North American Native Plant Society

Last updated
North American Native Plant Society
Founded1985 (1985)
FounderJames A French
Type Charity
Registration no.130720824RR0001 [1]
Focus Ecological Restoration
Location
Area served
North America
Key people
President: Vacant
Executive Director: Peter Kelly
Honorary Patron: Sir David AttenboroughCBE,FRS
Honorary Directors: Robert Bateman, The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson PC, CC, CMM, CD, Farley Mowat, Freeman Patterson, Carol Rykert, Dr. Adrian Forsythe, Glen Loates [2]
Volunteers
400
Website nanps.org
Formerly called
Canadian Wildflower Society
Horticultural Member of Toronto Botanical Garden [3]

The North American Native Plant Society (NANPS) is a volunteer-operated, registered charitable organization concerned with conserving native plants in wild areas and restoring indigenous flora to developed areas. [4] It is noted for its work in educating business and the public about the benefits of using native plants, [5] [6] and its work in promoting native species through plant sales [7] and seed exchanges has been credited with the resurgence of some species. [8] It also maintains a list of local native plant societies across the United States and Canada. [9]

Contents

Current activities

NANPS is dedicated to the study, conservation, cultivation and restoration of North America's native flora. NANPS's key purpose is to provide information and to inspire an appreciation of native plants with an aim to restoring healthy ecosystems across the continent. To that end, NANPS currently:

The logo was designed in 1994 by Beth McEachen. It is a woodcut portraying three native plants representing three transcontinental, native families, viz: Araceae, Orchidaceae, Iridaceae. The examples shown are an arum, a cypripedium and a blue-eyed grass.

History

The logo of the Canadian Wildflower Society created by Pamela Meacher Canadian Wildflower Society Logo.jpg
The logo of the Canadian Wildflower Society created by Pamela Meacher

NANPS was founded in 1985 by a small group of conservationists as the Canadian Wildflower Society. [11] The name was later changed to the North American Native Plant Society to reflect a wider range of activities and broader membership. In 1985, the Society began publishing their well-received native plant magazine, Wildflower, under the editorship of James L. Hodgins. [12]

In 1985 it also established a gardening Code of Ethics for its members. In 1986, it sponsored its first public annual native plant sale and filed a letters patent. [13] In 1988, it sponsored its first native plant propagation workshop, and established wildflower gardens tour in Guelph and Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

By 1993, it purchased a 50-acre Carolinian woodlot known as Shining Tree Woods near Cultus, Ontario, to conserve the nationally rare native cucumber tree, Magnolia acuminata . [14] In 1994, the Canadian Wildflowe Society co-published (with the Federation of Ontario Naturalists) the first booklet on the native plants of Carolinian Canada with conservation and horticultural advice.

The Canadian Wildflower Society changed its name to the North American Native Plant Society (NANPS) in 1998. [15] In 2003, it purchased a five-hectare (13-acre) parcel of Zinkan Island Cove, a provincially designated ANSI (Area of Natural and Scientific Interest) on the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario. In 2000 the North American Native Plant Society decided to stop supporting the publication of Wildflower magazine, [16] and replaced it with "The Blazing Star'. Wildflower was published independently, but eventually ceased publication in 2004. In 2005, NANPS began conducting regular seminars around Ontario, and formed partnerships with Toronto Botanical Garden and the City of Markham [17] Also, a NANPS member founded an e-newsletter, The Local Scoop.

In 2010, NANPS celebrated its 25th anniversary by publishing a special edition of The Blazing Star. NANPS founder and Honorary President, James A French, published Silver Memories, a personal recollection of the first 25 years. [18]

In 2013 the Society campaigned for a native plant garden as part of the renewal of Ontario Place. [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thousand Islands – Frontenac Arch</span> Geologic region in North America

The Thousand Islands – Frontenac Arch region or the Frontenac Axis is an exposed strip of Precambrian rock in Canada and the United States that links the Canadian Shield from Algonquin Park with the Adirondack Mountain region in New York, an extension of the Laurentian mountains of Québec. The Algonquin to Adirondacks region, which includes the Frontenac Axis or Arch, is a critical linkage for biodiversity and resilience, and one with important conservation potential. The axis separates the St. Lawrence Lowlands and the Great Lakes Lowlands. It has many distinctive plant and animal species. It is one of four ecoregions of the Mixedwood Plains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rouge River (Ontario)</span> River in Ontario, Canada

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wildflower</span> Flower that grows in the wild, not intentionally planted

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The Carolinian forest refers to a life zone in eastern North America characterized primarily by the predominance of deciduous (broad-leaf) forest. The term "Carolinian", which is most commonly used in Canada, refers to the deciduous forests which span across much of the eastern United States from the North Carolina northward into southern Ontario, Canada. These deciduous forests in the United States and southern Ontario share many similar characteristics and species hence their association. Today the term is often used to refer to the Canadian portion of the deciduous forest region while the portion in the United States is often referred to as the "Eastern deciduous forest".

Cootes Paradise is a property with many boundaries, but is primarily a property of the Royal Botanical Gardens at the western end of Lake Ontario, but is also remnant of the larger 3700 acre Dundas Marsh Crown Game Preserve established by the province of Ontario in 1927., dominated by a 4.5 km long rivermouth wetland, representing the lake's western terminus. It is found on the west side of Hamilton Harbour and is located in the municipality of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Cootes Paradise Environmentally Sensitive Area is larger "core area" within the City of Hamilton's Natural Heritage System and has a very similar boundary to the original Dundas Crown Game Preserve.

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<i>Erigeron philadelphicus</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Liatris cylindracea</i> Species of flowering plant

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References

  1. "Donate". North American Native Plant Society.
  2. "North American Native Plant Society - NANPS Board".
  3. "Partners and Affiliates". 11 August 2011.
  4. "North American Native Plant Society - What is NANPS".
  5. Hostetler, Mark E. The Green Leap: A Primer for Conserving Biodiversity in Subdivision Development . University of California Press, 2012, p. 107.
  6. Sanders Greer, Shelly (7 July 2007). "Native planting gets the green light". Toronto Star. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  7. Cullen, Mark (29 April 2011). "Cullen: Let's all go 'native'". Toronto Star. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  8. Roots, Betty, Donald Chant, and Conrad Heidenreich. Special Places: The Changing Ecosystems of the Toronto Region . UBC Press, 2011, p. 112.
  9. Grant, Tim and Gail Littlejohn. Teaching Green: The Middle Years . New Society Publishers, 2004, p. 43.
  10. "North American Native Plant Society - Guidelines for Commercial Growers".
  11. Wildflower Magazine, 1(1):5
  12. Schmid, Rudolf (2000). "Wildflower: North America's Magazine of Wild Flora". Taxon. International Association for Plant Taxonomy. 49 (3): 611–612. doi:10.2307/1224373. JSTOR   1224373.
  13. "Letters Patent" (PDF).
  14. Wildflower Magazine, 10(1):11
  15. Wildflower Magazine, 15(2):3
  16. Wildflower 16(1) Winter 2000
  17. City of Markham Markham Environmental Stability Fund.
  18. Silver Memories Pub by Bulletins Plus, Lakefield ON
  19. "Can we have more 'Ontario' in Ontario Place? asks Fiorito | The Star". thestar.com. 30 September 2013.