Inyo County Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia); Image: Judy Kramer

November eNews

California now has four national monument campaigns underway, which would collectively leapfrog the state toward its 30x30 conservation target. These are powerful efforts that bring together important priorities for CNPS: protection of native plant species and habitat, effective land management informed by Tribal leadership and Indigenous knowledge, and more equitable access to nature. In this issue of eNews, read how you can support this important work as part of our native plant movement. Learn also about a wonderful new issue of CNPS’s Artemisia journal, led by Indigenous scholars and authors; go behind the scenes on a Klamath Mountains vegetation mapping collaboration; see how you can get involved in community science to protect native oaks; and more. 

California bluebell (Phacelia minor) blooming in the San Gabriel Mountains monument expansion; Image: Bob Wick

An Important Moment for California Conservation

The CNPS sampling team explored and surveyed a diversity of rock-outcrop, shrubland, woodland, and forested communities in early August near Tamarack Lake; Image: Michael Kauffman

Mapping the Vegetation of the Klamath Mountains

Plant communities are groups of plants sharing a common environment that interact with each other, animals, and the physical environment. The Klamath Mountains contain some of the most exceptional temperate plant communities in North America, encompassing the Cascades, North Coast Range, Sierra Nevada, and Great Basin. 

This summer, CNPS and partners collaborated on mapping and sampling vegetation in the Klamath Mountains, collecting hundreds of data points along the way.

Read more about their findings (including rare plants), how they worked, and what comes next in a new blog post. For those of us who didn’t get to go, it will be almost like being there! 

Indigenous Matriarchal Ecologies in action, placing cultural fire at the Leok Po, good fire demonstration at the Tending and Gathering Garden; Image: Tiśina Ta-till-ium Parker

Indigenous Perspectives on Native Plants and Climate Change

Blue oak (Quercus douglasii) reserve; Image: Amy Patten 

Join the California OakWatch

Oaks give so much – food, shade, shelter, and more. Native oak trees are foundational to California's vaunted biodiversity because so many organisms depend on oaks for survival. California is home to over 20 species of native oak, which used to cover one-third of our state. Yet these mighty trees are also vulnerable to the climate crisis. 

As Community Science Coordinator Jose Esparza Aguirre writes in a new blog, "Globally, one-third of oaks are threatened by extinction in California, that number jumps to nearly half." 

That's where the power of community science comes in! Through the California Oakwatch Project, community scientists are collecting valuable data about oaks, with an emphasis on young oaks. They post this data on iNaturalist, which helps scientists learn which oak species are thriving, and where.

Read the blog to learn more about the California Oakwatch Project and how you can join.  

Selena Vengco, CNPS student research grant recipient; Image: CNPS 

Student Research Grant Applications Due by Nov. 27

REMINDER: CNPS invites undergraduate and graduate students to apply for our 2024 research grants! Successfully funded projects will relate to topics that intersect with California native plants and expand on information gaps within the natural and social sciences. We encourage applicants whose work in fields such as conservation, botany, ecology, land management, horticulture, communications, economics, history, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, or other cultural connections relates to native plants. Don't see your field listed here? That's ok—please apply if your work fits the overall criteria.

Applications will be evaluated on the basis of their ability to advance the California Native Plant Society's mission of conserving California's native plants and their natural habitats, now and into the future, through science, education, stewardship, gardening, and advocacy.

CNPS is committed to increasing ways for people of all backgrounds to deepen their relationships with California native plants. Black, Indigenous, and students of color, first-generation college students, and individuals from groups traditionally underrepresented in the natural and social sciences are strongly encouraged to apply. Applications will be accepted through November 27, 2023.

Catalina cherry (Prunus ilicifolia ssp. lyonii); Image: CNPS

Naturehood: TLC for Native Trees
Thursday, December 7 at 5:30 PM PST