Penstemon angustifolius          - woodcut by Claire Emery - www.emeryart.com

Annual Meeting

Montana Native Plant Society

June 29 - July 1, 2012

University of Montana's Lubrecht Experimental Forest

near Greenough MT

 Hosted by Clark Fork Chapter

Watch for more info here

For the 2011 meeting, the prairies were GREEN! Needmore Prairie was a smashing success with beautiful weather, stunning views, and rich floral diversity.

Needmore Prairie: 2011 Montana Native Plant Society Annual Meeting
By Beth Madden (but edited after the meeting)

Maka Flora Chapter hosted the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Montana Native Plant Society, June 17-19 at Camp Needmore on the Custer National Forest, Ekalaka, Montana.

We exlored the vast rolling plains, buttes, and table lands of southeast Montana, in one of the most extensive and unbroken areas of prairie in the state. Field trips took us to diverse prairie and ponderosa pine habitats. Field trips visited Forest Service and private lands around Capitol Rock, Belltower Rock and Chalk Buttes; as well as nearby Medicine Rocks State Park and area BLM lands.

At night the confereees returned to Camp Needmore, a rustic camp built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the Custer National Forest. The main hall offered ample space to gather and share meals. 

Friday night's campfire featured poetry and songs by all led by the incomparable Wayne Phillips.  Saturday night, rancher and conservation writer Linda Hasselstrom shared excerpts of her many writings and thoughts on prairie conservation, ranching, and rural life. Other activities will included the 17th Annual Wayne Phillips Plant ID Contest, and silent auction, raffles, and merchandise sales. Many also stopped by the Carter County Museum in Ekalaka. This little known museum houses some of the finest paleontological discoveries in the United States, as well as artifacts of the Native Americans and early settlers - truly a hidden treasure of the treasure state.

Narrowleaf penstemon (Penstemon angustifolius) played the starring role as the emblematic plant for the Needmore Prairie meeting. Carter County is the only place in Montana where you can see this lovely purple, sand-loving wildflower. Artist Claire Emery has created a stunning woodcut of Penstemon angustifolius for our logo. Two original prints of the woodcut will be available to lucky bidders at the meeting. The artwork will also adorn our 2011 t-shirts and other merchandise for sale at the meeting. Check out Claire's art at www.emeryart.com

MNPS thanks Beth Madden, Doug Smith, Kathy Holte and all the members of Maka Flora who arranged not only an excellent conference but saw to it that the weather was perfect for the weekend.

Event logo items from the 2011 meeting are still available at a reasonable price. Contact Beth Madden for details.

Linda Hasselstrom

Linda Hasselstrom shared a program entitled "No Place Like a Prairie Home" as the banquet speaker at the MNPS annual meeting in Ekalaka, June 18th. Linda is a rancher and conservation writer based out of Hermosa, South Dakota. Linda's most recent book, No Place Like Home, was selected as the 2010 winner of the WILLA literary award for creative nonfiction by Women Writing the West. Linda also won the Best Woman Writer Award for No Place Like Home at the 2010 High Plains Book Awards in Billings. In addition to her many memoirs, poems, and essays, Linda has also co-edited several anthologies of women's writings about the west. Read more about Linda at www.windbreakhouse.com. Here, among other things, you can learn of the Great Plains Native Plant Society's efforts in creating a public garden on Linda's ranch. Dedicated in 2001, the Claude A. Barr Memorial Great Plains Garden preserves white penstemon, red globe mallow, lanceleaf bluebells, golden pincushion cactus and dozens of other native plants on 350 acres of Linda's ranch. A log cabin is being re-assembled on the site to serve as a visitor center.

Past Annual Meeting Photos Click on the Caption at the bottom of the following pictures to go to a Picasa Album of photos from past annual meetings shared by generous annual meeting participants. Please enjoy the pictures and respect the talents and work of the photographers - i.e. please don't steal their work.
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