Overview
Virtual sessions
May 6th & 7th, 2021
We are delighted to invite you to the 2021 Center for Plant Conservation National Meeting. For the safety of our network, the CPC National Meeting will be held virtually again in 2021. This year’s meeting will focus on reconnecting with our network and sharing plant conservation successes from the past two years, those achievements we have made despite considerable adversity. As we see the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel, now is the time to build plans toward a collaborative future in plant conservation research.
Presentation sessions will include updates from the CPC National Office on network wide initiatives and lightning talks from CPC network partners on plant conservation research, accomplishments, and challenges. Working sessions will engage the network. We wish to gather network input for CPC policy paper on the threat of climate change to rare plants. We will ask the network to beta-test our IMLS-funded plant conservation education platform, CPC Rare Plant Academy. Back by popular demand, we will hold our second annual National Meeting Photo Contest, and we will introduce a new communication tool contest. We are looking forward to seeing you there!
This year, CPC’s Board of Trustees meeting will take place the Friday following the CPC National Meeting on May 14th, 2021.Â
Registration & Key Due Dates
April 30, 2021
Registration for all attendees closes April 30th. Admission Fee is $25 for CPC PI’s and $50 for non-members
May 6th & 7th, 2021
Virtual sessions will be held starting Thursday, May 6th and end that Friday on May 7th. Click here for our detailed agenda!
2021 CPC National Meeting
Peggy Olwell
Plant Conservation and Restoration Program Lead, Bureau of Land ManagementPeggy Olwell is the Plant Conservation & Restoration Program Lead for the National Office of Bureau of Land Management. Peggy built the BLM’s nationally recognized Native Seed Program, which promotes the development and use of native plants in habitat conservation and restoration projects. She was instrumental in developing the Plant Conservation Alliance in 1994, a partnership of 12 federal government agencies and over 400 state and private organizations. She has served as chair of the PCA Federal Committee and led the effort on the 2015 National Seed Strategy. Peggy is Vice Chair of the IUCN SSC North American Red List Authority. Recently, Peggy co-authored the Springer book Seeds of Restoration Success: Wild Lands and Plant Diversity in the U.S. Peggy was just named a Conservation Trailblazer in the Department of Interior’s 2020 Natural Resource Conservation Achievement Awards and was selected to receive the 2021 Hutchinson Medal of the Chicago Horticultural Society.
Peggy has a distinguished history with the CPC network. She worked at the CPC National Office during the early 1990s, and she has provided critical support to CPC through her positions with BLM, National Park Service, and US Fish and Wildlife Service. Most recently, Peggy championed the BLM-CPC collaboration on the upcoming Applied Plant Conservation Online Course modules, which will serve to train a new generation of plant conservationists.
Don't Miss Moments
State of the CPC: Updates about Network Initiatives
The CPC network is busy! Learn about the exciting developments within the CPC network in the last year including our new strategic plan, the kick off of our IMLS-funded seed longevity project, the development of our BLM-funded Applied Plant Conservation Online Modules, and our new website, which offers improvements to our National Collection Database and CPC Rare Plant Academy learning platform.
Dozens of Rare Plant Conservation Stories
We invite each of our Participating Institutions to share updates about their conservation research with the network through 5-min pre-recorded oral presentations. We can’t wait to hear about the achievements in rare plant conservation our partners have made despite the considerable challenges of the past 18 months.
Climate Change Panel & Breakout Groups
Climate change is now a priority in Washington, DC. Our panelists will describe how climate change directives at the federal level align with plant conservation. Conference participants will breakout into small groups to discuss how climate change impacts rare plants; how rare plant conservation can help mitigate climate change, and what is needed to move our collective missions forward. Feedback from these discussions will be used to craft CPC’s position paper on climate change.
Win Prizes in Our Photo and Conservation Update Contest!
In 2020, we held our first ever CPC National Meeting photo contest, and it was a smashing success. We received over 200 images of rare plants and saw dozens of inspiring photos of COVID-era conservation work. At our 2021 meeting, we will expand this contest to include both photos and “conservation updates,” which will serve to beta-test our CPC Rare Plant Academy posting tool. Contest details to come in the weeks leading up to the conference, but there will be cash prizes for the first, second, and third place winners in both categories.
Happenings
Two Day Meeting Agenda
Who to Contact
For agenda, presentations, videos details, contact
Katie Heineman, Ph.D.
Vice President of Conservation and Science
For registration assistance, contact
Email TeamFor our Cancellation Policy Contact CPC office
(760) 796-5686Presentations
BEFORE April 9, 2021, we ask Conservation Officers and Network Partners to submit abstracts with their registration form. We will have to limit oral presentations to ONE per institution.
Oral Presentations
We invite one representative per CPC Participating Institution to contribute a 5-minute pre-recorded video update about the rare plant conservation programs or research at their institution. Given the need for our network to reconnect, we have relaxed content directives in place for the past few years, which have focused on generating content in support of our Best Practices on CPC Rare Plant Academy. As always, we love to hear conservation stories – both successes and challenges, especially when a rare plant species is the star of the show. With your permission, we will catalogue these videos through our CPC Rare Plant Academy platform as an educational resource.
Please self record your oral presentations using the software of your choosing. You will receive instructions in mid-April regarding upload instructions to the Whova Conference Platform.
If possible, please use head phone or air pod microphones when recording your presentations to maximize audio quality of presentations. Avoid settings with loud ambient background noise (labs with autoclaves, etc.) Good audio quality makes your recorded presentations more enjoyable and allows CPC to reuse your valuable information for educational purposes.
Options include:
- Zoom
- Powerpoint
- Panopto
- ScreenCastOMatic
Posters
If you would like to highlight the work of multiple members of your institution or multiple projects, you may give one or more poster presentation(s) in addition to an oral presentation.
Thank you to our 2021 National Meeting underwriter, Kubtec Scientific!
Ready To Get Started?
If you have meeting access questions, feel free to let us know at info@saveplants.org.