Annual Meeting 2025

Keynote Speakers

Friday Evening Speakers:

Sara Woods and Frances Fischer

From Waterfalls to Desert Bluffs: Protecting the Columbia River Gorge

Join Sara and Frances to discover the wonders of the Columbia River Gorge. They’ll share how the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act was conceived, how the land trust continues to grow and preserve critical lands in the region, and how botanical discoveries along the way have added purpose to their work.

Sara Woods joined Friends of the Columbia Gorge in 2015. As stewardship manager, Sara takes a lead role in stewardship and restoration of Friends of the Columbia Gorge Land Trust properties. She has worked in the natural resource field for nearly two decades and has a diverse background in researching birds, fish, butterflies, plants, and forest carnivores. On the east coast, where she grew up, she acquired degrees in ecology and environmental science. Intrigued by the snow-capped mountains and never-ending beauty of the west, Sara settled in the Gorge in 2003. She completed a master’s degree in environmental management at Portland State University researching the Oregon silverspot butterfly. In her free time, Sara loves to adventure with her family and friends attempting to squeeze every drop out of life through rafting, skiing, camping, mushroom hunting, and enjoying the phenomenal food and drink of the Pacific Northwest. 

Frances Fischer has been at Friends of the Columbia Gorge Land Trust since 2018. Her work has included stewardship, record keeping, and restoration of Land Trust properties. She currently manages restoration and accessible recreation projects across the Gorge. A lifelong nature lover, Frances moved here after earning a B.S. in conservation biology and ecology with a minor in entomology from Montana State University. In Bozeman, she studied pollinators and climate change and did community outreach for the Montana Wilderness Association. A pollinator fanatic, Frances is organizer of the Gorge chapter of the Oregon Bee Atlas, a project of Oregon State University. In her free time, she enjoys gardening, herbalism, backpacking, and attempting to identify every native plant in the Columbia Gorge.

Saturday Speaker:

Paul Slichter Citizen Science: Rare Plant Monitoring In the Columbia Gorge

Paul Slichter is a long-time NPSO member. He served as Portland Chapter’s hike organizer, has led numerous field trips, and has given plant presentations to chapters in Oregon and Washington.  He was the field trip organizer for Portland’s previous three NPSO Annual Meetings.  While teaching high school students, he built his native plant website for use in student projects. He has since expanded it to display photos and information for much of the flora of the Pacific Northwest. Paul joined Washington Rare Care in 2008 and has conducted dozens of rare plant surveys for that organization. He’s reported more than 100 rare plant occurrences, more than half of them new. Paul manages the Facebook pages for both NPSO Portland Chapter and Oregon Flora. He continues to conduct plant surveys for local conservation organizations.

Annual Meeting Header Photo: Grass Widow (Olsynium douglasii), by Ann Maslen