TUESDAY EVENING PROGRAMS

June 11  ·  7:30 - 9:00pm

Rewilding Walgrove Elementary School: The Making of a Schoolyard Habitat in Venice, CA

Presenter: Zara Bennett

Capitalizing on the removal of 6 bungalows from the school site, Team Walgrove seized this opportunity to remove asphalt and to replace it with an ensemble of habitat islands representing several of Southern California’s native plant communities. Bennett will discuss the collaborative process that has led to the creation of Walgrove’s schoolyard habitat — from conception to build day.

In many ways, the Walgrove experience is representative of that of many Los Angeles Unified School District schools who decide to green their campus through community-led initiatives. This story of an ambitious project led by three mothers—and supported by countless partners — illustrates the process of schoolyard greening in the LAUSD, as well as the key components of a successful green team at the school site. Bennett will sketch out the Walgrove model, as well as the critical phases of the Wildlands’ planning, design, and future maintenance.

Zara Bennett, former professor of French turned schoolyard greening activist. Bennett heads Team Walgrove which includes two other Walgrove mothers — Clare Carey and Emiko Kuwata. They started creating Walgrove Wildlands, a 25,000 sq. ft. habitat and hands-on learning laboratory, last spring (May 2012).

First United Methodist Church
1008 11th Street, Santa Monica
Click Here for Map

September 10  ·  7:30 - 9:30pm

Title: TBD
Presenter: TBD

Sepulveda Garden Center
16633 Magnolia Blvd. Encino
Click Here for Map

ANNOUNCEMENTS

HIKES & RESTORATION

SAT 5/25- 9am-4pm
Temescal Canyon Park
Restoration

SAT 6/8- 8:45am
Cold Creek Valley Preserve
Restoration

SUN 6/9- 8:30am
Santa Monica Mountains
Weed War

SAT 6/15- 8:45am
Malibu Creek State Park
Return of the Lost Oak Woodlands

SUN 6/16- 10:00am
Malibu Bluffs Park
Bluffs Ramble to the Sea

SAT 6/22- 8:30am
La Sierra Preserve
Restoration of a Hidden Gem

SUN 6/23- 8:30am
Topanga State Park
Lower Topanga Restoration

SAT 6/29- 9am-4pm
Temescal Canyon Park
Restoration

Check out our May-June newsletter for details.

Our Facebook news stream...

General Information about CNPS

The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) is a statewide non-profit  organization of amateurs and professionals with a common interest in California's native plants. The Society, seeks to increase understanding of California's native flora and to preserve this rich resource for future generations. Membership is open to all. Our members have diverse interests including natural history, botany, ecology, conservation, photography, drawing, hiking, and gardening.

TOYON , our chapter's bi-monthly newsletter, features a calendar of events, news about local conservation issues, and matters of interest relating to the southern California flora. (If CNPS members from other chapters would like subscribe to the Toyon, please email David Hollombe.)


 

CONSERVATION ISSUES

Special Issue of Plant Conservation featuring California rare plants.

Click HERE to read pdf

Los Angeles County
General Plan Update 2035 –
Revised EIR Schedule

The development of the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is currently underway. It is estimated releasing the Draft EIR to the public in Spring 2013. Please continue to check the web site at http://planning.lacounty.gov/generalplan/ceqa for updates. We will provide public notice and send out announcements when the Draft EIR is available for public review.

The scope of the Draft EIR includes the General Plan Update, Antelope Valley Area Plan Update
(Town & Country), zone changes, revisions to existing zones, the creation of new zones, and comprehensive updates to Zoning Code provisions related to Significant Ecological Areas and Hillside Management Areas.

What is the General Plan Update?

The General Plan Update is the first comprehensive update to the Los Angeles County General Plan in over 30 years. Upon adoption, the General Plan will guide growth and development in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County through the year 2035. It provides a framework of goals, policies and implementation programs centered on the theme of sustainability. For more information, please visit http://planning.lacounty.gov/generalplan.

What is an EIR?
 
