About
WBFF Vice Chairman & North America Director
Mr. Jack Sustic
Sustic helped to establish many perennial programs and relationships at the Museum and NBF. He pioneered the formation of NBF’s National Bonsai Hall of Fame, which currently includes three members: John Naka, Yuji Yoshimura and Bill Valavanis.
“It was something I thought the Museum and the U.S. bonsai community needed in order to honor and recognize these bonsai masters’ valuable contributions to the art,” he said.
He served as co-chair of the 5th World Bonsai Convention in 2005. Jack keeps busy teaching and maintaining his own bonsai collection, and for the last 3 1/2 years has cared for the bonsai collection at the University of Michigan's Matthaei Botanical Gardens in his home state of Michigan.
North America Region
Welcome visitors. May we welcome you to this site and to be able to tell you a little more about the NABF’s participation in the WBFF Cooperation Program.
To promote the art of bonsai and to raise awareness of the existence of public bonsai collections, the WBFF has recently established a program to recognize and officially designate specific public bonsai collections throughout the world as “WBFF Cooperation Centers.” In so doing, the WBFF seeks to raise awareness of the existence of these important institutions and collections and to strengthen the relationships among them by providing a network for support of bonsai through an active exchange of information and activities.
The NABF if proud to say that five of these Centers are located in North America and we invite you to visit the NABF site where you may learn more about these Centers and how they are working together to strengthen the ties among bonsai lovers world wide.
North America Bonsai Federation
he North American Bonsai Federation (NABF) was founded by Bonsai Master John Yoshio Naka in 1989 to represent all bonsai and suiseki individuals and organizations in across the North America Continent. (Canada and the US). As such, it is just one of nine regions around the globe which comprise the World Bonsai Friendship Federation (WBFF).
It is the NABF’s mission is to support and strengthen bonsai on this continent and to carry out WBFF’s overall mission of fostering peace, friendship and goodwill in the world through bonsai and related art forms.
Since founding NABF, it has been a cornerstone of WBFF, hosting 2 World Bonsai Conventions in North America (Orlando in 1993 and Washington, DC in 2005)
NABF membership is open to all those who share a love of bonsai and related arts and who support our goals and objectives. Individual memberships are welcome as well as memberships by clubs, societies and related bonsai and suiseki organizations. To find out more about the North American Bonsai Federation, simply click the link below. www.northamericanbonsaifederation.com
North American Bonsai Federation
From Sea To Shining Sea
North America is a big place. More than 9 million square miles or 24 million square kilometers. That can be a great deal of ground to cover if you are looking for bonsai information in a specific area. The North American Bonsai Federation has tried to help by dividing those millions of miles (or kilometers) into nine specific regions. Each region has been assigned a “Regional Director”. It is that Directors' responsibility to keep tabs on what is happening in his/her respective region. Even so . . . some of the regions are vast, but if you need help locating something, somewhere, or someone in bonsai in a specific area, an e-mail to the Regional Director is the best place to start.
North America Region Collection
US National Exhibition 2023
President NABF
Chris Baker, President NABF
Director WBFF: Chris Baker - rekab15@hotmail.com
CANADA EASTERN REGION
Ontario - Quebec - New Brunswick - Nova Scotia - Prince Edward Island
Regional Director: Jean Dumaine - jdumaine@hotmail.com
CANADA WEST REGION
Manitoba - Saskatchewan - Alberta - British Columbia
Regional Director: Les Dowdell - hokkoku@telusplanet.net
US NORTH EAST REGION
Maine - Massachusetts - Rhode Island - Connecticut - New York - Delaware - Pennsylvania- New Hampshire - Maryland - Vermont - New Jersey
Regional Director: William Valavanis - wnv@internationalbonsai.com
US SOUTH EAST REGION
Kentucky - West Virginia - Tennessee - Virginia - Mississippi - Alabama - North Carolina - South Carolina - Georgia - Florida
Regional Director: Chuck Harris - chucklbuck@yahoo.com
US NORTH CENTRAL REGION
Michigan - Nebraska - North Dakota - South Dakota - Minnesota - Wisconsin - Iowa - Missouri - Illinois - Indiana - Ohio
Regional Director: Judy Schmidt (Mid-American Bonsai Alliance President) - schmidtjm@aol.com
US SOUTH CENTRAL REGION
Colorado - Kansas - New Mexico - Texas - Arkansas - Oklahoma - Louisiana
Regional Director: Arthur Parker (Lone Star Bonsai Federation President) - peteparkerbonsai@yahoo.com
US NORTH WESTERN REGION
Washington - Oregon - Idaho - Montana - Wyoming - Utah
Regional Director: Roger Case - rcase@swcp.com
US SOUTH WESTERN REGION
California - Nevada - Utah - Arizona
Regional Director: Rich Guillen (Golden State Bonsai Federation President - richguillen@att.net
US PACIFIC REGION
Hawaii - Alaska
Regional Director: Warren Yamamoto (Hawaii Bonsai Association President) - daisyy3@hawaiiantel.net
World Bonsai Friendship Federation Recognition
Prior to the “Bonsai as Fine Art” Exhibition at Blue Spiral 1, a large box arrived from South Korea containing four awards, three of which were brass plaques enclosed in elegant cloth-covered boxes to be presented during the Opening Reception and the fourth a framed “Outstanding Bonsai” Certificate to be awarded at the end of the Exhibition. These awards were bestowed by Kim Sae Won, Chairman of the World Bonsai Friendship Federation, Inc., a worldwide nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting peace and goodwill around the globe through the art of bonsai. The three plaques, expressing WBFF’s appreciation for “great contribution to the development of the Art of Bonsai,” went to Arthur Joura, Curator of Bonsai at The North Carolina Arboretum, George Briggs, Executive Director of the Arboretum, and Chris Pazoles, President of the Blue Ridge Bonsai Society. The winner of the “Outstanding Bonsai” award, John Geanangel’s Bald Cypress bonsai, was chosen by Director Michael Manes and Assistant Director Blair Guggenheim of Blue Spiral 1 based on their artistic judgment as fine art curators.
