Current Events Calendar

The following is a list of events sponsored by White Pine Chapter or in collaboration with other organizations because our members have an interest. Please check with a contact if you have a specific question or wish to confirm event information.
For a list of events for other INPS chapters, please click on INPS.

Upcoming Events
Please mark your calendar with the dates of these meetings, presentations, and field trips. Additional information may also be communicated through chapter email notices, newsletters, and postcards and via public flyers and press releases. We look forward to seeing you on these educational excursions. For a printable short agenda click here.

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Thursday, March 11, 2010, 7:00 p.m. White Pine Chapter Meeting and Presentation
Speaker: Bill Rember
Title: Clarkia Paleobotany
Location: 1912 Center, Fiske Room, 412 Third Street, Moscow, Idaho
Co-sponsors: INPS White Pine Chapter and Palouse Prairie Foundation

Dr. Bill Rember, Affiliate Assistant Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Idaho and Director of the Tertiary Research Center, has been unearthing and studying the Clarkia fossil flora of northern Idaho for decades. These exquisitely preserved plant remains illustrate the diverse biota that thrived in this region when it was warmer about 15 million years ago. Many of the fossil leaves display their original autumn colors, while some still contain green chloroplasts and foster biochemical correlations with similar fossil species elsewhere in the world and with contemporary local plants.

This presentation by noted paleobotanist Rember will include numerous photographs of the Clarkia fossils as well as a history of their formation and preservation. First discovered in 1972 during construction of a snowmobile racetrack, the fossils were initially deposited in the sediments of a dammed Miocene lake formed in a drainage similar to the present St. Maries River basin. The cold, anoxic conditions and rapid sedimentation at the 100- to 150-meter depths of this narrow lake, as well as ensuing tectonic stability, have graced northern Idaho with a unique, world-class collection of Miocene plant fossils. More information about the flora of the Clarkia fossil beds can be found at Tertiary Research Center

To view a poster publicizing this event please click on Clarkia poster (1-page color 463KB 8.5x11" PDF)

Contact: Helen Yost, send email or call 882-2877.

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Tuesday and Wednesday, March 23 - 24, 2010. Native Flora Workshop sponsored by INPS Sah-Wah-Be chapter
Location: Wood River Room, Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho
Co-hosts: Idaho Museum of Natural History, Ray J. Davis Herbarium, Idaho State University Department of Biological Sciences, and INPS Sah-Wah-Be Chapter

Planned for alternate years between the Idaho Rare Plant Conferences, the theme of this first ever Native Flora Workshop is “Back to Basics in Field Identification.” Professional botanists from southeastern Idaho and surrounding states will lead the workshops at this conference that provides opportunities for members and the public to learn more about local native flora, improve field identification skills, and network with fellow native plant enthusiasts.

The many botany professionals who will give presentations are listed in the Workshop Registration and Conference Schedule
H. Wayne Phillips, author of “Plants of the Lewis and Clark Expedition” and “Central Rocky Mountain Wildflowers”, will give the keynote address “Wild Orchids of Idaho and Montana” Tuesday night 8 pm.

Please note that the deadline for the lower registration fee has been extended to March 13 due to the late publication of Sage Notes

Contact: Janet Bala, send email or call (208) 282-2815 or Nancy Miller, send email or call (208) 882-2877.

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Thursday, March 25, 2010, 7:00 p.m. White Pine Chapter Meeting and Presentation
Speaker: David Tank
Title: The Paintbrushes (Castilleja) and Their Relatives in the Orobanchaceae
Location: UI College of Natural Resources Building (CNR), Room 108
Co-sponsors: INPS White Pine Chapter and Palouse Prairie Foundation

Dave Tank, Assistant Professor of Forest Resources and Director of the UI Stillinger Herbarium, will talk about the paintbrushes and related species, their morphology, and identifying characteristics. Dr. Tank will also address plant systematics and the use of phylogenetics for classification and to understand patterns of evolution and diversity in native plants like paintbrushes. During his lecture, Dave will also show plenty of photographs of paintbrushes in Idaho, the western United States, Mexico, and Andean South America.

More information about Dave Tank's research can be found at Tank Lab .

Contact: Helen Yost, send email or call 882-2877.

