State of the CPC - Center for Plant Conservation

Center for Plant Conservation

State of CPC - National Meeting Update

Dr. Joyce Maschinski, CPC President & CEO, opened this year’s meeting with exciting updates from the CPC national office and highlighted progress on national conservation efforts to save rare plants across our network of Participating Institutions (PIs). We are very happy to welcome two new staff members to the national office – Kelly Carlin, Administrative Assistant, and Shannon Fowler, Program Manager – and two new PIs to the CPC network – Zoo New England and Memorial University of Newfoundland Botanic Garden, CPC’s first Canadian Participating Institution.

Background photo: Vegetative wiliwili in Keaʻau. Photo by Emily Grave.

In addition to its growing team and network, CPC has several major conservation projects and advocacy efforts underway, including:

Collaborating with PIs on the development of an Applied Plant Conservation online course. To date 40 hours of content on topics such as rarity, spatial modeling, genetics, and reintroduction are underway.
Advancing the RIN Seed Longevity Study, in partnership with the National Laboratory for Genetic Resource Preservation, to discover new insights into seed storage behavior. 
Expanding content in the Rare Plant Academy – a key resource for connecting today’s conservationists and training tomorrow’s professionals–through contributions made by network scientists and institutions.
Utilizing funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services to create a compelling new videos that demonstrate the critical importance of saving rare and endangered plants.
Advocating with legislators and garnering public support, which led to the passing of the Great American Outdoors Act.

Despite the adversity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been a year of great progress and achievement in the fight to save rare and endangered plant species. The National Meeting served as a welcome opportunity for the CPC network to reconnect, celebrate accomplishments, and look ahead to conservation initiatives that are on the horizon.