A fun evening of member sharing: trips, thoughts and botanical observations.  Coffee, tea and juice provided.  Bring a snack or treat to share.

 
Monday, January 14, 2019  (Olympia)  (7pm)
Walter Fertig
Stalking the Wild Umtanum Buckwheat: Adventures in Rare Plant Hunting in Washington

Walter Fertig, State Botanist for the Washington Natural Heritage Program in the Department of Natural Resources.

Walter was previously botanist for the Wyoming Natural Heritage Program, head of the vegetation program at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and assistant curator of the Arizona State University Herbarium.  He has a masters and doctorate in botany from the University of Wyoming.


Monday, February 11, 2019 (Olympia)  (7pm)
CANCELLATION AND RESCHEDULED FOR:
FEBRUARY 18, 2019 (OLYMPIA)  7pm
Donovan Tracy
The Mopheads of Mount Rainier, a Photographic Study of Anemone occidentalis

Dr. Franklin is co-author of Conserving Forest Biodiversity, Creating a Forestry for the 21st Century, Salvage Logging and Its Ecological Consequences, and Towards Forest Sustainability. He's a great speaker and story-teller with a holistic approach to forest practices, the NW Forest Plan and related policies, global warming, fire management, threats to our forests by invasive species, and the status and treatment of northern spotted owls by taking out barred owls, plus more.


Wednesday, March 13, 2019 (Tacoma)  (7pm)
Darren Strenge
Controlling Pytophrthora Ramora: A model program at Bloedel Reserve

Monday, May 6, 2019 (Olympia)  (7pm)
Special Program - Era of Mega Forest Fires by Paul Hessburg, PhD.
Recital Hall of The Evergreen State College  (south on I-5 past Olympia. take exit 104 onto Highway 101. In three miles take the Evergreen State College exit. follow signs to Recital Hall)

Megafires—wildfires over 100,000 acres—has become one of today’s most pressing and complex problems. Communities, homes, businesses, even our lives and way of life are threatened. This presenta-tion is a 60-minute multi-media presentation and discussion based on the research of Paul Hessburg and his team. It provides a powerful look at what we need to do to change how forests are managed and what we need to do be prepared for the future.

The speaker Paul Hessburg, a Research Ecologist with Pacific Northwest Research Station, US Forest Service, has studied historical and modern era forests of the Inland West for the last 32 years, and published extensively in leading national and international journals. His work documents large changes in forest conditions and how these changes, along with climate change, have set the stage for large and severe wildfires. For his significant contribution to fire and landscape ecology, Paul was awarded the Forest Service's 2017 Research & Development Deputy Chief's Distinguished Science Award. His recent book, Making Transparent Environmental Management Decisions, offers compelling and new insights into using modern-day decision support systems to plan for forest restoration.

This program is jointly sponsored by the South Sound Chapter, WNPS and the Masters Environmental Sciences, Evergreen State College. For the official trailer on this event see: Era of Megafires, https://vimeo.com/248070355.

Unless we change a few of our forest and fire management habits in the US, we will lose many more beloved forests; some won’t recover in our lifetime. Paul Hessburg

 

Regina Rochefort retired from the National Park Service in April 2018, after 41 years. She was the most recently science advisor and plant ecologist at North Cascades National Park Service Complex; and prior to that, she was the Botanist at Mount Rainier and Everglades National Parks and a fire ecologist at Big Cypress National Preserve. She received her PhD from University of Washington while studying the effects of climate change on subalpine and alpine plant communities.