I was visiting Vera’s Sanctuary in Trabuco Canyon this week as the Santa Ana winds gusted to 50 mph and the ash from the Airport Fire filled the sky. I marveled at how the Coast Live Oaks and native landscape held up so well in the ferocity of the winds. And now, as the Santa Ana winds ebb after blanketing us with ash, I am reminded of how interconnected we are with each other and with our environment.

A new year is approaching with new challenges for nature. The Orange County Chapter of the California Native Plant Society (OCCNPS) will continue our work promoting native plants as the foundation of local biodiversity and healthy habitats.

Our Commitment to Education, Science, Advocacy

We offer free educational field trips, programming, garden tours, and outreach to connect people with native plants and each other. OCCNPS supports conservation, landscape rehabilitation, and native gardens in public and private landscapes through grants and advocacy.

In the past 20 years, our chapter has given:

• 33 Acorn Grants of up to $500 to Orange County schools for new native gardens
• 2,000 four-inch buckwheat and white sage plants given to Orange County residents
• 312 monthly programs featuring presenters from the native plant community and attended by more than 5,000 people
• 22 annual California in My Garden native plant home garden tours—the 2024 California in My Garden tour attracted 900 registrants.
• 3 endemic plants identified and verified that grow in Orange County and nowhere else: Allen’s Daisy (Pentachaeta aurea ssp. allenii), Laguna Beach Live-forever (Dudleya stolonifera), and Santiago Peak Live-forever (Dudleya chasmophyta)
• 101 free field trips with more than 1,400 participants
• 8 invasive plant workshops
• 3 botanical survey projects documenting native and non-native plants in Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park, Ronald W. Casper’s Wilderness Park, and the Holy Fire. 
• 6,281 plant vouchers collected by CNPS OC rare plant committee members for the UC Irvine Herbarium. 
• 28 students awarded O’Neill Research grants for their research related to biology, ecology, floristics, taxonomy, or ethnobotany of native plants
• 72 conservation actions including comment letters, coalition sign-on letters, meetings attended, presentations made, and financial support for invasive plant removal, litigation, and environmental action.

How You Can Help

You can help too, whether you plant a native plant in a pot on your balcony, or document native plants in our wildlands on Calflora or iNaturalist–even the smallest of gestures support the environment and our wellbeing.

Thank you

We would like to thank the volunteers who pull invasive weeds in our park spaces, private spaces, and wildlands. We appreciate the garden champions who create native gardens at local schools, help with the HOA’s, and rehabilitate landscapes on public and private property. Our healthy environment relies on citizen scientists who document native plants, naturalized plants, and invasive plants on iNaturalist and Calflora. Thank you to the native plant designers and caretakers of native gardens throughout Orange County.

A deep debt of gratitude goes to the botanists, entomologists, and scientists who tirelessly share their education, training, and expertise to document, identify, collect, and preserve native plants.

And to the volunteers who share their strengths and talents with OCCNPS throughout the year: Native plants are making a comeback because of you! Let’s keep up the good work together.