[MPWG] Plant Conservation Alliance General Meeting Summary - March 11, 2020 (2-4pm EST)

[Park, Margaret E]

Apologies for the delay in sharing this summary of our March 2020 Plant Conservation Alliance General Meeting. There was a lot of good discussion at the meeting, as follows. (Pardon cross-postings).

The meeting was chaired by the Plant Conservation Alliance Federal Committee Chair, Patricia De Angelis/U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) and was hosted at NatureServe (Arlington, VA). Introductions were made.

Featured speaker: Dr. Peter Marra, Director of the Georgetown Environmental Initiative (GEI), Laudato Si’ Professor in Biology and the Environment, and Professor in the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, spoke about the Decline of North American avifauna and the role of native plants in protecting birds, based on his October 2019 multi-authored publication in Science Magazine revealing a startling cumulative loss of nearly three billion birds since 1970 across most North American biomes.

A summary along with links to his presentation and the Oct. 2019 publication are available on the PCA Meetings Page<https://www.plantconservationalliance.org/meetings> (under “Previous Meetings”). Following are key excerpts from “3 Billion birds lost—The disappearance of North American Birds and what we can do about it:”

**In which habitats were the bird losses greatest?
Looking across biomes, we see a net loss in nearly all habitats, including habitat specialist and generalist bird species. The largest losses seen were of grassland birds (700 million; more than half of all birds lost since 1970). Boreal and Western forests had the second largest loss while notably, there was a net increase in wetland birds.

**Does plant origin matter?
Non-native plants support lower herbivore diversity, fewer insect species, and fewer specialist species. The reason for this is that many herbivorous insects, like caterpillars, have formed tight evolutionary relationships to a particular host plant in order to overcome plant chemical defenses. The exotic plants we introduce have different chemical, phonological and structural defenses that make them very different from our native plants. We also learned that native plants are much more likely to have delicious caterpillars, providing evidence that the diversity differences found in other studies are translating into differences in food abundance, which matters to birds.TAKE HOME MESSAGE: Exotic trees are not a replacement for native trees because they support fewer caterpillars and reduce the quality of a territory for breeding and foraging.

**How can this research inform land management?
The authors incorporated their results into the 2019 State Of The Birds report<https://www.stateofthebirds.org/2019/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/2019-State-of-the-Birds.pdf> (SOTB) to underscore the urgency of the bird crisis, and the importance of state wildlife agencies in addressing that crisis, by including non-game bird species in state wildlife action plans and to identifying dedicated funding sources (such as new legislation Recovering America’s Wildlife Act)—See legislation section under the Native Plant Roundtable, below.

**7 Actions that individuals can take to make a difference
     -Action # 1: Reduce mortality from glass windows.
     -Action # 2 Reduce populations of outdoor cats (controversial)
     -Action # 3 Use native plants in yards and parks / reduce the amount of lawn
--40 million acres of cultivated lawn in U.S--
     -Action # 4 Reduce the amount of pesticides and other chemicals
     -Action 5 Drink coffee that’s good for birds
     -Action #6 Protect our planet from plastics
     -Action #7 Watch birds, share what you see

**UPDATE: The September 8, 2021 PCA meeting will feature Sam Droege, who will be talking about “Replacing lawns with native plant communities.”**

Updates on PCA activities

-Non-Federal Cooperators Committee Updates:

NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES (NAS) RELEASED INTERIM REPORT ON NATIVE PLANT SEED NEEDS:
Dr. Kayri Havens, NFCC Chair, is a member of an NAS Study Committee that is assessing public/private sector needs and capacity for supplying native plant seeds for ecological restoration and other purposes (see the NAS website: An Assessment of Native Seed Needs and Capacities<https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/an-assessment-of-native-seed-needs-and-capacities>). Dr. Havens summarized the results of the first Interim Report<https://www.nap.edu/download/25859> of the study (free to download or read online), which describes the participants in the native plant seed supply chain, makes preliminary observations, and proposes an information-gathering plan for the second phase of the assessment. For updates, subscribe to the NAS study email listserv here<http://nas-sites.org/dels/4979-2/>

PLANT CONSERVATION ALLIANCE COOPERATORS: Developing a flyer for outreach to explain what a Cooperator is and why organizations should join the PCA collaboration. See the PCA Cooperators page<http://www.plantconservationalliance.org/cooperators>

-Federal Committee Updates:

NATIONAL SEED STRATEGY PROGRESS REPORT: Molly McCormick/USGS is leading the effort to develop a progress report on the first 5 years implementing the National Seed Strategy for Rehabilitation & Restoration<https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/docs/2020-12/NationalSeedStrategy_2015-2020.pdf>.

