Reintroducing the CPC Reintroduction Registry
Translocation of rare plants into the wild is one of the most logistically difficult and time-intensive actions that plant conservationists undertake. Sometimes referred to as rare plant “reintroduction,” it typically requires a full spectrum of conservation actions: collection of seed from the wild, propagation of plants in a garden setting, site preparation prior to planting, installation of propagules, and site maintenance and monitoring to ensure survival and establishment of plants. Yet despite the incredible amount of work required and knowledge gained with each project, translocation details or outcomes are often buried in reports that can be difficult for future practitioners to access. This lost knowledge puts our community at risk of repeating mistakes for rare species—species that have little time to waste.
The CPC Reintroduction Registry, newly re-launched on SavePlants.org ahead of our National Meeting in May 2022, makes it easier to find invaluable records and contacts for reintroduction projects. The registry—a concise list of rare plant reintroduction projects—is sortable by species, lead institution, or state, and it provides links to relevant peer-reviewed and non-reviewed “grey” literature. This is the first step in revitalizing an important older network resource: CPC’s International Reintroduction Registry (IRR), created in 2009 by Dr. Ed Guerrant, formerly of Rae Selling Berry Seed Bank and Botanic Garden, and Dr. Joyce Maschinski, President & CEO of CPC. The new registry also contains information from willing contributors to the REDCap Reintroduction Database for US Rare Plants, compiled by Matthew Albrecht and collaborators at Missouri Botanical Garden. Our goal is to make the full database records from these assets available online by the end of 2022, including detailed assessments of reintroduction design, treatments, and outcomes. To protect rare plant location information and project details, data access will be restricted to individual database contributors and CPC National Office Staff.
The need for this registry was identified through strategic planning for the future of CPC’s reintroduction database, initiated in 2021. CPC contracted postdoctoral research fellow Dr. Joe Bellis, a recent graduate of Liverpool John Moores University, to evaluate the assets of the CPC IRR and the REDCap database and to chart a future for these assets within our network. This process identified the need for a new product that incorporates both databases and includes data fields designed for collaborative research. This will helps researchers to identify and extract data to improve the CPC Best Practice Guidelines on Reintroduction & Translocation.
Watch Joe’s presentation from the 2022 CPC National Meeting to learn more about the history of the registry and Joe’s plans for a meta-analysis evaluating effects of climate on rare plant translocation outcomes. If you would like to share records for the registry or meta-analysis, please contact Dr. Joe Bellis at jbellis@saveplants.org.