spring 2008 plant conservation newsletter
TRANSCRIPT
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Recovering Americas Vanishing Flora
Sng 2008 l V 21, Nb 1
VoluNteerS SurVey BaSalt DaiSy oN a WeekeND trip
Growing on the steep terrain of the
basalt cliffs in Yakima Canyon, the
basalt daisy ( Erigeron basalticus) provided an excellent training
opportunity for a group of edgling
surveyors.
Thirteen volunteers from the
University of Washington Botanic
Gardens Rare Plant Monitoring
(RPM) team traveled to south
central Washington state as part of
their rst-ever group monitoringtrip. Because RPM volunteers
typically work independently,
UW Botanic Gardens RPM team
took this monitoring trip as a great
opportunity for a group surveyingweekend. Tim McCracken of the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
contacted the Garden for assistance
in updating population census data
for review of the species Candidate
status. The last time the daisys
population was surveyed was in
2000.
The RPM staff, Sarah Reichard,director, Wendy Gibble, program
i f a t f i r S t yo u D o N t S u c c e e D . . .b: ed Gn p.D., cnsvn D. nd and rvn, cnsvn Sns, B Bn Gdn
As important as success stories are,
not all projects lend themselves to
such clear cut accounts. Indeed,
less than warmly satisfying results
can be very instructive. In this vein,
two of our older projects have at
times given us pause, and we have
revisited them. One is a long term
seed viability study we recently
unearthed and the other is our rst
rare plant reintroduction.
Found only in a small area in
central Oregon, Pecks penstemon
( Penstemon peckii) occurs in the
sparsely vegetated areas between
patches of woody vegetation in the
ponderosa pine forests. Succession to
shrubs is both a natural phenomenon
and a threat to extant populations of
this plant.
The presence or absence of a
viable soil seed bank might have
a signicant impact both on the
species survival prospects and
management strategies. To address
Please see Success, Page 7p Pecks penstemon (Penstemon peckii)
Please see Monitoring, Page 10
p The steep cliffs of Yakima Canyon
provided a challenge for the daisy surveying
team. Photographer: W. Gibble
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The Center for Plant Conservation
is a national not-for-prot
organization hosted by the
Missouri Botanical Garden in
St. Louis and governed by an
independent Board of Trustees.
A network of 36 botanical
institutions, the Centers mission
is to conserve and restore the rare
native plants of the United States.
Telephone: (314) 577-9450
E-mail: [email protected]
www.centerforplantconservation.org
Plant Conservation is published
quarterly. If youd like to
reproduce any newsletter material
please contact CPC at (314) 577-
9450 or [email protected]. Or mail
requests to CPC, P.O. Box 299, St.
Louis, MO 63166.
Board of Trustees
Emmy White Seymour, Chairman
Kathryn L. Kennedy, Ph.D.,
President and Executive Director
Andrew S. Love Jr., Vice President
Janet Meakin Poor, Vice President
Ann Coburn, Secretary
Hooker Talcott Jr., Treasurer
Robert Breunig, Ph.D.Patricia R. Bush
David DeKing
Ann Frierson
Julia Bissell Leisenring
John McPheeters
Shirley Meneice
Ladeen M. Miller
Sara Oldeld
C.W. Eliot Paine
Polly H. Pierce
Patti Schleuning
Edward Schneider, Ph.D.
Kenneth Schutz
Jocelyn Sladen
Mary Ann Streeter
Frank ThibodeauPeter S. White, Ph.D.
Charles Chipper Wichman, Jr.
Peter Ashton, Ph.D., Trustee Emeritus
Bill Truslow, Esq., Trustee Emeritus
Participating Institutions
Amy B.H. Greenwell
Ethnobotanical Garden
The Arboretum at Flagstaff
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
The Arnold Arboretum
of Harvard University
Atlanta Botanical Garden
The Berry Botanic Garden
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Chicago Botanic Garden
Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden
Cornell Plantations
Denver Botanic Gardens
Desert Botanical GardenFairchild Tropical Botanical Garden
Harold L. Lyon Arboretum
Historic Bok Sanctuary
The Holden Arboretum
Honolulu Botanical Gardens
Lady Bird Johnson Wildower Center
Mercer Arboretum
and Botanic Gardens
Missouri Botanical Garden
The Morton Arboretum
National Tropical Botanical Garden
New England Wild Flower Society
The New York Botanical Garden
The North Carolina Arboretum
North Carolina Botanical Garden
Rancho Santa Ana Botanic GardenRed Butte Garden and Arboretum
Regional Parks Botanic Garden
San Antonio Botanical Garden
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
The State Botanical
Garden of Georgia
University of California
Botanical Garden
University of Washington
Botanic Gardens
Waimea Valley
Afliate Institution
St. George Village Botanic Garden
Science Advisory Council
Barbara A. Schaal, Ph.D., Chair
Marie Bruegmann
Michele R. Dudash, Ph.D.
