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The Home ofOperation NICE!?Natives Instead of Common ExoticsWeb site: 2016Volume 16 Number 3Monthly Meeting Tuesday March 1, 2016Cibolo Nature Center & Farm at 140 City Park Road, Boerne TX Our March speaker is Marvin Hatter. The focus of his talk will be how he grows his plants, different types of growing containers, how they affect root systems and the general importance of root systems. He will extend the subject into planting and establishing a plant in the ground. Marvin has worked for 23 years as the San Antonio District Vegetation Specialist for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). He is involved with various projects through his work at TxDOT including the mowing, winter ice control, herbicide, landscape, re-vegetation, erosion control and wildflower programs. Prior to joining TxDOT, he worked with the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service in soil and rangeland management and as a Research Horticulturalist with a large wholesale container plant nursery. Marvin is a native of Sweetwater, TX, has a BS in Plant and Soil Science from Tarleton State University and a MS in Ornamental Horticulture from Texas Tech University. Drawing from a lifelong interest in plants with a strong focus on Texas natives, he started the South Plains Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas while in graduate school. He and his wife, Jana, are members of the Boerne NPSOT Chapter. He enjoys gardening, perfecting his rainwater catchment system, doing yard work, propagating and growing native/adapted plants and teaching others how easy it really is to grow plants. Come at 6:30 to socialize. The program starts at 7 PM.President’s MessageGreetings!It feels like spring now and if we have some rain, our native plants will be colorful. Thanks to all of you who have volunteered for some part of our April first Native Plant Sale. Plants can be brought to the sale at 12:00 pm on Friday, April 1. If you have potted some plants for the sale and have not emailed the kind and number of plants, please email me (kathyollu@) so we will have ID labels for them. Donna Taylor has the list of those who emailed or provide information at meetings. She will provide ID labels to the potters at our March meeting. Suzanne has the sign-up list for Friday and Saturday volunteers. Don’t forget to sign up, if you can help and be sure to let us know the day(s) and times.Many thanks to Delmar Cain for his nice Nice! article in the Native Grown section of the Boerne Star on February 12. He wrote about our January and February NICE! Plants, Carolina jessamine and Spiny hackberry. There will be some Spiny hackberry trees at the plant sale.Would you like to really help the Boerne NPSOT Chapter? Please let me know if you would be willing to be our Publicity Chairman or Field Trip Chairman. Carolyn Walden would also like to have someone intern with her as Editor of our newsletter. Wilt Shaw is searching for someone to write about two of our NICE! Plants for October, Aster, (Symphyotrichum spp.) and November/December, Gulf Muhly (Muhlenbergia capillaris).March is when our 2016 NPSOT Youth Photo Contest starts. Information will be on the Boerne NPSOT web page. Please encourage the young people you know to participate. The contest ends May 22.I hope to see all of you at our next meeting when Boerne NPSOT member Marvin Hatter talks about Growing Native Plants.Cheers! Kathy Ward(210) 698-3421Chapter ActivitiesOperation Nice!NICE! ?Plant of the MonthMarch 2016Texas Betony(Stachys coccinea)By Wilt ShawIn researching the perennial, Texas Betony (Stachys coccinea) native to far west Texas, I read where the genera Stachys are the largest in the mint family Lamiaceae. Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center lists 16 plants in those genera, many of which are native to Texas. Worldwide there are between 300 and 450 known species. Linnaeus named it from the Greek word “stachys” meaning “an ear of grain,” since the flower (inflorescence) has the appearance of a spike. Like most plants in the mint family, S coccinea has square stems.Besides its certainty as a hummingbird magnet, its nectar also attracts butterflies during its bloom time, March through October. Though I haven’t witnessed it yet, I would guess bees also visit Texas betony, perhaps not for the nectar but maybe to use some other parts of the plant such as the hairs, petals or leaves. Stachys is reported in other parts of the world to be used by bees.It is quite hairy, somewhat resembling a nettle, especially right before flowering. After all, one of its common names is scarlet hedge-nettle. No worries though, it won’t sting as would a true nettle.Plants in the mint family are said to be deer resistant. The references I looked at say Texas betony is quite resilient. This statement may be true for most places, but certainly not at my house. Even though it is protected, any plant parts protruding through the cage are heavily browsed. Maybe you will have better luck.Even though is does well in sun, one of Texas betony’s star attributes is its preference for dappled sunlight and shade. In our hot Texas summers, a shady area under an oak or at least a bed protected from afternoon sun would be ideal. Planted en masse it should make for quite a showy ground cover, especially when frequented by hummers.Texas Betony can often be found in nurseries, but can also be easily grown from seed as attested by the new plants that pop up every year at my place.Operation Nice! Tip: Do not overlook this fine NICE! (Native Instead of Common Exotic) plant for your garden. It will not only add color