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SEPTEMBER 2003 Newsletter - Editor - Emily NieteringSunday, October 5 at 2:00pmOur first fall program will feature the Porcupine Mountains in their fall splendor. Kathleen Thomson will present a slide program on the history of this premier wilderness area in Michigan. The Michigan Botanical Club is renewing its interest in conservation issues, and Kathleen will facilitate a discussion on this topic. Bring your ideas of areas and issues we could be involved in, both individually and as a club. This program will be presented at the FARMINGTON LIBRARY, 23500 Liberty St. Farmington. This is in downtown Farmington near Grand River and 10 Mile Road. Sunday, November 2 at 2:00pmSEC member and photographer, Wendy Walden, will present a program for us. She’s keeping the topic a secret, but we know it will be good. This program will be presented at the FARMINGTON LIBRARY. Sunday, December 7 at 2:00 pm.We will continue our conservation theme with a special guest, Marvin Roberson, and his program entitled Michigan: Forests at the Crossroads. Marvin is currently the forest policy specialist for the Mackinac Chapter of the Sierra Club and a working forest ecologist. Join us at the FARMINGTON LIBRARY. RECOVERING AMERICA’S VANISHING FLORA About one third of all native USA species of plants are of conservation concern; some have experienced steep declines while others face significant risk factors according to NatureServe. Coming to their rescue is the Center for Plant Conservation, a formal organization of 33 botanical institutions that collectively maintain the National Collection of Endangered Plants. The Collection contains seeds, whole plants and tissue for about 600 of the USA’s imperiled plants. Following standards and protocols, scientists collect material from imperiled plants and do research about germination and propagation techniques in order to provide material for restoration in the wild. Currently, there are about 60 restoration projects across the country. Some of the well known institutions that are participating are: the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden, Desert Botanic Garden of Phoenix, Missouri Botanical Garden, The Morton Arboretum of Illinois, New York Botanic Garden, North Carolina Botanical Garden at Chapel Hill, and the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley. For more information go to their website at www.centerforplantconservation.org Taken from: Wildflower, North America’s Magazine of Wild Flora, 3rd quarter, 2003, pp.42-43. Written by Jessica Little, Coordinator for the Center for Plant Conservation at St. Louis, MO. FIELD TRIP TO SIBLEY PRAIRIE, JULY 26 By Alice Ward. This field trip was hosted by the Southeast Michigan Land Conservancy with Jack Smiley and others as leaders. We had excellent weather; a bit cloudy but becoming warm and sunny. A very large group of approximately 70 people were there to enjoy it. Among the groups invited were the SEC and the HVC . Jocelyn Baker, Kathleen Thomson, Richard Henderson, Dorothy Holden, the Colemans, Alice Ward and the Rutowskis came from our chapter. The Noodens were there from the HVC among others. Suzan Campbell from the Belle Isle Nature Center was also a help in identifying plants. The prairie has a number of owners. The Nature Conservancy owns 2.6 acres, The SE Michigan Land Conservancy owns 3 acres and the Michigan Nature Association owns 5 acres. The largest block is owned privately. The owner is sympathetic but does not feel he can afford to donate the land or even give it for a nominal sum. He asking for several million. Another pressure on the land is that Brownstown Twp. is actively looking at development of the area and not preservation. The area is one of the few large remaining lake plains in the Great Lakes Basin and the MNFI has found a large number of species that fit into rare, threatened, and endangered species groups. At least 14 species have been identified at this time which belong in one of these categories. We saw a number of prairie plants coming into bloom and some I did not recall seeing before. Among the familiar ones were Blazing Star, Wood Lily, St John's-wort, Anemone, and Deptford Pinks. I did not take notes and wish I had because we saw so many plants and my memory is not that good anymore, unfortunately. If you should ever have a chance to see this area again don't miss it! It is not a difficult walk and there is so much to see. Kathleen suggested that Jack Smiley apply for a grant to our Michigan Botanical Foundation in order to more thoroughly study the kinds of plants that are located here. I hope a way will be found to protect this rare area. We will all be the richer for it. MBC 2004 SPRING FORAYThe Red Cedar Chapter will be hosting the 2004 Spring Foray in the eastern portion of the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) of Michigan over Memorial Day Weekend (May 28-31). We will be based out of the Quality Inn of St. Ignace to explore the natural beauty of this area of Michigan, including plant communities, waterways, avifauna, and butterflies, and to welcome our western U.P.... members to participate. Similar to other Forays, you will be treated to a geobotanical introduction to the Straits area on Friday evening; the other surprise evening speakers will be equally edifying and entertaining! Field trips and other activities will be diverse, accommodating, and close to St. Ignace. Given the success of the full-day trip to South