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Vanishing Plants in The United States
The United States is home to an estimated 18,000 to 22,000 different species of vascular plants. The Center for Plant Conservation (CPC), an umbrella organization of various botanical gardens working to preserve native plants, estimates that 5,000 species native to the U.S. are of "conservation concern." This includes species officially listed as endangered or threatened by the federal government, as well as others considered rare by botanists.
Endangered Species Act
In 1973, the U.S. Congress passed the Endangered Species Act, directing the Secretary of the Interior to protect any plant or animal found on the basis of scientific evidence to be threatened with extinction. The decision to list a species as endangered is made upon the recommendation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when any one of the five following conditions is met:
- The destruction of its habitat is in progress or threatened.
- The species is being overexploited (individuals are being destroyed faster than they can be replaced) for commerical, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes.
- It is suffering losses from disease or predation.
- Existing laws and regulations are inadequate to protect the species.
- There are "other natural or manmade factors affecting its continued existence."
The initial list of plants was established in 1977. A plant is classified as "endangered" if it is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. It is classified as "threatened" if the species is likely to become endangered within the near future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.
Once a species has been designated endangered or threatened, the Act prohibits (with only a few narrow exceptions) anyone from collecting, maliciously endangering, or destroying it on federal land. The act also mandates that a plan be developed and implemented to aid the species' recovery.
The Endangered Species Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for identifiying threatened and endangered species. As of June 2006 there were 715 plants on the List of Endangered and Threatened Plants.
National Collection of Endangered Plants
Under the auspices of the Center for Plant Conservation, Brooklyn Botanic Garden and 33 other botanic gardens and arboreta around the country are working to preserve endangered native plants ex situ (away from their original habitat or natural environment) by collecting seeds, growing and studying the plants, and banking seeds for the future, in case any of them should become extinct in the wild. Collectively known as the National Collection of Endangered Plants, this seed bank contained seeds, cuttings, and whole plants of more than 600 species native to the U.S. as of summer 2006, making it one of the largest endangered-plant conservation collections in the world. Many of the species are listed on the federal endangered species list. CPC's own criteria for inclusion require that a plant be diminishing in number, declining at an accelerated rate, and facing imminent threat of extinction.
Information on any plant in the collection may be obtained from CPC's home page on the Internet at www.centerforplantconservation.org.