for most of the year, it will bring along a lot of pollinators.News Flash!!!!By Rheda Boardman2016 Texas Native Plant Youth Photo ContestThe 2016 Texas Native Plant Youth Photo Contest is moving forward and will begin on March 7th. Information will be available soon on the website.Participation guidelines have been modified in order to include more of our youth who are active in our community. Photographers must comply with one or more of the following: attend school in BISD, reside in BISD, have a parent or guardian who is a member of NPSOT Boerne, or attend a NPSOT sponsored youth workshop on Native Plants of the Texas Hill Country. Please help by encouraging youth you know to enter the contest.Ben Eldridge, Educational Director at CNC&F, has designed another awesome poster. You will soon see them around town and in all the schools.We have scheduled several workshops and have a couple more to finalize. Workshops will be in April and early May. As soon as the schedule is complete, Kathy Ward and I will be asking members to assist with the workshops. If you are interested in helping, please contact either Kathy or me.Smug MugNPSOT Boerne now has a Smug Mug site for posting of pictures. The site has been activated for our 2016 Youth Photo Contest, but it will also be used for event photos the membership would like to share.To see what it is just visit boerne.. I have uploaded a couple of files for you to view.If you have pictures to share with us, send them to me at npsotboerne@ and I will upload them to Smug Mug.Monarchs, Milkweed & StuffBy Kip KiphartThe Bring Back Monarchs to Texas (BBMT) Small Grants Program has started its fourth season. Over 112 Monarch demonstration gardens or Monarch Waystations have received funding, ranging from $50 to $400, from the program since the spring of 2013.For 2016, the Native Plant Society of Texas has partnered with Monarch Watch and US Fish & Wildlife Service to provide $18,000 to fund grants. Seventy-five grant proposals have been received and are being reviewed by the BBMT Committee. Grants will be awarded by March 1.Linda Plevak and Antonio Martinez, longtime MLMP@CNC volunteers, contacted Ben Eldredge and me about forming a committee to ask the Mayor of Boerne to take the National Wildlife Federation’s Mayors’ Monarch Pledge. . On February 1, we met with Danny Zincke, Director of Parks and Recreation, and presented our action plan and its implementation. Danny will present the plan to the Mayor.Milkweed news for The Mostly Native Plant Sale: The year of the monarch! Cathy Downs, Chair of BBMT, will have a milkweed/monarch booth, as she did last year. Three species of native milkweed will be available. Dan Hosage, owner of Madrone Nursery and longtime vendor at the sale, has grown 11 species of native milkweed! He has 4000 1-gallon containers and plans to bring selected species to this year’s sale.Plant Identification and RescueBy Veronica HawkMany of our members have helped large property owners to identify the natives growing on their land. Immersion learning is a great way to stay on top of plant identification in the earliest growth, early seasonal growth, many years’ growth (without cutting and counting rings!), and not just in the flowering season. This is imperative because some of the early blooming plants could be considered undesirable based on only leaves and bark. For example, Redbud is blooming now, and will be for only a short time. By May, identification will be by leaves and bark; and on that basis, many people would cut it down as a ‘trash tree’. Because we have agreed that ‘trash trees’ are really just exotic invasive species, we should learn what we have, such as which is a tree of heaven and which is a soapberry, two similarly looking trees when not in bloom. No one should miss a beautiful soapberry in the fall!We had a lot of fun walking on the Park Village property on Sunday, February 7. The large elms, oaks and old persimmons are beautiful and it’s interesting to see how large they can get. It was a good lesson in identifying the winter form. But all that has changed now, everything is leafing out, giving us many more identifying characteristics. If we can put a GPS observation point on plants and trees that are worth saving, perhaps our information will help the new owners make better decisions caring for their property.I hope you can take advantage of this excellent opportunity; a notice will be sent when the next field trip is scheduled. You can learn native trees and shrubs on the ground at our next walk in the woods at the Park Village property. If you can bring or lend a GPS unit, we can identify native plants worth keeping and exotics that should be removed. Together with the information available on the website, the new property owners will be able to care for the plants that care for the pollinators that care for the earth.Regional StuffThe Hill Country Chapter of the Texas Master NaturalistMarch 28, 2016Bob Dittmar, DVM - Chronic Wasting DiseaseBob Dittmar, DVM, Wildlife Veterinarian of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) will give a presentation and address some of the following questions. What is Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)? How does it spread? Where has it been found? How can you tell if a deer has CWD? What should I do if I see a deer that shows symptoms of CWD? Is CWD dangerous to humans? What precautions should hunters take? Can I have deer venison tested? What can hunters do?Following this overview, Mitch Lockwood, Big Game Program Director of TPWD will give the current update on the CWD situation in Texas and the TPWD response plan.Chronic Wasting Disease is