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BEN # 173
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No. 173 October 8, 1997
aceska@freenet.victoria.bc.ca Victoria, B.C.
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Dr. A. Ceska, P.O.Box 8546, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 3S2
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MYCOLOGICAL AND BOTANICAL EVENTS IN VICTORIA
October 11 and 12, 1997 - SVIMS (South Vancouver Island
Mycological Society): Fall Foray to Tofino. We will meet at
8:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 11 and 12 at the Rain-
forest Interpretive Centre, Main St. Tofino.
October 21, 1997 - Botany Night. Dr. Sergei Yazvenko: "Plants of
Greece" - Swan Lake Nature House, Victoria, B.C. 7:30 p.m.
(Botany Night is sponsored by the Victoria Natural History
Society and Native Plant Society of British Columbia.)
October 26, 1997 - SVIMS Mushroom Show. Swan Lake Nature House,
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
PROFESSOR NANCY J. TURNER RECEIVED 1997 R. E. SCHULTES AWARD
From: Sarah Mason <sarah.mason@ucl.ac.uk>
Professor Nancy J. Turner of the School of Environmental Studies
at the University of Victoria, BC, is the recipient of the 1997
Richard Evans Schultes Award. The Schultes Award is presented
annually by The Healing Forest Conservancy to a scientist,
practitioner, or organization that has made an outstanding
contribution to ethnobotany or to indigenous peoples issues
related to ethnobotany. "Advocate for indigenous peoples,"
"accomplished academic," "inspiring professor," read the flood
of nominations for Nancy Turner. Specific recognition is given
for her leadership in partnering with First Nations peoples to
bring ethnobotanical knowledge to the forefront in discussions
on management of the ancient, temperate forests of the Pacific
Northwest with the government of Canada. Turner's impressive
scholarly recognition by her peers on the temperate climate
ethnobotany of the First Nations in British Columbia -- almost
30 books, monographs or chapters -- is surpassed only by the
number of her many devoted students whom she has inspired to
enter the field of ethnobotany.
The award honors the name of Richard Evans Schultes, the Harvard
ethnobotanist widely recognized as one of the most distinguished
figures in the field. For his work, Schultes received the annual
Gold Medal of the World Wildlife Fund, the Tyler Prize for
Environmental Achievement and the Linnean Gold Medal. Schultes
has published over 400 technical papers and nine books, includ-
ing, with Robert Raffauf, The Healing Forest (1990) and Vine of
the Soul (1992). The Healing Forest Conservancy is named after
their 1990 book.
The International Nominating Committee for the award is chaired
by Michael J. Balick, Ph.D., Philecology Curator of Economic
Botany and Director of The New York Botanical Garden's Institute
of Economic Botany. The award was announced in St. Louis, MO, at
the annual meeting of the Society for Economic Botany, of which
Schultes is a founding member.
To date, there have been four other recipients of the Schultes
Award. The late Calvin R. Sperling, Ph.D., of the National
Germplasm Resources Laboratory at the US Department of Agricul-
ture was recognized in 1993 for his comprehensive work as a
field ethnobotanist in the preservation of genetic resources and
the ethnobotany of economic plants. The 1994 Schultes Award was
presented to Professor Hernando Garcia Barriga of the Univer-
sidad de Colombia in recognition of his contributions to the
field, including the publication of his three volume series
Flora Medicinal de Colombia. The series is widely considered the
definitive work on ethnobotany in Colombia. The Schultes Award
for 1995 was presented to Janis B. Alcorn, Ph.D., Director for
Asia and the Pacific for the Biodiversity Support Program at the
World Wildlife Fund in Washington, DC. The award recognizes her
outstanding contribution of strengthening indigenous peoples'
participation in community-based conservation of biological
diversity. For the 1996 Schultes Award, the Bribri and Cabecar
people of the KekoeLdi Indian Reserve in Costa Rica were recog-
nized for their strategy to maintain their culture by enforcing
their territorial rights -- publishing a book about the Bribri
and Cabecar use of medicinal plants and using book profits to
purchase lands from non-Indian landholders within the boundaries
of their reserve.
