-identify and pursue funding sources
-manage volunteer apprentices
-work with the Board of Directors to develop educational programs
-maintain membership e-mail list and monthly newsletter
-contact and network with other organizations

Some background in Native Plants is helpful but not required. Mostly we are looking for someone who is capable of doing these tasks and sees the opportunity that the job presents. We have a well-developed organization with a strong democratic board. If you are motivated and have vision this could be your dream job.

a. What makes us different from others? How can NS proceed with no buget? Can we work better as a sub committee of another group? Also #12
Request for a reteat for planning . Schedule July 13. 12:00pm-5:00pm

b. Tom President of CNPS-Yerba Buena Chapter requested info on our programs for the CNPS newsletter. MAPP - Native Plant presentations.
7. Director Reports:
a. Hillary: None
8. Treasure's Report: Geoff's check for $300.00 has not been deposited. CA we can deposit this next week.
Taxes are over due.
Treasurer will find intern or CPA to file taxes
We owe an additional $40.35 for penalties in tax year 2006
a. Funds: Wells Fargo Checking: $31 + $300.
b. Check and form sent to CA State has been sent . $20.00
d. Membership dues are needed before postcards are ordered.
9. Secretary report: None
10. Alemany Farm Update: starting repairs in soon. Need to coordinate volunteer schedule and propagation list by end of June. Ideas: Edible Native plants? Casey will work on list of g propagated and easy to grow SF plants. Greg Garr has offered seeds. Sales plan needed.ei
11. Job descriptions - President/Secretary/Director/Chairperson. Longer term: Develop volunteer coordinator position. Greenhouse manager/sales. Website Editor.
12. Membership or grants: Casey would like to persue aquiring grants
Hillary and Brett will help

13. Membership Meeting? - Last Wednesday of the month - Next slide show. Casey contacted the folks at Counterpulse and it costs $. Free sites? native spaces has been invited to speak at the harvest festival in october. We should do another presentation of endemic plants to S.F.
14. June 7th - Sat. night Native Plant presentation by Brett at Mapp party. Live Music.
15.Retreat scheduled July 13. 12:00-5:00pm at location decided upon later.
16. Postcard design ideas: approved postcard #1, for 1000 cards
Needs pictures for cards, everyone will send a picture to Geoff
17. Accept Greg Hayes resignation. - accepted, why is he is stiil on the web site as a board member.
18. New board members. Not right away but in a few months we should have one or two new board members.
19. Agenda for next meeting:
a. Removal of director Meachum next meeting -Meachum removed
b. Program Development: I - Board Meetings. II - Membership Meetings. III - Alemany Farm Greenhouse project. IV - Certification of gardeners.
c. Data base for members etc.
20. Adjourn 8:30

