Department of Conservation and Recreation
Conserve. Protect. Enjoy.
Department of Conservation and Recreation
Media inquiries: Please contact Dave Neudeck, dave.neudeck@dcr.virginia.gov, 804-786-5053.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: January 28, 2015
Contact: Julie Buchanan, Senior Public Relations and Marketing Specialist, 804-786-2292, julie.buchanan@dcr.virginia.gov
Gift to support rare-plant inventory
EDITORS: Download accompanying photos.
RICHMOND — Efforts to inventory Virginia’s rare and forgotten plants received a boost this week from the Virginia Native Plant Society.
The society donated $11,542 to help support botanists with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. The funds, which society members raised last year through a giving campaign, will go toward inventory of the state’s rare plant species “lost treasures,” some of which haven’t been documented for more than a generation.
Society members delivered the gift in person Monday to Governor Terry McAuliffe in Richmond. Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources Molly Ward and representatives from DCR were also on hand for the ceremony.
“Documenting the Commonwealth’s rare flora is critical to our efforts to conserve habitat and natural areas,” Ward said. “The Virginia Native Plant Society is an outstanding partner in those efforts, and I thank its membership for contributing to this important work.”
Inventory of the state’s rare plants is a key responsibility for the science-based Virginia Natural Heritage Program, which is housed at DCR. Information gathered during inventory is used by other state agencies as well as local, federal and private-sector partners for land conservation and land-planning purposes.
The mission of the program is to conserve the natural diversity of biological resources of the Commonwealth through inventory, protection and stewardship.
“DCR’s Natural Heritage Program embodies our mission of conserving wild flowers and wild places,” said Nancy Vehrs, president of the Virginia Native Plant Society. “By supporting the search for lost treasures, we can take the next step to protect them.”
Working with historical plant records, DCR botanists will search for species in the locations they were last documented. Many records are decades old.
“Unfortunately, long periods of time have sometimes passed since a particular species or population has been seen in Virginia,” DCR botanist John Townsend said. “This leaves the status of that species open to conjecture and lessens the likelihood that its habitat will become a target for conservation.”
Some species targeted for this inventory include the three birds orchid (Triphora trianthophora ssp. trianthophora), a plant of hardwood forests, and sensitive joint-vetch (Aeschynomene virginica), a federally threatened species of tidal freshwater marshes.
The nonprofit Virginia Native Plant Society is dedicated to the protection and preservation of Virginia native plants and their habitats. For more information, go to www.vnps.org.
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