John J. Fay, Ph.D.
Gary Knight
Tiffany Knight, Ph.D.
Richard Koske, Ph.D.
Eric S. Menges, Ph.D.Clifford Morden, Ph.D.
Larry E. Morse, Ph.D.
Peggy Olwell
Bruce Pavlik, Ph.D.
Jackie Poole
Vincent Tepedino, Ph.D.
Warren L. Wagner, Ph.D.
Christina Walters, Ph.D.
George Yatskievych, Ph.D.
National Ofce Staff
Kathryn L. Kennedy, Ph.D.,
President and Executive Director
Anna Strong,
Conservation Projects Coordinator
Rick Luhman,Technical Information Coordinator
Maria Bradford,
Development Manager
Jo Meyerkord,
Communications Coordinator
Volunteers
Lois Batchelder, Marie Bergmann,
Lori Calcaterra, Nada Granberry,
Benjamin Kennedy, David Kennedy,
Mary Serbi, Sue Slivka, Patrick
White
One of the things I most enjoy at
CPC is the Plant Conservation
Course we offer periodically. We just
completed a week long session in
Honolulu, and youll be able to readall about it in a few pages. I enjoy
the camaraderie with other faculty
who are friends and colleagues, and
soaking in the science again.
I also get a great sense of hope from
the bright scientists who enroll in
the class. They are dedicated and
concerned about plant conservation,
and want to do a good job. Whenyou look out at a class like that,
you know weve got something
really good going for the future. I
like being a part of that transfer of
knowledge and experience to others
who will go even further and do
better and better work.
This week of teaching about the
issues in plant conservation that are
unique (and some that are universal
to all conservationists) is intense.
The days are long. So are the hours
that the faculty (institution scientists,
Science Advisory Council members,
and agency partners) log in advance
with calls ne-tuning curriculum,
preparing their presentations, andtraveling. This is a labor of love.
CPC is all about partnerships,
and these are some of the best.
The National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation helped us develop the
curriculum, and the entire network
and most of our partners were
involved over an entire year. The
Department of Defense Legacy
Resource Management Program
2 Plant Conservat ion, Spring 2008
DirectorS letter: teachiNG iN the preSeNt for the future
This newsletter
is printed on
recycled paper
with soy ink.
Please see Directors Letter, Page 5
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www.centerforplantconservat ion.org 3
Volunteers are the heart and soul
of many of CPCs Participating
Institutions work programs. Without
the countless hours donated, many of
the networks projects would lag farbehind where they are today. Ranging
from ling papers in an ofce to
counting seeds in a laboratory to
surveying native populations in
the eld on overnight treks, CPCs
volunteers contributions are
immeasurable.
At the University of Washington
Botanic Gardens, volunteers are moreimportant than ever. With over 200
volunteers the UWs Rare Care team
depends heavily on this dedicated
group of individuals. Wendy Gibble,
program manager, relies on their
volunteers to access remote areas
of Washington for monitoring trips
her regular staff doesnt have time to
make.
Without the Rare Care volunteers,
Gibble is condent there would be
no program to monitor these species.
We would not be doing the rare plant
monitoring at all our volunteers are
the backbone of that project. I also
dont know how we could get all
the seeds cleaned and packaged for
the seed vault they do it all! said
Gibble.
Gibble and the Rare Care team
recruit many of their volunteers
from the Washington Native
Plant Society and the native plant
stewardship programs. These types
of organizations are gold mines
for nding individuals devoted to
CPCs mission. Often times these
individuals also have the skills
needed for scientic assignments.
