Accomplishments

More than 50 years of getting it done

Oaks at Tejon Ranch. Credit Nancy Buck.

A look back

CNPS is an organization driven by the desire to share our love and understanding of California’s native flora. That desire yields big contributions to the state of California. Read on to see major accomplishments from our community.

1965
California Native Plant Society is formed.

1966
CNPS Monterey Bay Chapter wins a decisive victory to save rare plants on the Ford Ord military base.

1966
CNPS holds its first plant sale at Lake Merritt in Oakland.

1967
CNPS Area Preservation Committee is established to develop a list of areas with unique or diverse floras.

1968
CNPS President Ledyard Stebbins launches California’s first rare plant index.

1971
The CNPS Rare Plant Project officially forms with a list of 520 rare plants.

1973
CNPS invited to the Smithsonian Institute to review national list of plants. Group discovers that California represents one-third of all national plants!

1973
CNPS publishes the first official edition of Fremontia, the Society’s botanical journal.

1974
First edition of CNPS Inventory of Rare and Endangered Vascular Plants of California is published.

1974
CNPS publishes Bulletin, its first statewide newsletter.

1975-80
As part of the multi-agency California Natural Areas Coordinating Council, CNPS provides the plant lists and locations for 1,566 natural areas.

1979
CNPS publishes its first botanical poster, Spring Wildflowers.

1990
Under the leadership of Phyllis M. Faber, CNPS Press is launched with the publication of its first flora, A Flora of the San Bruno Mountains.

1995
Ecologists John Sawyer and Todd Keeler-Wolf lead CNPS effort to publish A Manual of California Vegetation, California’s first resource to capture plant series and locations, along with three-dimensional structures and landform data.

2006
First Plant Science Training Program.

2010
California State Legislature votes to create California Native Plant Week (ongoing – the third week of April)

2010
CNPS conducts the first of its Rare Plant Treasure Hunts, which have resulted in the verification of more than 2,000 plant locations.

2013
First CNPS international chapter established – Baja California Chapter.

2015
The CA Supreme Court rules in favor of conservation in landmark Newhall Ranch decision.

2010-16
CNPS partners in the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) and completion of 8.7 million acres of new desert vegetation mapping.

2015
The online edition of A Manual of California Vegetation goes live.

2015
Calscape.org launches.

2016
CNPS launches the Important Plant Area initiative.