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The New Year brings with it a whole host of resolutions for self improvement and professional growth. In that spirit, we at BGCI (U.S.) challenge you to make plant conservation a cornerstone of your education practice. Even the most committed of plant conservation educators can learn something new. But for many of us, plant conservation may still be just a small part of our professional focus. We may be teaching about plants, but not largely about their conservation. I urge you to explore the excitement, depth, relevance, and rigor a focus on plant conservation can bring to your plant-based education efforts. May 2006 be a terrific year for you and the world of plants!
Best Wishes,
Brian Johnson
Education Officer, BGCI ( U.S.)
Editor, Education E-update
brian.johnson@bgci.org
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Call for plant conservation lesson plans: BGCI (U.S.) and the Association of Zoological Horticulture are building a comprehensive website with resources to support Plant Conservation Day, May 18, 2006. The website will include everything your institution needs to celebrate Plant Conservation Day, including activity ideas, PR materials and plant conservation background information. A special section will highlight lesson plans of existing plant conservation education programs at botanic gardens, arboreta and zoos. Don’t let your good work go unnoticed! If your education department has a lesson plan it would like to share with other plant-based educators, please email Brian Johnson (brian.johnson@bgci.org) for consideration.
Just two more days to submit abstracts for BGCI’s Education Congress! Don’t miss out on this opportunity to network with the world’s largest gathering of botanic garden educators. BGCI’s Sixth International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens will take place Sept. 10-14, 2006 , at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden in Oxford, England . The deadline for submitting abstracts to present workshops, papers, or posters at the Congress is Jan. 13. Visit the Congress website to submit your abstract or for more information on the conference.
A Plant Conservation Checklist for Gardeners: Copies of “A Plant Conservation Checklist for Gardeners” are still available from BGCI (U.S.). These leaflets, which detail everyday actions home gardeners can take to promote plant conservation, are available free to gardens, arboreta, zoos and other botanical institutions for use in education programs. Download a copy of the “Checklist” from the Plant for the Planet website and contact Brian Johnson (brian.johnson@bgci.org) to request printed copies for distribution.
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National EE Week is April 16-22: This second annual celebration, coordinated by the National Environmental Education & Training Foundation (NEETF), will include a weeklong slate of activities and events as a run up to Earth Day. Organizers expect thousands of educators and millions of students to be involved. For more information, visit http://www.eeweek.org/
ARKive: This unique global initiative is gathering together films, photographs and audio recordings of the world’s species into one centralized digital library. The resources are available for scientists, conservationists, educators and the general public. The project is currently assembling images and recordings of species included in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Visit the ARKive website for more information.
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Each month, we answer a plant conservation education question that you've always wanted answered. Send your questions to
e-update@bgci.org.
Q: What are the greatest threats to plant populations worldwide?
A: Botanists estimate that as many as 100,000 plant species are at risk of extinction. This number represents nearly one-third the total known global flora! Worldwide, the major causes bringing about this crisis are habitat loss, global climate change, invasive species, overexploitation, urbanization, pollution and secondary extinctions. Depending on where you are in the world, the order of importance of these causes will change. In the United States, habitat loss and invasive species are the two largest threats to plants. What each of these causes has in common, however, is that they are largely the result of human actions.
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Issue 8: January 2006 |
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In each issue of Education E-update, we shine the spotlight on an innovative plant conservation education program taking place at a BGCI member institution. If your BGCI member institution has a program that should be "in the spotlight," email a short description and contact information to
e-update@bgci.org.
In the spotlight this month:
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
Global, national and local environmental policy can have tremendous impact on the lives of everyday citizens. The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is helping its members and the public make sense of this sometimes tangled policy web through its newly launched Public Policy Programs education initiative. “Our goal is to promote and support the vital link between people, plants and the earth, and often when the words ‘public policy’ are mentioned in relation to this, people’s eyes glaze over and they can’t seem to get a handle on how it affects their daily lives,” says Mary Vidas, the Arboretum’s Public Policy Program Manager. “It is important that we see where we fit within the larger picture.” The Arboretum believes education programs are a natural choice for helping its members and the public understand current policy initiatives.
In 2006, the Arboretum’s Public Policy Programs will sponsor a lecture series, featuring writers, scientists, and policy makers. Featured speakers will include Michael Pollan, author of Second Nature and director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism at the University of California-Berkeley, and Richard Louv, author of The Last Child in the Woods—Treating Nature Deficit Disorder. Additional workshops during the year will bring together diverse groups of community stakeholders to discuss the implications of specific environmental policies, share current research, connect participants with topical experts and encourage creative problem solving through collaboration. The Arboretum develops its Public Policy Programs with the help of state and county officials, community leaders, the University community, scientists, natural resources practitioners, business and trade professionals, and citizen groups. The goal is not only to understand how policy affects one group and impacts another, but also to understand the complex systems and relationships that make policy development an important balancing act.
“Minnesotans are vigilant about maintaining our quality of life and take seriously the preservation of the same for future generations,” Vidas says. “I see our Arboretum members and policy program participants as ‘community trustees,’ with a strong desire to make the world a better place and to expand their knowledge base--which is, by its very nature, taking action!”
For more information, visit the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum website or email Mary Vidas (mvidas@arboretum.umn.edu), public policy program manager.
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Do you have an amazing plant conservation education resource, program, or story to share? Get the word out about your work through Education E-update! Each month’s newsletter is read by more than 300 plant-based educators nationwide. Email e-update@bgci.org to showcase your program. |
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Please forward this email to education colleagues at your living institution or to others who have an interest in plant conservation education. |
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