Have questions?

This is your chance to STUMP THE CHUMP!  This month in both Olympia and Tacoma we will have one of our resident plant experts/chumps available between 6:30 and 7:00 to answer your native plant questions. If we can’t answer them on the spot, we will make sure you get an answer later. If you like, email your questions in early to chair@southsoundchapterwnps.org

Monday, October 8, 2012   7pm   (Olympia) – John Trobaugh
Replenishing Washington’s Forests – Challenges of Plant Propagation and Subsequent Care of Seedlings

John Trobaugh is the Nursery Program Manager at Webster Forest Nursery. The Webster Nursery produces between eight million and ten million seedlings annually to be planted after timber harvests on DNR-managed state trust lands statewide. It also provides between three million and five million seedlings for small private land owners to help them meet the replanting requirements of the State Forest Practices Act.

John has his B.S. degree from Oregon State University and a M.S. in Silviculture from Wisconsin. He managed the Georgia-Pacific bareroot nursery, tree improvement program and northeast regional (Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maine and New Brunswick, Canada) silviculture for eight years; the Georgia-Pacific container nursery, tree improvement program and western regional (Oregon and California) silviculture for six years; and since 2004, manages Washington Department of Natural Resources Webster forest seedling container and bareroot nursery.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012   7pm   (Tacoma) – David Nunnallee
Native Butterflies and Native Plants

In this presentation David will explore, with high quality photographs, the intimate relationships between Washington’s native butterflies and our native plants. All of our 150+ butterfly species are dependent on plants, both for nectar to nourish the adults and for host plants to feed their caterpillar offspring. We will discover which plants are used by each of the thirteen major groups of butterflies found in Washington. But some plant groups are far more important to butterflies than others; we will explore these as well as some of the individual “super plants” which host multiple butterfly species.

Mr. Nunnallee recently co-authored a book the “Life Histories of Cascadia Butterflies” with David James (Reviewed in the Summer Acorn). The final part of the presentation will describe the fifteen-year process which resulted in this book and will discuss some of the resulting discoveries, with emphasis on the host plants.

A retired engineer, David has long had an intense interest in natural history including butterflies, birds, native plants, dragonflies and fossils. He has actively studied butterflies in the Pacific Northwest for two decades, and has been rearing and photographing butterfly larvae for fifteen years. He frequently leads butterfly field trips within Washington State, and is a co-founder of the Washington Butterfly Association. An accomplished photographer, he has more than a thousand published butterfly photographs in books, field guides, web sites, newsletters and permanent public displays. He often speaks to natural history audiences and has given keynote presentations at several conferences.

Thank you.

Lee Fellenberg

Web Manager & Notice Distribution

South Sound Chapter – Washington Native Plant Society