Native Plant Conservation Campaign News: Historic efforts to fund plant conservation in stimulus bill offer new hope for plants!

July 17, 2020

 

Environmental groups and members of Congress showed unprecedented and historic bipartisan support for native plants in the drafting of H.R. 2 (Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America Act or the INVEST in America Act). H.R. 2 is the economic stimulus package recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives to continue responding to the COVID crisis in the U.S.

 

No fewer than three efforts were made to allocate stimulus funding for projects and jobs in native plant conservation! The Native Plant Conservation Campaign collaborated in all three initiatives. 

 

In May, 207 environmental groups asked Congress to include “full funding” for the National Seed Strategy in H.R. 2. Led by Western Watersheds Project and Defenders of Wildlife, among others, this was the first independent effort to fund the Strategy. The Seed Strategy gives priority to locally adapted native plants in federal land management and establishes programs to research and produce local native seed. The U.S. is the first country on the planet to prioritize local native plants in this way.

 

In June, Rep Mike Quigley (D-IL) submitted the Botany Bill (the Botanical Sciences and Native Plant Materials Research, Restoration, and Promotion Act, H.R. 1572/S. 2384) as an amendment to H.R. 2. The Botany Bill, which was first introduced by Rep Quigley and Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL) in 2016, seeks to improve funding, training and support for federal botany programs and to increase research into locally appropriate native plants. The amendment was supported by The Garden Club of America, Botanic Garden Conservation International – U.S., the Center for Plant Conservation, the American Public Gardens Association, and the Western Watersheds Project, among others.

 

Although, neither provision above was ultimately included in H.R. 2, sponsors and organizations continued vigorous support for both throughout the debate.

 

One native plant provision is in H.R. 2, however. In June, sponsors of the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (RAWA), led by the National Wildlife Federation, added funding for plant conservation to their proposal to include RAWA in H.R. 2. Sponsors had previously been reluctant to include  explicit funding for plants in RAWA. The RAWA amendment, including the new plant funding, was accepted, and HR 2 has passed the House. Reps. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), and Debbie Dingell (D-MI) were all supportive of the amendment. Sponsors are now working on a companion bill in the Senate.

 

Reasons for this unprecedented surge in support for plants include the pollinator crisis, improved understanding of the role of native plants in delivering valuable ecosystem services such as storm and flood protection, water purification, and wildlife habitat, as well as expanded awareness that native plants require fewer chemicals and so can be both less expensive and less polluting.