D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
August 2010
A Growing Enthusiasm
The Native Plant Society of New Mexico comes to Silver City this month to learn about the treasures of the Gila.
Native-plant lovers from across New Mexico will gather in Silver City this month, August 12-15, for the 2010 annual meeting of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico (NPSNM). "Gateway to the Gila" is the theme of this year's meeting, which will be held at Western New Mexico University — with field trips ranging from the Glenwood Catwalk to City of Rocks State Park. Events include a pre-meeting workshop on ferns, a photo contest, book sales, silent auction, lectures and social events.
Hosting the meeting will be the local Gila Native Plant Society (GNPS). Founded in 1988 by an ambitious group of plant enthusiasts in the Silver City area, the GNPS' early membership included Becky Smith, Anita Morton, Jay and Anni Curtice, Jeff Whitney, Terry Gunnulson, Ralph Fisher, Jack and Lenora Moody, Dale and Marian Zimmerman, May and Stuart O'Byrne, Ron and Mary Flemke, Bob and Phyllis O'Keefe, Elisabeth Simon, James and Deborah Swetnam, Annette and Hiram Parent, Myra McCormick, Frank and Joyce Knaus, Janet and Jay Hammel, and Theresa Germain (Polly Walker). Of these founders, Becky Smith, Jack and Lenora Moody, Dale and Marian Zimmerman, Bob O'Keefe and Elisabeth Simon remain in the Silver City area and maintain membership in GNPS.
Anita Morton seems to have been a driving force in the group's early years, pushing local and state officials for recycling ordinances, organizing field trips and contributing plants from her garden to demonstration gardens at the Silver City Museum and Grant County Detention Center. The gardens, she hoped, would encourage local nurseries to stock native plants adapted to the southwest environment.
Though newly organized and only a member of the state society since April 1988, by September of that year the fledgling Gila society hosted its first NPSNM annual meeting at Bear Mountain Guest Ranch. The ranch, north of Silver City, was then owned by Myra McCormick.
In 1994, GNPS established an endowment fund with contributions from members; the objective was to use the interest to support education in the botanical sciences and local conservation organizations and projects. To date, several local demonstration gardens have been planted and are being maintained by GNPS. The endowment is an important source of funding for the Dale A. Zimmerman Herbarium at Western New Mexico University.
GNPS currently has more than 125 members, making it one of the largest chapters in NPSNM. The state organization has six chapters in New Mexico, plus an El Paso chapter, and has recently added a chapter in Farmington (San Juan) serving southwest Colorado plant enthusiasts.
GNPS conducts field trips each month during the growing season — April through October — and holds meetings each month September through April. A special holiday party is held in December. For current information about programs, field trips and other activities, see www.gilanps.org
For information on this month's state meeting, contact Elroy Limmer, (575) 538-5513 or elroy.limmer@gmail.com, or pick up a NPSNM Newsletter at the Silver City-Grant County Chamber of Commerce. Registration costs $90, which includes two lunches, a banquet and a cocktail party. For membership information, contact Martha Carter, (575) 388-9221.