Time: 7:00PM
Place: San Francisco Landscapes Office, 256 Talbert st., SF, 94134

1. Roll Call: Hillary, Casey and Brett
2. Announcements: None
3. Approval of Minutes 3/12/08 -approved
4. Member Comments: NA
5. Chairperson Report: NA
6. Presidents Report: Work with other groups -Tom President of CNPS-Yerba Buena Chapter requested info on our programs for the CNPS newsletter. April 15 is the deadline for the CNPS newsletter. Brett will lead a Saturday - June 7 at MAPP - Native Plant presentation at a party with live music. Membership meeting - May 28 slide show, location & speaker to be announced on our web site.
7. Director Reports:
a. Hillary: None
8. Treasure's Report: Geoff's check for $300.00 has not been deposited. CA will deposit this next week.
a. Funds: Wells Fargo Checking: $61.18 + $300.
b. NS owes Casey for the food for the last membership meeting. Casey will donate food.($30.00 value)
c. Check and form sent to CA State will be sent 4/12/08. $20.00
d. Membership dues are needed before postcards are ordered.
9. Secretary report: None
10. Alemany Farm Update: starting repairs in April. Need to coordinate volunteer schedule and propagation list by end of April. Ideas: Edible Native plants? Casey will work on list of easily propagated and easy to grow SF plants. Greg Garr has offered seeds. Sales plan needed.
11. Job descriptions - President/Secretary/Director/Chairperson. Longer term: Develop volunteer coordinator position. Greenhouse manager/sales. Website Editor.
12. SF Native Garden Tour April 13. Brett and Casey will be hosting gardens @ 717 Lakeview Ave. & 1943 10th Ave.
13. May 28th - Membership Meeting - Last Wednesday of the month - Next slide show. Brett or Casey will contact the folks at Counterpulse for last the Wed. in May. Speaker?
14. June 7th - Sat. night Native Plant presentation by Brett at Mapp party. Live Music.
15. Casey led with help from Brett an Angel Island Bike Tour 4/6/08 - 18 People attended
16. Postcard design ideas: approved postcard #1, for 1000 cards
17. Accept Greg Hayes resignation. - accepted
18. New board members. Not right away but in a few months we should have one or two new board members.
19. Agenda for next meeting:
a. Removal of director Meachum next meeting
b. Program Development: I - Board Meetings. II - Membership Meetings. III - Alemany Farm Greenhouse project. IV - Certification of gardeners.
c. Data base for members etc.
20. Adjourn 8:00

1. Roll Call-Geoff,Casey, Brett
2. Announcements
3. Approved of Minutes 1/9/08
4. Member Comments
5. Chairperson’s report-
Geoff- we need more members, and more input from all, brainstorm soon for certification program, job descriptions for all director positions
6. Presidents Report-
7. Director Reports
8. Treasure's Report:
a. Funds: WellsFargo Checking: $54.18 plus $40.00 from
Brett deposited on 2/1/08 minus $33.00 for the IRS for
2006 = $61.18. Casey believes the WF savings account
is now closed and this will save on fees.
b. Casey Allen paid $103.39 for web hosting for one
year of service.
c. Brett Stephens donated $40 for his membership.
d. Geoff Coffey organized filing taxes with the Fed.
Check sent by Casey in the amount of $33.00 on
2/13/08.
e. Check and form sent to CA state were returned as a
new form for 2008 needs to be filled out. Geoff
provided the $20.00 check from his Madrono landscape
design account, check #1196.-returned (Native Spaces will pay)
f. Membership dues are needed.
9. Attendance requirements for board members. 4 times
absent from meetings or more requires approval of
Board. - all approved
10. Develop volunteer coordinator position/ job descriptions -carried to next board meeting
-Casey agrees to respond to new members via email
11. SF Native Garden Tour April 13. Gardens needed.
12. Slide shows. One per district, 11 total.
Geoff-have a seasonal sideshow (4)-to start
13. Next meeting: Membership, Wednesday 2/27/08.
14- Items for next meeting-10
and elections
Meeting adjourned 7:03

Time::6:45

1) GC CA BS

2)Announcements-

3) Approved Minutes

5)Chairpersons report

6)Directors Reports -work day for VV Green Way Project

7)Presidents Report

8)Treasure's Report - $62.00
Web site fees are due 1-31 Yearly
dues are due. Casey and Brett will pay $40.00 each

9)Meeting times

10)Casey has asked if we should hire a accountant

11)Reviewed bank account records of past year. Must find out when taxes are due.

12) Geoff has agreed to file taxes

12) Discuss missing minutes . Casey will look through his records and ask greg for his

13)Brett motioned to elect Hillary to the board.Approved

14)Proposal for next meeting: Attendance requirements for board members

15)Develop volunteer coordinator position

16)Minutes for 9/12 approved

17)Possible work meeting 1/16

Meet adjourned 8:07

No trail marked our route; we parked on a friend's private property and walked for a spell up an old fire road, then plunged into the underbrush. Directions? We just headed due west and uphill.

Veilleux waxed rhapsodic on the bay trees around us: those manifold shapes of trunk, that cool aroma on the breeze, and the lush color of the leaves when they catch the sun. "I think Umbellularia californica is the most versatile and under-used California native plant in the landscaping trade," he said. "Not in my yard," I replied. The mature bay reaches heights of 120 feet, and as wide. He allowed that regular pruning for size might be necessary.

