your will or living trust,

you can also name CNPS as a beneficiary of a life insur-

ance policy or retirement plan. There are also planned

giving options that can pay you an income during your life

while benefiting the future of CNPS.

o find out more on these giving opportunities, contact:

today have never seen a basket madeby people who lived by the bay beforeEuropean contact. The photos and de-scriptions provided by the authors re-veal Ohlone baskets, sometimes in-tensely decorated with Olivella shellbeads and woodpecker feathers, to bedistinctive and stunningly beautiful.Especially striking are “walaheen” win-nowers in which visual designs (dia-monds, contrasting bands) are madenot with the usual overlay, but bychanges in twining techniques, all in asingle color. According to the authors,“Three different design techniques cansometimes be found in an area as smallas two square inches…This density ofpattern and technical variation…isunparalleled in all of NorthAmerica…” and “In terms of design

complexity, creative technical featuresand design techniques, the U-shaped…walaheen winnower is per-haps the most amazing basket in Cali-fornia…” and “one of the most subtleartistic creations ever made.” It is en-couraging to learn that contemporaryOhlone weavers have revived the artof walaheens.

Ralph Shanks writes in a compact,precise, economical style in which nota word is wasted and energy is storedup for moving historical accounts andfascinating descriptions. PhotographerLisa Woo Shanks captures with greatskill the fine detail and sumptuousbeauty of the full range of basketrytraditions and types.

Indian Baskets of Central Califor-nia covers an area from Monterey to

Mendocino and from the coast to thewestern Sierra. Within that regionwe encounter the famous featheredbaskets of the Pomo (but also ruggedutilitarian forms like the plunge trap,used for catching one fish at a time inshallow water), Maidu feast basketswith matchless redbud (Cercis occi-dentalis) designs, coiled masterpiecesof the Patwin, baskets that not onlyinspire but take one’s breath away.Page after page presents baskets ofsurpassing beauty—beauty of form,entrancing weave, or splendid deco-ration. A Maidu conical twined bur-den basket is decorated with broadconcentric bands of yellow beargrass(Xerophyllum tenax) overlay on brownconifer root. A Hill Patwin coiled bowlbasket is lavishly adorned with feath-

F R E M O N T I A 2 7V O L U M E 3 5 : 3 , S U M M E R 2 0 0 7

ers—red of woodpecker, dark greenof mallard, blue of bluebird—andclamshell disc beads and abalone pen-dants. Readers are likely to linger overeach page, taking time to savor a bas-ket or to read the text a second time,not because it is difficult but becauseit is so interesting.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s,a cottage industry made baskets avail-able to Europeans, but refined andelegantly decorated basketry is an an-cient tradition. Such baskets havemuch to say of the care with whichFirst Peoples tended the environment,and the respect they had for the earth,living things, and each other. Thissubject may easily lead one to flightsof fantasy, but the baskets afford firmgrounding. All their materials, except-ing a few trade beads that came inlate, are of California native plants(and some from animals). The plantswere carefully tended through diversemanagement practices, includingcoppicing and fire, in a landscape in-habited by rocks, winds, streams,springs, birds, rabbits, deer, an infi-nite community of beings FirstPeoples considered to be intelligentpersons in their own rights, deserv-ing, often commanding, intelligentrespect.

Indian Baskets offers more than pic-

Fremontia back issues are available at the following rates:

ny issue starting with Volume 28 (the year 2000) to date is $5.00 per issue or you mayorder any 3 issues from this time period for $10.00.

Issues prior to Volume 28 are available at $2.50 each or youmay order any 3 issues from this time period for $6.00.

Prices do not include shipping.

Contact Stacey Flowerdew at CNPS to determine shipping costs:

[email protected] or at 916-447-2677.

Address your orders (payable to CNPS) to:

Attn: Fremontia Back IssuesCalifornia Native Plant Society2707 K Street, Suite 1Sacramento, CA 95816-5113

A

Clockwise from the upper left: This Mountain Maidu burden basket from the Sierrafeatures designs of bracken fern root on a background of beargrass. (California Academyof Sciences) • The Coast Miwok people of Marin and Sonoma decorated their baskets witholivella shell disc beads and abalone pendants. The baskets themselves were made ofsedge root wefts on a willow foundation. (Peter the Great Museum, Russia) • This conicalPomo seed-gathering basket is a beautiful symbol of the central importance native plantresources played in Native American life. From Mendocino or Lake County, it is made ofredbud, sedge root, and willow. (Private collection) • A huge Maidu feast basket such asthis one required four men to lift it when filled with acorn mush. Plant materials favoredin making such baskets included redbud, maple, and other shoot material. (Pacific GroveMuseum of Natural History) Photographs by L.W. Shanks.

