Colorado Native Plant Society, Northern Chapter

The Northern Chapter meetings are the first Wednesday of the month
at 7:00 pm at the
Gardens on Spring Creek
2145 Centre Ave., Ft. Collins

Meetings (and the field trips listed below) are free and open to everyone. Please join us.

Prior to meetings we meet for dinner with the speaker at Café Vino, 1200 S College Ave at 5:30 p.m. Please join us. Let us know you are coming by phoning (970) 491-2998 or email Denise Culver or Phil Phelan, Northern Chapter Co-Chairs.

We formerly called ourselves the Fort Collins Chapter, but our membership is from Fort Morgan, Greeley, Fort Collins, Longmont, Estes Park, etc. so we have changed our name to the Northern Chapter of the Colorado Native Plant Society to reflect our diversity. We hope that wherever you are in north-central and north-eastern Colorado, you will join us for our free programs and field trips.

Northern Chapter Programs
2008

Feb 6: Northern Colorado’s Diverse Plant Habitats
Presented by Alix Gadd, Botanist and Writer

Are you tired of driving long distances for botany field trips? Join Alix Gadd, author of Northern Colorado Plants, for a visual tour of various plant habitats in the greater Fort Collins area. Alix will provide tips for finding interesting plants while you walk your dog, ride your bike, drive to work, or take your 30-minute lunch break.

March 13* (Thursday): Colorado Bark Beetle Interactions with Their Host Trees and Birds
Presented by David Leatherman, Forest Entomologist

In this presentation, the current situation with bark beetle outbreaks will be discussed. Is Colorado alone in all this? Why are so many trees dying at once? What are the causes? How does this affect birds, future forests, and other wildlife species?

*Note: This meeting will be held in conjunction with the Fort Collins Audubon Chapter at the Lincoln Center Columbine Room with a social at 7:00 p.m. The presentations starts at 7:30 p.m.

April 2: America's Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie, FILM

This award winning film tells the rich and complex story of one of the most astonishing alterations of nature in human history. Prior to Euro-American settlement in the 1820s, one of the major landscape features of North America was 240 million acres of tallgrass prairie. But between 1830 and 1900 -- in the span of a single lifetime -- the prairie was transformed to farmland. This drastic change in the landscape brought about an enormous social change for Native Americans. In an equally short time their cultural imprint was reduced in essence to a handful of place-names appearing on maps.

The extraordinary cinematography of prairie remnants, original score, and archival images are all delicately interwoven to create a powerful and moving experience about the natural and cultural history of America. Among those interviewed are writer Dayton Duncan, Wes Jackson of The Land Institute, biologist Laura Jackson, linguist Jerome Kills Small, historian Anton Treuer, landscape historian Lance Foster, writer Richard Manning, and Nina Leopold Bailey and Carol Leopold -- two of Aldo Leopold's children.

Popcorn and drinks will be provided.

If you have ideas for programs or field trips,
email Denise Culver.