Deanna Dulen, Superintendent at Devil's Postpile National Monument, will be giving the program at our meeting on Wednesday, September 25th at 7:00 pm. At the Green Church. Her talk is titled "More than Rocks at Devil's Postpile National Monument". In addition to the geologic wonders at Devil's Postpile National Monument (DEPO), many exciting botanical and ecological insights have been explored and researched at the Monument in the last two years. The National Park Service created the Natural Resource Challenge (NRC) in 2000 to focus research, inventory, and monitoring efforts on developing a comprehensive knowledge of vascular and vertebrate species in the parks. Devil's Postpile has taken on the NRC, and in summer 2001 a botanist surveyed the entire Monument.

NEXT CHAPTER BOARD MEETING

The next Board meeting will be at Steve and Karen's house in Swall Meadows, Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 7 pm. All are welcome to attend.

President's Message:.

As Fall approaches and the smoke clears to reveal the golden aspen-lined canyons of the Eastern Sierra, it's time to start planning your native plant garden. And lo and behold, our Annual Native Plant Sale, scheduled for Sept. 28, will be the place to pick up your perennial favorites or to experiment with something new. A complete plant list of sale plants is available on our website at www.bristleconecnps.org/native.htm. At the sale there will be chapter members selling posters, t-shirts and books.

Speaking of Bristlecone Chapter members, we are still looking for a volunteer to work on Education for our chapter. The Education Chair has been vacant for several years, and there is an exciting new project, described later in this newsletter, that he or she could help with. The Bristlecone Chapter will also be accepting proposals for the Mary Dedecker Botanical Grant program through Nov. 22. Read more about this program inside. And speaking of botanists, Jack and Pat Crowther have produced "A Bishop Creek Checklist" for 2002. The list is annotated with information on elevation, habitats, and which of six trails each species might be found. It covers the entire drainage from the Owens River up to the Sierra Crest. The checklist includes many of Pat's beautiful illustrations, and is dedicated to Mary DeDecker. Copies will be on sale with our other books at the upcoming general meeting and at the plant sale.

One more thing.... According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administation (NOAA), recent data of sea-surface temperatures are still showing a moderate to weak El Nino that should continue into early 2003. Hopefully it will bring some fall rains to help those native plants in your garden become better established. Happy planting!

……..Stephen Ingram

The 6th Native Plant Sale will be held on Saturday, September 28 at 9:00 AM at the Tri-County Fairgrounds in Bishop. We will have a nice selection of plants, all grown from locally collected seed. Also available at the sale will be books, t-shirts and posters.

To learn more about the plants that will be offered at the sale, there will be a Plant Sale Preview at the White Mountain Research Station in Bishop on Wednesday, September 18 at 7:00PM. We will discuss the needs and features of all the plants offered at the sale and enjoy Stephen Ingram's slides of them. There will also be a free plant raffle and refreshments.

To avoid disappointment, please plan to get to the sale promptly at 9:OO am. The good stuff goes fast! Call Karen at 387-2913 for more information.