2 8 F R E M O N T I A V O L U M E 3 5 : 3 , S U M M E R 2 0 0 7

Advertise inJournal of the California Native Plant Society

Fremontia!tures and elegant descriptions. Its treat-ment of basketry styles, weaves, mate-rials, techniques, variations, and his-tory surpasses any other available workand does so in thoroughly accessiblefashion. And it is full of “Ahas!”… anoutstanding example is the simplecross sections it provides of coiled bas-ketry foundations, that make it clearexactly how people were able to makestrong structural elements (by bun-dling them) from seemingly flimsyitems like the culms of basket grass(Muhlenbergia rigens).

The book is also enriched withhistory and lore that only someonesteeped in a venerable academic tradi-tion would know, for example a storyinvolving Alfred Kroeber:

At the beginning of the last classhe taught at the University of Cali-fornia, Berkeley, Professor Kroeberbrought a large Pomo basket into classand filled it with water. He then cov-ered it with glass and there it sat infront of the class week after week. Onthe final day of his last class, Dr.Kroeber lifted up the glass and thewater was still there. It was a graphicillustration of the magnificent weav-ing abilities of California Indianwomen. It was the final point the “Dean

of American Anthropologists” wantedto make to his students.

Indian Baskets of Central Califor-nia is indeed the basketry book wehave all been waiting for—so long! Inits own way resembling a basket, the

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BOOKS BRIEFLY

book seems to absorb refinement andattention to detail from the originals.Put simply, it is a beautiful book thatcelebrates a beautiful tradition well.

Stephen W. Edwards,East Bay Chapter

Calochortus: Mariposa Lilies & TheirRelatives. Mary E. Gerritsen & RonParsons. Timber Press, Portland, Or-egon. 2007. 232 pages. $29.95 hard-cover.

This beautifully produced bookwill be treasured by botanists and hor-ticulturists as it summarizes the cur-rent state of knowledge of this won-drous genus of geophytes (true bulbsin this case). The photographs aremarvelous, but I found myself wish-ing there were even more of them.Unlike most botanical-horticultural

books, this volume includes a shortsix-page chapter addressing the phy-logeny of the group as it is currentlyinformed by the latest molecular levelscientific investigations. Other chap-ters cover history, horticulture, de-scription of all of the species (listedalphabetically within each subsection)and their geographic distribution,sources of seeds and bulbs, glossary,and index. If you are a fan of Calochor-tus you will not be disappointed bythis book, and if you are not yet a fanyou soon will be.

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V O L U M E 3 5 : 3 , S U M M E R 2 0 0 7 F R E M O N T I A

MATERIALS FORPUBLICATION

Members and others are invitedto submit material for publica-tion in Fremontia. Instructionsfor contributors can be foundon the CNPS website, www.cnps.org, or can be requested fromFremontia Editor, Bart O’Brienat [email protected] or c/oRancho Santa Ana Botanic Gar-den, 1500 N. College Ave.,Claremont, CA 91711.

FREMONTIA EDITORIALADVISORY BOARD ANDREVIEWERS

Susan D’Alcamo, Ellen Dean,

Kathleen Dickey, Phyllis M.

Faber, Holly Forbes, Pam Muick,

John Sawyer, Jim Shevock, Jake

Sigg, M. Nevin Smith, Linda Ann

Vorobik, Carol W. Witham

❏ Enclosed is a check made payable to CNPS Membership gift:

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Please make your check payable to “CNPS” and send to: California Native Plant Society, 2707 K Street, Suite 1, Sacra-mento, CA 95816-5113. Phone: (916) 447-2677; Fax: (916) 447-2727; Web site: www.cnps.org.; Email: [email protected]

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CNPS member gifts allow us to promote and protect California’s native plants andtheir habitats. Gifts are tax-deductible minus the $12 of the total gift which goestoward publication of Fremontia.

NAME

ADDRESS

CITY STATE ZIP

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

❏ $1,500 Mariposa Lily ❏ $600 Benefactor ❏ $300 Patron ❏ $100 Plant Lover

❏ $75 Family or Group ❏ $75 International ❏ $45 Individual or Library ❏ $25 Limited Income

John O. Sawyer is a longtime member and Fellow (in 1995) of CNPS. A co-founder of the North Coast Chapter, past president, and Conservation Commit-tee chair of the Society, John continues to be active with his work on the Vegeta-tion Committee.

