Program
11-12 January 2027
California State University, Chico
Bell Memorial Union Auditorium (In Person) and Online
The 2027 Symposium theme if Celebrating Twenty Years of Northern California Botany. It will consist of two days of talks scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, 11-12 January 2027.
Download a pdf of the 2027 Draft Program
Monday, 11 January
7:30 Check-in for registered participants, late registration, and poster set-up
8:45 Opening Remarks
Jane Van Susteren, President of Northern California Botanists
8:50 Welcome
David Hassenzahl, Dean, College of Natural Sciences, California State University, Chico
9:00 Session 1: Strange Soils
Session Chair: Rebecca Nelson, Michigan State University
McNab Cypress on serpentine
Rob Thoms and Kip Pow, Stillwater Sciences
Investigating the association of serpentine soil and a flower color polymorphism in Leptosiphon parviflorus
Linnea Rydell, University of California, Santa Cruz
Rare species of the southeastern Klamath Ranges: What the hell do salamanders have to do with limstone endemic plants?
Len Lindstrand III, Sierra Pacific Industries
Conservation of California edaphic specialist rare plants in comparison to rare plants more broadly
John Hunter
10:20 Break
10:40 Session 2: Working Lands
Session Chair: Kerry Bryne, Cal Poly Humboldt
Ecological mechanisms underlying grassland reinvasion after targeted plant removal
Dr. Justin Luong, University of California, Berkeley
Seed banks, scarification, and canopy gaps: Managing disturbance-adapted special-status plants on North Coast timberland
Gabe Cashman, Green Diamond
Botanical community stories of success across 42,425 acres of protected in conservation easement and fee-title acquisitions in four northern California counties
Cynthia Perrine, Northern California Land Trust
Modoc Nation homelands reconnectin, restoration, and stewardship
Ken Sundusky, Modoc Nation
12:00 Lunch
12:00 - 1:00 An informal discussion - Enhancing Student Support:How Can NCB Support Future Botanists?
1:20 Session 3: Lichens and Bryophytes
Session Chair: Shelly Benson, Stillwater Sciences
Bryophyte diversity in the Klamath Ranges
Jim Shevock, California Academy of Sciences
Lichens of the Jepson Prairie Reserve
Kyle Elshoff, University of California, Davis
Conservation of Northern California's rare bryophytes: Geographic hotspots, important lineages and imperiled vegetation types
Ben Carter, California Academy of Sciences
Self-proclaimed lumper makes a case for splitting Teloschistes flavicans
Shelly Benson, Benson Bio Consulting
2:40 Break
3:00 Session 4: New Discoveries
Session Chair: Len Lindstrand III, Sierra Pacific Industries
Discovery of a peculiar Arenaria in far eastern Nevada County, California
Shane Hanofee, Althouse and Meade
California's vernal-pool mousetails (Myosurus, Ranunculaceae): Investigation of a taxonomic quandary leads to discovery of three new endemic or near-endemic species
R. Douglas Stone, California Native Plant Society
New Lomatiums across the Coast Range and Klamath Mountains
Wolfy Rougle, Butte County Resource Conservation District
ResolvingCastilleja lassenensis: genomic confirmation of a Lassen endemic and a path forward for a difficult genus
Marco Burger, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
4:20 Session 5: Lightning Talks
Session Chair: Kristen Kaczynski, California State University, Chico
TBD
Evening Activities
5:15 - 6:15 Reception: A No-Host Bar with complimentary hors d’oeuvres will be held in Colusa Hall
6:30 Banquet (tickets required): Buffet dinner
7:30 Keynote Speaker: Andrew Latimer, University of California, Davis
The topic of his talk will be fire and drought effects on conifer forest in California
Tuesday, 12 January
8:00 Check-in for one-day registrations
8:30 Session 6: Poster Session (BMU, Rooms 203 and 210, 2nd Floor)
Session Chair: Cherilyn Burton, California Department of Fish and Wildlife
10:00 Second Day Opening Remarks
Jane Van Susteren, President, Northern California Botanists
10:10 Session 7: Restoration
Session Chair: Nicole Jurjavcic, Stillwater Sciences
Meadowmonitoring in the age of big data: Advancing data and analytical techniques to aid in meadow restoration and conservationora (Papaveraceae)
Becky Estes, United States Forest Service
Navigating urban restoration in the Sausal Creek watershed
Noé Romo Loera and Ella Matsuda, Friends of Sausal Creek
Here for the flowers
Georgia Vasey, University of California, Santa Cruz
Lessons in cultural burning
Elizabeth Azuz, Cultural Fire Management Council
11:30 Lunch
1:00 Session 8: Pollinator Conservation Actions and Imperiled Species
Session Chair: Vanessa Stevens, California State University, Chico
Boosting pollinator populations through California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Efforts
Patricia Bohls, California Department of Food and Agriculture
Pollinator conservation on olive farms
Elizabeth Boyd and Gerado Tapia, California State University, Chico
Pre and post Park Fire patterns in butterfly populations at Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve
Donald G. Miller, California State University, Chico
Biodiversity in transmission line corridors: How vegetation management shapes pollinator and plant richness
Rob Thoms, Stillwater Sciences
2:20 Raffle, Auction, and Awards
2:40 Break
3:00 Session 9: Now for the Good News
Session Chair: Russell Huddleston, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The California-Nevada connection
Kelsey McDonald, California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Pentachaeta bellidiflora: A cooperative endangered annual forb
Christal Niederer, Creekside Science
Five years of new discoveries in the Whiskeytown National Recration Area
Chris McCarron, University of California, Berkeley
Ames Collection
Vanessa Stevens, California State University, Chico
4:20 Closing Remarks
Nicole Jurjavcic, Stillwater Sciences
5:30 Optional Herbarium Field Trip