Volunteers are recruited by word of
mouth as well. Recently the team
enlisted 43 new volunteers, from
central and eastern Washington, to
build capacity in their more remote
areas.
When recruiting your own volunteers
it is important to be exible. The
same thing doesnt motivate each
individual, so it is crucial to have a
number of different types of projects
for them to complete. Some may
want to conduct eld work in a
solitary setting, while others are
more motivated by group activities in
an ofce or laboratory environment.
Also, it is important to offer varying
levels of commitment; while a retiree
may be able to devote three days a
week, others may be able to provide
just one day every few months.
Above all else, we must remember
these volunteers are precious to our
cause and treat them with the utmost
respect. Many of our programs would
suffer a severe setback without them;
letting them know their work is
appreciated and valued is crucial for
retention.
If you are located in the Washington
state area and are interested in
joining the Rare Care team contact
Wendy Gibble at 206/543-8616. If
you are interested in volunteering
to help save imperiled plants in a
different location contact your local
botanical institution or visit www.
centerforplantconservation.org.
V o l u N t e e r S : t h e B a c k B o N e o f o u r p r o G r a m S
q Rare Care volunteers learn techniques to estimate population size. Photo by W. Gibble
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The effects of herbivores and
invasive plants on native plants
are well known, but few studies
have addressed their impacts
on rare plants. Threatened orendangered plant species may
be more susceptible to negative
effects of biotic factors due to their
already low distributions. My study
quanties the interactions between
deer, an invasive plant, a rare herb
and its associated plant community
to assist in the conservation of native
plants.
Trillium reliquum is an endangered
spring ephemeral herb that is native
to three states in the southeast. It is
threatened by the encroachment of
Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera
japonica) and white-tailed deer
(Odocoileus virginianus) herbivory.
I selected ve sites in Georgia to
examine the impacts of deer and
honeysuckle on T. reliquum across
its Georgia range. Four treatment
combinations were established
within each population, including:
1) deer excluded, honeysuckle
present 2) deer excluded,
honeysuckle removed 3) deer
accessible, honeysuckle present
4) deer accessible, honeysuckle
removed. I measured deer and
honeysuckle impacts on T. reliquum
and plant community structure in
2005 and 2006. Trillium reliquum
was found in both species rich and
species poor habitats. Deer and
honeysuckle did not negatively
impact species richness. Levels of
deer browse intensity varied across
sites and honeysuckle was the
most frequent vine at most sites.
White-tailed deer decreased fruit
production and increased dormancy
in T. reliquum. Honeysuckle was
associated with small but stable
trillium populations. Empirical data
and matrix models demonstrated
that removal of honeysuckle results
in signicant population increases.
This suggests that honeysuckle
suppresses T. reliquum emergence.
Conservation efforts forT. reliquum
should focus on long-term deer
population management and the
control of invaders. Also, the
conservation of subadult (three
leaf) and reproductive individuals is
important to T. reliquum population
growth.
Jacob Thompson won the Catherine
Beattie Fellowship in 2005
Currently, he is a vegetation
ecologist with the Georgia
Department of Natural Resources,
Nongame Conservation Section
Thompson works out of Brunswick,
Georgia and focuses on the mapping
of vegetation on the Georgia coast.
p Thompson sets up plots to examine
the population dynamics of Relict trillium
(Trillium reliquum). Permanent plots were
established in each treatment area to study
the interactions between white-tailed deer,
invasive Japanese honeysuckle, and the
federally-endangered Relict trillium.
h e r B i V o r e S a N D i N V a S i V e S a f f e c t i N G N a t i V e Sb: Jb tsn, cn B fws Wnn nd Vgn egs, Gg D. N rss, Nng cnsvn Sn
4 Plant Conservat ion, Spring 2008
q Thompson takes measurements on Relict trillium (Trillium reliquum) plants. For each
individual plant censused, life stage (seedling, one-leaf juvenile, three-leaf non-reproductive, and
three-leaf reproductive), as well as plant size were observed to determine the effects of white-
tailed deer herbivory and invasive Japanese honeysuckle.
