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BEN # 229
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No. 229 August 8, 1999
aceska@victoria.tc.ca Victoria, B.C.
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Dr. A. Ceska, P.O.Box 8546, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 3S2
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NELSA MORRISON BUCKINGHAM (JUNE 18, 1929 - JULY 11, 1999)
From: Ed Schreiner <Ed_Schreiner@nps.gov>
It is with great sadness I must report that we have lost another
great Pacific Northwest botanist, dear friend and mentor. Nelsa
Buckingham came to botany some 25 years ago, learning the field
from "scratch" after age 45. She soon distinguished herself as a
meticulous and outstanding botanist championing what I have
called the "Olympocentric" view.
The Olympic Peninsula in the northwest corner of Washington
State became her laboratory. She discovered (with husband "Buck"
and Ed Tisch among others) well over 100 plants not known to
occur on the Olympic Peninsula (published in Madrono, the 1983
November Supplement). It became evident to her that the Olympic
Peninsula contained an incredibly rich flora and served as a
highly complex refugium for plants during past glaciations as
well as the Holocene warm period. We had many great discussions
about how most people thought that plants simply migrated south
of Puget Sound during the last glaciation (Vashon Stade, Fraser
Glaciation). The theory being that plants moved south and then
returned north as the ice melted. Nelsa always thought that it
would be a lot easier for plants to have survived the glaciation
in the Olympic Mountains and along the Coast and then returned
to Puget Sound. Her detailed geological, glacial, climatic, and
phytogeographic research convinced her (and me as well as
others) that her hypothesis justified the "Olympocentric" view.
(Indeed, we think this is the only logical explanation for the
distribution of Juniperus scopulorum in western Washington.) The
high endemism (9), shared endemic plants and animals with Van-
couver Island (6) and plants disjunct from: 600 miles to the
north (Draba longipes), 300 miles east in the Rockies
(Astragalus microcystis and others), and plants disjunct from
Coastal Oregon (Whipplea modesta) all serve as evidence of this
refugium. In addition, several plants are Coastal endemics that
reach the southern extent of the ranges on the Olympic Peninsula
(Gentiana douglasiana, Coptis trifolia).
Nelsa's most amazing accomplishment was the completion of the
"Flora of the Olympic Peninsula" in 1995 [see BEN # 135]. This
book culminated two decades of botanical research and represents
her botanical career. If you haven't seen the book it is well
worth a look. The work contains Nelsa's ideas on the origins of
the Olympic Peninsula flora as well as numerous insights into
the taxonomy of our plants. And, not least, the book attempts to
reconcile Hitchcock and Cronquist nomenclature with more modern
works.
Born in Chicago to Robert and Florence Virginia Morrison, Nelsa
attended the Radcliffe College division of Harvard University,
where she carried a double major in anthropology and archaeol-
ogy, until her junior year when she left school to get married.
Later at age 45 she returned to the classroom at Peninsula
College (Port Angeles, WA), then went on to get her bachelor's
degree in plant ecology from the Evergreen State College near
Olympia, WA.
Her resume included foreman of asparagus cutters, natural his-
tory museum assistant curator, Seattle Trust and Savings Bank
teller, and Camp Fire leader. As a research botanist Mrs. Buck-
ingham devoted herself to the study of the Olympic Peninsula
flora.
Nelsa was a founding member of the Washington Native Plant
Society, worked for and participated in the Washington Natural
Heritage Program, and was an Olympic National Park volunteer for
more than 20 years. In 1991, she received both the National Park
Service Outstanding Volunteer Award and, from KING-5 TV in
Seattle, recognition from Project Environment Volunteers Making
a Difference. In her retirement she taught creative arts and
acrylic painting.
Nelsa left us thousands of specimens, photographs, and of
course, the Flora. Thank you, Nelsa, for enriching our lives -
we will miss you.
Memorials: The Nature Conservancy, 4245 N Fairfax Dr., Arlington
VA 22203;
Natural Resources Defense Council, PO Box 96048, Washington
D.C. 20077-7488;
Washington Native Plant Society, P.O. Box 28690, Seattle, WA
98118.
BRITISH COLUMBIA: THE RANGE REFERENCE AREA PROGRAM CANCELLED
From: Don Gayton <Don.Gayton@gems7.gov.bc.ca>
Ecological monitoring in British Columbia has suffered a
profound setback. After three years of operation, Forest Renewal
BC funding for the Range Reference Areas Program is being can-
celled. Range Reference Areas (RRA's) are permanent, fenced
installations with detailed long-term vegetation monitoring
plots, essential for defining rangeland communities and succes-
sional patterns, and tracking the impacts of disturbances such
as livestock grazing, wildlife, weeds, fire, forest ingrowth and
encroachment.
It was a productive three years. A team consisting of Fred
Knezevich in Williams Lake, Perry Grilz/Tracie Leys-Schirok in
Prince George, Rick Tucker in Kamloops and Don Gayton in Nelson,
under the leadership of Matt Fairbarns, an indefatigable
ecologist in Victoria. Fairbarns established a statistically
defensible experimental design for the RRAs; fenced exclosures
were to be a minimum of 1 hectare in size, located in key
biogeoclimatic subzones/site series, with randomized sampling
transects and a minimum of fifty observations in each treatment.
