2008 ABS Annual Meeting

“Urban Bamboo” was the theme for the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Bamboo Society, held at the Zoo in San Francisco on November 7 and 8, 2008.

Members of the Northern California Chapter of the ABS (NCC) invited specialists from around the country and the world to this event that was held at the San Francisco Zoo, located on San Francisco's western shoreline (MAP). The sixty acre Zoo has a well-established bamboo landscape utilizing many species which grow in the unique summer fog for which the region is famous. Participants enjoyed the grand collection of flora and fauna — it's one of the finest Zoos in the nation!

The Zoo's Superintendent of Grounds has been a great advocate for bamboo for years (with encouragement from Northern California Chapter member Hastings Schmidt, who donated a great deal of bamboo to the Zoo). The NCC quarantine greenhouse is located on Zoo grounds.

Featured presentations included bamboo architecture from Brazil by Celina Llerena; Hui Xue on plants from Yunnan, China -- some of which are surprisingly cold-tolerant; Gerard Minakawa, a Bolivian-American-Japanese sculptor and furniture maker; all tied together with our general theme of “Urban Bamboo.”

Workshops included Martin Coto from Costa Rica and Alfonso/Rubi Rangel from Mexico.  Racing bike fabricator Craig Calfee showed off one of the hundreds of bamboo bikes he has made. Members of NCCABS answered questions about bamboo.

Walking tours focused on urban plantings in San Francisco's downtown as well as the amazing work done in recent years to showcase mountain clumpers in the arboretum at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. All topped off with a dinner cruise on San Francisco Bay and a tour to Bamboo Sourcery Nursery and Gardens in Sebastopol, CA.

For additional coverage, see a future issue of BAMBOO, the Magazine of the American Bamboo Society.