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Brooklyn Botanic Garden 2003 Annual Report
Conservation
Brooklyn Botanic Garden's commitment to conserve threatened species and restore the urban environment continued to grow in 2003. The Garden also accelerated its efforts to educate the public about the importance of plant diversity to ecosystem health and human life.
Through its new office at BBG, Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) worked to promote the International Agenda for Conservation at Botanical Gardens and plant conservation in general throughout the United States. BGCI, along with the American Association of Botanic Gardens and Arboreta, the Center for Plant Conservation, and the Canadian Botanic Garden Network, signed a four-way memorandum of understanding designed to create synergy among these major institutions working for plant conservation in North America. The first of BGCI's series of regional workshops promoting the International Agenda was held at BBG in September.
CURE researchers studied seed dispersal at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island.
The Center for Urban Restoration Ecology (CURE), a joint venture between BBG and Rutgers University, inventoried the plants and small mammals of the 3,000-acre estate of the Duke Farms Foundation in Somerville, New Jersey. Dr. Steven Handel and Dr. Steven Clemants, Director and Codirector of CURE, made a presentation on the restoration of disturbed lands at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Association of Remedial Projects Managers meeting in Colorado Springs. CURE has been asked by EPA to present the same program at each of its regional offices. Also in 2003, Dr. Gerry Moore conducted fieldwork at the EPA oil-spill-restoration site in Green Pond, New Jersey. In addition, CURE collaborated with Sasaki and Associates on a proposal for the creation of a "forest park" at the venue of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
The debut issue of Urban Habitats, a peer-reviewed scientific e-journal on the biology of urban areas, was published online in both HTML and PDF formats. The premiere issue focuses on urban floras and includes papers on cities in the U.S., central Europe, and China. Urban Habitats is written and edited for a wide audience of researchers, practicing restoration ecologists, park and preserve managers, government officials, and amateur naturalists.
During the year, BBG scientists assessed potential seed-collecting sites for the five rare species conserved by the Garden as part of the Center for Plant Conservation's National Collection of Endangered Plants. The five species are chaffseed (Schwalbea americana), flowering pixiemoss (Pixidanthera barbulata), Knieskern's beaksedge (Rynchospora knieskernii), Virginia jointvetch (Aeschynomene virginica), and yellow asphodel (Narthecium americanum).
Dr. Mark Tebbitt and Plant Records Manager Karen Kongsmai compiled a list of some 300 plants in the Garden's living collections at risk of extinction that are included in the IUCN 1997 Red List of Threatened Plants. Among them are cycads, orchids, aloes, cacti, and South African bulbs.
As part of the Garden's expanding efforts to promote plant conservation and biodiversity at home and abroad, the Horticulture Department began nursery trials of numerous wild-collected tree species to lay the groundwork for their incorporation into BBG's Plant Family Collection. Seeds for the trees were obtained through the Index Seminum, the international seed-exchange program serving botanic gardens, arboreta, and other plant-research institutions. Trials of individual trees will run for approximately three to four years. At the end of that period, trees deemed suitable for permanent display will be planted out on the Garden grounds and used to educate visitors about the importance of preserving biological diversity.
In the fall, Brooklyn GreenBridge launched a Native Tree and Shrub Giveaway as part of the ongoing Sustainable Gardening Project, designed to raise awareness of the benefits of gardening with plants native to the region. Four hundred trees and shrubs, including Eastern redbuds, witch-hazels, Allegheny serviceberries, and highbush blueberries, were given to community gardens and horticultural therapy programs in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn GreenBridge staff giving native trees and shrubs to community gardeners.
GreenBridge Manager Robin Simmen became an active member of the New York City Water Resources Conservation Group, a coalition of ten greening and community-gardening groups that installs rainwater-harvesting systems in gardens across the city to conserve water and prevent polluting runoff.
BBG Vice President of Science, Library, and Publications Dr. Steven Clements was invited to serve on the board of the New York State Invasive Plant Council. The group is a model of how individual states can work to identify and control invasive plants and prevent future invasions. He also cochaired the session "Biodiversity and Risk" at the First World Congress on Risk held in Brussels, Belgium, along with Hamdallah Zedan, director of the International Convention on Biological Diversity.
BBG Director of Publications Janet Marinelli continued to serve on the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta's (AABGA) Plant Conservation Committee. She wrote an article on educating the public about invasive species and another about online resources on natural-areas conservation for AABGA's magazine, Public Garden. As a member of the AABGA Publications Committee, she planned two special issues of Public Garden on plant conservation—one on natural areas at botanical gardens, and the other on rethinking ex situ conservation.
New York Metropolitan Flora researchers Steven Glenn and Dr. Gerry Moore coordinated the survey of vascular plants for the Central Park Bioblitz, an intensive, 24-hour inventory of the park's biodiversity. A total of 479 higher plants were recorded—the largest tally of any group of organisms at the site.