Volunteer Opportunity with the Forest Service

NEWS RELEASE
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture
U.S. Forest Service
Coconino National Forest
www.fs.usda.gov/coconino
www.twitter.com/CoconinoNF
www.flickr.com/photos/coconinonationalforest

For Immediate Release
February 28, 2012

Contact: Brienne Magee
Tel: 928-527-8290

Forest Service seeking volunteers to help replant Schultz burn area

Flagstaff, AZ – The Flagstaff Ranger District of the Coconino National Forest is seeking volunteers to help replant the Schultz burn area. The district is hosting a volunteer event each Saturday in April – 4/7, 4/14, 4/21 and 4/28. Volunteers interested in signing up for one of these events should contact Brienne Magee at the Flagstaff Ranger District by calling 928-527-8290 or emailing bmagee@fs.fed.us.

Approximately 4,000 acres of severely burned forest in the Schultz Fire burn area is in need of reforestation. This spring, volunteers will plant a total of 5,000 trees on 50 acres along Schultz Pass road (Forest Road 420). The Forest Service is planning another 570 acres to be planted by professional crews; overall, a total of 62,000 trees will be planted this spring. Reforestation efforts will continue in the summer and fall.

Each volunteer day will begin at 8am and end early afternoon. Lunch will be provided to volunteers by Friends of Northern Arizona Forests (http://www.friendsofnazforests.org/). Participants of all ages are encouraged to join; minors must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

For additional information or to sign up, contact Brienne Magee at the Flagstaff Ranger District by calling 928-527-8290 or emailing bmagee@fs.fed.us

What could be better than this volunteer opportunity?
Check out the attached flyer and News Release from the Coconino National Forest!!!!
I hope to see you there.

Posted by:
Dorothy Lamm

Flagstaff Home & Garden Show

Flagstaff Home and Garden Show
March 23-25, 2012
NAU Sky Dome

Watch your local paper and other advertising for the upcoming yearly home and garden show. The Master Gardener Program and the Coconino Master Gardener Association will be manning a large booth with information and providing speakers for all 3 days.

This is the tentative agenda so far:

Friday, March 23
11am - 12pm Season Extenders - An Eagan
1pm - 2pm Benefit & Tips on Growing House Plants - Loni Shapiro
3pm - 4pm Tomatoes - Jim Mast
4pm - 5pm Passive Solar - Paul Lambert

Saturday, March 24
11am- 12pm Herbs - Sue Collins
1pm - 2pm 4H - Rabbits & Chickens - Connie Lipinski
2pm - 3pm Sprouts - Nick Lipinski
3pm - 4pm Noxious Weeds - Dorothy Lamm

Sunday, March 25
11am - 12pm Composting - Tess Wymore
1pm - 2pm Raised Beds - Faith Brittain & Juanita
2pm - 3pm Plant Propagation - Linda Guarino

Come support and learn from other Master Gardeners. If you need continuing education hours for 2012 this is a great opportunity to get them. Each year there are changes in this agenda so watch for updates and more details.

Loni Shapiro
Co-secretary CMGA

Arizona Native Plant Society - Flagstaff Chapter

Spring Program 2012

Tuesday, March 27, 2012 Tina Ayers: Unconfounding the workings of SEINet
Tina Ayers, Associate Professor and Curator of the Deaver Herbarium, NAU, will hold a hands-on training session for those interested in learning the basics of the plant database SEINet, aka the Southwest Environmental Information Network. We will learn how to enter and extract data, make labels, how to create a species list for a site, and review about the many other tools in SEINet offers.(Note: this program is on the 4th Tuesday of March)

Tuesday, April 17, 2012 Michael Kearsley: Grand Canyon National Park Vegetation Mapping
Mike Kearsley, Vegetation Mapping Coordinator for Grand Canyon National Park, has sampled and mapped over 200 plant communities across 1.4 million acres of diverse habitats from Lake Mead to the Kaibab Plateau since 2007. Mike will talk about the many significant range extensions and relocated species that his team has found for Grand Canyon and Arizona during their surveys over the past fifteen years.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012 Jeanne Trupiano & Geoffrey Gross: Coconino County Parks and Open Space
Jeanne Trupiano, Coconino County Parks and Recreation Department Planning and Acquisition Manager, and Geoffrey Gross, CCPR Projects Coordinator, will discuss the county’s program to assess natural areas and acquire lands for conservation around Flagstaff.

