BY KAREN BOSSICK

Do you find yourself looking for early season violets underneath our thin carpet of snow?

Check out a free talk and slideshow titled “Superbloom 2023.”

The Wood River Chapter of the Idaho Native Plant Society is sponsoring the show at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 23.

Pam Brunsfield, a retired University of Idaho Stillinger Herbarium director and botany instructor, will take viewers to the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve, Carrizo Plain and the Mojave Desert of southern California. Those areas experienced an exceptional superbloom last year during Spring 2023.

Brunsfeld has visited the Southwest desert every spring to view and learn the flora, and she’s been able to witness two superblooms over that time.

The program is available only via Zoom, which means you can watch it from the comfort of your home. This program will be available only via Zoom at this link  https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84289943217. To see it, you must set up a free Zoom account.

Lisa Horton, a member of the Wood River Chapter of the Idaho Native Plant Society, kindly agreed to describe how to set up a free account:

Go to https://zoom.us.

Click the blue button on the left that says Plans & Pricing. Then select “Sign Up” under the Basic Free plan. The next screen asks for your birth year. This is necessary because juveniles are restricted. Click “Continue.” Next, enter your email address. When you hit “Continue,” you will have a screen that wants a passcode, which has been sent to the email address that you just entered. When you enter that code and click “Verify,” you will need to create a password. If given the choice, choose “keep me signed in.”

To participate in a Zoom meeting, make sure you are logged into your account before the meeting starts. Then, click on the meeting link you were given, or copy and paste it into your browser. This will take you to Zoom. There will be a popup window with a button in the center of the page inviting you to join the meeting (or else you’ll be taken straight to the meeting. The moderator may have set up a “waiting room” and will allow you inside at the meeting time.)

Make sure your video is turned on. This camera icon is at the left bottom of the screen. Do you see yourself in a box? You do have the option to turn off your video so that others can’t see you while you snarf down popcorn. You will still be able to view the presentation and see the other participants with your video turned off.

The mute/unmute button is in the corner of the box. For talks and presentations, it’s considered polite to mute yourself so background noises from your location won’t be transmitting to everyone else. Generally, questions are asked by using the Chat, also available on the bar across the bottom of the screen.

Questions? Contact Kristin Fletcher, president of the local chapter, at naturewalker7@gmail.com.