Achnatherum speciosum Needle grass

Angelica brewerii Angelica

Ceanothus greggii v. vestita Desert ceanothus

Clematis ligusticifolia Virgin’s bower

Coleogyne ramosissima Black bush

Ericameria linearifolia Showy goldenbush

Eriogonum fasciculatum California buckwheat

v. polifolium

Eriogonum nudum v. westonii Nude buckwheat

Eriogonum umbellatum Sulphur buckwheat

v. nevadense

Eriogonum wrightii Wright buckwheat

v. subscaposum

Erysimum capitatum Wall flower

Forestiera pubescens Desert olive

Hesperostipa comata Needle and thread grass

Hymenoclea salsola Cheese bush

Krascheninnikovia lanata Winterfat

Lepidium fremontii Desert allysum

Leymus cinereus Great basin wild rye

Mimulus cardinalis Scarlet mimulus

Oenethera caespitosa Evening primrose

Penstemon eatonii Firecracker penstemon

Penstemon floridus Rose penstemon

v. floridus

Penstemon fruticiformis Desert Mt. penstemon

Penstemon monoensis Mono penstemon

Penstemon patens Owens Valley penstemon

Penstemon rostriflorus Scarlet penstemon

Prunus andersonii Desert peach

Purshia tridentata Bitterbrush

Rhamnus californica Coffeeberry

Salvia dorrii Purple sage

Scrophularia desertorum Figwort

Sphaeralcea ambigua Apricot mallow

Sporobilis airoides Alkali sacaton

The Bishop After School Program is seeking individuals and/or professionals who would be interested in sharing their passions and expertise in botany or natural history (or any other skills of interest to young minds) with the youth of our community. There is no previous teaching experience required, just an interest to share what you know and love.

Your class or audience will consist of 20-25 students from the Bishop Union Elementary School District. They are just a part of the Bishop After School Program, which is a collaborative commitment consisting of the BUE School District and the City of Bishop, who's goals are to provide cultural, recreational, and academic enrichment opportunities for all the children of Bishop. There would be a teacher present, you would be responsible only for sharing your love of the topic offered. The commitment of your time is flexible, from one or two guest appearances to a weekly commitment if you desire. Our After School calendar is broken into trimesters. For more information please contact:  Bobbie Stryffeler at 872-1826 or Howard Lehwald at 872-5135.

The Bristlecone Chapter is requesting applications for its small grants program in memory of renowned local botanist, Mary DeDecker. This program is a fitting way to remember Mary's many contributions to the people and plants of the Eastern Sierra. The program will award up to two grants of not more than $500 each.

The purpose of these grants is to facilitate research and projects that increase the understanding and appreciation of our region's native flora and ecosystems. There are a wide range of appropriate possible subjects for funding, from basic taxonomic or ecological research to a school garden featuring native plants and their pollinators. The only requirement is that the project be relevant to the native plants of the northern Mojave Desert, Sierra Nevada, and Great Basin portions of eastern California.

The deadline for submission of grant proposals is November 22, 2002. To receive guidelines for the grant application or for more information, contact Karen Ferrell-Ingram at (760) 387-2913 or at ingram@telis.org.

Keep posted on any additional trips by visiting our website (www.bristleconecnps.org). For general questions or interest in leading future trips please contact Field Trip Chair, Alisa Ellsworth at (760) 387-2081.

To volunteer for the 2002 Plant Sale Team, please call Karen at (760) 387-2913 or e-mail to ingram@telis.org. The team will be on call to help periodically with propagation, maintenance of the nursery and plants, seed collecting, plant sale and preview planning, and with the plant sale

September 7, Saturday. Emerald Lake Field Trip

October 5, Saturday. Rock Creek Fall Color Hike

Leader: Cathy Rose. Carpool at Tom’s Place at 9:00am. Short stops along Rock Creek Road followed by a short hike with great rewards: trees in fall colors and pie in the sky at Rock Creek Lakes Resort. Finish by 1:00pm. Bring a lunch or eat at Rock Creek Lodge. Contact Cathy Rose at 935-4379.

Everyone is welcome, including non-members, but please no pets. Generally, day trips last most of the day while the overnight trips conclude early Sunday afternoon. For all field trips, be sure to bring plenty of water, lunch, good walking shoes or boots, and appropriate clothing for hot sun or inclement weather. Also useful are a hand lens, plant books and floras. Often we are near the vehicles at lunch, but be prepared to carry your lunch on a hike. Trips leave at the time announced, so please arrive at the meeting sites a few minutes early. Unless indicated, the average car should do fine. Car pooling is encouraged.

Despite my fascination with the Inyo Mountains, I’d never made the short hike to Barrel Springs. So, I jumped at the opportunity to join field trip leader Sue Weis for a visit to the spring on April 27.

For many years, water from the spring had been diverted by a homesteading miner. The miner and most of his things are gone now, however, and the Forest Service has hopes of restoring at least parts of the area. Sue said that the former miner engaged in "recreational bulldozing." As we hiked up the hill, very little of the earth movement appeared to serve a purpose; reasons for most of the disturbance and piles of earth and rock could not be fathomed. Much of the disturbed area is prime habitat for weedy invasive plant species.