Field Trips
Saturday, April 21, 2012 Plant Walk at Homolovi State Park
Susan Holiday, volunteer botanist who is completing a floristic inventory of the park for Arizona State Parks, will be leading the walk. We will be looking at plants of the Navajoan Desert and nearby Little Colorado River. We will also be able to view the ruins and a graveyard dating from the early 1900's on site. A checklist will be available.

Saturday, May 19, 2012 Plant survey of Ft. Tuthill
AZNPS will conduct a survey for rare plants such as Flagstaff pennyroyal and Arizona leatherflower on State Trust land adjacent to Fort Tuthill County Park with Jeanne Trupiano and Geoffrey Gross (see talk on May 15 above). The lands nominated for inclusion in the County Park includes a dense stand of Ponderosa pine trees that has not been logged for nearly 100 years.
For further details click on above title for the AZ Native Plant Society web site or click more to finish this article.

Gardens for Humanity Spring Planting Festival

Our Fourth Annual Spring Planting Festival will take place from March 24 with our Opening Concert, Guitars and Beyond, and run until the Finale, April 1, featuring the ever popular Backyard Gardeners Expo.

The theme our 2012 Festival is "Greening Your Life," and will focus on what each one can do on the scale of the individual, home and community to promote food security, a resilient, quality lifestyle and connection to the environment.
For the new gardener there will be hands-on workshops on getting a garden going, including building soil fertility with composting and vermiculture, exploring crop diversity, and learning about irrigation.

For the more experienced gardener there will be workshops on backyard beekeeping, rainwater harvesting, seed saving and permaculture design.

For those striving to experience the nurturing and healing forces of nature we offer workshops in herbal preparations, aromatherapy, extracting essential oils from native plants, and several artistic workshops and performances that explore the Sacred in nature.

For those who love to explore the delicacies of local foods we offer a workshop on cooking with native and local foods. In addition, five outstanding Sedona restaurants will feature a Spring Planting Festival locavore menu, with each weeknight featuring a different restaurant.

For those seeking to become better neighbors to the environment we call home, we have native plant walks and a presentation on how to develop an environment free of toxic chemicals.

For those who are interested in energy independence and advocating local food security and choice we have two forums, "Greening your Home" and Local Food: The Human Connection.

To explore all the events, workshops, and locavore menus and to register online, use this link to our calendar: http://www.gardensforhumanity.org/events/spring-festival-2012.html

There are a wide variety of events to enjoy with your friends. We look forward to seeing you at this year's Spring Planting Festival!

President, Gardens for Humanity

Minutes for Meeting 2/9/12

Master Gardener Meeting Agenda 2/9/12

Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church

1601 N. San Francisco

6:30pm-6:40pm Welcome – Agenda Debi Stalvey

Brief review of agenda for the evening

Call for volunteers – Home Show, AZ Highlands Garden Conference, Food Awareness Fair

Memberships solicited for 2012 – includes discounts at Viola’s, Warner’s, and Native Plant and Seed. Profits last year supported 2 master gardener projects, rent for facility, and sponsorship of the Arboretum newsletter.

Introduction of speaker

6:40pm-6:45pm Volunteer Opportunity – Arboretum Docent Program – Katie Flint

Ms. Flint encouraged master gardeners to apply for and take the docent training at the Arboretum at Flagstaff. As a docent you can share your knowledge of our region, help to educate over 5,000 visitors and get gift shop discounts and continuing education opportunities. For more information contact Katie Flint, Director of Education, at 928-774-1442 ext. 110 or email her at katie.flint@thearb.org.

6:45pm-7:30pm Continuing Education

Herbs/Adding Spices to Your Eating Life: Identify, Grow, and Harvest Culinary Herbs for Your Enjoyment

Speaker: Sue Collins APN, FNP-BC, AHN-BC

Sue Collins, a local nurse practitioner and herbalist talked about growing and using herbs in Flagstaff. She used old tires, a pond frame and cinder blocks to create her garden in Doney Park. Especially the tires and cinder blocks hold the heat in and the cinder blocks reduce the effect of the wind. She spoke on the properties, medicinal and food uses of a variety of plants including rhubarb, chives, fennel, tarragon, vervain, sunchokes, yarrow, sage, chamomile and parsley. For more information on growing herbs their uses, check out the following books (all are available from Amazon):

Your Backyard Herb Garden: A Gardener's Guide to Growing Over 50 Herbs Plus How to Use Them in Cooking, Crafts, Companion Planting and More [Paperback] Miranda Smith

Growing & Using the Healing Herbs [Hardcover] Gaea Weiss, Shandor Weiss. Sue’s personal favorite.

