GardenLarge

GardenLarge, the Brine Garden, Duncan and Julia Brine

Botanic Gardens and Human Survival?

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Duncan and I recently attended the New England Wild Flower Society’s gala Founder’s Dinner, honoring Dr. Paul Smith, Secretary General, Botanic Gardens Conservation International.

Dr. Paul Smith

Dr. Smith was awarded their 2015 Founder’s Medal for his exceptional achievements as Head of the Millennium Seed Bank, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. His compelling talk was about plant diversity and human survival. Dr. Smith highlighted the role botanical gardens play internationally in preserving seed for the future.

NEWFS logo 2015

Cross-pollinated Connecticut Chestnut Comeback

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  • Forest management efforts in Connecticut paying off as American chestnut tree makes a comeback | The Republic

  • via Ct Environmental Headlines

    • Scientists have been working on restoration since the 1930s, and in the last several years, American chestnut specialist Sandy Anagnostakis has been breeding blight-resistant trees by crossing the American species with its Chinese cousin, which carries a resistant gene.

       

      Some 200 of those blight-resistant seedlings were planted on 2.5 acres at Belding in 2009, and while mortality is eventually expected to reach 50 percent due to die-off from natural competition, Seymour said the vast majority of the trees are thriving.

    • Eventually, the native trees will reach maturity and begin cross-pollinating with the newly planted blight-resistant strain, creating seedlings genetically similar to trees native to the site that also carry genes resistant to blight.

Do Your Best with the Anthropocene

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  • The Age of Man Is Not a Disaster – NYTimes.com

    • Yes, we live in the Anthropocene — but that does not mean we inhabit an ecological hell. Our management and care of natural places and the millions of other species with which we share the planet could and should be improved.

As Climate Warms, Species May Need to Migrate or Perish

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  • As Climate Warms, Species May Need to Migrate or Perish by Carl Zimmer: Yale Environment 360

  • With global warming pushing some animals and plants to the brink of extinction, conservation biologists are now saying that the only way to save some species may be to move them.

    • This strategy — which goes by various names including assisted migration, assisted colonization, and, most recently, managed relocation — only emerged in the scientific literature in 2007. Over the past two years it has attracted widespread interest. A number of scientists are now investigating how they can pick new homes for endangered species and move them safely.