Native Plant Conservation Campaign News: Support for native plant conservation is expanding dramatically among elected officials and environmental groups

 

New pro-native plant legislation, research projects, and advocacy initiatives demonstrate an unprecedented surge in support for native plant conservation in the states, in Congress, and among wildlife conservation groups. Consider these developments:

 

 

In February, Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) introduced the Native Plant Species Pilot Program Act( H.R. 6024) in the House of  Representatives to protect and preserve native plant species and fight invasive plants in U.S. national parks. There is already a companion bill (S. 3150) in the Senate.

 

The National Parks bills join the Monarch and Pollinator Highway Act of 2019 (MPH, Act; S 2918). That legislation would establish a federal grant program to assist state departments of transportation and Indian tribes to carry out pollinator-friendly practices on roadsides and highway rights-of-way. 

 

These bills follow the “Botany Bill” (the Botanical Sciences and Native Plant Materials Research, Restoration, and Promotion Act, H.R. 1572/S. 2384), first introduced in 2016, which seeks to improve funding and support for federal botany programs and increase research into locally appropriate native plants.

 

All three bills explicitly call for priority to be given to locally adapted native plants in land managemnt in order best to conserve and restore wildlife habitat and deliver ecosystem services such as water and  air purification, greenhouse gas sequestration, and buffering of floods and severe weather.

 

 

We will share information on how you can support these three bills in an upcoming NPCC News.

 

In 2015, by adopting the historic National Seed Strategy,  the U.S. became the first country on the planet to prioritize the use of locally adapted native plants in the restoration and other management of federal lands. There are now a number of efforts underway to support implementation of the Strategy:

 

The National Parks Pilot bill referenced above specifically requires coordination with the Seed Strategy.

 

At the end of 2019, the National Academies of Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering, convened a committee to “assess federal, state, tribal and private sector needs and capacity for supplying native plant seeds for ecological restoration and other purposes” One goal of this Assessment is to assist in implementation of the Seed Strategy.

 

In May, 207 environmental groups asked Congress to include “full funding” for the National Seed Strategy in future economic stimulus bills to respond to the Covid-19 economic crisis.

 

Further, in 2019, more than 85 environmental groups asked the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service to prioritize the use of local native plants in its National Handbook of Conservation Practices.

 

 

 

 

At least five states (FL, OK, TX, VA, GA) sell some form of native plant or wildflower license plate.

 

In April, Ohio became the latest state to declare a native plant month, creating a beautiful Ohio native plant website and joining numerous other states celebrating native plant weeks and  months each year.

 

These are a few of the ways we are seeing public support for native plant conservation grow in the U.S. Similar trends are happening internationally. The United Nations, for example, has declared 2020 the “Year of Plant Health” and has declared 2021-2030 the “Decade of Ecosystem Restoration”.

 

Due to Covid-19 and other crises, we have temporarily suspended some advocacy operations.

We will share information on how you and we can support these pro-plant efforts in upcoming issues of NPCC News.