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is a statute that requires state and local agencies to address the environmental impacts of a project, such as the General Plan Update. Pursuant to CEQA, the General Plan Update EIR will identify potential environmental impacts and feasible mitigation measures. The preparation of an EIR includes specific time frames for public notice and hearings.

Links/Resources

Notice of Preparation of an Environmental Impact Report

http://planning.lacounty.gov/assets/upl/project/gp_2035_nop.pdf

Stay informed
To be added to their mailing list, or if you have any questions or comments on the General Plan Update, please write to genplan@planning.lacounty.gov. You can also receive updates by liking them on Facebook at http://facebook.com/lacountygp and following them on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LACDRP.

Lawsuit Challenges Second Massive Newhall Ranch “Village”
    Sprawling Development in Floodplain would Devastate Wildlife Habitat, Hurt Cultural Resources
     Five public-interest groups sued Los Angeles County in superior court on Wednesday over its approval of permits for the second phase of the sprawling Newhall Ranch development — Mission Village. The Newhall Ranch development, conceived in the 1980s as one of the largest single residential development projects ever contemplated in California, is archaic and out of step with contemporary urban planning. 
    The project is intended to eventually include 60,000 housing units — the size of a mid-size city — including development in the floodplain along the Santa Clara River, the last mostly free-flowing river left in Los Angeles County. The sprawling project threatens endangered species and natural areas and will bury many of the river’s tributaries.
    The lawsuit — brought by the California Native Plant Society, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Santa Clara River, Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment (SCOPE) and Wishtoyo Foundation and its Ventura Coastkeeper program — challenges the legality of the county’s approval process in order to protect the rare plant, animal, cultural resources and water quality.
     The plan approved by the county on May 15 will develop open space that is home to endangered species in and along the Santa Clara river; eliminate habitat for the highly endangered San Fernando Valley spineflower; harm California condor habitat; and unearth and desecrate American Indian burial sites, sacred places and cultural natural resources.
     “Decades have passed, planning principles have shifted and improved, and yet the county has failed to incorporate contemporary planning principles into this dinosaur of a project,” said David Magney with the California Native Plant Society. “As a result, rare plants, including the San Fernando Valley spineflower, are going to be needlessly bulldozed and replaced by more strip malls, parking lots and houses no one can afford.”
     “It’s unimaginable that L.A. County is so reckless with the last free-flowing river in the region,” said Ron Bottorff with the Friends of the Santa Clara River. “Southern California has paved over and lost all but 3 percent of its historic river woodlands, yet these are resources are key to protecting our precious water.”
     The Santa Clara River Valley is home to a great diversity of very rare species, among them the unarmored threespine stickleback fish, California condor, least Bell’s vireo, southwestern willow flycatcher, California red-legged frog, arroyo toad, southern steelhead trout and San Fernando Valley spineflower. Wildlands of the Santa Clara River provides a full accounting of rare environmental resources of this precious landscape.
     “Developing in endangered species habitat pushes rare plants and animals to the brink of extinction,” said Ileene Anderson, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “These days, smart planning protects them instead of destroying their habitat.”
     Los Angeles County approved an overall plan for the Newhall Ranch development more than a decade ago. Approval of this second phase, called Mission Village, follows just months after the county approved the first phase, Landmark Village. Northern Los Angeles County is already plagued by high foreclosure rates and thousands of permitted housing units that have not been built. Financial bankruptcy by the development’s previous investors cost California’s public pension fund more than $970 million of state employees’ retirement. New investors are out-of-state hedge fund managers with no interest in California’s rich natural legacy.
     “Before a single house has been built, Newhall Ranch has already cost California’s taxpayers and workforce, including the county’s own staff, nearly a billion dollars of lost pension funds,” said Lynne Plambeck, president of the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment. “Although the state will never recover any of the largest single loss ever suffered by CalPERS, and will spend millions more in public monies to build roads, bridges and other infrastructure to serve this project, the county has once again endorsed this same development that will threaten the region’s water supply, worsen air pollution and cause further gridlock on our highways.”
     “The project will impart irreversible impacts to the ecological integrity and water quality of the Santa Clara River watershed and Ventura’s coastal waters, harming the wellbeing of watershed residents and visitors for years to come,” said Jason Weiner, associate director and staff attorney for the Wishtoyo Foundation’s Ventura Coastkeeper Program.
     “The impacts to hundreds upon hundreds of our burial sites, and natural cultural resources such as the California condor that are such a vital component of our culture and religious practices, will be devastating and irreversible,” said Mati Waiya, a Chumash ceremonial elder and executive director of the Wishtoyo Foundation.
     “Mission Village contains a former oil field now proposed for housing. Project information on toxic contamination was substantially changed at the very last minute just prior to the county’s approval,” said attorney Dean Wallraff. “Tetrachloroethene (PCE) contamination was discovered on the old oil field but the public was not given a chance to review any of this data in the review process, which is a violation of law.”

