Dec. 2003

Revised 02/27/08

DECEMBER 2003 Editor - Emily Nietering

Happy Holidays!

The officers of the Southeastern Chapter wish all of you a happy holiday season and peace in the new year. Please put the following dates on your calendar and watch for the next issue of the Newsletter for our spring programs.

January - No program

February 8 - Our annual Gourmet
Sunday, 1:00 pm Dinner. Bring a special dish to share and your own table
service. Join us for a tour of the "Parks and Wildlife of South Africa" by Bob Hotaling. Bob is the Supervising Naturalist at Kensington Nature Center and a seasoned world traveler. This meeting will be held at the FARMINGTON LIBRARY, 23500 Liberty St. This is in downtown Farmington, near the intersection of Grand River and Farmington Road.

March 7 - To Be Determined

April 4 - Speaker: Roger Sutherland

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

Our 2004 membership year begins on January 1, 2004. Please use the enclosed form to renew your membership. Those of you who have e-mail may wish to include your e-mail address. It will not be published in our directory, or distributed to anyone. The editor will use it only to send meeting reminders. Please return your renewal by December 31, 2003.

STAFF CUTS PUT BEAL GARDEN AT RISK

The W. J. Beal Botanical Garden was established in 1873 by Professor William James Beal. It is the oldest continually operating botanical garden in the U.S. and one of the principal centers of plant interest within the arboretum-like campus of Michigan State University (MSU). In 1993, MSU
hired curator Dr. Frank Telewski and collections manager Elaine Chittenden. However, recent budget cuts resulted in eliminating the collections manager position, and this has caused deep concern about the long-term integrity of the historic garden.

In the past 10 years, under the direction of the Telewski-Chittenden team, dramatic improvements to Beal Garden have occurred. These include:

Establishment of Beal's first volunteer program.

Plant identification/verification for over 2000 plants in the collection and seed exchange program.

Interpretation of and addition of new plants for the Endangered and Threatened Plants of Michigan collection.

Establishment of a Michigan Native Wetlands Plants collection.

Establishment of a non-flowering plants collection.

Extensive and carefully researched revision of interpretive labels for the flowering plants, Native American food plants, Michigan wetland plants, weeds of Michigan, herbage, fruit and earth vegetables, grains and medicinal plants collections.

Resurrection of the ecological slopes including great spring wildflower viewing.

Additional new plants to all collections, including grass-of-Parnassus, bottle gentian, the pink form of cardinal flower, a hardy Kudzu from South Haven, Michigan and other plants little known in cultivation.

According to Campus Park and Planning Director Jeff Kacos, due to continuing state budget cuts, the difficult business decision was made to cut the collections manager. These same budget cuts also eliminated the director and one botanical technician at MSU's Hidden Lake Gardens facility in Tipton, Michigan. Without these staff, some of these tasks may be delegated to others, but some will simply fall by the wayside, and ten years of efforts may be at risk of decline. Some of Elaine's duties have been spread among numerous staff, however, the bulk of her responsibility fell to Dr. Telewski, who already has a full-time job, now including overseeing operations of Hidden Lake Gardens in the absence of a director.

Ms. Chittenden's expertise in plant selection, identification, interpretation and public outreach has been integral to the improvements in Beal Garden. Over 100 individuals have sent letters from across the country in support of returning Elaine to this position, including teachers, garden clubs, botanical clubs, botanical consultants, horticulturists, and many of the top botanists in the state.

Supporters of the Garden are very concerned about losing her, and they have initiated a new, massive awareness and fund-raising campaign to support a two-fold effort:

Restoring Elaine to her position from layoff status as soon as possible, using interim funding, and
Creating a permanent endowment for W.J. Beal Garden, to eventually provide a dedicated source for funding the four full-time staff positions required to adequately maintain the garden.

W.J. Beal Garden is a high quality public resource used by many teachers and others. It is a living museum, and needs a collections manager, just like any museum needs one. Without a collections manager, this resource is at risk of deteriorating, and could lose its scientific integrity more and more with the passing of each season.

In response to concerns voiced by so many, two longtime Beal supporters, Bobbi Sabine and Irene Cahill, have initiated steps to form a support group for Beal, to be called "W.J. Beal Garden Circle of Friends." To learn more about how you can help personally with financial support or by recommending appropriate granting organizations that provide operational or endowment funds, please contact either of them as follows:

Bobbi Jones Sabine, 703 Lake Avenue, Grand Haven, Michigan 49417-1715
616-844-5092
e-mail: aamazonwoman@juno.com

Irene McDonnell Cahill, 4087 Brookstone Court, Howell, Michigan 48843-7509
517-483-4205, cell 517-861-6473
e-mail: icahill@ci.lansing.mi.us

Funding inquiries can be also addressed to Ms. Karen Wenk, Director of Development at Campus Park and Planning, Olds Hall, MSU, East Lansing, Michigan 48824.

