BULLETIN No. 2
March 21, 99
In this bulletin -
Education Committee Meeting Mar 20, 99
Projects Committee Meeting Mar 20, 99
Education Committee Meeting Mar 20, 99
at Lois and Brian's, Harbourville.
These notes are skimpy, however, the meeting was a good one with much discussion on many topics. The atmosphere was enthusiastic and full. All agreed that there was much to do to develope nsps.
In attendance were Camaria, Pam, Lois, Ena, Somananda, Alexander, Brian, Loraine, David, and Prasado.
Prasado suggests newsletter articles, education in schools, and displays in malls. She is interesed in working with educating children about medicinal plants as well as being involved in the plant inventory project.
Lois brought up and stimulated much conversation about...
- Gardens for medicinal uses - different systems and different size plots.
- School programs - having traditional healers come in with full education of how to use herbs including prayer and such.
- Setting up slide show documenting plants in all seasons and clarifying what we are looking for in the slides.
- Self education -knowing what grows on our own land.
- Library set up somewhere.
- Teaching gardens.
Camaria mentioned about a man who grows many medicinal herbs, especially for hummingbirds and he is also a photographer. Maybe we can visit him as a group. She will look into the possibilities. She is interested in nsps education in the schools, gardens and display groups.
Ena is interested in school education and also knowing what plants are on her land. She is an avid photographer and volunteers to take photos of plants for us all.
Somananda is interested in all aspects of nsps and wants to focus primarily on developing the nsps website ( http://www.oshogardens.com/nsps ) and work at accumulating a database of information and images of plants for nsps.
We received an email from Tracy Martin, secretary of the Mount Denson garden club, asking for info of our group. She will speak on saving heritage seeds at a meeting on Saturday, April 24, 9:30am - 2pm in the Hantsport area. Call (902) 798-3245 for more information. David will contact her to help.
Michel suggested the possibility to obtain money from CAP (Community Animation Program) for fast project money. Peggy Hope-Simpson could be a contact as she has done this program. He also suggested that we could post nsps info on the Mall Wall in Greenwood, as maybe 2000 people go by it every day. Let's post a notice - NSPS coming soon. We could even have pressed plants on it for next month. The Mall wall consists of 4 boards, side by side, 3 of them being 8 ft by 4 ft and one 10 ft by 4 ft. David will get something together to get it started.
Prasado said Kevin West from Flower Cart is interested in perhaps having his group somehow involved with nsps. The Flower Cart is already involved with a project called Hope Gardens.
There was discussion about a Co-op education program in schools where students get involved in doing work for outside organizations. EMS (Evangaline Middle School) has a program for various projects... schoolyard greening.
Taking pictures and setting up a fund perhaps from CAP. Catalogue each picture. Identifying plant as well as their habitat - historical use - monogram for each plant.. Twyla Robar might be available to help identify plants and do some sketching.
Creating medicinal gardens for the millenium - focusing in on each individual's needs... a project that Lois and Loraine are working on.
Date for next Education Committee is May 2nd, 1999 1pm at Lois and Brian's in Harbourville area.
There will be plant identification and picture taking on Monday, April 12, 1999 at 8 am.
Prasado, Somananda, and Lois at Lois's.
Ena, Alexander, and Loraine at Loraine's.
End of meeting. Walk followed by pot luck lunch.
Projects Committee Meeting Mar 20, 99 at Cheendana and Somananda's in Canada Creek
These notes are also skimpy. The meeting was somewhat more "layed back" than the morning meeting at Lois and Brian's.
In attendance were Loraine, Camaria, Alex, Pam, David, Michel, Prasado, Linda, and Somananda.
The Akwasane project being out of Nova Scotia, was recognized as a ups project as opposed to a nsps project.
Michel was suggesting that now is the time to get seedling plants started. Someone mentioned that Tim Amos at the Community College greenhouse in Kentville volunteered space for such a venture. And we realized that many of us could be doing it. Lois and Alex, as an example, could be distributing plants to those who want them from their offices.
There was discussion about putting together our own slideshow for the public instead of using the one we rented from ups.
COSEWIC (Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada) put out a publication identifying Canadian Species at Risk in April 1998. This can probably be ordered from the Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada. From this was found the following for Nova Scotia...
- Threatened - red root, sweet pepper bush, golden crest, plymouth gentian
- Endangered - pink coreopsis, eastern mountain avens, threadleafed sundew, water pennywort
- Vulnerable - long's bullrush, lilaeopsis chinensis
There was discussion about having a main nsps teaching garden. We discussed how we could integrate our private gardens into several teaching gardens. It was noted that different gardens would demonstrate different plants according to microclimatic conditions among other reasons. Maybe eventually we could purchase or have a large parcel of land granted to nsps for the main Botanical Sanctuary of nsps. Maybe CAP could help there or even Nova Scotia Nature Trust. Networking with related organizations needs to be done. Maybe we could somehow get use of Crown land for that purpose.
Identification of medicinal plants at risk was discussed at length. What plants are medicinal? It was generally agreed upon that just about all plants were medicinal. Plants are medicinal because of their beauty, smell, uses as edible and drinkable medicine, their value as earth cover, food for animals and birds, etc.
Somananda agreed to co-ordinate a "trading list" where members could list plants that they are willing trade or give away as seeds, seedlings, cuttings, or thinnings. to start it off, Michel offered rosemary and echinacea. Camaria offered skullcap and arnica. Prasado said she had some black cohosh. David also has arnica.
All agreed that we would merge the projects committee into the education committee. Michel suggested that 80% of the education committee was in the projects committee anyway. So the next meeting is the next education committee meeting, at which time we can discuss what name to call it :).
