Coming Together in Chicago

CPC 2019 Annual National Meeting

The strength of CPC is the network, the collective knowledge of the Participating Institutions. And the National Meeting is the time for the network to shine. Hosted by the Chicago Botanic Garden, over 100 participants from some 40 institutions came together to share their lessons learned, successes, and struggles in their efforts to save plants. The importance of sharing – methods, stories, data, and more – was a common theme throughout the network. There are more people and institutions to share with each year. The network is growing, with eight new institutions welcomed in 2018 (7 of which were represented at the meeting!), and an additional two already added in 2019. With the expansion of CPC’s web resources through Plant Nucleus – a new platform shared with conservation officers for beta-testing at the meeting – we hope to bring this amazing conservation community together virtually year-round.

Background photo: Group photo from the CPC 2019 National Meeting in Chicago. Photo credit: Robin Carlson, courtesy of Chicago Botanic Garden.

Photo of Lynde Uihlein CPC chair. Credit: by Robin Carlson — CPC Chair Lynde Uihlein welcomed the representative group of plant conservationists from CPC’s Participating Institutions to the annual National Meeting. Photo Credit: Robin Carlson, courtesy of Chicago Botanic Garden.

President and CEO John Clark addressed the participants to open the meeting. This is CPC’s 35th year working to save plants and there are some big things happening, including work towards the public launch of Plant Nucleus. Photo Credit: Robin Carlson, courtesy of Chicago Botanic Garden.

National Meeting poster session, 2019, Chicago — For the first time the National Meeting included a poster session, to allow more Participating Institutions to share their work. Photo Credit: Robin Carlson, courtesy of Chicago Botanic Garden.

Matthew Albrecht, Ph.D., of Missouri Botanical Garden received this year’s Star Award. — Matthew Albrecht, Ph.D., of Missouri Botanical Garden received this year’s Star Award for his work with CPC and improving our understanding of rare plant restoration needs. Photo Credit: Robin Carlson, courtesy of Chicago Botanic Garden.

At Morton, the group got to explore the new Gateway to Tree Science exhibit, which includes this large oak phylogeny. Photo credit: Joyce Maschinski, CPC.

During Saturday’s field trip, Morton Arboretum staff explained the complicated National Science Foundation funded prairie restoration experiment. The study explores the impacts of diversity on restoration success. Photo credit: Christa Horn, CPC.