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www.centerforplantconservat ion.org 5
In March, CPC presented their Plant
Conservation workshop hosted by
the Bishop Museum and Harold
L. Lyon Arboretum in Honolulu.
The workshop was funded by theDepartment of Defense Legacy
Resource Management Program.
The reviews were excellent. Of the
36 attendees 100% of them would
recommend the workshop to others
and said the information would help
them with their career. CPC looks
forward to the next workshop in
Phoenix in the fall.
The curriculum presented an
overview of key conservation topics
with pragmatic tips, information
resources, and contact lists of
experts. The course taught over 17
topics through the week, including:
Systematics, Plant Conservation
Genetics, Demography, Population
Viability Analysis (PVA), Plant
Protection and Legislation, InSitu and Ex Situ Restoration and
Management, Tools and Partnerships,
and Inventory and Monitoring.
Faculty from CPCs Participating
Institutions and Science Advisory
Council included Wendy Gibble,
Kay Havens, Kathryn Kennedy,
Tiffany Knight, Joyce Maschinski,
Bruce Pavlik, Johnny Randall, Pati
Vitt, Stuart Wagenius, and Warren
Wagner. The faculty got great
evaluations. Jane Mallory from the
Department of Defense assisted
with planning the event. The help
of many dedicated people made this
workshop a success.
The attendees consisted mostly of
DoD civilian contractors, but also
included professionals from the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
local Botanical Gardens, Plant
Extinction Prevention (PEP)Program, the National Park Service
and Hawaii state contractors. One
of the greatest benets of the class
was the networking and supportive
relationships formed among these
professionals.
plaNt WorkShop helD iN aloha State
p Knight, assisted by Randall, teaches the Interactive PVA session at Bishop Museum.
funded the Honolulu session. Our
institutions provided facilities. Our
staff and volunteers in the National
Ofce put all the materials together
and coordinated myriad details. Inthe course, each scientist shares
their area of expertise and we show
how all the pieces complement
each other. Agency partners came
in for an evening and talked about
their careers, and working for plant
conservation.
Attendees lled the room, and
responded appreciatively. Over thecourse of the week we saw new,
supportive professional relationships
emerge and a commitment to helping
one another.
At the end of the week, we gathered
evaluations and comments. I was
struck by one comment in particular.
One student noted, Absolutely
wonderful. I feel a part of somethingbigger and special. Thats the spirit
of CPC!
Sincerely,
DirectorS lettercontinued from page 2
q Department of Defense workshop
participants look on as Steve Evans
practices an inventory and monitoring
technique at Harold L. Lyon Arboretum.
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6 Plant Conservat ion, Spring 2008
Holly Forbes grew up in San
Francisco and got interested in plants
at a young age from family camping
trips. She received her B.A. from
the University of California at SantaBarbara and went on to work in
the herbarium of the Santa Barbara
Botanic Garden. She became
curatorial assistant at the University
of California Botanical Garden at
Berkeley in 1988 and was named
curator in 1997.
Your interest in plants came from
camping; what drew you to plantsand not animals? Oh, I am a
conrmed animal lover. Perhaps it
was that the colorful owers didnt
run away!
How long have you been active
in CPC? Twenty years. The
CPC network members are an
inspirationthey make me want to
do more too, and I feel supportedby the national ofce personnel. We
also get some funding, especially
via contract opportunities, which
have been important to us.
What has been your best moment
as a conservationist? Rarely does
anything happen in just a moment. I
was really pleased when we got good
germination of seeds ofDelphinium
bakeri.
How about a really horrible
experience? (If youve had one)
Arriving just after a county road
crew scraped most of the population
of Delphinium bakeri off the
roadbank.
How has your work impacted
conservation? Our work at the UC
Botanical Garden has received
attention from other members of
the local conservation community
such that we are asked to partner
in many conservation projects, in
particular where we can use our
propagation expertise. Nationally
and internationally, we are known
as a source for endangered species
materials across a broad spectrum of
plant research.
What changes have you seen in
conservation at your institution?
Conservation was in a nascent phase
when I started here. We collected
seeds of a few endangered species
that year and have built on that ever
since. I have pushed our staff time
commitment for conservation to
increase as much as funding can
allow, but it is never enough.
What plant are you focusing on now?
