Flower of Darlingtonia californica, California 
pitcher plant (photo copyright L. Vorobik) 
Fruit of Darlingtonia californica, California 
pitcher plant (photo copyright L. Vorobik) 
Pitcher plant fen at Days Gulch (photo copyright L. Vorobik) 
and the Klamath Region. More than 300 people attended, in¬ 
cluding community members of all ages and skill levels, aca¬ 
demic researchers, students, and federal agency scientists. As 
well, the majority of these people participated in field trips dur¬ 
ing the conference. It was clear from the written evaluations we 
received that participants greatly valued educational opportuni¬ 
ties in the field. 
By helping to build professional connections between sci¬ 
entists who study the region, SFI hopes to stimulate ongoing 
high quality research. At the 1997 conference, many scientists 
expressed a sense of solidarity derived from meeting together in 
one place for the first time. A wide array of information was 
shared on past and current research. As well, the presentations 
allowed all participants to learn about the wide variety of re¬ 
search happening in the region. Among many other talks, Arthur 
Kruckeberg, Emeritus Professor at the University of Washing¬ 
ton, gave a keynote address on the natural history of serpentine 
vegetation, a culmination of his lifelong work on serpentine 
ecology ( e.g ., Kruckeberg 1954, Kruckeberg 1984). Dominick 
Dellasalla unveiled WWF's global assessment of North Ameri¬ 
can biological diversity, lending further quantitative evidence 
for the exceptional diversity found in the Klamath-Siskiyou. Four 
separate presentations were given concerning the oft-debated 
issue: Port Orford cedar ( Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) and its as¬ 
sociated fatal root pathogen, Phytophthora lateralis. The presenters 
on Port Orford cedar (Donald Goheen, USDA Forest Service; 
Tom Jimerson, USDA Forest Service; Rich Nawa, Siskiyou 
Project; Donald Zobel, Oregon State University) voiced a wide 
range of perspectives. Several students gave presentations of origi¬ 
nal research, including a talk by Susan Nyoka on the pollina¬ 
tion of California pitcher plant ( Darlingtonia californica ), and a 
talk by John Cromwell on pollinator partitioning in the genus 
Lewisia. The enormous amount of scientific interest in the re¬ 
gion was evident at the conference, as well as in the 204-page 
Proceedings of the First Conference on Siskiyou Ecology published 
by the Siskiyou Project [available for $15 from the Siskiyou 
Project ]. SFI will host the next conference on Siskiyou Ecology 
in 2002. 
In 1998 the Siskiyou Project initiated the Siskiyou Field 
Institute (SFI), which offers science-based, field-oriented edu¬ 
cation programs each summer, as well as conferences and other 
educational forums periodically. SFI is currently cosponsored 
by the Native Plant Society of Oregon, Southern Oregon Uni¬ 
versity (SOU) Biology Department, USD I Oregon Caves Na¬ 
tional Monument, and the Siskiyou National Forest. The thread 
tying all SFI programs together is their focus on the natural 
history of the Siskiyous and the greater Klamath Region, and 
hands-on learning in the field. Courses are designed for a range 
of participants, both in age and skill level, including youth, 
nonscientist adults, advanced naturalists, professional scientists, 
and students. These programs bring together scientists and com¬ 
munity members, as well as people from throughout the region 
and beyond, all of whom are interested in studying the Kla¬ 
math-Siskiyou. 
More than 300 people participated in SFI programs in 1998, 
fi llin g 24 multi-day courses and one-day workshops, and we 
continue to expand each year. Many of our programs focused 
on the unique flora of the region. Following are descriptions of 
18 
Kalmiopsis Volume 7, 2001 