The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook: A Home Manual [Paperback] James Green, Ajana (Illustrator) Very informative. Not as easy to digest.

The Herbal Handbook: A User’s Guide to Medical Herbalism David Hoffman Focuses on the actions of herbs using older names for the actions.

The Complete Illustrated Holistic Herbal: A Safe and Practical Guide to Making and Using Herbal Remedies David Hoffman

7:45pm - 8:30pm

Desert Botanical Garden Happenings

On Saturday, we headed to the valley to warm up a bit (nice about 70). While there we took in a new exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden, called "Design for a Living World". It was done in conjunction with the Nature Conservancy and will be up until the 1st of April. The Nature Conservancy hired 10 designers to travel to remote areas of the world to design materials from abundant natural resource. Their goal was to encourage "cross-fertilization". Some of the designers were familiar to me - Kate Spade/Isaac Mizrahi who are both clothing designers, and Maya Lin who designed the Vietnam War Memorial. You may be saying what does this have to do with gardening or master gardeners, but all 10 used materials that grow naturally in various parts of the world (mostly trees and animals)to design useful clothing, tools, art items, and furniture. I highly reccommend a visit to the DBG to see this facinating exhibit. If you wait until March (March 3- May 13) you can also take in the Butterfly Exhibit. You can also visit the DBG site to see where the spring wildflowers are blooming. Just click on the tittle above this article and it will take you to the DBG site.

Loni Shapiro

High Country Gardens Webinar

Looking for education hours for your Master Gardener certification. Sign up for this interesting webinar presented by High Country Gardens. Just click on the tittle above this article for registration.

Ornamental Grasses & Companion Plants
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EST

Few plant groups can add beauty, movement and a sense of sophistication to your landscape like ornamental grasses. David Salman of High Country Gardens brings his enthusiasm for ornamental grasses to the class and shows how to place them, which varieties to combine with perennial flowers in the landscape. You will also learn about the differences between cool- and warm-season ornamental grasses, and the basics of how to care for them.
REGISTRATION INCLUDES:
* Participation in the live presentation and Q&A session
* Access to the Webinar recording to view again as many times as you like
* PDF of the presentation slides for future reference

REGISTER NOW! https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/772825760?utm_source=special&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20120218PresidentsDaySale2&lm=high

*By signing up for this Horticulture Smart Gardening Workshop, you agree to receive Horticulture’s free email newsletter, plus updates and special offers from Horticulture and carefully selected partners. You may opt off at a later date.

Volunteer Opportunity

I wanted to let you know about a special project. I don't know if the Gardners would be interested in helping or not.

If you remember last summer there was a little boy in Timberline who was accidentally run over by a tractor driven by his father. He subsequently died. Naturally his parents are devastated and are trying to keep going. There is also a little brother. His mother is a dispatcher for the Sheriff's office with my daughter and his father is a deputy. They are starting a non-profit organization to try to help raise money for scholarships in their son's name. They have a building and are going to be working on a Butterfly Garden. In fact the Butterfly Garden is a big part of this project. It seems that their son was facinated with butterflys, but highly afraid of them. It was one of the many quirks that make parents love their children so much.

When I heard about the Butterfly Garden I automatically thought of you guys. If you are interested let me know and I will get you the contact information.

Joe Meehan

If you are interested in helping with this project please contact Joe Meehan at JMeehan@azhs.gov

Highlands Garden Conference Meeting

Please join us if you are interested in helping with the conference. E-mail me if you want to help but can’t attend the meeting.