We are still focused on Delphinium
bakeri. Only one plant owered in
habitat in 2007. We have hundreds
coming along in our nursery, though
they are slow to ower (usually
takes three years), and are working
with local land managers to prepare
for an introduction project in fall
2008assuming all goes well.
What dont most people realize about
the importance of plant conservation?
They dont realize that it is difcult
to succeed in creating a new self-
sustaining population of any plant
species in habitat. People make
unwarranted assumptions based on
garden experience that we can just
transplant them somewhere safer.
What do you do in your spare time?
I serve on the board (currently as
treasurer) of the East Bay Chapter of
the California Native Plant Society
and I am helping the state ofce of
CNPS get its publications program
started again. I enjoy gardening at
home with my husband and our two
dogs, Elsa (German shepherd) and
Buddy (golden retriever).
meet the NetWork: holly forBeS, uc BotaNical GarDeN
q Holly Forbes looking for seeds of El Dorado bedstraw (Galium californicum ssp. sierrae) near
the top of Pine Hill, El Dorado County, California, for a federally-funded seed banking project.
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the potential for a soil seed bank,
we collected seeds from more than a
dozen populations in 1992. We then
placed many seeds in our seed bank
and buried 120 dacron packets of
100 seeds each, distributed among
three locations in their range. The
packets were placed in hardware
cloth cages and covered with a thin
layer of soil and two layers of weed
cloth. We withdrew packets and
examined seed germination in 1993,
1994, 1996, and then not again until
2007.
There is indeed a soil seed bankfor Pecks penstemon, even after
15 years. Between a quarter and a
third of the seeds that were recently
excavated have germinated. Less
emotionally satisfying, however, is
only about a fth of the seeds stored
for fteen years in Berrys ex situ
seed bank have germinated, which
could be a concern.
While the apparent germination
rate of stored seed appears to have
declined, previous germination trials
with this species have revealed not
all viable seed germinates the rst
time it is exposed to appropriate
conditions. In the past, we saved all
rm seeds that did not germinate
during a trial and allowed them to
dry completely. We have discoveredpersistence pays off: seeds continued
to germinate following a second and
even a third moistening cycle. So,
in the nal analysis, we will have
to run whatever survives the initial
germination trials through one or
more follow up cycles to get an
accurate view of seed survivorship
in the soil and ex situ seed banks.
The results are consistent with the
idea that the dormancy status of
a seed can be affected by dry cold
storage.
The second story involves Malheur
wirelettuce (Stephanomeria
malheurensis), an annual plant
known only from one site in eastern
Oregon. The reintroduction of this
plant was one of the earliest rare
plant reintroductions conducted
under the Endangered Species
Act. When Malheur wirelettuce
apparently became extinct in the
wild in the mid-1980s, a multi-
partner working group formed and,
by the late 1980s, planted more than
1,000 wirelettuce plants at the site.
The project was initially successful
and resulted in a population that
continued to reproduce year after
year. A decade after the initiation
of the project, however, population
numbers were in decline without
recovery; by 2003, Malheur
wirelettuce appeared again to have
gone extinct in the wild.
Some of the challenges we face as
conservation scientists are biological
in nature. In this case, we do not
know the specic biological causes
of either the decline in wirelettuce
numbers or its re-extinction. This
is due in part because of turnover in
agency personnel and the difculties
associated with insecure long-termfunding. There was a commitment
on the part of the working group to
monitor the wirelettuce population
size on a yearly basis, but little
funding beyond that. It is clear in
this case that long-term monitoring
alone did not ensure the success of
this reintroduction.
Working within a world with
limited resources and short-term
funding cycles, it might have been
more effective to have established a
minimum threshold population level
that when crossed would signal the
working team to take action. This is
especially important when working
with plants with annually uctuating
population sizes, like Malheu
wirelettuce.
In 2005, we reinvigorated the
working group by adding several
new partners. The Berry Botanic
Garden and one of the new
partners, the Oregon Department
of Agriculture, grew plants in 2007
using stored seed and placed those
plants at the original site and a
new site. Additional plants will be
reintroduced over the next several
years.
