NPCC Leaders: Article on Botany Bill Shows Success of NPCC Messaging, Lets Keep It Going!

Hello Native Plant Conservation Campaign Leaders.

As you know the "Botany Bill" was recently introduced in the U.S. Senate by Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI).

A July 26 article on the bill - and on Trump administration attacks on the federal Endangered Species Act - in the Honolulu Civil Beat shows that NPCC efforts to focus attention on the plight of native plants and the many services and benefits they provide to societies and economies have been working.

The article included several of the key facts and talking points that NPCC has emphasized in our public outreach. Although it did not quote the NPCC directly, the article used several of our central talking points including:

the problem of underfunding and understaffing for plant conservation
the crisis of plant blindness
the fact that interspecies dependencies within native plant communities are so complex, that the loss of even one plant species may deprive humanity of a source of food, pollination, medicine, or other vital products or benefits
the fact that native plants, among other things
stabilize the climate
support food security
offer new sources of life saving medicines
provide pollinator habitat

The article quotes Dustin Wolkis, seed bank and laboratory manager at the National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kauai:

“Humans depend on plants for, well, everything - the air we breathe, the food that we eat, our medicine, our clothes, our building materials. Even with all of that, people just see plants as the green backdrop to the world.”

He was also quoted,

"It’s possible that if you lose a plant, you lose a pollinator and this trickle-down effect keeps going and going. You run the risk of losing all that much more that we don’t understand yet.”

To help continue to expand public understanding of the value and irreplaceablity of native plants, please share the NPCC Brochure (Request Print-Quality Version of Brochure) and Ecosystem Services Infographic (attached).

Thanks to all who help get out the word about native plants!

Read the article on the "Botany Bill" in the Honolulu Civil Beat

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