* Monday, December 20th, 6:30PM - 7PM for socializing; 7PM - 9PM for slide sharing. Annual Holiday Social: Botanical Destinations and Stories. All are welcome. Settle down into a comfortable chair with a warm beverage and enjoy the stories and connect with friends. We will socialize in the Zoom Gallery, share our plant photos, and have a few fun botanical contests as well. We have trivia questions with prizes!. If you would like to share and recount your botanical adventures over the year, you are invited to submit 3-5 photos. Please label all slides, pictures, and folders with your first and last name. Send photos to Steven Yeager at em_president@npsoregon.org or drop your photos in this Google Drive folder. The Zoom link will be sent to members and posted on the NPSO Emerald Chapter web site closer to the date of the program.

* Monday, January 17th, 7PM - 9PM. Hidden Prairie: Photographing Life in One Square Meter. In 2018, Chris Helzer, director of science for The Nature Conservancy in Nebraska, embarked upon a journey to photograph all the beauty and diversity he could find within a single square meter of prairie in Aurora, Nebraska. The project was intended to share with others the diversity and value of prairies, but it ended up inspiring Chris much more than he’d expected. He came away with thousands of photographs, including more than 100 species, but the numbers represented only a small part of the results. By sitting quietly and intently watching a small space, Chris was able to see the prairie in a much more intimate way than he was used to. He had a window into the lives of the tiny organisms that make up prairie communities and got to follow both their stories and the story of the prairie itself through the seasons. The project has resonated with others well enough that it has been turned into a book and is the topic of an upcoming museum exhibit and potential documentary. A zoom link will be sent to members and posted on the NPSO Emerald Chapter web site closer to the date of the program.

* Saturday, January 29th, 1PM - 3PM. Exploring Winter Plants with Gail Baker and Steven Yeager. Ever wonder what plants flourish during the winter season in the Willamette Valley? We'll examine and learn to identify ferns, lichens, trees and shrubs in their winter stages, some with fruits, some without leaves or flowers, and notice which ones are already breaking bud. Limited attendance. Signup here.

*PLEASE NOTE* - You can watch Emerald Chapter's recent program on how to use the iNaturalist app here. You can also view other previously recorded NPSO Emerald Chapter Programs here.