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Saturday, March 27, 2010, 10:00 a.m. White Pine Chapter Field Trip
Leader: Gail Bolin
Topics: Tour and botanical consultation on native species appropriate for the living roof of the bird observation deck
Location: Idaho-Washington Stateline Wetlands Community Wildlife Park, Moscow, Idaho

Gail Bolin, the Community Outreach Coordinator for the Environmental Science Program at the University of Idaho, will lead this two-hour foray through an eight-acre constructed wetland just west of the Moscow wastewater treatment plant. With a TogetherGreen Innovation Grant, the Palouse Audubon Society partnered with Idaho Fish and Game, the Palouse Clearwater Environmental Institute, and University of Idaho Women in Science to help transform the field into a place for migratory and resident birds and wildlife and an environmental education and research site for schoolchildren, community members, and university faculty. These organizations have been working together on habitat restoration activities that include planting native species and creating a quarter-mile trail system with interpretive signs. Last fall, with the assistance of local elementary, junior, high school, and college students and 4-H and community volunteers, the groups planted 1100 native trees and shrubs. Besides continuing to enhance ecological diversity, participants are also constructing a bird observation deck with a living roof.

During this tour, Gail and the other Stateline Wetlands organizers are seeking INPS White Pine member advice on which native plants could survive the hot and dry conditions of this living roof. As a previous member of the Kinnikinnick Native Plant Society in the Sandpoint area, Bolin is looking forward to meeting her fellow members in the White Pine Chapter. Please meet at the Sixth and Line parking lot to carpool from the University of Idaho campus, and come prepared with water-resistant clothing and boots, and birding binoculars. There are no onsite restrooms.

Until Stateline Wetlands volunteers complete their own website, check out TogetherGreen at Stateline Wetlands Community Wildlife Park

Contact: Helen Yost, send email or call 882-2877.

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Saturday, April 10, 2010, 8:00 a.m. White Pine Chapter Field Trip
Leader: Fred Rabe and others
Topics: Diverse spring flora in a scenic river canyon with bighorn sheep
Location: Wenaha River Canyon, northeastern Oregon

We will depart from the Eastside Marketplace parking lot in Moscow at 8 a.m. and travel about two hours to the trailhead near Troy, Oregon. Please bring water-resistant clothing and boots, lunch, water, hand lens (optional but recommended), botanical keys or field guides, and a camera (optional). This low-elevation hike is always a late-March or early-April favorite among native plant enthusiasts seeking early blooms along a short walk. Led by aquatic ecologist and retired University of Idaho professor Dr. Fred Rabe, our hike will embrace a slow and easy pace with many pauses to identify and photograph native plants. Some of the main attractions along the way include scenic river canyon views, a high diversity of spring flora, and the possibility of seeing bighorn sheep. After the hike, we may also stop enroute to Moscow at Bogan's along the Grande Ronde River, to sample some of the best milkshakes in the region. We should return to Moscow by 5 p.m.

Trail distance and elevation changes will be provided when they are made available.

Contact: Helen Yost, send email or call 882-2877.

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Thursday, April 15, 2010, 7:00 p.m. White Pine Chapter Meeting and Presentation
Speaker: Kathy Hutton, of Plants of the Wild, Tekoa, Washington
Title: Native Grasses and Forbs in the Landscape
Location: 1912 Center, Great Room, 412 Third Street, Moscow, Idaho
Co-sponsors: INPS White Pine Chapter and Palouse Prairie Foundation

Kathy Hutton of Plants of the Wild will present a PowerPoint slide-show program about the native forbs, wildflowers, and grasses that are most readily available and easiest to grow successfully in home landscapes. She will focus on how these species behave in the landscape, bringing wildness and natural beauty to overly-tame environments, and will share some of her knowledge about nurturing native plants. Kathy will offer similar insights during an optional field visit of the Plants of the Wild facilities by Friday arrivals to the annual statewide INPS meeting on June 11 through 13, hosted this year by the White Pine chapter at Heyburn State Park near Plummer.