LA NATIVE
An ecofriendly future for light rail stations
  www.lanative.org

Our goal is simple: get the MTA and Expo Authority to use native species for the station landscaping in phase two of the Expo light rail line.

The site is still being fine-tuned, but the basic concepts are all there.  This grassroots movement needs help from each of you in spreading the word on this long-overdue change in the way we use plants in our public projects.  Under the Resources & Links section of the website, you will find copies of both our colorful Brochure (for interested stakeholders) and our White Paper (for media and government).  Please feel free to distribute both documents to anyone who will read them!

The website also includes a link to our petition on this matter.  Please sign the petition, if you will.  You can link directly to the petition via:
http://m.ipetitions.com/#petition/la-native

LA NATIVE WHITE PAPER
To find out why the Expo Line Phase 2 should utilize
mostly native plants, click HERE.

JOIN A SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
RARE PLANT TREASURE HUNT

Click HERE

HEALTHY HABITATS

The main reason to keep our native plants healthy
is that healthy plants means healthy habitat and that means healthy animals. Check out this YouTube video about a mountain lion in Griffith Park: Puma 22

WEED MANAGEMENT IN BALDWIN HILLS

Here is a recent 76-page report by Dan Cooper describing native & exotic plants of Baldwin Hills.

THEODORE PAYNE FOUNDATION

10459 Tuxford St., Sun Valley, Ca 91352

Visit TPF's online calendar for details classes and events at www.theodorepayne.org
or call (818) 768-1802

The Mildred Mathias video -
A Lifetime of Memories -
has been uploaded to the MEMBG website and the UCLA YouTube site.

This is a 25 minute video of Mildred's life in her own words [The UCLA Botanical Garden at UCLA is named for Mildred Mathias. She was also one of the founders of the UC Natural Reserve System]. Memories and images from her infancy and childhood through her college years, family life, academic career and beyond. Mildred was a trailblazer for women in science, beloved by all who met her, and an example for those who aspire to make a positive impact in their elder years.

To view the video from the MEMBG website go to http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/mildred-mathias.html. Or if it is easier for you, go to the UCLA YouTube site at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=396UjzcYom0.

An important advance in systematics of California plants:

The Jepson eFlora is now on line.
See http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/IJM.html

The Jepson eFlora initially parallels the second edition of The Jepson Manual, Vascular Plants of California, which is the work of 300 authors and editors being published by the University of California Press. 

The eFlora includes all of the taxonomic treatments of the print Manual and has in addition treatments for taxa that were excluded from the print Manual because of doubts about naturalization status. Interactive distribution maps linked to specimen data from the Consortium of California Herbaria are included.  Words that were abbreviated to save space in the print Manual have been expanded.  Keys are linked to the treatments to which they refer. Accepted names and synonyms can be searched for.  The eFlora is linked to the Jepson Online Interchange, and from there to numerous electronic tools.

The Jepson Herbarium will work with the treatment authors and users to keep the eFlora in sync with advances in California botanical knowledge.

ECOVISIONS YOUTUBE
INVASIVE PLANT VIDEOS

Ecovisions has produced a series of YouTube videos about invasive plants, specifically English ivy, brooms, yellow starthistle, pampas grass and more. Find them at http://www.ecovisions.org/video.html.

A NEW OAK WOODLAND CURRICULUM ACTIVITY

Updated 5/20/2013