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UPDATES AND REMINDERS
Registration is CLOSED. Some modifications have been made to the event schedule. Details about what's changed and what's new can be found on the All Reminders and Updates page, (7/11 posting). Please make sure to keep checking this page for all the latest news and reminders about fields trips, registration, and event scheduling.

NPSO 2016 Annual Meeting

July 15-17

McKenzie River Conference Center, Rainbow, Oregon



Linton Meadows - Three Sisters Wilderness. Photo: Clayton Gautier

The 2016 Annual Meeting, hosted by Emerald Chapter, will be held July 15–17, 2016 along the beautiful McKenzie River, 47 miles east of Eugene-Springfield.

Venue

The venue is the McKenzie River Conference Center, owned and operated by the US Basketball Academy, which explains why beds in dorms and lodges are extra-long. The Center is located in a private, forested 46-acre property off the McKenzie Highway (Hwy 126) at Rainbow (mile post 47) between Blue River and McKenzie Bridge. Click the Venue link (here or in menu at left) for detailed information about the facilities, amenities, and recreational opportunities such as swimming, white-water rafting, pond fishing, and golfing. Information about nearby restaurants and grocery stores, as well as alternative lodging (motels, cabins, camp sites) is also provided. Note: Because the McKenzie River area is a popular destination during summer months, the Emerald Chapter encourages you to make reservations early if you are planning to stay in alternative lodging.

Natural History

For information about the origin of the McKenzie River and its emergence from 3,000 year-old lava flows click on the Natural History link. You can also find information here about points of interest and side trips for you and family members to take on your own during the board meeting or if you plan to extend your stay in the area.

Schedule

An event schedule is currently under development. Check back to this site and click on the Schedule link for information and updates.

Field Trips

Herm Fitz, long time McKenzie River resident, ecologist, and former NPSO State President, told us in his 1983 Annual Meeting keynote address, “This area is a meeting place of plants more typical of adjacent regions to the north, south, east, and west. Many are disjunct from their main populations.”

Field trips will be in the upper McKenzie and Santiam River basins, with one in the Deschutes drainage. All-day trips are offered on Saturday at a variety of levels from easy car loops to strenuous hikes of up to 8 miles. In addition, short trips will be offered Friday afternoon and Sunday morning. We have a bryophyte-focused trip, a butterfly ecology and identification trip, and a nature photographer’s hike. Field Trip chair Bruce Newhouse adds, “We are planning to create an annotated key with photographs to the paintbrush (Castilleja) species in the area, as it is the featured plant of our meeting.” He promises at least one species should be observed on every trip! Click on the Field Trips link for more details.

Keynote Speaker

Saturday’s banquet speaker is Mark Egger, Research Associate at the Burke Museum of Natural History in Seattle. His expertise is in the genus Castilleja (paintbrush), which is well represented in the flora of the High and Western Cascades. He is also interested in louseworts (Pedicularis spp.) and monkeyflowers (ours Erythranthe, formerly Mimulus) now in the Phrymaceae family. Click on the Keynote Speaker link for a more complete description of Mark's talk and a list (including a key) to paintbrush (Castilleja) species on area field trips.

Registration

Registration will be handled by Emerald Chapter. Do not register directly with the US Basketball Academy. Printable registration forms with lodging, meal, and field trip options will be available on this website (Registration link) in March 2016. Information about lodging and meals is available under the Venue link. Field trip opportunities are detailed under the Field Trips link. A paper registration form will also be available in the March 2016 NPSO Bulletin. Emerald Chapter encourages you to register early, between March 15 and April 30. Late registration (at increased cost) will be available from May 1 to June 15. Registration is first come, first served; if registration exceeds capacity, registrants will be placed on a waiting list in order of receipt.

Merchandise

Northwest artists, whose art features native plants and their habitats, will offer their wares for sale. Other vendors will be the Oregon Flora Project and NPSO chapters. If you are interested in being a vendor, please contact Mary Beth Averill, writeonmba@aol.com, with AM Vendor in the subject line. Emerald Chapter, host of the 2016 Annual Meeting, will be selling T-shirts featuring a paintbrush (Castilleja), the poster plant of the Meeting.

Keep current on Annual Meeting Information

Although the March issue of the Bulletin will include registration forms and information about the annual meeting, this website will always have the most comprehensive and up-to-date information, so check back here regularly to stay current. The Emerald Chapter is excited about hosting and sharing our region's floral wonders with our fellow members. We look forward to seeing you there!

If you have questions that aren't answered here, send email to annualmeeting@npsoregon.org.