Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Meeting minutes with state reports are attached.

Short-term Outcomes: In 2009, WERA-1013 completed its first full year as an official western working group. The overriding objective for the group is to improve water conservation in the west by advancing the use of native plants in the horticultural trade. At the 2008 meeting, the group advanced concepts for three major outputs in support of the major objective. These were: 1) design and maintenance of a website for the purpose of providing information on use and availability of native plants, 2) implement programs in each state to educate landscape designers and architects on the use of native plants, and 3) develop and strengthen the native plant evaluation projects in each participating state. Subcommittees were organized to administer each output. During the subsequent year, it was discovered that the operating guidelines for the first two subcommittees were set too broadly and goals for 2009 were not met. The evaluation subcommittee compiled the evaluation forms for all states participating in native plant evaluation trials. Outputs: 1. Annual meeting of WERA-1013 which involved both public and private stakeholders. 2. Evaluation forms and descriptive parameters were developed to assist with native plant information management. Activities: Idaho Botanical Gardens coordinated a CSREES-Specialty Crop Research Initiative Research and Extension Planning grant on "Increasing Intermountain Native Plants in the Horticulture Industry" that involved the Intermountain Native Plant Growers Association, University of Idaho at Aberdeen, Utah State University, and Montana State University. Individual states continued their native plant evaluation programs. Milestones: The committee agreed on subcommittee charges for 2010 and set forth milestones for the next meeting (October 2010). A) Website 1) Develop format for providing information on individual native plant species 2) Determine who is going to host and maintain the website and who will be the website designer 3)Determine guidelines on the general structure of the website 4)Register the site with NIMSS 5)Put presentations from meeting on website B) Education 1) Organize coordinated program for 2011 2) Contact appropriate persons in each state to get coordinated program out in front of professional organizations 3) Set standards for presentations - designing and landscaping with native plants C) Evaluation 1) Set standards of descriptive characteristics that need to be included in an approval packet, work with website subcommittee on this

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