Plants of the Wild has been providing quality native plant material for restoration and reclamation projects since 1979. Outside of the town of Tekoa in eastern Washington, nestled deep in the heart of the inland northwest Palouse Prairie, the nursery specializes in growing many varieties of native grasses, forbs, shrubs, and trees that the company ships all over the world. Plants of the Wild propagates and cultivates species that are difficult to produce and provides both large quantities of plants for reclamation projects as well as container-grown native seedlings to meet recent increases in demand for low-maintenance, water-conserving, naturalized home landscapes.

Contact: Helen Yost, send email or call 882-2877.

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Saturday, April 24, 2010, 1 p.m. White Pine Chapter Field Trip
Leader: Christine Nauman, of Cricket's Garden, Moscow, Idaho
Topic: Native Plant Garden Tour
Location: 716 Shoshone St., Moscow Idaho
Co-sponsors: INPS White Pine Chapter and Palouse Prairie Foundation

Please join us for this garden tour. Additional meeting and carpooling information will be available soon.

Contact: Helen Yost, send email or call 882-2877.

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Thursday, May 13, 2010, 7:00 p.m. White Pine Chapter Meeting and Presentation
Speaker: Fred Rabe
Title: Idaho Peat Lands
Location: 1912 Center, Fiske Room, 412 Third Street, Moscow, Idaho

Aquatic ecologist Dr. Fred Rabe, a retired University of Idaho professor, is offering this talk as a wetland primer for summer field trips and workshops at the Hager Lake peatlands, hosted by the INPS White Pine Chapter, and at the Forty-Nine Meadows marshes, sponsored by Friends of the Clearwater on June 26 and 27. Wetlands occur where the water table is near, at, or above the land surface long enough to create habitat suitable for hydrophytic plants. Due to annual drying, marshes accumulate less peat than peatlands. The most common valley peatlands in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest provide habitat for 12 percent of the rare vascular flora in Idaho. Dr. Rabe will present slides and descriptions of northern Idaho wetlands as well as a classification system applicable to both semi-aquatic and aquatic, open-water communities.

Contact: Helen Yost, send email or call 882-2877.

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Saturday, May 22, 2010, 8:00 a.m. White Pine Chapter Field Trip
Leader: Mike Rule, Refuge Biologist
Topic: Rare native plants of the scablands
Location: Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, near Cheney, Washington

Please join us for this field trip. Additional meeting and carpooling information will be available soon.

Contact: Helen Yost, send email or call 882-2877.

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Friday, Saturday, Sunday, June 11-13, 2010, INPS State Campout and Annual Meeting
Coordinators: Nancy Miller and Janet Campbell of the host chapter, White Pine Chapter, with other INPS members
Location: Heyburn State Park
Chapter Host: INPS White Pine Chapter

More information on events, field trips and how chapter members can volunteer to help will be available on this site soon.

Field trips will be to McCroskey Park and Bill Rember's Fossil bed Site. Additional options may be biking on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alene and a tour of Plants of the Wild.

Please see Spring 2010 Sage Notes . The state INPS Website will have the registration form and the most up-to-date schedule of activities in the near future.

Contact: Nancy Miller, send email or call 208-882-2877 or Janet Campbell, send email or call 208-882-6409.

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Saturday, Sunday, July 10-11, 2010. White Pine Chapter Overnight Field Trip and Workshop
Leaders: Fred Rabe and Archie George
Topics: Peatland and fen plant communities
Location: Hager Lake near Priest Lake, Idaho

We will depart at 7:30 a.m. from the Rosauers parking lot, 411 North Main Street in Moscow, and arrive at Hager Lake around noon. A short distance north of Priest Lake, the Hager Lake peatland encompasses one of the most extensive floating mats of vegetation in Idaho. The exceptional fen community thriving on the mat supports 75 vascular and bryophyte species, including five that are considered rare in the state. With a local plant list in hand, we will observe and collect native plants growing on the mat and along the lake edge. We may also use rubber rafts to further investigate area plants and to sample macroinvertebrates and zooplankton.

Some participants may choose to return to Moscow after visiting Hager Lake. Those who are staying overnight will journey to the Priest River Experimental Forest Station, where we will stay for the night. Administrated by the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Moscow, facilities include a lodge with a kitchen and laboratory, cabins, showers, bedding, and towels, all provided for a $20-per-person charge. In the evening, we will socialize and discuss our previous afternoon activities at Hager Lake. On the following day, we have the options of either identifying collected plant and invertebrate specimens or hiking around the station grounds. On our way home, we may stop briefly at another peatland, to further our understanding of these biotic communities.

