The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) is a

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

environmental

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

(

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

) that seeks to increase understanding of California's native flora and to preserve it for

future generations Future generations are Cohort (statistics), cohorts of hypothetical people not yet born. Future generations are contrasted with current and past generations and evoked in order to encourage thinking about intergenerational equity. The Moral agenc ...

. The mission of CNPS is to conserve California native plants and their natural habitats, and increase understanding, appreciation, and

horticultural Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

use of native plants throughout the entire state and the

California Floristic Province The California Floristic Province (CFP) is a floristic province with a Mediterranean-type climate located on the Pacific Coast of North America with a distinctive flora similar to other regions with a winter rainfall and summer drought climat ...

History

California Native Plant Society was founded in 1965 by professional botanists and grassroots activists who, after saving an important native plant garden in Berkeley's

Tilden Regional Park Charles Lee Tilden Regional Park, also known as Tilden Park or Tilden, [], is a regional park in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area in California. It is between the Berkeley Hills and San Pablo R ...

, were inspired to create an ongoing organization with the mission to save and promote the native plants of California.

Structure

For 50 years, professional CNPS staff and volunteers have worked alongside scientists, government officials, and regional planners to protect habitats and species, and to advocate for well-informed environmental practices, regulations, and policies. The organization works at the local level through the various regional chapters, and at the state level through its five major programs, board of directors, Chapter Council, and state office. CNPS continues to be a grassroots organization, with nearly 10,000 members and volunteers in 35 chapters covering the state of California and northwest

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

. Chapter volunteers promote CNPS’s mission to conserve California’s native plants and their natural habitats, and to increase the horticultural uses of native plants at the local level. Membership is open to everyone, and chapter activities ranging from field trips, restoration activities, meetings, symposia, public garden maintenance, plant sales, and more are open to the public. At the state organizational level, CNPS has five core programs in Conservation, Rare Plant Science, Vegetation Science, Education, and Horticulture. Each program has dedicated CNPS staff supported by volunteer committees consisting of experienced botanical experts, conservation advocates, professionals, educators, and community activists.

Activities

Chapters of CNPS organize many events of local significance. In keeping with the public outreach and education mission of the society, these events are generally free and open to the public. * Wildflower shows * Native garden tours * Native plant sales in spring and fall * General public program meetings * Lectures, talks, and workshops * Public demonstration gardens * Local restoration projects * Field trips * Local publications CNPS maintains the onlin
Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants, or ''Inventory''
which catalogs th
California Rare Plant Ranks
(known as "CNPS Lists" prior to 2010). The ''Inventory'' and its ranking system remain the most widely adopted source of information about California’s special rare plants today and is used on a daily basis by scientists, land planners, and agency officials. CNPS also create
''A Manual of California Vegetation''
publication and online database, the standard vegetation reference now relied upon by state and federal agencies. Both of these resources are recognized as the most advanced available for identifying and managing critical habitat in California. A popular project in collaboration between the Education and Rare Plant Programs is the
Rare Plant Treasure Hunt
, or RPTH. In the first five years of the RPTH project, between the 2010-2014 seasons, volunteers and staff successfully updated over 2,500 occurrences of rare, threatened, and endangered species to both the California Rare Plant Ranks and

California Department of Fish and Wildlife The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), formerly known as the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), is an American state agency under the California Natural Resources Agency. The Department of Fish and Wildlife manages ...

's California Natural Diversity Database (CNDDB). Over 1,000 of these recorded occurrences were new to science. A new offshoot of the RPTH is the California Rare Plant Seed Rescue Project, in which volunteers will collect seeds and tissue from every population of rare plants in California, and

seed bank A seed bank (also seed banks, seeds bank or seed vault) stores seeds to preserve genetic diversity; hence it is a type of gene bank. There are many reasons to store seeds. One is to preserve the genes that plant breeders need to increase yield, ...

them in long-term storage facilities to protect them against future extinction. In 2010, the California Native Plant Society was successful in having the state legislature designate the third week in April each year a
"California Native Plant Week"
The legislature recognized that "California native plants, being perfectly suited to California's climate and soil, require far fewer fertilizers, soil amendments, or pesticides, and use 60 to 90 percent less water than conventional landscapes". The California Native Plant Society also organizes a triennial conservation conference every three years which hosts over 1000 attendees from across California and beyond, and an annual conservation symposium every September.

Publications

Besides books, bulletins, and posters, the society publishes the academic journal ''Artemisia'' (previously ''Fremontia''), devoted to botany, horticulture, vegetation science, land management, CNPS projects, and related native plant topics, three times a year, and the ''CNPS Bulletin'', a quarterly newsletter.

Calscape

''Calscape'', started in 2016, is a website with a database of California native plants, native pollinators, and local plant nurseries. It aggregates information from, among other sources, ''Wikipedia'', '' Jepson eFlora'', '' Calflora'', the book ''Seed Propagation of Native California Plants'', and local nurseries'

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

descriptions. Users can search for plants by name or location, cross reference plants and pollinators, find nurseries selling a plant, and save personal lists.

Bibliography

References

External links

Official California Native Plant Society website

A Manual of California Vegetation online database

Calscape
{{authority control Native plant societies based in the United States Botanical societies Botanists active in California Environmental organizations based in California Non-profit organizations based in California Natural history of California Nature conservation organizations based in the United States Scientific societies based in the United States Organizations based in Sacramento, California Environmental organizations established in 1965 1965 establishments in California 501(c)(3) organizations