Native Plant Roundtable

-Conferences with a nexus to native plants

Southeastern Partners in Plant Conservation (SePPCon) 2020<https://atlantabg.org/conservation-research/outreach-education-and-training/2020-conference-summary/> March 2-6 at the Atlanta Botanical Garden
Earth Optimism Summit<https://earthoptimism.si.edu/>: April 22-23, hosted by the Smithsonian Institution UPDATE: A 102-hour livestream was accessed by more than 55,000 devices in over 170 countries.
Biodiversity Without Boundaries<https://www.natureserve.org/connect/events/biodiversity-without-boundaries-2020-postponed>: Hosted by NatureServe UPDATE: was cancelled due to COVID-19.
Smithsonian Botanical Symposium<https://naturalhistory.si.edu/research/botany/news-and-highlights/smithsonian-botanical-symposium-archive>: UPDATE: was cancelled due to COVID-19.
Center for Plant Conservation Annual Meeting<https://saveplants.org/2020-national-meeting/> UPDATE: was held virtually on October 9-10.

-Legislation with a nexus to native plants

Botanical Sciences and Native Plant Materials Research, Restoration, and Promotion Act<https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1572> (“The Botany Bill”): To promote botanical research & sciences capacity, generate demand for native plant materials, & authorize related federal activities. This bipartisan legislation directs the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service (NPS), among others to support a program of intramural and extramural botanical science research to support the land management responsibilities of the Department of the Interior, including hiring additional personnel to augment its expertise in the botanical sciences. See also: Botany Bill<https://botanybill.weebly.com/?fbclid=IwAR3c3xiFTSKIHP4e-6raKA6QlrcQaLCqMjzTfh2PmMJJAeVb5bvQ8iQ83Ss>

Tribal Wildlife Corridors Act<https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/5179/text> (H.R.5179): Introduced in October 2019, will provide funds to Tribes to restore corridors for animals and plants!

**UPDATE: The July 14 2021 PCA Meeting will feature Dr. Ellen Damschen, who will speak about "The role of habitat corridors on plant diversity."**

Native Plant Species Pilot Program Act of 2020<https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3150> (S.3150): Introduced on Jan. 6, 2020 by Senator Collins. establishes a pilot program in 2 or more National Park Service regions for native plant species and a study on the cost-effectiveness of using native plant materials to carry out land management activities on federal lands.

Recovering America’s Wildlife Act<https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/3742> (RAWA): This Bill would create a new dedicated funding stream ($1.4 billion/yr) for state agencies to implement their State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) with a focus on non-game wildlife species – which currently receive < 10% of all agency spending for wildlife.

Other Plant News


  *   Collaboration among southeastern PCAs: There was a side meeting at SePPCon 2020 of representatives of several southeastern state-level PCAs who discussed forming a regional PCA for the Southeast. Among their priorities would be to build on two topics addressed at SePPCon 2020: developing a regional list of plants of greatest conservation need<https://academy.saveplants.org/video/regional-species-greatest-conservation-need-plants-southeastern-us> (video) and adding plants to SWAPs (State Wildlife Action Plans)<https://academy.saveplants.org/video/promoting-plant-conservation-species-greatest-conservation-need-state-wildlife-action-plans> (video). UPDATE: See Southeastern Plant Conservation Website<https://atlantabg.org/the-southeastern-plant-conservation-alliance/>


  *   The 25th meeting of the CITES Plants Committee (PC25) was scheduled for July 20-23. The agenda<https://cites.org/eng/com/pc/25/index.php> is online. CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international treaty of more than 180 countries to regulate certain species of animals and plants so that international trade does not threaten their survival in the wild. Topics that may be of interest to U.S. native plant folks include trade in medicinal plants, plant nomenclature issues (e.g., synonyms being used in trade). UPDATE: The meeting was postponed due to COVID-19, some work continues virtually in hopes of meeting next year.

Plant Conservation Alliance Resources:

PCA Nonfederal Cooperators website<http://www.plantconservationalliance.org/welcome>:  To join as a non-federal cooperator, go here<http://www.plantconservationalliance.org/join-us>. You can see the meetings page here<http://www.plantconservationalliance.org/meetings>.

PCA Federal Committee Website<https://www.blm.gov/programs/natural-resources/native-plant-communities/national-seed-strategy/pca>: Read about the National Seed Strategy<https://www.blm.gov/programs/natural-resources/native-plant-communities/national-seed-strategy/pca> and the current MOU<https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/PCA%20MOU%202019%208%20signed%20FULL.pdf>.

PCA Discussion Lists<http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo>: The PCA has several discussion lists focused on different topics that are free to join and open to all.

**Share your native plant information! We encourage PCA listserv members to post meetings, webinars, and research on the PCA listserv as we continue our collaborative mission to protect native plants by ensuring that native plant populations and their communities are maintained, enhanced, and restored.**

Next Meeting

The next Plant Conservation Alliance Meeting was held May 13, with Ms. Katrina Outland presenting findings from her research on Venus flytrap poaching and the challenges of enforcing legal protections for plants.

**Announcements of upcoming PCA meetings are shared via the PCA Discussion Lists<http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo>.**
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