Letters of support for restoring the collections manager can be sent to Mr. Jeff Kacos, Director Campus Park and Planning, 412 Olds Hall, MSU, East Lansing, Michigan 48824 (517) 355-9582. Please send copies of letters to Bobbi or Irene for their records. Please see the web page for history and other facts about Beal Garden: http://www.cpp.msu.edu/beal/index.htm

Editor's Note: A letter was sent on Elaine's behalf from the SE Chapter and was signed by members in attendance at the December meeting. Anyone wishing to send an individual letter is encouraged to do so.

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE MICHIGAN BOTANICAL CLUB
FIELD TRIP REPORT - September 28, 2003

In spite of threatening weather, a fair number of Michigan Botanical members called Mother Nature's bluff and went on the field trip that followed Tony Reznicek's fascinating lecture "Venezuela's Lost Worlds: Hiking the Tepuis." Aunita Erskine conducted us on a tour of the prairie restoration and an oak savanna at Matthaei Botanical Gardens. She was well informed on her subject of prairie plants and prairie restoration, and described each plant on several levels of comprehension, giving the Latin names and the common names of each plant, including folk and Native American lore concerning many plants. Ms. Erskine also described the methods used to manage the prairie and savanna. These included controlled burning and the hand removal of invasive exotic species.

Among the prairie plants we saw were native grasses such as big bluestem, grama grass, switch grass, little bluestem, indian grass, cordgrass, and needle grass. Also seen on this field trip were several aster species, several goldenrod species, rattlesnake master, Culver's root and a rare and beautiful white gentian! Ms. Erskine also pointed out some of the invasive exotic species, such as spotted knapweed, field garlic, field thistle, and honeysuckle, that threaten to disrupt the prairie ecosystem, if left unchecked by human intervention.

At the end of the field trip, we were taken on a short side trip into an "Oak Opening," a type of savanna, where Ms. Erskine showed us a huge, ancient, and remarkable oak tree. This oak tree, well over 100 years old, had been split in two by an ice storm a couple of years ago and still survived! At this point, Mother Nature, who had cooperated by withholding the threatening rainstorm for the duration of the field trip, suddenly "let loose" with a wind-driven downpour that sent us intrepid botanists scurrying for our cars! !
By Dorothy Holden

ROYAL OAK NATURE SOCIETY

Royal Oak Nature Society's January speaker program is entitled "Deer Throughout the Seasons" and will be held on Wed., January 7, at the Royal Oak Senior/Community Center, at 7 pm. The whitetail deer is perhaps the most popular of Michigan's wildlife. Learn from Roger Bajorek, Supervising Interpreter of Stony Creek Nature Center, how to locate deer and follow them through the seasons. Discover how they grow and where they find food and shelter. Some important ecological lessons are dealt with while viewing this unique collection of slides. The Senior Center is located at 3500 Marais (between Crooks and Main), just north of the 13 Mile Rd. and Marais intersection. For more information call 248-246-3380.

WILDFLOWER ASSOCIATION OF MICHIGAN ANNUAL CONFERENCE MARCH 7 & 8, 2004

The Wildflower Association of Michigan, WAM, is having their annual conference on March 7 & 8, 2004. The conference is held at the Kellogg Center MSU. The center has rooms to reserve and a restaurant for meals. This year the conference theme is "Woods and Water." The keynote speaker, Rick Darke, author, lecturer and photographer, will present a talk on Sunday morning as well as the program at the Grant Awards luncheon on Monday.

A small sample of Sunday, March 7 lectures will be: Wetland Restoration, Wetland & Coastal Resources, Dragonflies, and Restoring Fish and Wildlife. On Monday, March 8, a sample of the talks will be the following: Frogs, Milkweeds, Forest Management for Small Woodlots, and Coastal Dunes. Each day has many more topics of interest to attend. Full details will be soon on the website for WAM: www.wildflowersmich.org

There is a room with vendors selling books, gifts, and native plants. Another room contains booths with organizations like Nature Conservancy and many others.

The fees for registration for the conference are as follows:
Early Bird fees: WAM members $35/1 day or $60/2 days. Nonmembers $65/1 day or $100/2 days.
Regular registration: Members $45/1 day or $80/2 days. Nonmembers $65/l day or $120/2 days.
On site registration: members $50 per day. Nonmembers $70 per day.
Monday Grant Awards Luncheon costs will be on the Web site.

For more information write to:

Wildflower Association of Michigan
Marilyn Case
15232 24 Mile Rd
Albion, MI 49224 - 9562

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