Buffalo Museum of Science - Niagara Frontier Botanical Society

Niagara Frontier Botanical Society

Background
Established in 1983 with 35 charter members, the Niagara Frontier Botanical Society promotes the study, appreciation and conservation of plant life in the Niagara Frontier Region with a primary emphasis on field botany.

Field Trips
Field trips are frequent throughout the year to many outstanding botanical sites of the Niagara Frontier region's public parks, nature preserves, private conservation lands, gardens. In recent years extended trips have been taken to the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario and the Nature Conservancy preserves at the eastern end of Lake Ontario.

Meetings
General meetings are held at the Harlem Road Community Center, Harlem Road and Lincoln St. (one block south of Main St.) in Snyder. All meetings are open to the public and free of charge. The Society has an annual dinner in April of each year featuring a noted speaker. Meetings are designed to appeal to both amateur and professional botanists and naturalists. Local and regional experts cover various subjects such as: old growth forests, parks and nature preserves, plant identification, rare and endangered species, and the role of insects in botany.

Publications
Membership in the NFBS includes a subscription to the Clintonia, the Society's newsletter, that includes original and reprint articles of botanical interest, many authored by Society members. Clintonia also provides information on programs, field trips, and other timely information about the Society and its members.

For more information, visit our website http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~insrisg/botany or call Richard Christensen
716.632.7762 in winter or 716.652.6049 spring, summer and autumn.

2006 GENERAL MEETINGS

General meetings are held at the Harlem Road Community Center, Harlem Road and Lincoln St. (one block south of Main St.) in Snyder All meetings are open to the public and free of charge.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006, 7:30 p.m.: "Wild Places of Ohio". Speaker will be Bill Hudson, new Director-Naturalist at Beaver Meadow.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006, 7:30 p.m.: "Further Studies: Flora and Fauna of the Galapagos Islands". Dr. James Haynes, Professor of Mycology at the University of Buffalo, will return to present Part 2 of his explorations of these fascinating and significant islands.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006, 7:30 p.m.: "Quaking Mats, Muck, and Mire: Bog-walking in Western New York". Speaker will be our own Wayne Gall, former Curator of Entomology at the Buffalo Museum of Science, avid botanist, and charter member of NFBS. Wayne is currently Regional Entomologist with the New York State Department of Health.

Tuesday, April 4, 2006, 6:00 p.m.: "The Wonders of Pollination." Speaker will be Dr. Brenda Young, Chair of the Natural Sciences Department at Daemon College. This will be a dinner meeting at the Central Banquet Complex next to the Old Red Mill, 8326 Main Street in Clarence. For dinner reservations call Irene Wingerter at 716 632-0646.

Tuesday, May 9, 2006, 7:30 p.m. - To be announced.

2006 FIELD TRIPS, WINTER/SPRING - GUESTS ALWAYS WELCOME

Saturday-Sunday, March 25-26, 2006: Cleveland Botanical Garden and The Rainforest. An 18,000 square foot conservatory at the Botanical Garden houses two re-created ecosystems: the Madagascar Desert and Costa Rican cloud forest. We will also visit The Rainforest, adjacent to the Cleveland Zoo, which features 600 animal species plus 10,000 species of trees, shrubs and herbs from tropical Asia, Africa and the Americas. Members might choose to spend any remaining time at the Museum of Natural History, The Great Lakes Science Center, the Museum of Art, the Zoo, or another destination. Leader: Joanne Schlegal, 835-6042.

Saturday, April 29, 2006, 10:00 a.m.: Reinstein Woods and Stiglmeier Park. The Reinstein portion will be led by the resident park naturalist. If spring wildflowers look unpromising here we will select and alternate destination. Leader: Judy Hoffman, 684-2049.

Saturday, May 13, 2006: Alexander Preserve. Joint field trip with the Nature Sanctuary Society. A newly rebuilt stairway on the property leads to WNY's largest known colony of Virginia Bluebells. Leader: Frank Hugar, 652-9613.

Thursday, May 18, 2006: Presque Isle State Park, Erie, PA. Joint field trip with the Northeast Ohio Native Plant Society. Guide will be Jim Bissell, Curator of the Herbarium at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and an incredibly knowledgeable botanist. Leader: Mike Siuta, 822-2544.

Monday-Thursday, June 19-22, 2006: Southwestern Adirondacks. Participants will spend 3 nights at the Irondequoit Inn on Piseco Lake. The Inn owns over 600 acres of property including upland woods, wetlands and marshes, and a mile of lakeshore. Many additional hiking trails are available nearby.

For more information about any of these trips call Joanne Schlegel, 835-6042.

Note: additional spring field trips will be scheduled at a later date.