On March 16, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that it was indefinitely suspending funding for the
Collections in Support of Biological Research (CSBR) Program. This Program is one of very few funding sources that help maintain biological specimen collections such as herbaria and seed collections. The NSF stated that it will use the suspension to evaluate the program and its impacts and efficacy.
The Native Plant Conservation Campaign letter in support of the program pointed some irreplaceable and essential functions of herbaria and other biological specimen collections: