CNPS 2009 Conservation Conference: Strategies and Solutions

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Session Topics

Click on session titles for complete schedule of speakers (Excel file format)

• Assessing and Mitigating Impacts to Rare Plants and Communities
  Session chair: Tony LaBanca (California Department of Fish and Game)

  Many human activities, from large scale new construction and timber harvesting, to development of green energy infrastructure and park maintenance can impact rare plant populations and natural communities. How can these impacts be accurately assessed? What strategies are used to effectively minimize them to a less-than-significant level? This session takes a look at past assessment efforts and provides examples of new approaches. Case studies present specific strategies including metapopulation and landscape-scale conservation approaches. Presentations also review effectiveness monitoring and adaptive management to ensure mitigation measures meet set objectives.

• The California Floristic Zone in Baja California
  Session chairs: Alan Harper, Ph.D. (Terra Peninsular, A.C.), Bart O'Brien (Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden) and Sula Vanderplank (Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and Claremont Graduate University)

  The California Floristic Province extends approximately 300 km south of California into the Mexican State of Baja California. This session highlights the unique nature of the southern portion of the Province. Presentations address identification of areas of regional importance for plant conservation; what we know about areas that have already been identified as conservation priorities; legal tools that are available for conservation in Mexico; and tools that are available to plant conservation biologists in the region.

• Central Coast and Central Valley Conservation
  Session Chairs: Lech Naumovich (California Native Plant Society) and Carol Witham (Vernalpools.org)

  From vernal pools to grasslands and maritime chaparral to serpentine outcrops, the Great Central Valley and the Central Coast have extraordinary floristic diversity as well as unprecedented development pressure. Unique conservation challenges of each region are reviewed in their respective session. Presentations cover a diversity of topics including landscape-scale processes, regional floristic studies, and case studies on the conservation biology of endemic species.

• Climate Change: Understanding and Addressing its Impacts on California's Flora
  Session Chair: Ann Howald (Garcia and Associates)

  Climate change is underway, and it will influence the future distribution, evolution and even survival of California’s plant life. A warming world may cause range expansion or contraction of native species, creating new and novel plant communities. Invasive plants may push beyond their current areas of infestation. Historic data show that some endemic-rich communities are already affected. This session explores new and evolving management strategies needed to conserve California’s flora.

• Equal Protection for Plants
  Session Chairs: Emily Roberson (Native Plant Conservation Campaign) and Diana Hickson (California Department of Fish and Game)

  Is equal protection for plants possible? Presentations in this session will discuss challenges and opportunities for plant conservation in state and federal laws, budgets, and policies.

• Great Basin and Deserts Conservation
  Session Chair: Jim Andre (Granite Mountains Desert Research Center, UCR)

  The Sonoran, Mojave and Great Basin Deserts comprise approximately one-third of California’s landmass, yet their combined vascular plant diversity rivals that of cismontane California. Managing desert ecosystems demands a broad understanding of the organisms, the environment that supports them, and the deserts’ unique complex processes that occur over time and space. This session synthesizes a broad range of topics, including cryptobiotic soil crust ecology, regional floristic studies, threats that cross spatial and temporal scales, and vegetation and rare plant management programs.

• Invasive Plants: Addressing a Top Threat to Native Plants in California
  Session Chairs: Doug Johnson (California Invasive Plant Council) and Steve Schoenig (California Department of Fish and Game)
  
  
  1. Impacts from invasive species imperil California native ecosystems on a scale comparable to climate change and habitat destruction. This subsession explores these impacts, and the programs working to address "wildland weeds" in California. Topics include invasive plant classification, key research needs, current management tools and techniques, and how CNPS chapters are joining the effort.
  2. A range of efforts are required for effectively addressing the ecological threat of invasive plants. This subsession presents examples of research on the efficacy of control techniques, historical analysis of invasion, and the mapping, planning and executing of on-the-ground management programs.
• Land Acquisition for Plant Conservation
  Session Chair: Michael Eaton, Ph.D. (Resources Legacy Fund Foundation)

  Large scale land acquisition—establishing broad pathways of permanent protection that bridge ecoregions, elevational zones, and floristic provinces—may offer the best hope for protecting native plant communities in the face of climate change and other challenges. The good news? Conservation organizations and public agencies are thinking big—from the desert to the redwoods and from the coast to the Sierra—and producing some very exciting results. This session presents some great successes in ongoing regional conservation through land acquisition.

• Land Management and the Conservation of Plants and Communities
  Session chairs: John Hunter, Ph.D. (EDAW) and Linnea Hanson (US Forest Service)

  Wildfires and fuels are managed throughout California, and most land is also managed for a variety of ecosystem products and services, ranging from timber and cattle production, to recreational experiences. This session focuses on how land management affects native plant populations and communities and on how proper land management can help sustain rare plant populations and natural communities.

• Northern California and Sierra Nevada Conservation
  Session Chair: Brett Hall (UC Santa Cruz Arboretum)

  This session covers Northern California, the Sierra Nevada, and White Mountains. This diverse region harbors tremendous floristic diversity—from coastal wetlands and prairies, redwood forests, serpentine barrens, to montane fens and subalpine communities. Presentations provide insight and perspective on numerous single-species, habitat, and plant community conservation issues, including evolutionary biology, reproductive strategies, influence of wildfire, landscape-level stewardship, disturbance regimes, and more.