We noted the few things bothering to bloom during this dry year: Lupinus excubitus, and faithful Sphaeralcea ambigua. At a small seepage area low in the canyon, we flushed three deer, who were undoubtedly grateful for this oasis this dry year. Grasses and rushes such as Sporobolus airoides, Leymus triticoides, and Juncus balticus dominated this site and were partly shaded by willow thickets.

Further up the canyon, we found water running over the gravel. Apparently, someone has recently breached the pipe that used to carry the flow to the miner’s pond. Now, no water is flowing to the pond. New growth of mugwort (Artemisia ludoviciana) and, unfortunately, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) sprouted along the edges of the new springbrook. We paused and pulled enough cheatgrass to fill a large garbage bag. It’s Sue’s hope that CNPSers will "adopt" the spring, and maybe take the lead in controlling some of the invasive species. A short distance further up, we were greeted by a tamarisk (Tamarix ramosissima), too large for the likes of us.

Next, we arrived at the main spring area. Water appeared plentiful, and it was especially attractive seeing it cascade over a ledge into a garden of orchids (Epipactus gigantea) and scarlet mimulus (Mimulus cardinalis), both still in leaf. The spring still has an extant population of spring snails, and after poking around in the rocks for a few minutes, we turned up a couple of them.

We hiked up a ridge to get an overview of the site. Being near the lower end of "Water Canyon," it is easy to see there is a reasonable size catchment area, then a narrows, so a spring of this size could exist. Nevertheless, we speculated that little is probably known of the true hydrology of Barrel Springs.

The value of this spring to the native flora and fauna in the area was apparent this bleak year. Work is needed to keep the invasive plant species at bay. Perhaps with some stewardship, this spring will recover further from its years of service to mankind.

……..Sally Manning

The scoping period under the National Environmental Policy Act for the ill-conceived proposal to build a large observatory at an undisturbed site in the Inyo Mountains (a.k.a. the CARMA project, discussed in this newsletter since 1998) ended last June. I contributed 11 pages of comments on behalf of the Bristlecone Chapter. According to Inyo National Forest spokesperson Chaz O’Brien, the Draft Environmental Impact Statement will not be released until sometime in October 2002 at the earliest. Meanwhile a written report summarizing the public comments submitted during the project scoping period (last June) should be available by the time you have received this newsletter. Ms O’Brien stated that it will contain (as an appendix) copies of all correspondence that has been received regarding the

project before, as well as during, the scoping period. This should make for some interesting reading!

……..Daniel Pritchett

Last April LADWP submitted its proposed annual pumping program for 2002. In spite of the year being one of the driest on record and the fact that vegetation and water tables in some parcels have still not recovered from the over-pumping and drought of the late 1980's, LADWP proposed to increase pumping by more than 5%. The rationale for the pumping was filled with self-serving half-truths, an analysis of which was contained in one of my articles in the May 2002 issue of this newsletter.

Within days of my newsletter article, Greg James, Inyo County Water Department Director, was repeating some of the half-truths verbatim, describing the proposed pumping as "reasonable" and "low" at the Inyo County Water Commission meeting of May 1, 2002 and on the radio news. Readers who remember George Orwell's book 1984 will be reminded of "Newspeak." In Newspeak, for example, "War is peace," "Freedom is slavery," and "Ignorance is strength." Readers can make up their own minds as to the desirability of the use of Newspeak by the Inyo County Water Department Director.

In May 2002, Inyo County acquiesced to LADWP's proposed increased pumping. According to the local media, Inyo County CAO Rene Mendez had at least one closed meeting with LADWP General Manager Jerry Gewe, and I infer that a deal must have been made. At the Inyo County Water Commission meeting (a few days after the Mendez-Gewe meeting took place) Greg James stated that the County's comments on the proposed pumping would be contingent upon the decision of the LA Board of Water and Power Commission (LABWPC) regarding LADWP's desire to terminate the Drought Recovery Policy (DRP). The fact that Inyo County's response to the proposed pumping was contingent upon a political decision of the LABWPC was a tacit admission that Inyo County no longer adheres to science-based management. Development of the annual pumping has, correspondingly, degenerated into horse-trading.