These stories remind us not all
projects move smoothly toward
success, at least at rst. Sometimes,
initial results can be inconclusive.Have seeds fared less well in our ex
situ seed bank than they have in the
wild, or have we just not tried hard
enough to germinate them? In others,
apparent initial success, even over a
period of ten to fteen years, may not
persist indenitely. But, persistence
on the part of conservationists can
in the end produce a more satisfying
nal product.
www.centerforplantconservat ion.org 7
SucceSS
continued from page 1
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8 Plant Conservat ion, Spring 2008
The Garden Club of AmericaScholarship Committee and CPC
has enthusiastically endorsed
the selection of Melissa Caspary
from the University of Georgia
and Kelsey Glennon from George
Washington University as the 2008
recipients of the Catherine H. Beattie
Fellowship.
The fellowship grant enables
graduate students in biology,
horticulture, or a related eld
to conduct research on a rare
or endangered U.S. plant in the
Southeast. Fellowships serve
as compensation for work done
by graduate students, often at a
botanical garden jointly serving
CPC and that students curricular
studies. Applications for the 2009
award are due Dec. 31, 2008. Pass
the word to partners and colleagues
in the Southeast.
NetWork
G c a a N D c p ca N N o u N c e 2 0 0 8Beattie WiNNerS
p Matthew Albrecht (right) points out the Running Buffalo Clover (Trifolium stoloniferum) at the
Cuivre River State Park as CPC Board members scour the foliage to locate it.
cpc BoarD meetS iN miSSouri & GeorGia
The Missouri Botanical Garden
played host to Octobers CPC
Board meeting. With over 20 in
attendance, the Board of Trustees
worked throughout the day
discussing an update for the CPC
Strategic Plan and eshing out ideas
for activities centered around CPCs
25th anniversary in 2009. With all
this work there was a little bit of
fun had too. Matthew Albrecht,
Conservation Ofcer from the
Missouri Botanical Garden, gavea presentation on his work in
conservation and guided a tour of
Cuivre River State Park, home to
the imperiled running buffalo clover
(Trifolium stoloniferum).
In February, the Board of Trustees
met at the State Botanical Garden
of Georgia. As one of the newer
Participating Institutions, the Garden
served as a beautiful backdrop for
the meeting. The Board examined
CPC nances for 2009 and
continued their strategic planning
discussion. After the meeting, the
group went on a eld trip to the Rock
and Shoals Natural Area that has
granite outcrops supporting several
state-listed rare species includingthe glade windower (Anemone
berlandieri), dwarf hatpins
( Eriocaulon koernickianum), and
granite stonecrop (Sedum pusillum).
After the trip, the board also packed
in a tour of the Atlanta Botanical
Garden as they headed back to the
airport.
Clement Hamilton was recently
named the new director at Holden
Arboretum in Kirtland, Ohio. Clem
was previously the director ofthe Univ. of Washington Botanic
Gardens and Rancho Santa Ana
Botanic Garden. While at Rancho
he also served on CPCs Directors
Advisory Council. He is leaving the
Morton Arboretum where he served
most recently as their vice president
of arboretum programs and director
of research
N e W D i r e c t o r
at h o l D eN
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www.centerforplantconservat ion.org 9
aND NoteS
The 2008 edition of the Plant
Conservation Directory is
completed and available for sale
at $15 per copy. You can also
access the directory online at www.
centerforplantconservation.org.
The directory is compiled and
distributed to serve practitioners
working for plant conservation
in the United States. It provides
contacts for professionals in
botanical, governmental, and non-prot organizations nationwide who
can assist with plant conservation
questions and provide botanical
expertise for different states or
regions of the country. It also
includes resources to locate rare
plant laws, plant societies, and
organizations, maps of regional
boundaries and lands of various
federal resource agencies. A new
feature has been added. For the rst
time the directory includes contacts
for academic researchers who are
currently working with imperiled
species.
This edition of the directory is
compiled by the Center for Plant
Conservation (CPC) and is the resultof a spirit of cooperation. It has been
supported in part by a grant from
the Bureau of Land Management.
Countless practitioners nationwide
made valuable submissions and
reviews.
