Native Plant Conservation Campaign News:  San Francisco Chronicle - Former Governor Jerry Brown and CNPS Executive Director Dan Gluesenkamp on how CA is conservation leader

June 5, 2019

 

Former California Governor Jerry Brown and Dan Gluesenkamp, Executive Director of the California Native Plant Society (an NPCC Affiliate), published an opinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle June 4 in response to the recent United Nations report on the global biological diversity crisis that threatens human societies and economies.

 

The essay, titled “Finding hope in the face of extinction”, reviewed the UN report and described some of the ways CNPS and the state are working to conserve biological diversity. These include “proven solutions, such as transit-oriented urban development, wetland restoration and sustainable water management.”

 

The authors also describe some of the more groundbreaking California conservation initiatives:  “We’re also undertaking innovative approaches — engaging citizen scientists and big-data analytics to map precious biodiversity and identify Important Plant Areas (places crucial to the conservation of the state’s botanical heritage), seed-banking rare plants so no plant goes extinct ever again, and gardening with local plants to restore nature one garden at a time.

 

The new California Biodiversity Initiative, launched in September 2018, is already bringing scientists and citizens together to find and advance shared solutions. Incredibly, in California we have almost met the 2020 targets for plants set forth in the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.”

 

 

Photo: the endangered Presidio Clarkia, recently rediscovered in San Francisco (c) CA Department of Fish and Wildlife