Rare Plant and Habitat Conservation Work

New England Wild Flower Society staff, trained volunteers, and collaborators spent the busy 2007 field season hard at work in all six New England states monitoring our region’s plants and protecting them from habitat loss and the threat of invasive species.

• In 2007, the Wild Flower Society scheduled over 1200 surveys for rare plants through our New England Plant Conservation Program (NEPCoP) and the 400 volunteers of the Plant Conservation Volunteer Corps (PCV).

• The United States Forest Service contracted The New England Wild Flower Society to undertake an extensive study of three regions of The White Mountain National Forest: Rumney Rocks Climbing Area, Sandwich Range, and Wild River Wilderness Area.  Teams of staff and volunteers walked the hiking trails at Sandwhich and Wild River, identifying areas of invasive plant incursion, noting and marking each with GPS waypoints.  At the Rumney Climbing Area, a full botanical inventory was made of the area below the cliffs, and management suggestions were incorporated into a report to the Forest Service.  The teams found very few sites with significant invasion of exotic plant species or erosion. 

• The Wild Flower Society continues our leadership of control efforts for Japanese stiltgrass (Microstegium vimimeum) in Massachasusetts.  We have drawn a line in the sand, essentially vowing that this invasive annual species will not reach farther north.  If we are not successful, this species will likely spread throughout northern New England.  In late August and early September, Conservation staff volunteers engaged in Japanese stiltgrass management actions in the towns of Agawam, Amherst, Bedford, Blackstone, East Longmeadow, Longmeadow, Millville, Sherborn, Wellesley, and West Springfield. The most intensive effort took place in Blackstone, where staff applied herbicide to large infestations along utility rights-of-way.  Infestations along roadsides in both Blackstone and Millville were cut with weed whackers and weed whips. This project was supported in part by the Massachusetts Environmental Trust.

The map, prepared by Jessica Korecki, NEPCoP Administrator, highlights the rare plant surveys, botanical inventories, and invasive plant management actions scheduled or completed in 2007 by New England Wild Flower Society volunteers and collaborators in almost every county in New England.

Map 1: New England Wild Flower Society 2007 Rare & Invasive Plant Surveys.

Squares on the map indicate the number of rare plant population surveys scheduled in each county. The Conservation staff contacts landowners to obtain permission for the volunteers and staff to go to the rare plant sites and update the population record information, including population size and overall health. This data then goes to the Natural Heritage Program in the appropriate state.

Circles on the map indicate the number of work days the Conservation staff has scheduled in that county. Work days include invasive plant management days and botanical inventory days.

The enormous amount of work we manage to accomplish on these days would not be possible without our volunteers!

New England Wild Flower Society Climate Change Policy

This year we adopted our Climate Change Policy, acknowledging our consensus with the New England Climate Impact Assessment, stating our commitment to reducing our own carbon footprint, and outlining new conservation strategies that will be required of us in the face of climate change.  We are first botanic garden in the country, and one of the first conversation organizations in the northeast, to adopt a climate change policy. This policy has become a model for other organizations looking for a tool to manifest their own commitment.  While we still do not know exactly what climate change will bring to the New England landscape, our policy poises us to respond in an appropriate and timely way.   It has also helped us understand all too clearly how critical our seed banking work has become, and we are now ramping up those efforts.