Native plants are indigenous, adapted or naturalized to the local soils and weather therefore they require less water and maintenance.
They provide a beautiful, hardy, drought resistant, low maintenance landscape while benefiting the environment. Native plants, once established, save time and money by eliminating or significantly reducing the need for fertilizers, pesticides, water and lawn maintenance equipment.
- Native plants require less water than lawns.
- Native plants help reduce air pollution.
- Native plants provide shelter and food for wildlife.
- Native plants promote biodiversity and stewardship of our natural heritage.
- Native plants save money.
According to the Washington Native Plant Society the current plant list for San Juan County includes 945 plant species with 328 of those being introduced thus leaving 617 native or seemingly indigenous plants, depending on the time period. The Annual Native Plant Sale is an opportunity to purchase a select few of these native plant species at reasonable cost to encourage conservation of our natural resources and habitat restoration. These plants can be used for restoration of lost plant communities from development, erosion control, wildlife habitat development and agricultural uses such as windbreaks. The plant stock is from the Washington Association of Conservation Districts Plant Materials Center (PMC) wholesale nursery in Bow, Washington. Their mission is to provide high quality conservation grade plants, shrubs and services that benefit natural resources. The 60-acre bare-root nursery is located in Skagit County and produces over 70 species of conservation seedlings and cuttings.
The importance of plant seed sources cannot be underestimated. “Provenance” is the geographical origin of the seed or cutting used in propagation and it is important because it can have a direct effect on plant vigor and survivability. Plants with a provenance that is similar to the planting site will often grow better. Ideally folks can harvest local seed or do plant salvage from areas that are going to be cleared. Truly native plants should be propagated from seeds and cuttings that originate in the same watershed as the planting site. There is ample evidence that maintaining provenance on this level results in increased vigor and decreased mortality, but at increased time and money.
The San Juan Islands Conservation District uses the ecoregions of the Northwest rather individual watershed to determine provenance and this has allowed us to utilize the plants propagated at the Plant Materials Center for local conservation efforts. “Ecoregions are regions with broad environmental similarities such as temperature and precipitation.” There are 7 recognized ecoregions in Washington and we are located in the Puget Lowland. “Most of the plant material grown at the Plant Materials Center follow the ecoregion concept of provenance” thus providing “plant materials that are suitably adapted to the general climate of the planting site, at a reasonable cost, in substantial quantities.” (PMC Website, http://www.wacd.org/PMC/, 2007)
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 8
Puget Lowland Ecoregion
Most of the seeds, transplants and cuttings used at the Plant Materials Center are source identified, meaning that the origin of that material is identified and tracked through harvest; they are sourced from Western Washington, Eastern Washington, British Columbia and Oregon. The Plant Materials Center does its best to ensure that Conservation Districts and cooperators such as the Master Gardeners Foundation are receiving the most genetically suitable plant material possible.
Our conservation efforts often include working with agricultural lands. Many of the native plants are valuable for creating hedgerows for wildlife habitat and windbreaks from the strong storms that pummel the islands of the Salish Sea. Retaining or adding additional native landscape plants is especially important because documents such as Pasture and Hayland Renovation for Western Washington and Oregon by Steven Fransen (Farming West of the Cascades, WSU Cooperative Extension, 2002) give advice for agricultural planting of forages, yet the forage recommendations do not include a single “native” species. They are all considered “non-native” with selection based on use such as livestock grazing, hay production, livestock confinement area, or temporary cover. The “non-native” species that are recommended include oats, barley, wheat, red and white clover, alfalfa, timothy, ryegrass, fescue, and Kentucky bluegrass. These “non-native” plants currently make up much of our island landscapes and lawns but could be augmented with the native ground covers, shrubs and trees.
According to the book Plants and Animals of the Pacific Northwest by Eugene Kozloff, (Univ. of Washington Press, 1976) our San Juan Archipelago is located in the Puget Trough similar to the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Thus our more common “principal vegetational assemblages are coniferous forests, consisting mostly of Douglas fir, scattered stands of Garry oak, riverbank woods composed mostly of cottonwoods, alder and ash; brushy areas with relatively few trees; and grasslands.” We are known uniquely for the “Lodgepole pine, western white pine, paper birch, quaking aspen and Rocky Mountain juniper.” He notes that we are in the driest portion of the region with much of the land in a rain shadow and soils that are rocky, gravelly, or sandy which requires that plants adapt to limited water during portions of the year and rapidly draining soils. These are some of the reasons why we have partnered with the Master Gardener Foundation to continue to offer select native plants during our annual sale to the residents of San Juan County who need landscape conservation plants that are tolerant of many conditions and can improve habitat and conservation efforts.
(Co-Authored by Kristina Bayas, WSU Extension and D. N. Kinsey, ASLA, San Juan Islands Conservation District. For more information contact the WSU Master Gardeners Foundation at 360.378.4414)
See our Native Plant Sale page.
Resources
Plants-San Juan Islands
Native Plant List (descriptions and photos) via Washington Association of Conservation Districts Plant Materials Center
King County website covers plants native to western Washington. Native Plant Guide
Endangered Plants of San Juan County
Native Plant and Seed Sources