[PCA] FW: NPCC News: Plant Conservation Works! U.S. prairies prove it!

Thu Feb 21 12:33:31 CST 2019

Native Plant Conservation Campaign News: Prairie and grassland
conservationists and scientists have been playing the long game, and their
efforts are paying off.

February 21, 2019

A February 18 Christian Science Monitor article
<https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Progress-Watch/2019/0218/Slow-and-steady-th
e-American-prairies-grow>  documents progress in native prairie conservation
and restoration across the U.S.  The article describes some of the research
and strategies that native prairie enthusiasts are using successfully to
expand prairie ecosystems. 

The article quotes, among others, Tom Kaye, executive director and senior
ecologist at the Institute for Applied Ecology <https://appliedeco.org/> , a
Native Plant Conservation Campaign Affiliate organization
<https://plantsocieties.cnps.org/index.php/about-main/affiliates-cooperators
> .

Excerpts from the article:

.. Over the last three decades, a dedicated community of conservationists
and land managers has worked to preserve American grasslands in all their
manifold forms: the tallgrass, shortgrass, and mixed-grass prairies of the
Midwest, as well as lesser-known varieties, such as the northwest prairies
in Oregon and Washington, and the sandplain grasslands in Massachusetts.
Since the '80s, conservationists have make significant progress in their
ability to reestablish and care for prairie ecosystems.

  <https://ymlpmail2.net/imgz/09yp_PrairieBlazingStarAR2in.jpg> "The future
of prairie restoration is headed in a good direction. We've learned some
lessons," says Tom Kaye, executive director and senior ecologist at the
Institute for Applied Ecology in Corvallis, Ore. "I think we've been able to
focus on ... the research that's necessary to continue to improve."

And that research has paid off. Advances in seeding technology have allowed
land recovered from farming and other uses to be more fully restored with
native plants. And reseeded plants have an increased rate of survival,
thanks to efforts to understand plant establishment, says Dr. Kaye.

A rough estimate for preserved prairies in the Great Plains area alone is
around 207,000 square miles of tall-, mixed-, and shortgrass biomes. 

It's not all smooth sailing, though. "Temperate grasslands are one of the
least-protected terrestrial biomes. They are traditionally the places that
we have settled and plowed," says Alison Fox, the chief executive officer of
American Prairie Reserve. "The estimates are that less than 5 percent of
prairies are in any form of long-term protection." 

>From a practical point of view, prairies are good for the environment.
"Prairies in particular have high amounts of biological diversity, and that
diversity helps sustain life on Earth," says [Tom] Kaye. "Prairies also are
huge carbon sinks.... Restoring prairie ties up a lot of carbon, so that
it's not in the atmosphere."

Read the full article
<https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Progress-Watch/2019/0218/Slow-and-steady-th
e-American-prairies-grow>  

Photo Prairie Blazing Star (c) Eric Hunt Arkansas Native Plant Society

________________________________________

Emily 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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Emily Brin Roberson, Ph.D.

Director

Native Plant Conservation Campaign 

Native Plant Society of the United States

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

 <http://www.plantsocieties.org/> www.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.

"Without plants, there is no life. The functioning of the planet, and our
survival, depends upon plants."

 <https://www.cbd.int/gspc/default.shtml> Global Strategy for Plant
Conservation  

Convention on Biological Diversity

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