[PCA] Article on the merits of germplam collection, ecological restoration, and nursery growers

[De Angelis, Patricia]

Sharing the article below on the merits of germplam collection, ecological
restoration, and making the materials available to the nursery industry.
It was published in the Winter 2015 issue of the Maryland Native Plant
Society's Marilandica (Volume 6, Issue 1) and is posted on their website
(see link below). Apologies for cross-postings but this seems to pertain to
native plants in general and also to our restoration folks!
-Patricia

*Hope and Reality for Urban Ecosystems*

Years ago, I served on Maryland’s Plant Reintroduction Task Force, which
was largely convened to address the merits, legal ramifications, and
biological soundness of reintroducing rare taxa “recently lost from its
historic range” or to enhance dwindling populations that remained in their
historic natural settings (PRTF 1999). Specifically at the time, this
involved a proposal by coastal bog experts Keith Underwood and Phil
Sheridan to dig up for propagation the three dwindling survivors of Box
Huckleberry (Gaylussacia brachycera) from a sandy hillside in
Oak-Pine-Heath Forest along the upper Magothy River in Pasadena, Maryland.

..USDA’s only condition for participating in the project was a stipulation
that allowed propagated Box Huckleberry clones from the plants to be made
available to the nursery industry...Odd things have been afoot regarding
Box Huckleberry since those days. Last year the New York Times and The
Washington Post reported that the National Arboretum intends to hybridize
together Box Huckleberry material from all of the known, remaining wild
sites in the world. The National Arboretum stated correctly that harboring
a collection of propagated plants from Box Huckleberry sites in a museum-
like setting at the arboretum is “preserving a genetic resource for the
future” (DePalma 2014). However, this remains true only so long as the
plants are not cross-pollinated or hybridized with each other. It is
against the principles of ecological restoration to reintroduce or plant
hybridized Box Huckleberry (or other artificial taxa) into natural areas
where man-made diversity did not formerly exist, as this practice is as
unnatural as the entity that was artificially created.

Full story at:
http://www.mdflora.org/Resources/Documents/Simmons_Hope_Reality_2015.pdf
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