PAST EVENTS
The 2007 Annual Meeting of the Oklahoma Native Plant Society was headquartered at the Sand Springs Community Center on October 5th to 7th. This year we had 44 people who attended our meeting and field trips. Many people came from the Norman area and others came from Mustang, Noble, Pink, McLoud, Midwest City, Weatherford, Stillwater, Sapulpa, Claremore, Sand Springs and Tulsa.2007 Annual Meeting
Friday - Activities began around 6pm with registration and the addition of donated items to our auction tables. At 8pm, Carrie Henderson from the Oklahoma Centennial Botanical Garden gave a presentation regarding the Garden’s progress in fundraising and upcoming construction. We learned that the Garden received funds from the Centennial Project to begin development of the site with a lake and a visitor’s center. The garden will be a diverse botanical garden with 15 major gardens that will encompass 60 smaller gardens and special features and structures. The majority of the garden site will be preserved for its ecological significance as a cross timbers site. Natural areas will surround the formal gardens. Carrie’s presentation was a prelude to our field trip to the Oklahoma Centennial Botanical Garden scheduled for the next morning. The group dispersed near 9:00pm.
Saturday - After a quick continental breakfast at the community center, the group carpooled and caravanned to the Botanical Gardens site. At the site we met Dr. Jay Walker, our field trip leader for the morning. Jay has been volunteering his time and energy at the botanical garden in order to start and maintain the nature trail system. Jay and Dr. Ron Tyrl collaborated on the plant identification guide to the most common plants that occur along the trail system. Jay brought many copies of the plant ID guide titled, ‘A Walk in the Woods’. During our walk we traveled through typical cross timbers; the site was dotted with old post oaks, gnarled blackjack oaks and many hickories. The most impressive tree we saw along the trail was the ‘witness tree’ nominee. In honor of the Oklahoma centennial, this large post oak has been nominated to be a witness tree as it was most likely present at the site 100 years ago as Oklahoma became a state. This post oak has a 77" trunk in circumference and may have not only witnessed the beginning of Oklahoma, but the birth of the United States more than 200 years ago.
After a lunch break, the group met again at the Sand Springs community center. Our next field trip site was the Keystone Ancient Forest. Once again we caravanned to the site where we were met by a group of newly trained docents. Two groups went separate ways for either a short hike or a longer one. Once again we were treated to old post oak, blackjack oak, eastern red cedar and hickories. We even found ladies tresses’ orchids in bloom.
We finished Saturday with a group dinner at the community center, a membership business meeting with the election of new officers, presentation of the Service Award and the silent auction. There were few changes to the current board roster except for the addition of Drs. Bruce Smith and Connie Murray as new directors-at-large. Our third annual silent auction raised approximately $460.00 for the general funds of the Oklahoma Native Plant Society. The ONPS board met Sunday morning to discuss current issues ranging from conservation to Color Oklahoma. All in all, the 2007 Annual Meeting was an enjoyable weekend spent with new and longtime friends, both of the human and botanical persuasion. Many thanks to all who attended!
The winner of the 2007
Service Award is Tina Julich, who currently is the Chair of Color Oklahoma,
Photo Contest manager and maintains ONPS Membership . Sue Amstutz, chair
of the Service Award Committee presented Tina with the award during the
Annual Meeting.
