Natural History Wanderings

As you probably know, CNPS is promoting an effort to collect and preserve seeds of all our rare plants, to stop plant extinction in California.

On Monday, California legislators will meet to consider a California Biodiversity Initiative budget request for $2M for the seed banking effort. These funds will enable the California Plant Rescue (CaPR) to meet the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity target of seed banking 75% of our rare plants by 2020 – already, CaPR is at 50%! We can do it!

Your help is needed today! Your local representative, Sen. Nancy Skinner, is an important member of the budget committee and needs to hear from you. Please take 3 minutes to call or email Sen. Skinner at senator.skinner@senate.ca.gov or (916) 651-4009 with the sample text below.

It’s important you understand that hearing from even five constituents will get your legislator to support this urgent item. You hear a lot of hype, but please believe: your one email and phone call is quite likely to be the difference between success and failure.

With your quick help today we can take a very real step toward halting native plant extinction in California!

Thank you in advance, Dan Gluesenkamp Executive Director, CNPS Partner in the CA Plant Rescue

Dear Sen. Skinner,

I’m writing to ask for your support of Asm. Ash Kalra’s $2 million request for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to support seed banking efforts. Seed banking is part of the California Biodiversity Initiative, and Asm. Kalra’s request needs to be reconciled with the biodiversity proposals you are likely to consider on Monday. The $2 million will be used to support native plant seed banking efforts with the goal of banking 75% of California’s rare plants by 2020. We are already 50% toward that target, which aligns with the goals set forth by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. Please support CDFW in helping California reach the finish line!

Sincerely,

[Your name here]