Membership

• Ways to get involved
• Activities -- Check out our Events page
• Attend one of our meetings as a guest
• Organization and History
• Membership Application
• Other volunteer opportunities
• Information from our Creosote Ring (southern sub-chapter)

Read about a Planting Project in Mammoth Lakes
that has been funded by our local chapter.

Some ways to get involved:

• Learn about a local conservation issue and become an active advocate
• Lead a field trip to one of your favorite areas
• Bring refreshments to a meeting
• Pitch in at a native plant garden work day or seed cleaning party
• Assist in organizing a banquet or Sierra Spring Sojourn
• Contribute articles or pictures to the chapter newsletter or web site
• Volunteer to work with school children or with other local groups who request our expertise
• Simply come on field trips and come to evening programs
• Facilitate preparation and distribution of the chapter newsletter or help publicize upcoming events
• Help clean letter from our section of Highway 395
• Contact another member and volunteer your time or suggest new ideas

Organization and History
The Chapter is lead by a board of directors (see membership application). Volunteers take charge of sales of books, t-shirts and posters. We also have a Webmaster and someone responsible for publicity for our many programs and field trips. The board meets every other month and members are welcome to attend. Officers are nominated by a nominating committee, elected by the membership, and serve one-year, renewable terms.

Originally formed in 1965, the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) is a statewide non-profit organization of amateurs and professional with a common interest in California's native plants. The Society, working through its 32 local chapters, seeks to increase understanding of California's native flora and to preserve this rich resource for future generations. For years, the establishment of a local eastern Sierra chapter of CNPS had been a vision in the mind of Mary DeDecker, noted botanist and conservationist for Independence. Two major factors for establishing a local chapter of CNPS included the unique floristic environment of the "other side" of the Sierra and the need to protect the Owens Valley from the loss of vegetation due to Lao Angeles Department of Water and Power's groundwater pumping activities. With enough environmentally-conscious, interested people living and working in inyo and Mono counties, the time seemed ripe in 1982 to start a new CNPS Chapter. Consequently, on March 31, 1982, the Bristlecone Chapter was formed. This chapter was unanimously named Bristlecone in honor of the famous bristlecone pine, Pinus longaeva, nature's oldest living tree found in the high desert mountains of Inyo and Mono counties.