Mixed among the mature bays all around us, oaks and madrones quivered in the wind, as if in awe of the bay's position as the climax forest community, ultimate dispatcher of other trees in the ecosystem's lifecycle.

"Look," said Veilleux, pointing. "It's a coffee fern! What a gorgeous Pellaea!"

I often see my name written in native plants, but rarely so explicitly.

Suddenly, a thicket of poison oak blocked our way. At this time of year, the branches are bare of leaves, but Toxicodendron diversilobia still packs a wallop in its wood. This particular patch grew clear across the face we were crossing, with no way around it.

"We just need to reach that ridge," said Veilleux. "It's not very far." Dubious at best, I thought. But he rolled down his sleeves, put on his gloves, and forged ahead.

I circled back downhill to look for a better approach, but there was none. No way to the top but through the toxic tangle. I did find a spot where the thicket looked thinner, but the passage would still be severe.

I like to explore off-trail and to plumb the unknown; I do not like to become an itching ball of fire. Somewhere on the slope above me, I heard Veilleux thrashing through the poisonous branches and shouting "Almost there! Almost there!" Unable to throw my dermatology so casually to the wolves without good metaphoric support, I reminded myself that true character is built through adversity, true vision afforded only those who dare to transcend. And so I put away my notebook and pen, pulled on my gloves, looked for a very long minute -- then leaped.

I parted the thicket of menacing red branches and pushed through to the other side within a minute or two, feeling OK despite my inadequate armor. Then we made for the top, where the tall trees gave way to a 10-foot micro-forest of coyote brush holding the perimeter of a mesa (recently cleared by bulldozers) with a commanding view of the East Bay hills sprawled before us like an odalisque.

We found what looked like an old Indian grinding stone beneath a gnarled, hoary oak on the side of the clearing, and stopped there for lunch. Absolute silence surrounded us, but for the cry of a hawk -- and looking out over so much Earth, I felt my comparative youth beside these trees of several centuries old, in a landscape whose lifespan will be measured in millennia. Old oaks are good that way -- they expand my units of thinking about time.

And yet mankind too has shaped this place: the Indians renewed tired grasslands and oak woodlands by burning, ranchers cleared brush for cattle, developers chopped up parcels to house a growing population, and public utilities like EBMUD have managed and maintained much of the Upper San Leandro watershed (in which we sat). The counties of Contra Costa and Alameda, in particular, should be commended for the importance they have placed on the preservation of open space in this area.

We descended along one of the stegosaurus plates toward the crease at Redwood Road, our destination. At some point we must have crossed the Chabot-to-Garin regional trail, which runs north and south along that ridge, but we never noticed it, nor met another soul. Instead we drank in the sculpted cappuccino trunks of madrone and the myriad twisted shapes of coast live oak. Several specimens of coffeeberry (Rhamnus californica), that hardy evergreen shrub, gave me a wink from the edges of the chaparral. Various clearings showed signs of passing deer or cattle, and the stamp of the hand of man: we encountered a young bay pruned into an 8-foot Christmas tree, and another topiaried into a 20-foot mushroom. Swooping down a final series of lightly wooded slopes, we reached the road and my car parked in the Chabot staging area near a tree farm doing a brisk business in yultide conifers.

Who can say where nature ends and civilization begins? We might as easily seek the source of the longest river and the voice of the hidden waterfall. Deep connections are found at the intersections, where urban gives on to wild with all the subtle gradient of the old year passing into the new. Safeguard these connections wherever you can find them -- we protect our roots even as we reach for the sunlight, our future.

* * *
Writer and designer Geoffrey Coffey wrote this article from a bath of calamine lotion. He wishes all a happy new year.