2 0 0 8 c o N S e r Va t i o N D i r e c t o r y N o W aV a i l a B l e
Patricia (Patti) Oling Schleuning
has accepted a position on the Board
of Trustees. Patti enjoys botanizing
in the Columbia River Gorge and
in the mountains of the west, an
avocation reecting her passion for
native plants. She has been actively
involved in the Garden Club of
America, serving as an ofcer and
national Horticulture Chairman. As acommunity volunteer she has served
on the Oregon Symphony Board,
the Oregon State Board of Licensed
Dietitians, and is a past president
of the Portland Youth Philharmonic
and Junior League. She is a graduate
of Stanford University.
p a t t i o l i N G S c h l e u N i N G J o i N S
t h e c e N t e r S B oa r D o f t r u S t e e SCPCs 2008 National Meeting
will be held on April 24-26 at the
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.
In conjunction, the garden will also
host the Joint Meeting with Florida
Rare Plant Task Force. The schedule
is packed with great information.
Saturday a workshop on monitoring
focuses on this essential component
in the process of conservingendangered plants. Throughout the
conference there are multiple eld
trip opportunities including trips to
Bill Sadowski Park, Luis Martinez
Army Reserve, North Shore Open
Space Park, and Everglades National
Park.
q Patti Schleuning in the backwaters of the
Amazon River in Peru pictured with
Victoria amazonica.
p To order your copy of the 2008
Conservation Directory contact CPC at
314-577-9450 or [email protected]
2 0 0 8 N a t i o N a l
meetiNG at ftBG
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8/9/2019 Spring 2008 Plant Conservation Newsletter
10/12
manager and staff members Jennifer
Youngman and Ellen Kuhlmann,
knew this would be a great species
for a group monitoring trip to get
volunteers together from all around
the state. There is little opportunity
for the RPM volunteers to meet
each other because typically the
volunteers work on individual
assignments. This would be a great
chance for them to build experience
and condence for future solitary
monitoring trips. Many of the
volunteers on the group trip were
new to the RPM program, had just nished their one-day RPM
training and hadnt yet completed
a monitoring assignment on their
own.
Setting off on a sunny Saturday
morning, the group traveled to
Yakima Canyon in south central
Washington. The basalt daisy
lives exclusively in the cracksand crevices of basalt cliffs in the
Yakima Canyon. The species was
listed under the Endangered Species
Act by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service as a Category 1 species in
1980 and as a candidate species in
1996.
To avoid damaging the species, the
large group split into small teams to
survey the ten known populations.Very few plants grow on the basalt
cliffs of the canyon (total vascular
vegetative cover of the cliffs is less
than one percent.) The trip was
made when the plant was owering,
making the species easy to spot.
However, the groups couldnt get too
close to most of the plants because
the steep cliffs cut straight down to
the Yakima River. In many cases
they were forced to use binoculars
and scopes to inventory the species.
Most likely, they underestimated
the population sizes because the
smaller non-reproductive plants
were probably overlooked. Because
of the unmanageable terrain, it was
simply impossible to accurately
inventory the entire site.
After a long day of surveying, the
team camped at a BLM campground
along the Yakima River. They rose
early to complete their inventories
before returning home Sunday.
The team was able to relocate all
populations recorded from the census
in 2000. Five had less than 500
individuals, and ve had between
1,500 and 6,000 individuals. Two
of these populations had never been
counted before, resulting in new
information since the last census.
Overall, population sizes were
generally comparable to or greater
than previous population estimates
that were done in 2000, so most
populations appear to be stable.
After USFWS reviewed the results
of the monitoring weekend, they
removed the daisy from the candidate
species list in December of 2007.
The populations will continue to
be monitored every three to four
years as part of the post delisting
monitoring activities.
In addition to the positive botanicresults, the trip was a great success
for the morale of the RPM team.
The volunteers all had a great
time. It boosted their condence in
reporting and enthusiasm for other
assignments. The staff is planning
on making this group trip a yearly
event, featuring a new species each
year.
m o N i t o r i N Gcontinued from page 1
10 Plant Conservat ion, Spring 2008
q Most of the Erigeron basalticus
populations sizes were comparable to or
greater than the population estimates from
2000. Photographer: R. Ramsden
p Because of the steep terrain the team was forced to use alternative methods to count daisies.
