The Clark Fork Chapter serves the greater Missoula Area and west-central Montana.
For more information check the Chapter Facebook Page, which has field trip details and maps and photos, more on the UM Native Plant Garden, and so on; it’s really the best up-to-the-minute info we have; or contact our president:
Anne Garde
329 S. 4th West
Missoula MT 59801
Project Budburst Information is at the bottom of the page
Interested in Native Plant Landscaping in our area? Click here
Here is a link to a page featuring the Lackshewitz – Preece Montana Native Botanic Garden on the University of Montana Campus
Programs (Held 2nd Thursday of the month (with exceptions), Field Trips, and Events.
Thursday April 11, 7:00 pm. (Please note: start time corrected 1/11) It’s time again to warm up your memory and get pumped up for summer. Come and see some of your favorite wildflowers and some you don’t know too when Clark Fork Chapter photographers show slides of Montana’s High Mountain Wildflowers. Rm L09 Gallagher Business Bldg, UM Campus.
Thursday May 9, 6:30 pm. Our Spring Potluck will be held at the Pineview Park Pavilion in the Upper Rattlesnake off of Rattlesnake Drive, just west of Rattlesnake School. Bring your own plate, utensils and a dish to share. No alcohol please. We can look at the spring flora along Rattlesnake Creek and we’ll be putting label sticks together for the annual native plant sale. Call Peter (728-8740) or Clare (728-0189) for directions.
Don’t forget to check out the Clark Fork Chapter Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/MNPSClarkForkChapter/events), the State MT Native Plant Society Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/MTNativePlantSociety).
Events could be canceled due to weather. Hikes typically proceed at a leisurely pace. Please bring adequate food, water, sunscreen, a hat, and be prepared for Montana’s unpredictable, inclement weather. No pets please!
Clark ForkChapter members enjoy a robust schedule of hikes every year.
Here a few members relax in the midst of searching for mushrooms.
(Peter Lesica photo)
* Camera Geek trips are designed with ample time for photography and exchanging camera tips and techniques.
Project Budburst
A nationwide initiative by the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), The Chicago Botanical Garden, and others, Project Budburst allows citizen scientists (e.g., students, naturalists, gardeners) to enter observations of the timing of flowers and foliage into an online database to help create a national picture of the effects of our warming climate on plants. The project operates year-round so early and late-blooming species around the country can be monitored throughout their lifecycles. UM professors Carol Brewer and Paul Alaback are collaborators on the project; MNPS member Paul is the project’s lead scientist nationally. Project Budburst is looking for Native Plant Society members and others to volunteer in monitoring when plants come out in the spring. This involves selecting one or more plants near your house-in a park or somewhere you walk regularly–then noting the day leaves and flowers first appear and leaves first change color in the fall. Observations on Mt. Sentinel would be particularly valuable. Last year over 4,000 volunteers participated nationwide! Budburst is particularly interested in observations of widely distributed plants such as chokecherry, serviceberry, red osier dogwood, garden lilacs and others. You can register to collect data at http://budburst.org or contact Paul Alaback (palaback@gmail.com); phone: 970 227 4745.