In the first year, the group took vegetation measurements using
the traditional Daubenmire cover estimates, but after much
discussion, Fairbarns introduced point intercept, a much more
precise and unbiased method of monitoring vegetation.
The RRA field team hit the ground running, establishing and
monitoring some 260 exclosures in the three years, upgrading and
remeasuring another one hundred existing exclosures, and
centralizing all the diverse data sources.
The range and distribution of these RRA's is truly impressive,
from the Sikanni Chief area northwest of Fort Saint John, to the
Junction range south of Riske Creek, to the spectacular Nicola
Grasslands near Merritt and to Dragon Flats, an alpine meadow
complex north of Grand Forks. Many riparian exclosures were
established as well. As a result of the Program, the Province
now as sites in all the major ecosystems grazed by livestock,
including forested, riparian and alpine types. Besides monitor-
ing the grazing activity of domestic cattle, specific RRA's were
also established to monitor the impacts of pack horses, wild
sheep, elk and bison.
"You can't manage if you don't monitor." This truism is par-
ticularly appropriate to grasslands and dry forests, where
ecological change is frequently slow and difficult to detect.
Fairbarns and the RRA team recognized the challenge of distin-
guishing between native bunchgrasses, low-seral native grasses
and introduced grasses, something many earlier range managers
ignored. So we all spent the requisite "hard time" on hands and
knees in the field, hunched over microscopes and floras in the
office, and poring over mounted specimens. The results were
worth it; as we now have the first comprehensive, Province-wide
record of grazed and ungrazed plant communities, as well as data
on the abundance (and scarcity) of the key native fescues,
agropyrons and stipas, the ecological backbone of British
Columbia's grasslands.
Learning from previous unsuccessful range monitoring attempts,
we hammered away at rigorous documentation, data analysis, and
data storage. In contrast to much of the earlier work, we made
sure the RRA plot layout and monitoring methodology were consis-
tent, and absolutely explicit. Shane Ford was brought on to help
build a Province-wide database for the monitoring data, and as a
result the government-wide VENUS software was rewritten to
accommodate our data (the RRA section is now affectionately
known as "Venus de Moo"). This initial data set, if added to
over time, will become an invaluable resource for defining
Potential Natural Community, seral stage, and the impacts of
disturbance.
A number of RRA products are now available to the interested
public; summary information is available at
http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/range/rra/rra.htm
and for the RRAs of the Nelson Region at
http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/nelson/research/rra/intro.htm
Detailed summaries of data will become available through VENUS
shortly.
So, what's the problem? If the exclosures are built and the data
captured, why does the RRA program need to carry on? There are
two reasons-time, and expertise.
Fence off a grazed, upland range community and monitor the
vegetation. For the first three years virtually nothing happens.
After five years, just a few tantalizing clues. After ten years
we see definite succession taking place, which will then con-
tinue to evolve for the next twenty to forty years before a
steady state is reached. During that time span, dozens of other
questions emerge. What types of rotations best accelerate suc-
cession? Can we meet Biodiversity obligations? What happens to
the cryptogamic community? Have we properly defined the Poten-
tial Natural Community? How do noxious weeds respond? What about
changes to insect, and bird populations?
It also takes time to build and maintain field expertise; the
people who know rangeland plant taxonomy and ecology are scat-
tered thinly on the British Columbia landscape, and their ranks
get thinner all the time, as they give up, move away, or retire.
The RRA program was truly innovative in Canada. No other juris-
diction has a unified, consistent program solely dedicated to
understanding ecosystems over such a broad area. The team that
built it was unique also. As a veteran of many working groups
over the course of my career, the team of Fairbarns, Ford,
Grilz, Knezevich, Leys-Schirok and Tucker stands as one of the
finest.
It is ironic that the RRA program is being scrapped just as the
British Columbia public is awakening to the ecological and
esthetic value of our grasslands, and to the many threats to
their continued existence.
NEW BOOK: SAND DUNE PLANTS OF OREGON
Wiedemann, Alfred M., La Rea J. Dennis, & Frank H. Smith. 1999.
Plants of the Oregon coastal dunes. Oregon State University
Press, Corvallis, OR. 120 p. ISBN 0-87071-457-0 [soft cover]
Cost: US$12.95
Available from: Oregon State University Press, 101 Waldo Hall
Corvallis, OR 97331-6407 Ph: 541-737-3166, fax: 541-737-3170
http://osu.orst.edu/dept/press
This book was originally published in 1969 and has served as a
guide to natural history of the Oregon coastal dunes and to the
plants found on them. The first two sections explain the natural
history of dunes and describe plant communities associated with
dunes and how they change over time. The final section provides
an easy-to-use key to ninety common dune plants. Each species
profile includes a photograph, a detailed description, and
information on habitat and range. This new edition of the book
considers changes in dune areas in recent decades, notes conser-
vation efforts, and updates scientific names.
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