This might not be so bad if Inyo County were skilled at horse-trading. What the county "won" in the horse-trade was agreement from LADWP to "rotate" pumping from the Bairs-George and Symms-Shepard wellfields (which contain vegetation parcels still subject to the Drought Recovery Policy), to wells 380 and 381 in the Thibault-Sawmill wellfield (which also contains parcels subject to the DRP). What a victory! The county appears to believe that because wells 380 and 381 drain a deep aquifer they will not affect water tables and native vegetation. The fact that wells 380 and 381 are in "Off" status is no obstacle because the county plans to develop a new "On-Off" protocol especially for those wells. (It will no doubt be purely coincidental when the new protocol puts the wells in "On" status.) The USGS recently examined the strategy of deep-aquifer pumping as a means to increase LADWP's exports and rejected it as unsustainable. Because no one knows how and where deep and shallow aquifers are connected, the county can correctly state it has no proof that vegetation will be more impacted than it already is. Without proof, obviously the pumps must go on!

This cavalier approach to pumping violates the DRP's mandate for "conservative management." If the county were in danger of failing to meet its obligation to provide a "reliable" water supply to LA this might be excused as a desperation measure, but this not the case. This pumping will provide LADWP with an increase over the volume it pumped last year. The county is appeasing LADWP by increasing risks to already-impacted native vegetation.

Having examined what the county "won" in the horse-trade, consider what it lost: the DRP itself. This is serious because the DRP provides stronger language than even the Water Agreement regarding recovery of water tables and vegetation (more complete discussions are in the November 2001 and January 2002 issues of this newsletter). The county lost the DRP because it agreed to a pumping program which violates the DRP. The pumping program is not "conservative" (as required by the DRP) by the county's own definition, and it lowers water tables under parcels which are still subject to the pumping constraints the DRP requires.

County officials will deny the DRP is lost and point to language in the Technical Group's report on the pumping plan (i.e. the horse trade) asserting that the county believes the DRP is still in effect. The county must therefore believe DRP enforcement is something which can be turned on and off like a light bulb. Now that Inyo County itself has turned enforcement "off" why is there any reason to think a judge in a future pumping dispute could ever be persuaded to turn it back on? What good is it to assert the DRP still applies if it is not enforced?

If county officials were to be forthright and admit this is a terrible deal it would at least give them credibility. The Supervisors may have decided the county could not afford to initiate another dispute against LADWP and therefore took whatever deal they could get. Were this admitted, attention could be focused on the underlying problem: LADWP's "deep pockets" strategy. LADWP knows that the county will never be able to afford to dispute more than a few of its Water Agreement violations and therefore can violate with impunity.

As it is, the county has the worst of all possible worlds. It has agreed to a pumping program that is nothing but appeasement and uses Newspeak to deny the obvious. In this it is both victimized by LADWP and colluding with LADWP in denying its victimization. The simplest way to change this state of affairs is for Inyo County to open its dealings with LADWP to public scrutiny. Until this happens three things are certain to continue: 1) appeasement and bad deals; 2) the consequent death of native vegetation and the life dependent upon it; and 3) the use of Newspeak as the language of choice of Inyo County as well as LADWP.

LADWP and Inyo County agreed in a court ordered stipulation last May to complete the Draft EIR on the Lower Owens River Project (LORP) and release it to the public by August 31, 2002. However, in their last required progress report to the court on August 15^th they stated they will not make that deadline. They did tell the court they expect to release the DEIR by September 30^th unless "issues concerning the project description are not promptly resolved." We’ll have to wait until September 6^th to find out whether they reached resolution or not. At that time they must report to the court again why the DEIR is late and when they expect to have it completed. There is a court hearing scheduled September 12^th to discuss the matter with the judge in Inyo Superior Court.