Manitou Island during the 2003 Foray, we are lining up at least one similar trip in the U.P. More details along with the registration form will be mailed in the Spring, so keep an eye out for this exciting Foray! JOAN ROBB STUDENT SCHOLARSHIP AWARD It was announced at the September 28 MBC State Board of Director’s Meeting that a total of $113,396.27 has been received by the Michigan Botanical Foundation from the estate of former SEC member Joan Robb, who passed away in March of 2001. This substantial contribution will certainly allow the MBF to step up their ability to fund grants that further the study of botany in Michigan. It was also passed at the meeting that we recognize this generous donation, therefore, the former “Sponsor a Student to the Foray Scholarship” will be renamed the “Joan Robb Student Scholarship Award.” An amount to cover the registration fee and room and board for one student at the Foray will be awarded annually to each chapter beginning in 2004. REPORT OF THE NOMINATING COMMITTEE The following slate of officers have been nominated for the term Aug. 1, 2003 to July 31, 2005. President
- Emily Nietering From the SEC Constitution - Article IV, Section A, 3, c. In addition to committee nominations, any eligible member may also be nominated by written petition of not less than twelve (12) members, received by the Nominating Committee (with notice to this effect to the Corresponding Secretary of the Chapter) not later than (Oct. 31), accompanied by written consent of the nominee to be a candidate and to serve if elected. d. If the Nominating Committee has submitted only one nomination for any office, and if no nominating petitions are received for that office, as prescribed in the above paragraph, the single nominee shall be declared elected by the Board of Directors and no further election procedures are required for each such office. e. If there are two or more nominees for any office, by any means, the Nominating Committee will prepare ballots and conduct an election as required by the following paragraphs of this section, which shall not otherwise be required. Submit additional nominations to: Alice
Ward ROYAL OAK NATURE SOCIETY Pat and Ray Coleman, Michigan Botanical Club members who are professional nature photographers, are back again with the Royal Oak Nature Society on Wednesday, November 5th with a slide presentation highlighting wild flowers and mushrooms. We hope you can come join them, as their photography is always a feast for the eyes and should not be missed. The program begins 7:00 pm at the Royal Oak Senior Center, which is located at 3500 Marais, just north of the 13 Mile Rd/Marais intersection (traffic light), between Crooks & Main. For further information, please call 248-246-3380. MBC BROCHURES AVAILABLE The SEC Board has been considering some ways to draw attention to our club and to increase our membership. We now have available a nice tri-fold brochure about the Michigan Botanical Club with a SEC membership form inside. These will be available at our indoor programs this fall and we encourage all our members to take some to distribute to their local nature centers and other locations. If you want copies please contact Emily Nietering at (313) 278-9269 or at knietering@att.net FIELD TRIP TO DETROIT MUNICIPAL NURSERY. By On Saturday, August 23, the Southeastern Chapter visited the largest municipal forestry nursery in Michigan, the Walter I. Meyers Nursery at Rouge Park, which covers an area of about 290 acres, and has 70 to 80 species of trees. We were led by the very knowledgeable Dan Kurkowski, head forester with the city of Detroit, for about a two and a half hour stroll around the part of the property in active use. Most of the shrubs and trees are grown for transplanting on municipal property. Dan began by showing us some new shrubs that had arrived with burlap bound roots. The burlap should always be removed because it will act as a wick taking water away from the tree itself. He also mentioned that planting flowers around the tree trunk detracts from the nutrients available for the tree. Tree fatalities are too often caused by the careless use of weed whips damaging the base of the tree. He also showed some trees that had lost the central branch leader, and how through selective pruning another branch could be trained to be the leader. Detroit, like many other cities has experienced great loss in the last decade of two of its favorite street trees. Dutch Elm disease destroyed large stocks of American Elm and now the Emerald Ash Borer is attacking ash trees. Studies have been made about the calming effect trees can have on an urban neighborhood. For example, nearly all the street trees were removed from the Rosa Parks area due to Dutch Elm disease, and this happened just before the 1967 riots broke out there. Some of the trees we saw at the nursery were: bald cypress, copper beech, Austrian pine, Bradford and Callery pear, crabapples, willows, ashes, Norway maple, Japanese maple, Kentucky coffee tree, tulip tree, hackberry, dogwood, sycamore maple, red oak, white oak, Norway spruce, white pine, mugo pine, Douglas fir, Lombardy poplar, sweet gum, weeping cherry, white birch, river birch, ginkgo, field maple, hedge maple, liberty elm (so far resistant to Dutch Elm disease), tri-color beech, London plane tree, magnolia and more. It was a great morning with an exceptionally interesting leader, and we are sorry so many of you missed it.
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