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Plant Conservation
Why is it important for California?
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California is one of Earth's 25 biodiversity hotspots - areas with unusually high numbers of species. |
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Among the 5,800 native plant species occurring in California, 1,700 have such small populations that they face extinction in the next 50 years. (Read about the threat of invasive plants.) |
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Despite a long history of scientific study, we still have scant knowledge of the role most California native plants play in natural landscapes and how they contribute to human society. |
The Garden is committed to conserving the rarest plant species of the Central Coast Bioregion, which encompasses Monterey and San Benito counties south to Ventura County, and includes California's Channel Islands.
The Botanic Garden established the Central Coast Center for Plant Conservation to coordinate programs in the following areas:
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Botanical inventories are needed to adequately assess the distribution of plants in the region and provide critical information for resource management. Databases derived from documented and verifiable records provide appropriate information. |
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The Botanic Garden's Conservation Collection serves as insurance against extinction in the wild. Collections of seeds and living plants, developed and maintained using rigorous scientific standards, serve as living resources for recovery and reintroduction projects. |
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Research conducted on the biology of rare species contributes to understanding their ecology and provides information important for managing reintroduction efforts and sustaining remaining populations. |
Center for Plant Conservation
As an active member of the Center for Plant Conservation, the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is the only organization actively developing and maintaining a conservation collection of rare and endangered species in the central coast region.
Through cooperation with private and public resource management agencies, seeds and living plants are collected in the wild to represent genetic and geographic variation. The Garden uses appropriate standards that ensure sufficient quantities for scientific study and for potential recovery projects.
Collection strategies include collecting from as many sites as possible, from different plants, and in different years. These strategies maximize genetic diversity, which is important to enhancing the success of recovery under natural conditions.
The Garden's work on state and federally listed species is implemented through cooperative agreements with the California Dept. of Fish and Game, the Los Padres National Forest, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Resources limit our ability to fully implement the effort for the 400 species considered endangered or declining in California's Central Coast Bioregion and on the Channel Islands. The Garden has established an endowment to provide sufficient resources for ongoing fieldwork, additions of new species when needed, and maintenance of the collection.
Species currently included in the Garden's Conservation Collection
Note: Through a cooperative agreement with the Center for Plant Conservation, SBBG is developing records for plants in SBBG's Conservation Collection. These records appear on the Center for Plant Conservation's website. We will add additional links as we add new CPC plant records.
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