The LORP is an extensive restoration project that would rewater over 60 miles of river between the LA Aqueduct intake and Owens Lake. It was the primary mitigation that LADWP identified in their EIR for extensive impacts to Owens Valley wetland and riparian habitats caused by the City’s groundwater pumping from 1970 to 1990. Implementation of the project is a commitment that the City made with Inyo County in their 1997 Long-term Water Agreement and additionally in the 1997 MOU that allowed the end of 25 years of litigation and the water agreement to take effect.

If you think you’ll want to review the DEIR, please ask now to be placed on the list of people to receive a copy when it is released. Address your request for the LORP DEIR to Leah Kirk, Inyo County Water Department, 163 May Street, Bishop CA 93514, or via email to [inyowaterdept@telis.org]. By requesting a copy in advance, you'll not only see a copy sooner, but you'll make it easier for them to anticipate how many copies they will need. You can keep abreast of developments through the OVC website (www.ovcweb.org).

……..Mark Bagley

Desert Ceanothus, Ceanothus greggii A. Gray var. vestitus (E. Greene) McMinn (Rhamnaceae)

I first encountered this plant over a decade ago when I noticed it in spectacular bloom along the flanks of Rawson Creek, just below the canyon mouth. A mass of these evergreen shrubs, up to 6 feet or more tall, makes an impressive early Spring show when abundantly covered with their small, white, and also highly fragrant, flowers. The man it was named for, I have discovered, was a pretty impressive person as well. And the businessman turned plant collector, who brought the Desert Ceanothus to scientific attention, might have caused the botanical history of California to have taken a somewhat different course had circumstances been a little different, and his life not had an early and tragic end.

The collector was the fearless but frail frontier explorer, trader, and intellectual, Josiah Gregg (1806 - 1850). He found the shrub at the site of the Battle of Buena Vista (one of the 2 decisive battles of the Mexican-American War) near Saltillo, Mexico, in early 1847. At the outset of the war, Gregg served the U.S. Army as interpreter and guide in a country he had spent years in as a trader, on the Santa Fe Trail and points south. By the time of the battle, he had left off his official service, but continued to observe the war situation, and to send reports to newspapers and friends in the States. His lifelong interest in natural history took a new course at about this time; he began plant collecting in earnest. He sent most of his specimens to his friend George Engelmann of St. Louis, principal botanist of the western U.S. at that time. Duplicate specimens, either via Engelmann or another botanist, C. W. Short of Kentucky, to whom Gregg also sent specimens, made their way to Asa Gray at Harvard. Though Engelmann named some of Gregg's new species (especially the cacti), Gray had much greater herbarium and library resources, and it was Gray who named most of them.

By the early 1900s the range of C. greggii was known to extend from northern Mexico, western Texas, and southern New Mexico, through Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and on to California. Some varieties of C. greggii are recognized, two in California. Famed Western botanist Edward Greene, then (1889) at UC Berkeley, collected a Ceanothus specimen in the Tehachapi Mtns. which he thought to be a new species, calling it C. vestitus. Howard McMinn, in his 1939 classic work on California shrubs, decided Greene's 'new' Ceanothus was, rather, a variety of C. greggii. Thus the currently accepted full scientific name for our variety came into being, which includes, it will be noted, the names of four persons!

In his youth Gregg seemed the least likely person to become an explorer and adventurer. At about age 25 he was in such a debilitated state that he could barely move from his room in the family home, situated near the jumping off site of the rather recently blazed Santa Fe Trail. Then a most remarkable thing happened. His doctor prescribed a radical change - that he take to the prairies and join the next caravan to Santa Fe! Incredibly, within a week on the trail he was no longer riding on a bed in a wagon, but was out walking, and, soon after, riding a horse. Before long he joined in all the tribulations of the journey, hunted the wild bison, and helped with Indian encounters (Jedediah Smith had suffered his untimely end just days before Gregg's party passed nearby). By the time they got to Santa Fe he was a new man, had learned Spanish, and, in subsequent years, became a successful trader on his own. Prolonged stays back in civilization, however, often led to serious declines in his health.