Each Schultes Award has featured a $5,000.00 cash prize donated
by Shaman Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and The Leland Fikes Foundation,
Inc. The Foundation, located in Dallas, supports local biomedi-
cal research and has a general interest in biodiversity as a
part of the broad field of medicine. The Healing Forest Conser-
vancy, which sponsors the Schultes Award, was founded by Shaman
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., based in South San Francisco, California,
and focused on the discovery and development of pharmaceuticals
through ethnobotany. The Conservancy, a non-profit foundation,
is dedicated to the conservation of tropical forests, par-
ticularly medicinal plants and their sustainable use for human
health. Its focus is to deliver compensation programs that
strengthen the integrity of traditional cultures to native
communities that have participated in Shaman's drug discovery
process.
Nominations for the 1998 Richard Evans Schultes Award are open
until May 1, 1998. The award seeks a balance in geographic
location, gender and field of study for recipients. Nominations
of indigenous people or organizations active in this area are
especially welcome. Please submit nominations (of others, it is
not self-nominating), along with a statement of the candidate's
qualifications to:
Katy Moran, Director, The Healing Forest Conservancy
3521 S Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20007 - U.S.A.
202-333-3438 Fax - <MoranHFC@aol.com>
COLLECTING WILD PLANTS - TO DIG OR NOT TO DIG
From: Lorna Allen, Alberta Natural Heritage Information Centre
<lallen@env.gov.ab.ca>
Did you know that roughly 25% of Alberta's vascular plant
species are considered rare in the province? One quarter of our
plant species rare? This seems excessive, but look at the per-
centages in other jurisdictions: 22% of vascular plants in the
United States are considered to be "of concern"(Falk 1992) and
further, nearly 25% of the estimated 250,000 species in the
world may be endangered (Schemske et al. 1994). The reasons a
plant is rare vary, some may have never been numerous - they may
have very specialized habitat requirements.
For over 100 of these species, the main cause of their decline
is over-collecting in the wild. Of these, many are cactus and,
yes, orchids. The Knowlton pincushion cactus (Peciocactus
knowltonii), for example is known from only two populations. Its
numbers have been reduced, primarily by collectors, from an
estimated 100,000 in 1960 to perhaps fewer than 1,000 in the
1970's (Stafford 1989). A recent study of causes of rarity in
the United States found that up to 20% of the species considered
rare due to collecting.
So the collecting of wild plants is a documented problem else-
where, is it a problem in Alberta? We do not have any compara-
tive studies, but let's look at some populations. Yellow lady's-
slipper is not considered rare in Alberta. But certainly popula-
tions have been lost, and not just to projects like the upgrad-
ing of highway 22 near Olds. I remember a couple of populations
of yellow lady's-slipper in the White Mud ravine in Edmonton.
What happened to those plants? Certainly at least in part the
habitat has changed, with trees closing in on some of the
meadows, making them less suitable habitat for the lady's-
slipper. But I also remember seeing people picking them. And the
population is gone. Is there a problem in Alberta?
Working with Natural Heritage Protection & Education, this is a
question we have been asked numerous times. And we have con-
cluded that plants SHOULD NOT be removed from their natural
habitat due to the disturbance that results to the habitat that
the plant was removed from the long term potential loss of that
plant species from the site, which may, in turn, result in the
loss of other species that may rely on that plant.
Native species should not be collected from the wild. If there
is a species which a gardener wishes to propagate they should:
take cuttings, or
collect seeds and grow from seedlings.
Only a small percentage of the seeds should be removed from any
one area so that the area is not unduly affected. It is impor-
tant to maintain functioning population in a natural setting,
not just for the species of concern, but for the myriad of other
species that may rely upon it.