Here Wendy Gibble uses a scope, an unusual tool for a botanist. Photographer: J. Youngman
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8/9/2019 Spring 2008 Plant Conservation Newsletter
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www.centerforplantconservat ion.org 11
The Center for Plant Conservations efforts are made
possible by the Friends of CPC. All Friends receive a
complimentary subscription to CPCs newsletter, PlantConservation. Friends also receive our Friends benets,
with distinctive botanical illustrations of the imperiled
plants that your gifts support. The benets feature artwork
by renowned botanical illustrator Bobbi Angell.
Please use the form below either to renew your support
or enroll as a new Friend. Your gift will contribute in an
important way to the vital work of saving Americasmost imperiled plants.
Please send this completed form and payment in the
enclosed envelope, or mail this form to: Center for Plant
Conservation, P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166
GiVe the Gift that keepS o N GroWiNG!
q $35...........Friends
q $75...........Family Friends
q $150.........Sustaining Friends
q $250.........Benefactorsq $500.........Preserving Donors
q $1,000......Conserving Donors
q $5,000......Presidents Circle Donors
q This is a gift membership for a new Friend.
(Please list name, address and phone number of
recipient on the form at right.)
q Enclosed is my check for $ _______________
payable to the Center for Plant Conservation.
Please charge my: q VISA q Mastercard
Card No.
Name on card
Expiration datePlease print your name as you wish it to appear in the
newsletter Honor Roll.
Your name
Friends name (if needed)
Address
City State
Zip Telephone
Last July CPC mailed an appeal
to raise matching funds for plant
sponsorships. Thanks to our
incredibly generous supporters we
raised a total of $15,545 from 83donors! We are very grateful for
because these funds will enable us to
bring long-term funding to on-the-
ground plant conservation work.
These dollars are hard working. The
funds raised will match or supplement
funds raised separately by CPC or
our Participating Institutions. The
rst allocation from these fundsis to complete the sponsorship of
sand food ( Pholisma sonorae) at
the Desert Botanical Garden. After
receiving donations from two donors
for this sponsorship CPC was able to
complete the sponsorship with funds
from the Plant Sponsorship Appeal.
Matches raised are being tallied, and
the other species benetting will be
announced soon.
CPC institutions invest signicant
resources and effort in securing and
holding imperiled plant material in
trust for the nation. They work hard
to learn how to grow and restore
them.
A sponsorship provides steady
funding for the long-term workneeded to save our most imperiled
plants. Sponsorship funds are placed
in an endowment which generates an
annual stipend to the institution(s)
working with the sponsored species.
The endowment also supports
related data management and
conservation activities at CPCs
national ofce. To nd out more
about plant sponsorship call MariaBradford at 314-577-9457.
plaNt SpoNSorShip fuNDS SupplemeNt curreNt DoNatioNS
p One of the benets of becoming a CPC
Friend is receiving limited edition note cards
featuring the work of artist Bobbi Angell.
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8/9/2019 Spring 2008 Plant Conservation Newsletter
12/12
Koehlers rock cress (Arabis
koehleri var. koehleri) a member of
the mustard family, stands in stark
contrast to the rocky outcrop it calls
home. This plant blooms amethystand provides a touch of beauty to
its surroundings of muted cracks
and crevices on the rocky bluffs and
cliffs where it resides.
Native only to Oregon, the rock
cress has decreased in populations
since its discovery in the mid
1800s. Road construction, livestock
grazing, herbicide drift andindustrial development are just a
few of the threats the species faces
on a regular basis.
The team at the Berry Botanic
Garden has partnered with the
Roseburg District of the Bureau
of Land Management to augment
the declining population. BLMstaff gathered seed from the wild,
while the Berry Botanic Garden
propagated it in their greenhouse.
Once the seedlings were ready, they
were placed back onto the cliffs that
are their natural habitat.
At the time of restoration the
researchers carefully recorded
the details of the micro habitat foreach of the plants. This data will be
compared after subsequent visits
to the site to survey the status of
the plants.
plaNt profile: koehlerS rock creSS (ArAbiS koehleriVar. koehleri)
NonproftOrg.
U.S.Postage
PAID
St.Louis,MO
PermitNo.1039POBox299
St.Louis,MO63166-0299
AddressServiceRequested
q Koehlers rock cress is not sponsored. To
sponsor or help sponsor this plant, please
contact CPC at 314-577-9540 or