Monthly Meeting

The monthly meeting of the Channel Islands chapter of the CNPS is held the third Tuesday of the month at 7pm PST . We meet either in person, alternating between sites in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, or on Zoom.

Tuesday, May 19, 2026 at 7pm on Zoom
Restoring California’s native plant communities in the face of global change

Justin Valliere is an Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension in Invasive Weed & Restoration Ecology at UC Davis. His research and extension activities are motivated by a lifelong fascination with plants and a passion for conservation. He received his PhD in Plant Ecology from UC Riverside and completed postdoctoral fellowships at UCLA’s La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science and the University of Western Australia. He also has years of experience in on-the-ground invasive plant management and ecological restoration. His research uses knowledge in soil ecology and ecophysiology to inform restoration and understand mechanisms of plant invasion.

Native plant restoration is becoming more difficult as multiple stressors interact, including increasing wildfire frequency, nitrogen deposition, drought, and invasive species. In this talk, I discuss how these factors shape plant communities and can reinforce nonnative dominance. I draw on field work and management experience to highlight key interactions and what they mean for restoring native species under changing conditions.