![\"Judi](\"https:\/\/cnpsslo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/judi-hoover_pp2-150x150.jpg\")
Susi Bernstein and Judi Young<\/p><\/div>\n
2014<\/span>We are pleased to announce that the Hoover Committee, composed of past recipients of the award, has selected Judi Young as the 2014 honoree.A California native, Judi grew up in a family that for generations has valued our unique environment and ecosystems. \u00a0Add to that a love of flowers and plants that was nurtured and encouraged during her growing up years; home gardens have always been an important part of her life. Judi moved to the Central Coast to be closer to her family, and we met Judi when she started to occasionally \u2018hang out\u2019 with her parents Heather and Jim Johnson at CNPS events.Judi\u2019s talents are many and varied, with experience as a floral business owner, electronic communications, and a web design consultant.\u00a0 In 2010, the local chapter board sought to improve our small and dated website.\u00a0 With her internet experience, artistic eye and interest in native plants, Judi saw the possibilities of revamping the website and stepped up to the task at hand.\u00a0 Today, our chapter has a beautiful, informative website that she designed and continuously updates.<\/p>\n In 2012, Judi also took on Publicity duties for our chapter, keeping the public updated on events and news through Community Calendar posts and the occasional Facebook ad. She also maintains our email newsletter list and sends Obispoensis directly to our inboxes.<\/p>\n Judi is very important to our chapter\u2019s appeal to younger people who use social media to connect with causes and attend events. She constantly reminds us what is possible in the modern world of communication, and how it can benefit our outreach to existing and new members. To further increase our outreach presence, Judi has set up and maintains a Facebook page (along with Mardi Niles and Kristie Haydu and others) , a very effective venue for connecting with people who want to know more about native plants. In fact, just recently a group of home-schooling mothers contacted us via Facebook, requesting some assistance with tree identification on the Bob Jones trail in Avila Beach. We were able to provide the needed information, and we also attended a somewhat spontaneously organized fieldtrip with these mothers and their children out on the trail! This sort of connection with interested people, previously unaware of CNPS, was made possible by Judi\u2019s successful efforts to move us into the modern age.<\/p>\n In addition to Judi\u2019s importance to our digital\u00a0communications, she is also a big help in many other aspects of the local chapter, including as a regular Plant Sale cashier.<\/p>\n Congratulations to Judi Young!<\/p>\n – Susi Bernstein & Linda Chipping<\/p>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Suzette Girouard<\/p><\/div>\n 2013<\/span>This Year\u2019s Hoover award recipient, Suzette Girouard, grew up in the La Crescenta area located \u00a0east of Los Angeles. Suzette got her love of gardening from her mother and also her uncle Ed who had an extensive vegetable garden in his backyard.While still in high school she worked at Descano Gardens in La Ca\u00f1ada Flintridge solidifying her love of plants. \u00a0During these early years Suzette knew she wanted to study horticulture and especially viticulture. \u00a0Suzette started her dream by attending Fresno State University where she graduated in 1986 with a degree in Horticulture\/Viticulture and a minor in Agriculture Business.\u00a0Around 1994 Suzette moved to Pennsylvania where she lived for about ten years.During the fall of 2004 she returned \u00a0to California and moved to San Luis Obispo. After searching \u00a0the web for plant groups in our area, she became interested in the California Native Plant Society. \u00a0After attending her first meeting she was hooked and joined. \u00a0It was not long before this hard worker started volunteering for many projects including ,weed removal, banquet preparations, meeting clean up, \u00a0and plant sale coordinating.<\/p>\n As all of our previous Hoover award recipients, Suzette has gone the extra mile with her commitment to help better the society and our local chapter.<\/p>\n Congratulations to Suzette Girouard!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Matt Ritter and Dirk Walters<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dt>\n Matt Ritter joined the chapter shortly after arriving at\u00a0Cal Poly to teach botany. He was assigned to\u00a0teach a course on California native plants and\u00a0their communities to prospective elementary\u00a0school teachers. Finding the subject\u00a0fascinating, and needing a teaching aid, he\u00a0wrote and photo illustrated the picture book\u00a0Plants of San Luis Obispo: Their Lives and\u00a0Stories.<\/p>\n He encourages his students to attend\u00a0our Chapter meetings in the many botanic\u00a0courses he teaches, and instills in many an\u00a0appreciation of both native flora and field\u00a0work.<\/p>\n Early on Matt accepted the Chapter vice presidency,\u00a0which is a difficult and time\u00a0consuming job as it encompasses the role of program\u00a0chairman. It is Matt we have to thank for the high quality\u00a0of our speakers, and the large number who have come to\u00a0us from outside our county. These speakers, including\u00a0himself, have made several fine presentations.<\/p>\n Our wealth of speakers comes in part because Matt is\u00a0highly regarded in the academic community. He is a\u00a0contributing author to the second edition of The Jepson\u00a0Manual, and to the Flora of North America project. He is\u00a0also editor-in-chief of Madro\u00f1o (the journal of the\u00a0California Botanical Society). Matt was a Kenan\u00a0Fellowship awardee at the National Tropical Botanical\u00a0Gardens, and teaches for the Organization of Tropical\u00a0Studies in Costa Rica.