ENHS Nature Trails April 2001 Article 2

Natural History and You - The (Vice-) President's Forum
by David Wagner

Our President, Nathan Tublitz, is out of town for a spell so your 1st Vice-President is taking this opportunity to co-opt his spot for some miscellaneous comments and observations. We have been discussing nominations at the board meetings recently and I have offered that I will run for President at elections to be held at the annual meeting. Melody Clarkson has agreed to move up from calendar coordinator to Editor-in-Chief of Nature Trails. We are currently recruiting nominations for new board members. Please contact Nathan (346-4510) if you might be ready.

Consider this the first official notice of the ENHS annual meeting: just before our regular program on May 18!!

In other news, the society has adopted three roadless areas to monitor, lobby, and care for. Come to the meeting to hear more about this from Melody Clarkson, point person for this conservation action. One of our areas is an old favorite, the Kentucky Falls area.

The ENHS is also adopting a stretch of riverbank bike path in Eugene. This is one of my pet projects which has just been approved by the city of Eugene. We'll work on the North Bank Trail from the Ferry Street Bridge downstream to the I-105 bridge. This is an area with a lot of nice wildflowers as well as some choice ivy-pulling opportunities. I'll have a sign-up sheet at the next meeting, or call me (Dave Wagner) at 344-3327.

I climbed the west side of Mount Pisgah yesterday and was pleased to see beautiful patches of the blue hounds-tongue on the summit ridge. There are also fawn lilies, shooting stars, violets and spring beauty in abundance. Now is the start of the best three weeks to visit the Mt. Pisgah Arboretum and then climb to the summit.

I'd like to bring your attention to an exhibit currently going on at the University of Oregon Museum of Natural History, "Sight and Insight: Oregon Scientific Illustrators Explore the Natural World." Don't miss this one! Here's an example from the postcard that advertised the event.

At the end of March I attended the annual meetings of the Northwest Scientific Association. These meetings have a heavy natural history bent and next year I'll encourage a caravan of ENHS members to attend. The highlight of this year's meetings were talks on redwoods followed by an all-day trip to visit some choice spots. Our leaders were Steve Sillett, the famous tree climber, and Robert van Pelt, a forester from Seattle. One of van Pelt's drawings is inserted here. These will appear in his new book. This is a giant sequoia, but most of our attention was to the coast redwoods. I saw the sixth tallest tree in the world, Paradox, at 367 feet even. The tallest is called Stratosphere Giant, 368'7". In all there are 27 trees over 360', 112 over 350'. All are redwoods, all in California. Wow!

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