About us
Chapter History
The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) is on a mission to save California’s native plants and places using both head and heart. CNPS brings together science, education, conservation, and gardening to power the native plant movement.
The El Dorado CNPS chapter has been active since 1993. We’ve provided field trips and a newsletter right from the start.
Our native plants sales have provided hundreds of plants over the years to those in our community who understand the importance of providing habitat for local wildlife. Our first in-person plant sale was April of 1994. Since then, we continued to provide native plants to the public at in-person and online plant sales. Our plant sales have become so popular, we’ve changed from a single day in-person sale, to a multi-day online sale every spring and fall. Plant pickup dates, times, and Placerville location are provided during the sale.
El Dorado County
El Dorado County lies on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. Along the edge of the Great Valley, some grasslands contain vernal pools with a succession of spring-flowering annuals, while the lower foothills have areas of gabbro and serpentine soils which support special endemic plants. The rivers and streams have lush riparian woodlands with a number of different species of shrubs and herbs. To the east of Pollock Pines we enjoy the El Dorado National Forest which offers a wide variety of destinations, from drought-tolerant foothill and montane chaparral, to subalpine above 9000 feet in the Desolation Wilderness, to the shores of the largest alpine lake in North America, Lake Tahoe. Our chapter covers lands west of Echo Summit, while the Lake Tahoe Chapter covers the Tahoe basin.