Earlier this year, SGI became an official partner of the Center for Plant Conservation (CPC), an organization that advances the science and practice of rare plant conservation by making sure its partners are equipped with the resources to best save plants. In particular, these partners – or as CPC calls them, Participating Institutions – are organizations that maintain ex situ rare plant collections. This could mean live plants in a botanic garden or seeds in a seed bank. With the establishment of our Conservation Seed Bank which focuses on rare and declining grassland plants, we were a perfect match to partner up with CPC.

Between May 4 and 6, SGI Plant Conservation Manager, Cooper Breeden, and Native Seed Program Director, Marcello De Vitis, attended the National Meeting of the CPC at the Denver Botanical Gardens. This was the first in-person gathering for CPC since the pandemic started. National experts in plant conservation joined both in person and virtually from all over the country.

On the first day, the participants attended a pre-meeting field trip to the USDA-Agricultural Research Service National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation (NLGRP). The NLGRP provides genetic security for the industry and research community by acquiring, evaluating, preserving, and distributing genetic resources including plant, animal, insect, and microbial material.

While their primary focus is on preserving agricultural genetic resources, NLGRP also holds thousands of seeds, spores, and embryos from a collection of rare plants collected by many CPC partners as well as native seeds from the national Seeds of Success program. After leading a tour of the facilities, the NLGRP team led small breakout groups to discuss some of the topics concerning germplasm research, processing, and storage in more depth.

The next two days consisted of talks by conservationists from many of the attending institutions. These talks reviewed their work in rare plant ex situ and in situ conservation. On May 5, Cooper gave a talk about SGI’s efforts to protect and preserve rare, endangered and declining species and habitats across the Southeast U.S.

After the first presentation session, participants had the opportunity to visit Chatfield Farms, one of the off-site locations of the Gardens. This farm is a 700-acre site where Denver Botanic Gardens staff have been working to restore some of the natural habitats and features, in some cases with an active role (e.g., reintroducing native plants), in other cases letting nature recovering by itself through natural processes (e.g., relying on beavers to restore the creek banks). This place is a wonderful meeting point of public outreach, agroecology, recreation, and conservation. After the second presentation session, attendees split into breakout groups led by CPC representatives to discuss topics important to all rare plant conservationists. These topics included propagation and germination protocols, outreach and engagement, databasing, and more.

This was the first CPC meeting attended by SGI staff, and both Cooper and Marcello were grateful to be able to attend it as it was the last led by CPC President and CEO, Dr Joyce Maschinski. Dr. Maschinski is ready to step back from this role and retire after a brilliant and inspiring career that saw her becoming a leader in plant conservation, not only nation-wide but at the global level.

As many participants highlighted several times during the three days of meeting, and as we at SGI felt too, being part of this event was like being part of a big family where all the members share a common goal: plant conservation. It was a place to share our stories, our struggles, and learn from the hard work that so many others have undertaken to protect our rare and endangered plants. At SGI, we are proud to be part of the CPC family and look forward to continuing to contribute to regional and national goals in plant conservation and to sharing our best practices, successes, failures, and any little step towards saving plants and biodiversity!

Marcello DeVitis, Native Seed Program Director

Marcello oversees many of SGI’s projects focused on collecting, preserving, and propagating seeds that can be used as a source for restoration. This includes both the Seeds of Success - Southeast program and the Plant It Forward program.

Cooper Breeden, Plant Conservation Manager

Cooper helps conserve rare species and communities by developing conservation strategies, curating a Conservation Seed Bank that targets vulnerable populations of rare or declining grassland species, and serving as the statewide coordinator for the Tennessee Plant Conservation Alliance.