More information on meals, items to bring, etc will be available later on this website or in emails.
For more information, view Hager Lake Fen or Priest River Experimental Forest.

Contact: Helen Yost, send email or call 882-2877.

Past Events
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Thursday, January 28, 2010, 7:30 p.m. White Pine Chapter Meeting and Presentation * Revised 03/08/2010
Speaker: Jack Nisbet
Title: A Most Remarkable Spring: David Douglas in Idaho and Beyond
Location: 1912 Center, Great Room
412 East Third Street, Moscow, Idaho
Co-sponsors: University of Idaho Bookstore, Friends of the Moscow Library, and White Pine Chapter

Please plan to attend this presentation on the nineteenth century botanist and explorer David Douglas, to be given by acclaimed auther Jack Nisbet. His latest book is "The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of the Pacific Northwest", and a book signing will follow the presentation.

In the summer of 1826, naturalist David Douglas traveled from Fort Walla Walla to the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake rivers with a fur trade brigade intent on trading for horses with the Nez Perce. In this powerpoint presentation, author Jack Nisbet will trace Douglas’s strange trek from his native Scotland to that Nez Perce camp, and describe the plants and people he dealt with after he got there. Then we will follow the naturalist as he sets sail for more adventures throughout the New World.

More information on Nisbet and his presentation can be found at Jack Nisbet - A Most Remarkable Spring or by visiting www.jacknisbet.com.

Contact: Janet Campbell, send email 882-6409

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Sunday, February 14, 2010, 12:00 noon * Revised 03/08/2010
Radio broadcast of the Jack Nisbet Talk.
Title: A Most Remarkable Spring: David Douglas in Idaho and Beyond
Location: KRFP, 92.5 FM or Radio Free Moscow Audio
Title: A Most Remarkable Spring: David Douglas in Idaho and Beyond

If you missed Jack Nisbet’s Moscow evening presentation of “A Most Remarkable Spring: David Douglas in Idaho and Beyond” or would like to listen again, KRFP Radio Free Moscow will be broadcasting a recording of his entire 100-minute talk this Sunday on 92.5 FM or www.radiofreemoscow.com. This recording, as well as an abbreviated, half-hour compilation of selected excerpts, will also be posted on the audio page of KRFP’s website. Co-sponsored by the White Pine INPS and others, Nisbet gave this lecture on January 28 at the 1912 Center in Moscow, in support of his latest book, The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest. In his talk, the Spokane-based teacher, naturalist, and acclaimed author of several books on Northwest history and nature described the adventures of intrepid, Scottish botanist Douglas as he explored the native landscapes and cultures of the Northwest. In 1826, this early naturalist traveled with a fur trading brigade to the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake rivers and all over the Columbia River basin, collecting specimens for European horticulturists and scientists, seeking knowledge of native plants, and observing tribal plant use and landscape maintenance.

For more information, please see the KRFP audio page (see above) or visit www.jacknisbet.com .

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Thursday, February 18, 2010, 7:30 p.m. White Pine Chapter Meeting and Presentation * Revised 03/08/2010
Speaker: Marcus Warwell
Title: Climate Change Effects on Whitebark Pine and Other Conifer Communities
Location: 1912 Center, Great Room, 412 East Third St., Moscow, ID

Our February meeting will host Marcus Warwell, a geneticist at the Forest and Woodland Ecosystems Laboratory of the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station in Moscow. His studies address the ecological genetics of conifers in the Rocky Mountains and the resistance of western white pine and whitebark pine to the introduced disease white pine blister rust. Warwell has recently been involved in research that models the contemporary climate profile of whitebark pine populations, as well as the constituent species of biotic communities across the western United States, and predicts the future geographic distribution of these species and assemblages in response to global warming. His INPS lecture will describe the interactive effects of various climate change factors on whitebark pine and other conifer communities in the northern Rockies region.

To view a poster publicizing this event please click on Whitebark Pine Poster (1-page color 106KB 8.5x11" PDF)

Contact: Helen Yost, send email or call 882-2877.

