From Plant Press, Vol. 3, No. 1, January 2000.
By Gary A. Krupnick
Along with the new millennium comes a new feature in The Plant Press: “The Conservation Column”. With the Department’s reestablished Plant Conservation Unit up and running once again, the Conservation Column will feature current research and activities of the Department as they relate to plant conservation, endangered species and threatened habitats.
As the new director of the Plant Conservation Unit, I have recently been involved in both conservation research and editorial duties. One accomplishment includes the resurrection of the Biological Conservation Newsletter, a monthly publication that had been on hiatus since July 1998. The newsletter is sent free of charge to subscribers including university faculty and staff, college and high school students, politicians, Peace Corps volunteers, and libraries of developing nations. I have also created a Web page for the newsletter, in which the latest issue as well as all previous issues since 1991 are available for viewing. For information about subscribing, or to view the latest issue, point your web browser to http://www.mnh.si.edu/botany/bcn.
One current endeavor in which I am involved includes a project on plant diversity and endemism across global ecoregions. This project is in collaboration with the John Morrison (World Wildlife Fund), George Schatz (Missouri Botanical Garden), Wayt Thomas (New York Botanical Garden) and Bil Alverson (The Field Museum). Our goal is to identify plant species richness and endemism within the 870 ecoregions worldwide as delineated by World Wildlife Fund.
The major goals of the Plant Conservation unit are to gather information on endangered and threatened plants and critical habitats at a global scale, and to ensure that the information needed to reduce the decline in plant diversity, plant resources, and their habitats is readily available. To achieve these goals, I plan to take on the following responsibilities:
*serve as the department liaison with internal and external conservation organizations;
*direct an information service by responding to requests from a variety of sources, including the general public, non-government and government agencies, and conservation organizations by providing information on world plant conservation, such as specialists, threatened species, habitats, and literature;
*compile, research, and solicit information on endangered plants and habitats in national and international regions; and
*review current botanical and conservation literature, and maintain bibliographic databases.
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