Suzanne Schettler is a former State President of CNPS and is currently a memberof the Santa Cruz Chapter. She is engaged in restoration projects as principal ofGreening Associates.

(CONTRIBUTORS: continued from back cover)

Faith Cookler is a hiking friend of Halli Mason’s. She took this photo in CaballeroCanyon in the Santa Monica Mountains, a major CNPS weed eradication project.

Mel Mason is Halli Mason’s husband and regular hiking companion.

Michael Mesler is a botany professor in the biological sciences department atHumboldt State University. His current research focus is pollination biology withan emphasis on the interactions between native plants and bees.

David C. Powell is a marine biologist and retired Director of Live Exhibit Devel-opment at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He is the author of A Fascination for Fish:Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer.

Gary Reece is a fire specialist with the California State Parks system. He is re-sponsible for saving much of Palomar Mountain State Park from burning in Octo-ber 2007.

Lisa Woo Shanks is an area resource conservationist for the USDA Natural Re-source Conservation Service. Her images appear in many books and articles.

V O L U M E 3 5 : 3 , S U M M E R 2 0 0 7

Alfonso Aguirre is director of the Grupo de Ecología yConservación de Islas (Mexico). He is also leading the effortto protect Bahia San Quintin by promoting the first munici-pal coastal protected area in Mexico’s history.

Norden H. (Dan) Cheatham is well known for the Cheatham& Haller vegetation classification system from the 1970s thatwas originally developed for the UC Natural Reserves System.

Stephen W. Edwards is Director of the Regional ParksBotanic Garden in Tilden Regional Park in the Berkeley Hills.He is a widely recognized author in field botany, paleobotany,anthropology, geology, and horticulture.

Steven L. Hartman is an active member of the Los Angeles /Santa Monica Mountains Chapter of CNPS, and serves astreasurer for the CNPS state board. He is also on the boardof the Theodore Payne Foundation.

Bill Henry is a Ph.D. student at UC Santa Cruz. He has usedhis broad background in ecology and restoration to assist instudies of the flora and fauna of Guadalupe Island.

Steve Junak is Curator of the Herbarium at the Santa Bar-bara Botanic Garden. He has over 30 years of experience infloristics of the Pacific islands of California and Baja.

Bradford Keitt is a program director for the not-for-profitorganization Island Conservation and Ecology Group.

Jo Kitz became a CNPS Fellow in 1995. Due to her manyconservation accomplishments, she was named 2004 Womanof the Year by Assemblywoman Fran Pavley.

Luciana Luna Mendoza is the Guadalupe Island Project Di-rector with Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas(Mexico). She leads restoration activities on the island.

Thomas Oberbauer is the Chief Land Use Planner for theSan Diego County Department of Planning and Land Use.Tom is a long-time member of CNPS and has a deep interestin the flora of San Diego County, California’s Channel Is-lands, and Baja California, Mexico.

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FROM THE EDITOR

he Klamath Mountains are oneof the most beautiful and bo-tanically rewarding areas of

California to explore. In this issue,our guide is none other than JohnSawyer whose incomparable knowl-edge of this region is legendary. Johnexplains why this spectacular regionis such a center of biodiversity. Hiswonderful new book, Northwest Cali-fornia: A Natural History, is reviewedby Dan Cheatham.

CNPS would not exist withoutdedicated volunteers. In this issue wecelebrate another such stalwart, HalliMason, who became a CNPS Fellow in2005. Halli continues to be an integralpart of CNPS’s infrastructure for both

the Los Angeles/Santa Monica Moun-tains Chapter and statewide.

For this issue’s photo essay, werevisit Guadalupe Island for a beauti-ful and optimistic update on the re-covery of the flora now that the ravag-ing goats have been eliminated.

Tom Oberbauer takes us on a jour-ney to the southern end of the state, toSan Diego—the home of the most di-verse county flora in the country. Hetells the story of the ancient sugarpines found in the local mountains,and provides a personal account oftheir fate in the fires of 2003. Theever-changing nature of California’slandscapes appears to have caught upand indeed overtaken many of these

monarchs of San Diego’s highestmountain ranges.

We also acknowledge and mournthe passing of botanist NatalieHopkins, a long-time CNPS memberand former Santa Clara Valley Chapterpresident.

Stephen Edwards closes out thisissue with an insightful review of theoutstanding new book, Indian Basketsof Central California: Art, Culture, andHistory. Native American Basketry fromSan Francisco and Monterey Bay Northto Mendocino and East to the Sierras, byRalph Shanks and Lisa Woo Shanks.The diversity of materials used to cre-ate these works of art is astounding.

Bart O’Brien

T

(continued on inside back cover)