• Planning Tools for Conservation of Rare Plants and Natural Communities
  Session Chair: Russell Huddleston (CH2M Hill)

  In many cases, taking a regional, watershed, or landscape-level approach is the most effective means to conserve plant populations and natural communities. This session includes a broad overview of these tools, reviews lessons learned from established planning mechanisms, and explores new opportunities and challenges for regional conservation planning. A success story is presented in which the environmental community, working in cooperation with state and federal agencies, reached consensus on a large development that included a regional conservation plan.

• Rare Plant Conservation: Case Studies and Tools
  Session Chairs: Nick Jensen (California Native Plant Society) and Patrick McIntyre (UC Davis Center for Population Biology)

  The Rare Plant Session will provide a venue for individuals to discuss current research and activities that promote the conservation of California’s rare plants. Topics that will be discussed include recent rare plant discoveries, single and multi-species research, conservation plans, and successful management activities. Talks will focus on research methods and actions that can be used to aid rare plant conservation efforts within California and beyond.

• The Science and Synergy of Restoring Rare Plant Populations
  Session Chair: Bruce Pavlik, Ph.D. (Mills College)

  How can damaged populations of rare plants be restored? Techniques for understanding and manipulating population size, vital rates, habitat quality, and genetic composition have been developed over the last two decades, but not widely or convincingly implemented. Perhaps species with “cooperative” life history characteristics should receive priority over those under the most dire of circumstances as we learn to do restoration. This session presents a critical assessment of the scientific and institutional requirements for “successful” enhancement and creation of populations in situ. Speakers will provide examples of rare plant restoration projects, analyze characteristics that determine success and underscore the importance of structured decision-making, long-term commitment, and stakeholder cooperation.

• Plant Science for Conservation
  Session Chairs: Melanie Gogol-Prokurat (California Department of Fish and Game), Ellen Dean, Ph.D. (UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity) and Stephen McCabe (UC Santa Cruz Arboretum)
  
  
  1. Understanding the genetic structure and adaptive potential of plant populations is an important component of predicting their responses to change over time, including the effects of habitat fragmentation and climate change. Studies on local adaptation, local and regional patterns of population genetics, and adaptive potential provide valuable data to inform conservation and restoration strategies. Presentations in this subsession will address recent research advances in these areas.
  2. Presentations in this subsession provide an update on new methods in plant systematics used to determine the limits of taxa. Presentations also cover recent name changes in the California flora that will be used in the upcoming revision of the Jepson Manual and new updates to the California Consortium of Herbaria website that help track the geographic distribution of California species. Speakers will address conservation issues affected by plant taxonomy and systematics.
  3. and 4. The success of native plant restoration and reserve design hinges on many factors. Species, population, and community attributes, such as genetic structure, habitat requirements, and species interactions, affect long-term population sustainability. Spatial habitat configuration, including size and isolation, affect processes such as dispersal, pollination, and gene flow. Climate change and other factors causing changes in habitats over time may affect long-term conservation outcomes. Talks will focus on research, monitoring and models addressing these issues.
• Southwestern California and Channel Islands Conservation
  Session Chairs: Gary Wallace, Ph.D. (US Fish and Wildlife Service and Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden), Tony McKinney (US Fish and Wildlife Service), and Jonathan Snapp-Cook (US Fish and Wildlife Service)
  
  
  1. Coastal Southern California has the highest concentration of rare and endemic plants as well as being the state’s most populous region. This first of three subsessions includes presentations on the region’s flora, sources of rare plant data, and a conservation strategy for a rare non-listed annual plant.
  2. The second subsession continues with presentations on using field, museum, and laboratory data to develop management strategies. The final presentation of this session describes a multi-partner conservation strategy for a rare listed annual plant.
  3. The third subsession examines some of the various conservation strategies in place in southern California. These include strategies for a single nonlisted species, for private lands in Los Angeles County, for carbonate substrates on mining claims in the San Bernardino National Forest, and for lands under a large HCP in San Diego. The final presentation will assess the effectiveness value of a variety of different conservation programs.
• Vegetation Science
  Session Charis: Deb Hillyard (California Department of Fish and Game) and Bruce Orr, Ph.D. (Stillwater Sciences)
  
  
  1. Vegetation science provides many useful lessons and tools for native plant conservation in California. This first subsession provides examples of recent progress in developing more standardized, data-driven approaches to vegetation classification and mapping that should greatly improve our ability to coordinate and implement local, regional, and statewide planning efforts to protect and conserve native species, habitats, communities, and ecosystems.
  2. The second subsession focuses on the many ways in which vegetation data can be used for conservation and management planning.
  3. Presentations in the third subsession discuss modeling rare plant habitat, estimating fuel loads and likely fire behavior, documenting changes from historical conditions, and predicting future ecological trajectories under various management and environmental change scenarios. 4. Presentations in the fourth subsession provide a review of the role of existing laws and regulations in protecting rare plant species and natural vegetation types, and an overview of recent and ongoing efforts to inventory and map both common and rare vegetation types throughout California.

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