William Cusick Chapter

Native Plant Society of Oregon
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The William Cusick Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Oregon is headquartered in La Grande, with members in Baker, Malheur, Union, and Wallowa counties.

Sandy Roth and Jenifer Ferriel are co-Presidents of the chapter.

Contact for the chapter is Sandy Roth: 541-963-7870 or, email her at sroth "at" oregontrail.net (replace "at" with an @ symbol and remove spaces.)
Google Groups
Subscribe to William Cusick Chapter Group Forum
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Note: Karen Antell will separately establish the "listserve" notification for official announcements of meetings and activities.
Meeting notes for March 20, 2008 have been posted.

COMMUNICATION: In general, meeting notices will be sent through the chapter list serve Cusick-List@lists.eou.edu. Other discussion will occur through the google group (subscribe above right). All information will be posted on the chapter website, so be sure to check the other page links above and left. Meeting and field trip information will be published in the NPSO Bulletin as well.

NEXT MEETING: TBA - Summer break is here, so look for our field trip schedule instead of regular meetings until fall.

Gene Yates leads the group on Gold King Creek trip July 5!
Doug Fir -- Poetry by Richard W. Mack

David Douglas, botanist, explorer
years ago you lived life as an adventure
always by sea you traveled
to the harbor in Rio
to the rocky reach of Galapagos
to America’s timbered coast
then seeking your final curiosity
in the Sandwich Islands
a misguided love triangle
trampled your life into history

today you live in my barn
your name whispers in the rafters
the beams, the walls, all are calling
Doug fir is the wood of choice
in the wood butcher’s trade

two hundred year old trees
they were here when you paddled
the Columbia and the Walla Walla
maybe you saw them
lofty branches now erased from the skyline
ripped into prescribed dimensions
monarchs reduced to board feet

today you live in my barn
your genus planed to rippled grains of satin
rafters like the ribs of whales
architected by the geometry of angles
escorted by sunlight and shadow

David Douglas, years ago
you lived life as an adventure
was it a life divined by a compass blessed
or conflicted by a misguided magnet
either way
it doesn’t matter to the wood
in the barn
that whispers your name
Doug Fir was published in Reflections In A Western River, Poems & Essays by Richard W. Mack and is reprinted by permission of the author. Rick Mack's books are listed with the Writers Guild of Eastern Oregon, www.wgeo.org