Sticky Monkey Flower or Bush Monkey Flower
Mimulus Aurantiacus

Sticky Monkey Flower is a showy, drought-tolerant shrub with spreading branches, peach/orange colored flowers and dark, smooth, green leaves. Usually reaching heights of 3-4 feet, the woody shrub blooms from late winter into fall, and is found in California’s coastal scrub, chaparral and oak woodland plant communities. At home or in commercial landscape design, it needs water immediately after planting. Once established, it thrives in dry, well drained soil and full sun -- particularly near the coast..

True to its name, the leaves of monkey flower are "sticky". A resin on the underside of the leaves protects the plant from desiccation (drying out), and from hungry insects. In early spring, however, the plant is known to house the Chalcedon Checkerspot, a common butterfly that lays its eggs on the underside of the leaf so the larvae can feed on the leaf’s resin. Bees and hummingbirds also love this plant.

The leaves of Sticky Monkey Flower were commonly used by Native Americans to treat a variety of ailments. The Coast Miwok placed the crushed leaves on sores and burns, and the roots have been used to treat fever, dysentery, diarrhea and hemorrhages.

Present: Casey, Geoff.
6:50 Jesse
Prospective Member: Scott Simono and Kate Ming

1. Background of Native Spaces

2. Intros.

3. annoucements: Farm 27th &Critical Mass

4.Munites Moved

5. Greenhouse project: background info to new members. Timeline: March 2008 if grants are recived. Money will be avalible one way or another timeline may be affected.

Other Greenhouse locations: Brisbane possible location, Dan Alhouse

Look for other sites.

6. Strybing Plant ID walk thru with Don Mahoney, Jesse and Geoff will take place maybe this month.

7. Taxes need to be done> special meeting. Kate can help aswell as Geoff. October 31 3pm

8.Certification Program. CNPS will be doing a program sometime soon, research is needed.

9. Plant talks, start again. At Nurseries, gardens, schools, other sites, businesses. Timeline: Start Jan. 08.

10. Adjurn 8:15

The participants discussed fixing the greenhouse and brainstormed ways to prevent future vandalism. Many of the structure's plexiglass panels will need to be replaced, particularly panels that are spray-painted. Attempting to remove the paint degrades the quality of sun-light which passes through. Proposals were made concerning commercial sponsorship. Maybe a company that makes such panels would donate replacements?

Alemany Youth Farm's primary goal is to grow vegetable seedlings in the greenhouse as part of its urban farming mission. The idea is to use available space in City to grow food and encourage SF residents to have back-yard vegetable plots. Locally grown produce does not have to be transported far, which means its production consumes less energy and causes less pollution. Also, international food shipments may not always be available. The greenhouse seedlings would be sold at discount rates to promote food gardening and fund the project.

The farm is a living connection to the Bay Area's vibrant agricultural past. Once part of the now defunct San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners, it stood neglected for some time before being revitalized a couple of years back. Rows of vegetables take in the South City sun. Fruit trees grow on the hillside. There is even a pond and bee-keeping boxes. The staff also work with local young people to teach them job skills in landscaping and design.

Native Spaces is proposing to use a portion of the greenhouse space to propagate native plants. The farm already has its own genetic stock of large, mature specimens. This Hummingbird Sage, intertwines with a Cleveland Sage along the border of a food planting bed. Each of these larger salvia can be replicated by cuttings.

Sales of the natives would then also help support the greenhouse. The potential partnership could compliment the farm's food security mission. People will always want ornamental plants as well as food gardens. Why not work to restore the local flora while growing vegetables?

Native Spaces Field Director, Jesse Meachman, who is also a soil specialist and propagation expert, seems exited by the idea.

"We can grow many endemic species here and produce local plants that are difficult, if not impossible, to find commercially," Meacham said.

The Native Spaces Apprenticeship program could also work alongside the farm's current youth training program. As a fundamentally environmentally sound trend in the gardening business, native plant expertise is becoming increasingly valuable to employers -- especially employers who offer entry-level jobs in landscaping and design.

For more information about this project or to help out:

info@nativespaces.org

This gumweeed, Grindelia stricta ssp. venulosa, a groundcover from the Point Reyes area, has well-developed roots after two weeks.