Arizona Highlands Garden Conference 2012
Agenda 2/28/2012
12:30 p.m., Extension office conference room
Conference date and site: October 6, 2012, Du Bois Conference Center

1. Meeting with Sky Anderson of Campus Services on Du Bois – Ann and Hattie
2. Report on progress on conference speakers
a. Charlie Nardozzi is a confirmed speaker for the conference
3. Vendor report - Jim
4. Publicity report - Melissa
5. Next steps:
a. Chairs for remaining committees (Registration, BBQ, Logistics)
b. Create publicity
c. Get speakers
d. What else?

Conference Committees:
Chair – Ann Eagan
Co-Chair – Sherline Alexander
Conference Secretary – Jackie Clark
Conference Budget Chair – Hattie Braun
Conference Speaker Committee - Melissa Amberson, Jim Mast, Crys Wells, Ann Eagan and Jo-Anne Barcellano
Vendor Coordinator Chair – Jim Mast, member Julie Homes
Tour Committee Chair – Tess Wymore
Public Relations Coordinator – Mellissa Amberson

Logistics Coordinator Chair –
Barbeque Coordinator Chair –
Registration Coordinator Chair –
--
Ann Eagan
annmlsna@gmail.com

Picture Canyon - Public Hearing

The Arizona State Land Department (ASLD) is holding a public hearing to gauge public support in the City of Flagstaff's request that it reclassify Picture Canyon as suitable for conservation on Tuesday, February 14, 10am-12pm at City Council Chambers, 1st floor, 211 W. Aspen, Flagstaff. This hearing is a crucial step in the process that may lead to the City of Flagstaff's acquisition of Picture Canyon as open space land.

For more information, please contact McKenzie Jones at 928-213-2153, mjones@flagstaffaz.gov.

Susan Garretson
Executive Assistant to Mandy Metzger, Coconino County district 4 Supervisor
928-679=7164

Yavapai County Tree Pruning Workshops

Yavapai county Extension will offer two fruit tree pruning workshop by Extension Agent, Jeff Schalau. One will be in Camp Verde on Feb. 25 and the 2nd in Chino Valley on Mar. 10. Go to the following website for more information: http://extension.arizona.edu/content/free-fruit-tree-pruning-workshops

Hattie

Hattie Braun
University of Arizona
Master Gardener Program Coordinator
Coconino County Cooperative Extension
2304 N. 3rd St.
Flagstaff, AZ 86004

Phone: 928-774-1868 x 170
FAX: 928-774-1860

Master Gardener Meeting Agenda 2/9/12

Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church

1601 N. San Francisco

6:30pm-6:40pm Welcome – Agenda Debi Stalvey

Brief review of agenda for the evening

Call for volunteers – Home Show, AZ Highlands Garden Conference

Solicitation of 2012 memberships

Introduction of speaker

6:40pm-7:30pm Continuing Education

Herbs/Adding Spices to Your Eating Life: Identify, Grow, and Harvest Culinary Herbs for Your Enjoyment

Speaker: Sue Collins

7:30pm-7:45pm Refreshments

Loni Shapiro & Betty Marcus

7:45pm - 8:30pm Business Meeting – Debi Stalvey

7:45pm – 7:50pm Volunteer Opportunity – Arboretum Docent Program – Katie Flint

7:50pm – 8:05pm Overview of recent Executive Meeting – Debi Stalvey

Financial report – Ed Skiba

2011 total, new memberships, plans for 2012

Calendar – Bea Cooley, V.P.

Snack Volunteers – Loni Shapiro & Betty Marcus

MG Program Happenings (Class, Conference) – Hattie Braun

8:05pm – 8:20pm Committee Reports:

Continuing Education (see below for details) – Loni Shapiro

Community Programs

Home Show - Hattie Braun and Faith Brittain

Coordination of MG Projects – Linda Guarino

Volunteer Support/Social – Hattie Braun & Crys Wells

8:20pm – 8:30pm Blog Demo – Loni Shapiro

Next meeting: 3/8/12

Garden Photography

Tom Bean

Highlands Garden Conference Meeting

Hello Master Gardeners,

Next week on Tuesday (February 14th) at noon at the Extension office, we will be having another meeting. This week's topic is fundraising. Please stop by with your fundraising ideas so we can make this conference a great one!

Jo-Anne Barcellano
AmeriCorps VISTA Member
Coconino County Cooperative Extension
The University of Arizona
jbarcellano@email.arizona.edu
928-774-1868 ext 100