[PCA] FW: NPCC News: Wall Street Journal Article Shows Increasing Awareness of Plant Blindness and its Consequences

[Emily Roberson]

Native Plant Conservation Campaign News: Wall Street Journal Reports on Implications and Risks of Plant Blindness <https://plantsocieties.cnps.org/index.php/about-main/plant-blindness> 

August 16, 2018

 

An article in the August 14 Wall Street Journal <https://www.wsj.com/articles/rhododendron-hydrangea-america-doesnt-know-anymore-1534259849>  explores some of the issues associated with plant blindness <https://plantsocieties.cnps.org/index.php/about-main/plant-blindness> , a problem that the NPCC and the botanical community generally, have been fighting for decades.

 

Plant blindness is the phenomena of people not understanding or appreciating plants. This lack of understanding translates into inadequate laws, staffing and funding for plant conservation. These in turn contribute to the critical imperilment of <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/10/one-in-five-of-worlds-plant-species-at-risk-of-extinction>  at least 20% of the planet's flora.

 

The Journal article covered some of the problems resulting from Plant Blindness:

*	Botanists with expertise specific to their regions developed over decades are retiring from the federal government and are not being replaced. Today, there is roughly one botanist on the federal payroll for every 20 million acres of land, according to the Chicago Botanic Garden.
*	Not only are there fewer university botany programs but those who graduate from them may not be well versed in plant identification.
*	The cutting edge of plant science, which has commercial applications, is molecular. Students and universities are following the significant money - away from botany and plant ecology.
*	“zoochauvinistic introductory biology instructors” use “zoocentric examples” to teach basic biological concepts to stack the deck against plants.
*	schools are getting rid of herbaria, the sometimes vast collection of plants that form the spine of a botanist’s education. In the past 30 years, [NPCC Affiliate] the New York Botanical Garden <https://www.nybg.org/>  alone has absorbed collections from 15 colleges and universities that no longer have space, budget or interest in maintaining it. Barbara M. Thiers, who directs the herbarium at the  Garden, estimates about a quarter of the world’s 3,200 herbaria are at risk because of physical threats such as hurricanes or administrative apathy.

The Journal notes that efforts are being made to confront plant blindness and the problems it creates. For example, the “Botany Bill” (a.k.a. the Botanical Sciences and Native Plant Materials Research, Restoration, and Promotion Act) <https://botanybill.weebly.com/>  has been introduced in the House and Senate. The bill encourages federal land management agencies to hire botanists, conduct research on native plant materials, and give preference to native plants in projects on federal land when feasible.

 

The NPCC fights the problems of plant blindness throughout our work, including the Equal Protection for Plants <https://plantsocieties.cnps.org/index.php/equal-protection-main/overview>  and Botany Staffing and Funding <https://plantsocieties.cnps.org/index.php/botstaff-funding-main/overview>  programs.

 

Read the Wall Street Journal Article <https://www.wsj.com/articles/rhododendron-hydrangea-america-doesnt-know-anymore-1534259849> 

Learn more about the  <https://botanybill.weebly.com/> "Botany Bill" and how you can support it!

 

 

________________________________________

Emil <http://plantsocieties.cnps.org/> y B. Roberson, Ph.D.

Native Plant Conservation Campaign <http://plantsocieties.cnps.org/> 

415 531 4439

emilyr@ <mailto:emilyr at plantsocieties.org> plantsocieties.org <mailto:emilyr at plantsocieties.org> 

The mission of the Native Plant Conservation Campaign is to promote the conservation of native plants and their habitats through collaboration, research, education, and advocacy.

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