Unfortunately, none of these strategies are likely to work for
orchids, but, and this may be controversial, I feel that it is
more important to maintain the integrity of our natural habitats
than to grow native species in gardens. Generally, any native
species grown in a garden should be from cuttings or seeds, not
from plants removed from the wild. The one possible exception is
if the bulldozers are moving in and the population doomed. Even
then there are some things to consider. Especially if the
population to be "rescued" is along a roadside, there may be a
number of noxious weeds and soil contaminants that you are
moving along with the desired plants.
So, to answer the question of whether to collect the species in
the wild - don't do it! Even when buying native species from a
nursery, the buyer should ensure that those plants have not been
removed from the wild. This is one small part you can play in
helping to maintain our natural habitats and the diversity that
they encompass.
References Cited
Falk, D.A. 1992. From conservation biology to conservation
practice: strategies for protecting plant diversity. Pages
397-431 in P.L. Fieldler and S. K. Jain, editors. Conserva-
tion biology: the theory and practice of nature conservation,
preservation and management. Chapman & Hall, Hew York, New
York, USA.
Schemske, D. W., B. C. Husband, M. H. Ruckelshaus. C. Good-
willie, I. M. Parker and J. G. Bishop. 1994. Evaluating
approaches to the conservation of rare and endangered plants.
Ecology 75: 584-606.
Stafford, R. 1989. Botanists find cactus better neighbourhood.
The Centre for Plant Conservation. Vol 4 No 1.
CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF NATIVE PLANTS AND FUNGI
From: Thomas N. Kaye <kayet@ava.bcc.orst.edu>
Now available from the Native Plant Society of Oregon:
Conservation and Management of Native Plants and Fungi: Proceed-
ings of an Oregon Conference on the Conservation and Manage-
ment of Native Vascular Plants, Bryophytes, and Fungi.
Edited by: Thomas N. Kaye, Aaron Liston, Rhoda M. Love,
Daniel L. Luoma, Robert J. Meinke, and Mark V. Wilson. With a
foreword by Reed F. Noss, Oregon State University. Native
Plant Society of Oregon.
296 pages; 113 illustrations, 11 black and white plates, 51
tables, 6 appendices. Price: $20 plus $5 shipping and han-
dling ($2.50 shipping for each additional copy). Soft cover
only. ISBN 0-9656852-0-9
The management of native plants faces many challenges today, and
the attention of many conservationists has recently expanded to
include bryophytes, lichens and fungi. This book addresses this
subject through the perspective of professional land managers,
conservationists, and academic scientists from Oregon and neigh-
boring states. Forty papers comprise the volume, which is broken
into four themes representing conservation, restoration, ecol-
ogy, and systematics. The book is the first of its kind for the
conservation community in the Pacific Northwest; it is based on
a symposium held 15-17 November 1995 on the Oregon State Univer-
sity campus. Although most papers have a regional focus, the
book is pertinent to all students and professionals in the
fields of botany and conservation biology.
For more information and abstracts of all papers in the book,
visit our web site at:
http://www.teleport.com/nonprofit/npso/confproc.shtml
To order, send check or money order to:
NPSO Conference Proceedings
804 Jefferson Avenue
La Grande, Oregon 97850
Make check payable to: Native Plant Society of Oregon
All proceeds from the sale of this book go toward the conserva-
tion and education programs of the Native Plant Society of
Oregon.
INTERNATIONAL CODE OF BOTANICAL NOMENCLATURE (TOKYO) ON-LINE
From: "W. Berendsohn" <wgb@zedat.fu-berlin.de> originally posted
on TAXACOM <taxacom@cmsa.berkeley.edu>
The International Association for Plant Taxonomy announces
availability of the English text of the International Code of
Botanical Nomenclature (Tokyo Code) on the WWW:
http://www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/iapt/nomenclature/code/tokyo-e/
The appendices are currently being converted and will be pub-
lished as they become available.
We would appreciate any information on errors which may have
been introduced in the conversion process.
W. Berendsohn & B. Zimmer
Dr. Walter G. Berendsohn, Freie Universitaet Berlin,
Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem,
Koenigin-Luise-Str. 6-8, 14191 Berlin, Germany
Tel: +49 30 83006-143, Fax: +49 30 841729-43
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