Current issues | Past issues
Volume 36 4 Summer 2023. Madison Crawford describes how “Pairing Plant and Pollinator Research” can help inform the effects of climate change on bees and plants. In “Montana’s Alpine Annuals – Forty years later,” Doug Reynolds re-visits the sites near Red Lodge of three annuals on which he based his ecology dissertation, to find that only one, Koenigia islandica, seems to have persisted. Peter Lesica discusses how plants may respond to stress in “When Times Get Tough, Plants Must Decide,” including the role bees sometimes play.
Robyn Klein uses the “Gardener’s Notebook” to talk about Rhodiola rosea, which is in big demand as a health supplement, threatening its wild populations. In the “President’s Platform,” outgoing president Patrick Plantenberg introduces his successors, co-presidents Robert Pal (who will serve during 2024-2025) and Dave Hanna, a former MNPS president (who will serve during 2023-2024). In the “Conservation Corner,” Elizabeth Bergstrom briefly discusses first, hopes that the US Congress will pass the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act to fund recovery efforts for species in decline; second, progress being made on the Montana Native Plant Conservation Strategy; third, funding for the Beartooth Highway Interpretive Project; and last, that our Citizen Botany Program is in its second season.
Short articles announce Karen Porter of the Calypso chapter as the recipient of the 2023 Outstanding Service Award; and describe how our Small Grants Program is evolving into a Grants and Giving Program (G&G program), which will include awarding scholarships. Current chapter events are listed.
Volume 36 3 Spring 2023. In “Leafy Spurge & Intelligent Tinkering,” Shane Sater suggests that spurge may be benefit some insects. In the “Conservation Corner,” Elizabeth Bergstrom and Andrea Pipp report about 2022, the first year of Citizen Botany Pilot Study. The Small Grants committee, Betty Kuropat and Anne Garde, gives an overview of the four grants MNPS handed out in 2023, including synopses: “Preparing Their Home On the Range: Baseline Surveys For Bison Restoration” by Nicolas Matallana-Mejia; “Tourist Park along the Rivers’s Edge Trail, Great Falls, MT” by Kerry Hovland; “Native Seed Collection by Missoula Students to Restore Bee Habitat” by the Montana Natural History Center; and “Leave No Weeds” by the Missoula County Department of Ecology and Extension. In “Finding Treasures in the Mud of Owen Sowerwine,” Pat Jacquith tells of the plants that inhabit this natural area that’s a river-bottom wetland park on the east edge of Kalispell. State president Patrick Plantenberg reports on the “MNPS New Landscaping and Revegetation Information” currently available on the website, and in “Presidents Platform,” he lists his (many!) accomplishments as president.
This issue includes short pieces: soliciting for MNPS volunteers, advertising for an administrative assistant, announcing a 3-day journaling conference on the Bison Range in early June, describing a small grant opportunity for penstemon research, and learning about lichens in Bozeman in January. There’s a thank-you to business & organizations that are members, and to the people who donated to MNPS during 2022. Inserts are included for the annual election of officers (complete with budget), and the annual meeting, “Goldenrods, Ghosts and Gold,” which will be held June 23-25 in Bannack State Park.
Volume 36 2 Winter 2023. In “Montana’s New IPA” Beverly Skinner and Peter Lesica describe a newly designated Important Plant Area located entirely on the Lost Trail National Wildlife Refuge west of Kalispell; Jennifer Lyman and Bonnie Heidel ask whether we are loving to death a very special place in a Conservation Corner article, “Beartooth Highway: A Route to Alpine Education”; in Herbalist’s Notebook: Gumweed (Grindelia), Robyn Klein describes this common Aster Family plant; Landscapes: Clark Fork Chapter member and photographer, Rosella Mosteller, brings us “Inside a photographer’s process” to share a sense of time and place with landscape photography; in his President’s Platform piece, Patrick Plantenberg celebrates the recent growth of our Society with emphasis on the growth in younger memberships and his goal to engage younger members in Society activities as a foundation to long-term vitality for our organization.
Volume 36 1 Fall 2022. An Annual Meeting Recap highlights the beautiful weather and great field trips and the return of seeing fellow members in real life; The Maka Flora Chapter has been Revived with a wide variety of activities reported; The annual Small Grant Applications Due Date of January 31 is Announced; Kathy Ross Receives Flathead Audubon Society Lifetime Conservation Award; Calypso Chapter Adopts Pipestone Pass as a part of the Adopt A Trailhead Montana program; Conservation Corner: A two-year pilot study had a strong start this summer with Citizen Botany activity revisiting rare plant sites, the importance of supporting passage of Recovering America’s Wildlife Act and the inclusion of plants of conservation concern in the State Wildlife Acton Plan are discussed, Montana Important Plant Areas; information has been submitted for inclusion in an international IPA Network; “Modern Revival of Botanical Journaling,” is discussed by Kathy Settevendemie; Bob Keane presents, “A Tribute to Steve Arno” celebrating his life’s accomplishments in forest and fire ecology and family life; A link to the recent U.S. Tree Assessment Report documenting the risk to several tree species in Montana is included; Sharon Eversman describes “Pulling and Planting: A Long-Range Project of the Valley of Flowers [Chapter]”; in the President’s Platform, Patrick Plantenberg recaps the season and looks forward to next steps; and, at the end, Sebastian Stroud asks, “Are Botanists Disappearing – Just when the world needs them most” in an article reprinted (with permission) from “The Conversation.”