Mary Leolin Bowerman (January 25, 1908 – August 21, 2005) was an American botanist, co-author of ''The Flowering Plants and Ferns of Mount Diablo, California; Their Distribution and Association into Plant Communities','' and the co-founder o
Save Mount Diablo.She helped to preserve tens of thousands of acres of
Mount Diablo
Mount Diablo is a mountain of the Diablo Range, in Contra Costa County of the eastern San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. It is south of Clayton and northeast of Danville. It is an isolated upthrust peak of , visible from most ...
in the San Francisco East Bay before dying at age 97.
[Adams, Seth (2000]
“History of Mount Diablo”
Mount Diablo Interpretive Association, ''Mount Diablo Review'', fall 2000. Retrieved 2018-12-03 In 1936 she was the last person to record the
Mount Diablo buckwheat
''Eriogonum truncatum'', the Mount Diablo buckwheat, is a small pink wildflower, believed to have been extinct since 1936 until its rediscovery in 2005. The species is only known to live on Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County, northern Califor ...
''Eriogonum truncatum,'' until it was rediscovered nearly seventy years later on May 10, 2005.
In 1978 the
manzanita
Manzanita is a common name for many species of the genus ''Arctostaphylos''. They are evergreen shrubs or small trees present in the chaparral biome of western North America, where they occur from Southern British Columbia and Washington to Or ...
''Arctostaphylos bowermaniae'' was named in her honor.
Life and work
Mary Leolin "Leo" Bowerman, the daughter of Lindley H. Bowerman and Ada Sarah Wesson Bowerman, co-founded the activist grou
Save Mount Diabloin 1971 and served on its board of directors until her death. Born in
Toronto, Ontario
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, Canada, and educated in England, Bowerman eventually became a resident of
Pasadena, California during her teenage years. From 1928 to 1954, Berkeley, California was her home. She ultimately settled in
Lafayette, California
Lafayette (formerly La Fayette) is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. As of 2020, the city's population was 25,391. It was named after the Marquis de Lafayette, a French military officer of the American Revolutionary War.
...
.
A botanist and student of the flora of Mount Diablo for over seventy-five years, she received her undergraduate degree in 1930 and her Ph.D in 1936 from U.C. Berkeley. Her doctoral advisor was famed California botanist
Willis Linn Jepson
Willis Linn Jepson (August 19, 1867 – November 7, 1946) was an early California botanist, conservationist, and writer.
Career
Born at Little Oak Ranch near Vacaville, California, Jepson became interested in botany as a boy and explor ...
; she was his last surviving student. It was as a student that she began a project on Mt. Diablo.
She later said, "Little did I know 65 years ago that my senior project would become my life's work."
Beginning in 1930, her botanical research pre-dated the creation o
Mt. Diablo State Parkand became a basis for preservation there. She expanded her 1936 doctorate into ''The Flowering Plants and Ferns of Mount Diablo, California; Their Distribution and Association into Plant Communities'', The Gillick Press, 1944. In 2002 the book was updated and republished by Bowerman and
Barbara Ertter, Curator of Western North American Flora at the U.C. Berkeley's Jepson Herbarium. Her other area of expertise was the flora of southern British Columbia.
Through "Save Mount Diablo," she worked toward her dream: "that the whole of Mount Diablo, including its foothills, should remain open space
...that the visual and natural integrity will be sustained." Bowerman was involved in the expansion of public lands on Mt. Diablo from 6,788 acres (27 km²) in 1971 to more than 87,000 acres (350 km²) in 2005, including the tripling in size of Mt. Diablo State Park to 20,000 acres (80 km²). At Mt. Diablo she was directly involved in preservation of Blackhawk Ridge, the Blackhills; Sycamore, Mitchell, Back, and Donner Canyons; and North Peak.
Honors
Mt. Diablo State Park's summit Fire Interpretive Trail was dedicated in her honor in 1982 and renamed for her in 2007. She was further honored by East Bay Regional Park District in 2001 when the crest of Highland Ridge, in
Morgan Territory Regional Preserve, was renamed ''Founders Ridge'' in honor of Save Mount Diablo's founders. In 1978 James B. Roof, director of the East Bay Regional Park District's Botanic Garden named in her honor the manzanita ''Arctostaphylos bowermaniae'', a variant found at
Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve
The Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve is a park located north of Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County, California under the administration of the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD). The district acquired the property in 1973. The preser ...
near
Antioch, California
Antioch is the third-largest city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area along the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. The city's population was 115,291 at the 2020 cen ...
.
She received many awards for her Diablo preservation efforts including a State of California ''
Golden Bear award
Golden means made of, or relating to gold.
Golden may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
*Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall
* Golden Cap, Dorset
*Golden Square, Soho, London
*Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestershi ...
'', John Muir Memorial Association's ''John Muir Conservation Award'' (1980), the ''Chevron Times Mirror Magazine National Conservation Award'' (1996), Contra Costa County ''Women of Achievement Hall of Fame Award'' (1998), Diablo Magazine's ''Threads of Hope Volunteer Award for Lifetime Achievement'' (2000), and the Daughters of the American Revolution's ''
National Conservation Medal''. She was the subject of interviews, news articles, and editorials including in photographer Galen Rowell's book ''Bay Area Wild'', 1997. She was recognized in the Sept. 9, 1998 Congressional Record.
References
Further reading
*
*
* ''The Four Seasons'', Volume 5, No. 4, pp. 15–18, 1978
External links
THE FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS OF MOUNT DIABLO CALIFORNIA, by Barbara Ertter and Mary BowermanSan Francisco Chronicle: ''Mary Bowerman -- helped start Save Mount Diablo''San Francisco Chronicle EDITORIAL" ''One woman's mountain''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowerman, Mary
American women botanists
Botanists active in North America
1908 births
2005 deaths
Activists from the San Francisco Bay Area
Scientists from the San Francisco Bay Area
Mount Diablo
20th-century American women scientists
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American botanists
21st-century American women