Archivos de Diario para diciembre 2021

miércoles, 29 de diciembre de 2021

Underfunded native plant conservation and research

Native plant conservation and research is severely underfunded. One report showed despite comprising 57% of federally Threatened and Endangered species, they got less than 4% of the federal funding.

If you love plants, call and email your representatives. Ask them to support increased funding for native plant conservation. Then consider donating to these organizations.

This is a time-sensitive fundraiser to protect an extremely rare ecosystem: Save Bell Bowl Prairie. An airport access road is planned to be built right through it, but there is a legal effort to alter the plan and protect its many rare plants:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/kt3ne-save-bell-bowl-prairie


Annotation and illustration by Liz Anna Kozik, learn more at https://www.savebellbowlprairie.org/

Look for a native plant society near you. The research and monitoring programs through the Illinois Native Plant Society have been expanding in recent years. Since INPS is completely volunteer-led, donations to the grant programs goes right to scientists here in Illinois to study our native plants and ecosystems with no overhead:
https://illinoisplants.org/about-membership/

Find a "Friends of [local nature park system]" near you. Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves is a pretty new organization with teams of volunteers working to protect and restore the highest quality native ecosystems throughout the state:
https://friendsofillinoisnaturepreserves.org/

And, of course, iNaturalist! Our observations help land managers and researchers learn more about ALL life. I've seen iNat data used in quite a few papers and reports. For example, the consultants tasked with assessing the threat of construction activities to the Bell Bowl Prairie's threatened/endangered species included iNaturalist in their list of resources to assess. What we share here has a real impact. But server space isn't free and community support is needed:
https://donorbox.org/inaturalist-community-fundraising/fundraiser/cassi-saari

Who am I missing? Please share your favorite native plant conservation or research organizations that are doing good work, and how best to support them.

Associated tweet: https://twitter.com/BOUCUR/status/1476229145734623238

Publicado el miércoles, 29 de diciembre de 2021 a las 05:31 PM por bouteloua bouteloua | 1 comentario | Deja un comentario