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Friday, February 19, 2010, 9:00 a.m. Invitation to INPS White Pine Chapter members * Revised 03/08/2010
Speaker: Friends of the Palouse Ranger District
Title: Upper Lochsa Land Exchange Informational Meeting
Location: Sandpiper Grill, 436 North Main Street, Moscow, Idaho
Co-sponsors: Palouse Broadband of the Great Old Broads for Wilderness and Friends of the Palouse Ranger District

The Palouse Broadband of the Great Old Broads for Wilderness (GOBW) is sponsoring a no-host breakfast and informational meeting about the proposed Upper Lochsa Land Exchange. Friends of the Palouse Ranger District will lead a presentation about the potential impacts of this land transfer on affected watersheds, wildlands, and recreation in north Idaho and western Montana. Moscow-based GOBW members are housing out-of-town participants who would like to arrive the night before this breakfast meeting. They invite you to bring a guest and join them at the Sandpiper Grill, located on Highway 95 in Moscow, across from Rosauers and next to Walgreens.

The Upper Lochsa Land Exchange would trade over 28,000 acres of scattered public lands in the Clearwater, Idaho Panhandle, and Nez Perce national forests for more than 39,000 acres of severely clear-cut, private tracts in the headwaters of the Lochsa River near Lolo Pass. In an agreement with millionaire, timberland trader Tim Blixseth and his Western Pacific Timber Company, the U.S. Forest Service would acquire his checkerboard acreage interspersed with national forest lands and formerly owned by Plum Creek Timber Company. Encompassing sections of the Nez Perce and Lewis and Clark national historic trails, these heavily-logged parcels would require prolonged rehabilitation but could provide important habitat for fish and wildlife and connect wild public lands throughout the Lochsa basin. Blixseth would undertake commercial logging and tree farming on the 46 scattered tracts of relinquished federal lands, some up to 7,600 acres in size and most encircling Elk River and Elk City. Local forest officials are currently developing a draft environmental impact statement for the project, expected out this spring along with a critical public comment period.

For detailed descriptions of this scheme to privatize and degrade more public lands, including maps of the exchange parcels, see Upper Lochsa LEX .

Contact: Cindy Magnuson, send email or call 208-882-1606.

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Saturday, February 27, 2010, 9:30 a.m. Kinnikinnick Native Plant Society Panel Presentation * Revised 03/08/2010
Speakers: Gail Bolin, John Hastings, Carol Jenkins, Clare Marley and Molly McCahon
Title: Native Plant Community Demonstration Gardens: Two Practical Examples
Location: Sandpoint Community Hall, First Avenue, Sandpoint ID
Co-sponsors: Kinnikinnick Native Plant Society and the City of Sandpoint Parks and Recreation Department

The Kinnikinnick Native Plant Society and the City of Sandpoint Parks and Recreation Department will jointly sponsor a panel presentation about two recent, collaborative, native landscaping projects in northern Idaho. Ongoing work on both the west garden at the Bonner County Administration Building in Sandpoint and lakeshore revegetation at Dover Bay seeks to display the beauty and practical applications of native plants. If you are in the area, please join speakers Gail Bolin (a White Pine member), John Hastings, Carol Jenkins, Clare Marley, and Molly McCahon at the Sandpoint Community Hall, the log building on First Avenue across from the county courthouse in Sandpoint.

The native demonstration garden at the Administration Building resulted from the county’s new codes for waterfront vegetative buffers and from the Grow Native program that advocates planting native species. Numerous individuals and organizations, such as local schools, plant nurseries, scout troops, and professional and employee associations contributed to this effort. Similarly, the Native Plant Riparian Buffer Demonstration Site, on the Pend Oreille River adjacent to City Hall in Sandpoint, began as Gail Bolin’s graduate project and grew into a collaborative community endeavor. With help from the Bonner Soil and Water Conservation District, area specialists, a horticulture instructor and his students, and native plant society volunteers, Bolin recreated natural lakeshore vegetation to promote the appreciation, knowledge, conservation, and landscape use of northern Idaho native plants.

For more information, visit Kinnikinnick Native Plant Society.

Contact: Gail Bolin, send email or Helen Yost send email.

White Pine photo by Dr. Wm Hall