DECEMBER 2000 Editor - Emily Nietering

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INDOOR  PROGRAM  SCHEDULE

The SEC officers put a lot of effort into planning some excellent programs, and it is unfortunate more of our members do not attend.  We would like to see YOU at all our meetings.  Why not bring a friend? Put these dates on your new 2001 calendar.  Please notice the location changes of the meetings.  Farmington Hills Library recently informed us their facility is not available due to remodeling, so we have found several alternate locations.

Sunday , January 7, 2:00 pm  Jack Smiley, President,Southeast Michigan Land Conservancy will speak about the work of the organization in acquiring land for preservation in this region.  The SEC is considering donating the Suter bequest money for land purchase through the SMLC.  In 1999, the Conservancy was presented with the Conservation Group of the Year Award by Detroit Audubon and also honored by the Rouge River Remedial Action Plan Advisory Council for habitat protection.   Program held at Troy Library.

Sunday, February 4, 1:30 pm      Gourmet Dinner featuring a special treat:  Caroline Dunphy, a watercolorist with a studio in Northville.  She will speak on a typical day in the life of Monet amid his home and gardens.  She has spent many days painting in Monet’s gardens at Giverny, France.  Bring a special dish to share and your own table service.  Join us at Trinity Episcopal Church, 26880 La Muera St., Farmington Hills. 

Sunday, March 4, 2:00 pm         Southeastern Chapter member, Wendy Walden, will share her "Wild Orchid Adventures," featuring orchids of the Great Lakes area, Ontario, Manitoba, the Cumberland Plateau, the Carolinas, Florida and more!  Join us for this exceptional program at the Northville District Library, 212 W. Cady St., Northville

Sunday, April 8, 2:00 pm      "A Visit to Ghana," by Elaine Chittenden of the Red Cedar Chapter.  This program was well-received at several other chapters, so we invited her to visit the SEC.  Elaine, director of MSU’s Beal Botanical Gardens, accompanied her sister on a 2 week trip to the tropical African country of Ghana.  Although this trip was not strictly a botanical one, Elaine did visit the Aburi Botanical Garden and took a walk on a rain forest canopy bridge in Kakum National Park.  Northville District Library.

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MEMBERSHIP  RENEWAL

Our 2001 membership year begins on January 1, 2001.  Please use the enclosed form on the insert to renew your membership by December 31, 2000.  Dues remain the same at $18 for individual and $20 for family memberships.

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STUDENT’S  LETTER  OF  THANKS

Hello, my name is Jennifer Panek and I am a student at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.  I was the sponsored student from the Southeastern Chapter at last May’s spring foray in Rogers City.  The entire trip was great.  I saw many new plants that I had not seen before, and some I had not even heard of.  I really enjoyed learning these plants too.  The area was beautiful.  Grass Bay was my favorite site, probably because I saw the greatest number of plants that were new to me.  Also, Dr. Voss was just like everybody told me he would be, "a walking encyclopedia on plants".  I also liked Colonial Point Woods, Thompson’s Harbor, and Hoeft State Park.  It was very exciting to see the Indian paintbrush, Dwarf Lake Iris, and Ladyslipper plants for the first time.  They were each in bloom, and had gorgeous flowers.  I am glad Patrick Fields started this student program because it gives students a chance to learn more about plants from a variety of knowledgeable people.  I want to thank everybody for allowing me to join you last spring and for making it such a great trip

NATURAL WOMAN:  ACCOMPLISHED BELLE ISLE NATURALIST SHARES HER ENTHUSIASM WITH SCHOOLKIDS, VOLUNTEERS

Suzan Campbell never expected to find nature in the middle of Detroit.  But she did. Nature, it turns out, doesn't stop at the city limits.  In her four years of directing Detroit's Belle Isle Nature Center, Campbell has discovered some outstanding natural wonders, like rare trees and wildflowers that no one knew grew on the much‑used island.  Her passion is sharing what she learns with others, especially Detroit's schoolchildren. She wants them to see the city park as a wildlife habitat and important player in the larger ecosystem.  Some natural features on Belle Isle are easy to find and appreciate, like the Baltimore orioles and cedar waxwings that nibble seeds in plantings around the Nature Center. Some are harder to spot, like the rare shumard oak and pumpkin ash trees Campbell discovered in the island's interior. The massive trees are at least 200 years old. 

People familiar with her work say Campbell has  accomplished as much in the past four years as any  other individual working on environmental issues in  the city.  "She put the Nature Center on the map," says Barbara Hayes of the Detroit Garden Center. "All the people in the field know her."  Campbell, 43, won an award of exceptional merit from the National Wildlife Federation in August for creating schoolyard and backyard wildlife habitats and inspiring others to do the same. Last year, Lady Bird Johnson received the award for her work with wildflower preservation.

When Campbell joined the Detroit Zoo in 1989, she was assigned to work at the zoo on Belle Isle, a place she barely knew existed. Her first assignment was taking care of an exhibit that bordered the woods, of which 200 acres remain on the 985 acre island.  "It was just beautiful," she remembers. "I had no idea there was actually nature in the city."  Campbell spent seven years with the zoo before being hired in 1996 as the Nature Center's senior naturalist. Though the facility had been open 21 years at the time, it was little used and in disrepair.  So she began working to improve the habitat by learning about plants that might have been native to the area around Belle Isle. On her own time, Campbell volunteered at the Ojibway Prairie  Complex, an Ontario provincial park in Windsor, where she learned about prairie plants.  With purchased seeds of native plants, Campbell returned to Belle Isle and got greenhouse space, learning how to germinate the plants from conservatory floriculturists. She established the Nature Center's native plant nursery and began planting around the building. 

Campbell has initiated a botanical survey of the island to show what plants grow today on Belle Isle and how that population compares to the last flora survey in 1906. Some of the choicest plants, white trout lilies, huge pin oaks, spicebushes, are still growing on the island.  The flora survey will add to the understanding of nature on Belle Isle, a story that continues to unfold more than 100 years after the island became a city park.  As Campbell points out, the best way to learn about nature is to be immersed in a diverse natural habitat, especially one that manages to persist in the midst of the city.

by Marty Hair, Free Press Garden Writer.  Excerpted from The Detroit Free Press, December 15, 2000.

[Suzan spoke to our chapter in April 1999, and she lead a field trip to the Belle Isle Woods for us in June 1999.