Gregg is well known among historians of the West for his book, Commerce of the Prairies, a masterpiece of frontier lore and practical information in which, with considerable detail and accuracy, he described the country, peoples, and natural history along the Santa Fe Trail. He was one of those few early explorers who reveled in what he saw on the frontier of Euro expansion, and also wrote with sensitivity and intelligence about it. From their pens we know what things were like, and what was lost in the inevitable mad rush that followed.

He was a nineteenth century "techie". In spite of growing up on the rough, ready, and isolated Missouri frontier, Gregg became a whiz at math (in which, as with most subjects, he was self taught), and amazed friends and elders by using trigonometry and home-built instruments to measure the heights of trees. Later, with a sextant and other gadgets, he plotted his way over new routes to Santa Fe, guiding his entourage across the prairie "oceans" (as he often called them). During his travels he made many maps of New Mexico and Northern Mexico, based on his measurements of latitude and longitude. In one of his letters to Engelmann, he asked the botanist to send him plates for his Daguerreotype 'instrument'. If he was successful in taking photos - and most likely he was, given his determination - none survive. Today he'd be thrilled with a GPS unit and a digital camera, though probably not too thrilled with the lack of wide open and unexplored spaces.

In 1849 he began hearing about the California mines. He had a long time interest in mines, not as a miner would, but as a businessman providing services to miners; he also had a keen scientific interest in them. So he decided he'd combine his new-found passion for plant collecting with a look at the mining scene in the soon-to-be new State. He planned to leave Mexico City, where he had spent a few months after the war was over, and travel overland through Mexico to San Diego and on to San Francisco, collecting plants along the way.

Circumstances delayed his departure, and the season proved unusually dry and unfavorable for plant growth, and, furthermore, his health was not good. So, when he reached Mazatlan, with little prospect of getting much more than he had in the way of collections (he sent Engelmann 600 specimens from that city), as well as being uncertain he could make it further overland in his weak condition, he boarded a ship bound for San Francisco, which he reached after 45 days.

It's idle but fun speculation to think that, if circumstances had been different, he might have been able to mine the Southern California botanical bonanza a few months before Charles C. Parry, botanist with the Mexican Boundary Survey, arrived on the scene. Had that happened, more California plants might today bear the specific epithet 'greggii'.

Not long after reaching San Francisco, he visited placer mines on the Trinity River.  He soon found a way to be of service to the miners, when the possibility of a seaport to the west came up.  He led a party of 8 men (probably rough miners and opportunists) to go look for it. Unfortunately it was now approaching winter, and the coast ranges, with snow at higher elevations and incessant cold rain at lower, had to be crossed.  All of the party were miserable and hungry as food ran out, and the men soon grew weary of 'Captain Gregg' and his frequent stops to make measurements - of latitude and longitude, and, later, of the diameter and heights of redwood trees.  Some 40 days after setting out (an Indian had told them they might reach it in 8 days), they did find the bay, which they dubbed "Trinidad Bay".  However, a party of seamen arrived not long after by sea, and, quickly returning to SF with the discovery news, got credit for its discovery and naming:  the seamen called it Humboldt Bay.  Some of Gregg's names stuck, though, including Mad River, the scene of a serious dispute within his party, and Eel River, where they met an Indian from whom they purchased a basket full of the river's namesakes.  On the return trip, near Clear Lake, Gregg, in a half-starved and very weak condition, fell from his horse and died within hours.  He was buried on the spot, and, unfortunately, his journal and any collections were not saved.  Gregg was in his 44^th year.  It seems a terribly sad end, far from his many sympathetic friends and family members, for this brilliant man who was strong of purpose and mind, but not of body.

Each spring, however, there comes forth, here and across his beloved Southwest, a joyful reminder of Josiah Gregg, as the Desert Ceanothus bursts into bloom.

……..Larry Blakely

(References and more info may be found on my website: http://www.csupomona.edu/~larryblakely/whoname/)

Thank you for our many renewals and a warm welcome to new members:

Betty Jane Smythe  - Bishop

Doug Coy  - San Jose

Kelly & Barbara McTigue - Rolling Hills Estates, CA.