2022 Symposium

Tools for a New Decade of Managing Northern California Plant Communities

Northern California Botanists hosted its 11th botanical symposium as a virtual event on January 10-11, 2022, with optional workshops on January 12.  Session talks were prerecorded with a live question and answer period with the speakers following each session.  Sessions included:

  • The Power of Pollinators: Habitat, Conservation, and Plant Interactions; Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Ethnobotany
  • Great Basin Restoration Approaches
  • New Discoveries; Riparian Vegetation Restoration from Theory to Practice; eDNA
  • Now the Good News; Lightning Talks; and a Poster Session.

Our Keynote Address by Dr. Frank Kanawha Lake was titled “Indigenous Knowledge and Ethnobotany: Tribal Understandings and Connection of Plants and the Environment.”

Workshops held on January 12, 2022, included:

  • Workshop 1: Features of the Consortium of California’s CCH2 Data Portal. Instructor: Katie Pearson, Project manager, California Phenology Network
  • Workshop 2: Tracking Plant Population Change using Calflora. Instructor: Cynthia Powell, Executive Director of Calflora

Congratulations to our Student Poster Winners!

  • First Place – Matthew Mayer, California State University, Chico
  • Second Place – Kelli Thorup, California State University, Chico
  • Third Place – Laura Lampe, California State University, Chico

Symposium Presentations

Session 1: The Power of Pollinators: Habitat, Conservation, and Plant Interactions. Session Chair: Russell Huddleston, Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9

Session 2: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Ethnobotany. Session Chair: Kerry Byrne, Humboldt State University

Keynote Address: Tribal Cultural Relationships with Plants – From Mountains to the Sea. Frank Lake, U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station

Session 4: Great Basin Restoration Approaches. Session Chair: Allison Nunes, Humboldt State University

Session 5:  New Discoveries. Session Chair: Jane Van Susteren, California Department of Forestry

Session 6: Riparian Vegetation Restoration from Theory to Practice. Session Chair: Rob Thoms, Stillwater Sciences

Session 7: eDNA. Session Chair: Rachel Meyer, University of California, Santa Cruz

Session 8: Lightning Talks. Session Chair: Kristen Kaczynski, California State University, Chico

Session 9: Now the Good News. Session Chair, Israel Borokini, University of California, Berkeley

Poster Session

Below are links to many of the posters presented at the symposium. Poster abstracts can be found in the Symposium Program starting on Page 23, listed alphabetically by presenting author name.

Thank You to our 2020 Symposium Sponsors!

  • Ascent Environmental, Inc.
  • California Department of Conservation, Division of Mine Reclamation
  • California Department of Fish and Wildlife
  • California Invasive Plant Council
  • California Native Grasslands Association (CNGA)
  • California Native Plant Society (CNPS) – State Office
  • California Native Plant Society (CNPS) – Dorothy King Young Chapter
  • California Native Plant Society (CNPS) – Mt. Lassen Chapter
  • California Native Plant Society (CNPS) – North Coast Chapter
  • California Native Plant Society (CNPS) – Sacramento Valley Chapter
  • California Native Plant Society (CNPS) – Shasta Chapter
  • The Chico State Herbarium
  • College of Natural Sciences, California State University, Chico
  • Friends of the Chico State Herbarium
  • Garcia and Associates (GANDA)
  • Halkard E. Mackey, Jr.
  • Hedgerow Farms, Inc.
  • H.T. Harvey and Associates
  • Lawrence Janeway
  • Linnea Hanson
  • Nomad Ecology
  • Ray Collett Trust
  • Robert A. Schlising
  • Shasta Trinity National Forest
  • Sierra Pacific Foundation
  • Stillwater Sciences
  • The University and Jepson Herbaria, UC Berkeley
  • Westervelt Ecological Services
  • WRA, Inc.

2022 Keynote Speaker:  Dr. Frank Kanawha Lake

The 2022 Symposium Keynote Speaker was Frank Kanawha Lake, U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station. His talk was titled “Tribal Cultural Relationships with Plants – From Mountains to the Sea.”

Frank has been immersed in the rich cultural and ecological heritage of California’s northwestern Pacific coast since childhood. He was raised in a Yurok and Karuk family and learned about the natural world through cultural practices, which now inform his work as a research ecologist and fire scientist at the Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station tion. Dr. Lake received a BS degree from University of California - Davis (1995) in Integrated Ecology and Culture with a minor in Native American Studies and completed his Ph.D. in the Environmental Sciences Program at Oregon State University in 2007.

He currently works for the USFS-Pacific Southwest Research Station, Fire and Fuels Program, on tribal and community forestry and related natural resource issues. His research focuses on restoration ecology and the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge into landscape restoration strategies, wildland fire and forest management in the Pacific Northwest and northern California. He has a research interest in wildland fire and management effects on cultural resources and tribal values. He is a fireline qualified Resource Advisor and has worked with tribes, agencies, organizations, and Incident Management Teams on wildland fire assignments. He also serves as an advisor to The Nature Conservancy’s Indigenous Peoples Burning Network.