As Seen on Rare Plant Academy

The human world is full of borders –borders between countries, states, land-managing entities, and more. The natural world does not abide by political borders, but can be impacted by them.  Networks, such as the CPC, BGCI, and NatureServe, help conservation work and data cross borders. For example, at last year’s National Meeting, Wesley Knapp shared an assessment of plant extinctions in the U.S. and Canada. By bringing together data from all states and provinces, Wesley and his colleagues were able to piece together a more comprehensive picture of extinctions and note patterns. For example, the study revealed that 64% of the extinctions were single-site endemics -recorded at only one site in the world!