Jake Ruygt

User Profile

Name: Jake Ruygt

Member Since: February 7th, 2012

Member Name: ruijgt

Last Logged In: February 14th, 2012

Biography:

Experience 1975-Present Jake A. Ruygt Garden Maintenance

Business Owner – Napa, CA

• Commercial and Residential Landscape Maintenance and Installation, C27 - state contractors license (# 589877) since 1990. Maintenance contracts include small residential, small to medium sized commercial properties, and condominium complexes. Services include lawn care, trimming, pruning, cleanup, limited tree care, weed and insect control, design, planting, irrigation installation and repair. Member of the California Landscape Contractors Association; hold a Pesticide Applicators Certificate.

1988-Present Napa Botanical Survey Services

Business Owner – Napa, CA

• Consulting Botanist – On the California Department of Fish and Game list of accepted botanists to conduct rare plant survey work in the Napa, Lake, Sonoma, and Solano County area. Have completed contracts as a consultant or subconsultant to assess potential impacts of a variety of development projects on rare plant populations and vegetation communities. Have conducted numerous botanical resource inventories. Contracts have been completed for James C. Hanson Engineering, Drew Aspergren Engineering, EIP, WESCO, Levine-Fricke, Peter Reichers and Associates, Garcia & Associates, Napa Sanitation District, Napa County Resource Conservation District, Napa County Flood Control District, The Land Trust of Napa County, Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation & Open Space District, The Nature Conservancy, Information Center For the Environment (ICE), Army Corps of Engineers, California Department of Fish and Game, and numerous private property owners.

• Team member in the development of management plans for Newell Open Space Preserve and Archer Taylor Preserve in Napa County. Consulted to the Napa County Flood Control District during the phase 1A transplant of Lilaeopsis masonii on the lower Napa River. Contracted by Friends of the Napa River to work as a member of the Historical Ecology Project, mapping historic valleys oaks and remnant vegetation of the Napa River Watershed. Worked with ICE (UC Davis) to ground truth vegetation during a Napa County vegetation mapping project in 2002. The products of this work were used to develop the first county-wide vegetation map in the nation utilizing aerial photography.

Published work includes:

• 100 Napa County Roadside Wildflowers – 1996. A collaboration with Dr. Richards Lyon, retired physician. 97 pp.

• Ecological Studies of Clara Hunt’s Milkvetch Astragalus clarianus and a Proposal for Habitat Restoration at Conn Valley Road, Napa County – July 1994. Submitted to the Endangered Plant Program, California Department of Fish and Game. 97 pp.

• Ecological Studies and Demographic Monitoring of Soft Bird’s Beak Cordylanthus mollis ssp. mollis A California Listed Rare Plant Species – September 1994. Submitted to the Endangered Plant Program, CDFG. 171 pp.

• Oaks in Napa County – 1990. A collaboration with Joe Callizo, Napa County botanist/ naturalist. 2 pp.

1985-present The California Native Plant Society

Conservation Chairman and Rare Plant Chairman (since 1995)- Napa Valley Chapter. Duties include:

• Review and comment on environmental documents (EIR, THP, etc.) and impending legislation.

• Conduct Annual Plant Watch field trips to monitor rare plant sites.

• Comment to State Water Resources Control Board of possible rare plant impacts related to water applications.

• Submit rare plant information to Napa County Planning Department to maintain Environmental Sensitivity Maps. Worked with county cartographer to insure accurate map data.

• Submit rare plant field survey forms for newly found or monitored rare plant sites to the Natural Diversity Database, a CDFG branch, Sacramento.

• Maintain maps and reports of rare plants and vernal pools in Napa County.

• Petition State or Federal Government to list rare threatened or endangered plant species occurring in Napa County. Submitted documentation to support the (successful) listing of Cordylanthus mollis ssp. mollis, Poa napensis, Plagiobothrys strictus, Lasthenia conjugens, Navarretia leucocephala ssp. pauciflora, Astragalus clarianus, Castilleja affinis ssp. neglecta.

• Conduct plant community field surveys to assist in a recent CDFG program to identify endangered plant communities.

• Lead field trips instructing participants in native plant and identification and ecology.

Education 1971-1973 Napa Community College, Napa, CA

A.S. degree

1973-1975 University of California, Davis, CA

B.S., Wildlife and Fisheries Biology – Wildlife specialty

Interests Flora of Napa County – Currently working on a publishable flora of over 1600 known varieties of plants, native or naturalized in Napa County. This includes over 34 years of fieldwork in the county. Fieldwork results have been shared with many parties in the form of comprehensive Area Species Lists (Mead Ranch, Devil’s Canyon, Mt. George, Mt. St. Helena, Westwood Hills, Alston Park, Bogg’s Mountain, Rush Ranch, Wildlake Ranch and others). Field studies have advanced understanding of rare plant distribution and plant diversity of Napa County.

Bird Watching – Participated with Napa-Solano Audubon Society on Napa County Breeding Bird Atlas (fieldwork) and regularly participate (since 1993) in annual Christmas Bird Counts (Benicia and Angwin).

Mushroom Walks – Lead or co-lead Napa Valley Chapter, California Native Plant Society mushroom walks.

Public Service

Member of a Napa County appointed Watershed task Force 2000-2001; charged to determine needs for expanded conservation regulations in the county. Member of the Board of Trustees for the Land Trust of Napa County (1999-2005), a nonprofit land conservation organization. Original member of the (Fall 2002-04) Board of Directors of the Watershed Information Center and Watershed Conservancy in Napa County.