Native Plant Conservation Campaign News: NPCC Director Roberson interviewed on plight of imperiled plants.

September 20, 2019

 

The online science news magazine Science 101 has published an article entitled The US is neglecting its endangered plants.

 

The article discusses the understaffing and underfunding of plant science and conservation programs and the weakness in the plant protection provisions of the federal Endangered Species Act.

 

The article explains that this is part of a larger problem with human attitude towards plants:  “Plants have long been considered second-class to animals (hey, even vegans don’t have a problem eating them).”

 

For example, this summer, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power bulldozed hundreds of endangered Braunton’s milk-vetch plants, of which fewer than 3000 survive in the wild. The article notes “Can you imagine them doing that to a bunch of grizzly bears? There would be a public uproar (no pun intended).… Of course, this would certainly be illegal if the plants were swapped out for grizzly bears.”

 

But it is still perfectly legal for listed plants to be deliberately killed in most situations. (For more information on the federal Endangered Species Act and plants see the NPCC website Equal Protection for Plants pages.)

 

NPCC Director Emily B. Roberson and Joyce Maschinski, vice president of science and conservation for the Center for Plant Conservation were interviewed for the article.

 

Read the full article at Science 101