a neurological disease in deer, elk, moose and other members of the deer family, known as "cervids." The disease was first recognized in 1967 in captive mule deer in Colorado, and has since been documented in captive and free-ranging deer in 23 states and two Canadian Provinces. This disease presents numerous challenges for state wildlife agencies across North America. Of concern is the potential for decline within deer, elk, or other susceptible cervid populations. In addition, CWD could have indirect impacts on hunting, hunter participation, and economic benefits derived from big game hunting. In Texas, hunting is a $2.2 billion economic engine, supporting many rural towns across the state.Because eradication is thought to be impossible once CWD becomes established in a population, it is imperative that a sound CWD management program is established to reduce the severity of implications resulting from the disease. Of course, disease prevention is the best approach to protect cervid populations and prevent social and economic repercussions. TPWD and Texas Animal Health Commission have developed a cooperative CWD management plan to guide both agencies in addressing risks, developing management strategies, and protecting big game resources from CWD in captive or free-ranging cervid e, learn, enjoy time with like-minded people and make a difference in preserving, studying, and promoting Texas’s natural resources. Meetings are open to the public at the UGRA Lecture Hall, 125 N Lehmann Dr, Kerrville, TX 78028. Socialize at 6:30 and meeting at 7:00 pm. Contact Floyd Trefny at 830-796-3182 for further information. HYPERLINK "" Balcones Satellite of the Texas InvadersIn June 2015, Paul Ehrlich and his team of scientists at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment published evidence that a sixth mass extinction is already under way. The researchers report that at the current rate of species loss, people will lose many biodiversity benefits within three generations.These studies did not surprise Dave Foreman, author of Rewilding North America, who reports that “field biologists have been worried about population declines in thousands of species and by the loss of ecosystems…since the 1970s.” He quoted E.O. Wilson that the “current rate of extinction is 1,000 to 10,000 times the background rate of extinction in the fossil record.” In his book, Forman states that humans are the cause of most extinctions. The five anthropogenic causes of extinction in the United States (in order of current importance) are: habitat destruction, invasion by nonnative species, pollution, overexploitation, and disease.According to Forman, “Exotic species can cause the extinction or imperilment of native species by predation, competition, or changing basic ecosystem structures of dynamics.” The International Union for Conservation and Nature reports that “the specter of extinction hangs over about 41 percent of all amphibian species and 26 percent of all mammals.” Invasive species compete with native flora and fauna for valuable resources and habitat. They play a large role in the loss of biodiversity. Texas is a vast state that includes several major ecological regions. It is the second most biologically diverse state in the United States and is ranked third in the number of endemic species. However, more than 10% of the state’s species are considered rare or at risk of extinction.How can you help? In San Antonio, you can join our group of dedicated volunteers to eradicate invasive plants. No prior experience is required. Sturdy shoes, long-sleeved pants and shirts, gloves and water are necessary. We have a supply of tools, but welcome anyone who brings their own. For details of exact location and directions, contact Lonnie at lonnieshockley@satx.. Those on the mailing list will receive notification of the location of the eradication area and cancellation for severe weather conditions. Tuesdays, March 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29 between 8:30 to 10:30 AM.Happenings – the CalendarMarch 1 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM. Monthly meeting: Marvin Hatter, Topic: Plant Propagation. Come at 6:30 to socialize.April 1-2 (Friday and Saturday). Mostly Native Plant Sale, Kendall County Fairgrounds. See President’s Message above.April 5 (Tuesday) 7:00 PM. Monthly meeting: Greg Harmison, Topic: Beneficial Insects.To find out about activities and workshops with other organizations call or visit their websites:Cibolo Nature Center & Farm(830.249.4616) Master Naturalist:San Antonio, Alamo Chapter Kerrville, Hill Country Chapter Friends of Friedrich Wilderness Park (210.372.9124)Medina River Natural Area Second Saturday Programs (210.624.2575) For more information or to RSVP for any event please contact by telephone. Website: Our meetings are free and open to the public. Join us the first Tuesday of the month, January-June and September-December, at 6:30 p.m. at the Cibolo Nature Center & Farm at 140 City Park Road, Boerne TX.Our SponsorsPlease support the following businesses that sponsor our newsletterA LITTLENATURE STORE106 E. Theissen St.Boerne, TX830-249-2281STONE & SOIL DEPOT INC.26923 IH 10 WestBoerne, TX210.687.1005BERGMANN LUMBER CO.236 S. MainBoerne, TX830-249-2712830-816-2193HILL COUNTRY AFRICAN VIOLETS & NURSERY32005 IH 10WBoerne, TX830-249-2614REMAXASSOCIATES-BOERNEBob Bockholt, GRI309 Water Street, Boerne, TX830-816-2660,Free 800-455-1551Medina Garden NurseryGrowing Native Plants Since 19993417 State Hwy 16-N,Medina, TX 78055(830) 589-2771BECOME A SPONSOR!BECOME A SPONSOR!BECOME A SPONSOR! ................
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