Cuttings taken from mature plants, many of which grow on the Nursery's hillside, are dipped in rooting hormone and then placed in a 5/1 mixture of perlite and vermiculite to root. When roots develop, the plants are transferred into a soil container. It takes three to six weeks for most cuttings to develop roots. Other species, such as Redwood trees, may take up to a year to develop a transplantable root system.

Some of the hill's specimens are remnants of its pre-development native plant community. This coast red elderberry, Sambucus racemosa, was grown from a cutting taken from a local Sambucus that is likely over 50 years old.

Others, particularly the hybrid natives, have been specifically bred by mankind. The white monkeyflower variant, Mimulus 'Cream', displays the influence of European horticulturalists. Nearly all exotically colored native hybrids were cross-bred overseas and descend from this heritage.

The first European botanists to collect California native plants for observation and cultivation visited the Bay Area on the Russian ship Rurick in 1816. Johann Eschscholtz and Adelbert von Chamisso, the ship's naturalists, collected and identified more than forty species of plants growing in the Presidio -- including Mimumuls aurantiacus or sticky monkeyflower, the truest of local favorites which still grows here and was the original parent of the white monkeybush pictured above.

Send email to info@nativespaces.org to learn more about the Native Spaces apprenticeship program, or visit Bay Natives online for plant list and information about the nursery.

Yerba Buena Nursery is an originating point of the California Native Plant Landscape Movement. Gerda Isenberg turned a portion of her family's 1900's cattle ranch into the state's first commercial native plant nursery in 1960, and eventually converted the ranch house into shop space and one of the pastures into a park-like demonstration garden.

The nursery covers some forty acres of the Santa Cruz Mountains, between Woodside and Half Moon Bay. Its 2.5 acre demonstration garden even has its own micro, micro-climates including a pond, for riparian plants, redwood grove and sunny hillside for chaparaal and grassland communities. It is an extremely valuable resource for native plant gardeners and people who want to learn more.

In traveling there, we move through the same micro-climates represented by the plants available. Past the ranches turned million dollar homes, winding up two lane roads into the coastal hills. The shade dapples in with the changes. Bright chaparaal becomes cool redwood forest. Sun-shafts pierce the calm understory. Then back on the open ridge again, blue sky, waves and wind...maybe some fog from the coast.

We walk past the nursery's store, which has a fine book section, and into the garden. Some of the plants are over 25 years old. It's a great opportunity to work through design questions. Like what's that little plant in the one gallon container going to look like in a couple of years?

The staff tend to advise by exact geographic location. If you tell them about your yard in San Francisco they will ask for the exact cross streets. If it's not too busy, they might even offer some pointers on propagation and other more detailed aspects of the nursery arts

Today, we stop and admire the elegant gray leaves of the venerable White Sage. Casey Allen, Native Spaces Treasurer, takes the opportunity to practice his presentation for the next, Wildlife Gardening class. Chaparaal plants, particularly sprawling sages like the White Sage, are a favorite nesting spot for birds such as Quail. Planting White Sage or other native salvias in home yards also encourages insect and hummingbird activity.

The great value of native plants for gardeners is that some vartieties actually prefer difficult growing conditions. White Sage's home is, Chaparaal, which basically hot, dry hillsides with rocky soil, an environment that will destroy or discourage many non-native plants.

But White Sage loves it. By using native sage/salvias in such situations, a homeowner can restore wildlife habitat while filling in otherwise hard to deal with areas, often, without using permanent irrigation.

We continue, following the curved paths, discussing the different communities and their characteristics, talking about how these plants can thrive and interact with the built environment of parks and roadways and in everyday back-yards. Eventually, tall shadows of the surrounding Fir and Redwood fill in the space and it's time to go home.

Native Spaces is developing a regular schedule of field trips in the Bay Area. Questions, comments and suggestions are always welcome. Wildlife Gardening is offered as a class in the Native Spaces Fall Semester.