<\/p>\n As well as authoring numerous\u00a0academic papers, his book A Californian\u2019s Guide to the\u00a0Trees<\/strong> among Us has national distribution.<\/p>\n Matt has lead several field trips into our native habitats,\u00a0grasslands and urban treescape. Following the tradition\u00a0that a CNPSer is only truly happy when their face is\u00a0buried in a plant key, he and Dr. Keil have run premeeting\u00a0keying exercises that have been enormously\u00a0popular. He chairs the City of San Luis Obispo TreeCommittee.<\/p>\n The Chapter has long supported a student scholarship\u00a0program. Matt volunteered to look after the program,<\/p>\n \u2014 Dr. Dirk Walters: Chair, Hoover Awards Committee<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n In the world of gardening with California native plants, one never knows when they will be captivated by its magic. It\u00a0was in the late 1990\u2019s, as Bill was walking his dog through Pismo State Beach, Oceano Campground\u2019s Native Plant\u00a0Garden, and meeting Jack and Grace Beigle, that he became aware of the possibilities of gardening with native plants. It\u00a0started by Bill asking lots of questions. One thing let to\u00a0another and Bill eventually joined the \u201cGarden Gang\u201d\u00a0on Tuesday mornings and in Grace\u2019s words, \u201cHe was\u00a0enthusiastic!\u201d<\/p>\n Bill has now contributed countless hours\u00a0to the development of the garden. He has also worked\u00a0on the removal of non-native invasive species and on Bill\u2019s enthusiasm for gardening with native plants was\u00a0brought to a new level around 2002, when Bill signed Bill\u2019s garden at his home in Arroyo Grande is a beautiful oak woodland in the middle of the city, where Bill\u2019s knowledge\u00a0of California native plants is evident everywhere and he has generously shared his garden on many CNPS Garden Tours.<\/p>\n Bill has also made additional contributions to our chapter by propagating, cultivating, and delivering native plants to our\u00a0November Plant Sale and helping out at our monthly meetings, our annual pot\u00a0luck banquet and at work parties through\u00a0the county. Thank you for your contributions to the SLO chapter of CNPS.<\/p>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Marlin Harms, 2010 Hoover Award recipient<\/p><\/div>\n2010<\/span>\n Marlin Harms’ quiet enthusiasm and wondrous photographs are vital both to conservation and appreciation of our county’s wildflowers. Marlin’s photographs are featured prominently throughout “Wildflowers of San Luis Obispo” including the cover photograph of a Calochortus venustus display at Laguna Lake. Typical of Marlin’s enthusiasm was his effort to locate and photograph missing subjects for that book. Marlin is never content with just a pedestrian image, he wants to improve and highlight each species with his art and he is helping germinate the Chapter’s next big publication, a guide to the Carrizo wildflowers.<\/p>\n Marlin has played a behind-the-scenes, but vital role in the successful conservation campaigns preserving so much of our county. His photographs of Hollister Peak, the Sur Sur Ranch, the East West Ranch, and the Palisades property in Los Osos presented to foundations, Congress, and the Legislature generated the excitement and support for those conservation victories. Additionally, Marlin has contributed plants he has grown from seed to our annual plant sale for more than 15 years, quietly supporting our chapter’s centerpiece fund-raiser.<\/p>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n George Butterworth, 2009 Hoover Award recipient<\/p><\/div>\n2009<\/span>\n The honoree of the Hoover Award is George Butterworth. The Hoover award was presented at CNPS-SLO’s January, 2010 banquet in recognition of George Butterworths distinguished and unstinting contributions to our county’s flora, including —<\/p>\n Heather and Jim Johnson, 2008 Hoover Award Recipients<\/p><\/div>\n 2008<\/span>This year it is our privilege to present the Award to Heather and Jim Johnson. Heather and Jim moved to this county about 10 years ago. In short time, they became acquainted with San Luis Obispo\u2019s \u201corganizational landscape,\u201d transferred their CNPS membership to our chapter, and jumped right in.<\/p>\n Their mark on our chapter has grown steadily through the years. With Heather\u2019s knowledge and artistic vision, and Jim\u2019s attention to detail, the local chapter continues to blossom.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n \n ![\"Suzette](\"https:\/\/cnpsslo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/suzette-Girouard.jpg\")
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\nrestoration projects in the Oceano Campground and at\u00a0the North Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove. Today his\u00a0special project is the reforestation of the peninsula area\u00a0in the Oceano lagoon and serving as Co-chair of the
\nGarden Committee. By the way, Bill has just been\u00a0awarded his 1,000 hour pin by the Central Coast State\u00a0Parks Association for the work he has done in the state\u00a0parks.<\/p>\n
\nup for a California native plant gardening class at the\u00a0Dunes Center in Guadalupe. It was taught by Al Naydol,
\nwho was an active CNPS member, an expert \u201cCal\u00a0Native\u201d gardener and at that time was Chief\u00a0Environmental Officer of Vandenberg Air Force Base.\u00a0The spin off from those classes was a group of south\u00a0county CNPS members called the \u201cNative Rooters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \n <\/a>\n \n <\/a>\n
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