1) Know your rare, threatened and endangered species. Know your fragile
environments and unique biotic communities.
2) Be alert to threats to native plants and their habitats. Appoint
watchdog committees to keep aware of these threats and inform the chapter.
3) Take action to protect native plants. Work with all groups and the
general public to protect native plants and their habitats. Be prepared
to salvage plants where they are threatened by outright destruction. Help
eradicate particularly aggressive and successful exotic plants that threaten
native plants. Take responsible outings.
4) Educate your members and the public about native plants, and encourage
them to use good judgement in the study, enjoyment, and use of native
plants.
5) Encourage your members to grow native plants only from seeds or cuttings.
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Out
There
Among the Plants
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1) Outings for whatever purpose must never endanger a plant population.
Encourage nondestructive modes of learning and enjoyment: photography,
artwork, scientific description, aesthetic prose and poetry, and so on.
2) On group outings (field trips, conservation activities, class field
studies etc.), group leaders must take responsibility for protecting native
plants form the activities of the group. All participants should understand
the goal of plant protection, the purpose of the outing, and the means
by which they can make the least impact on plants and the natural habitat.
3) Know where endangered species are growing and plan outings with this
knowledge in mind.
4) Respect private and public property. Do not trespass. Know the regulations
for use of the land and natural resources--public or private--your group
is entering.
5) Respect the habitat as a whole. Avoid disturbing wildlife, such as
nesting birds and nesting hornets.
6) Be sensitive to the human foot as a threat to plants. Visits to fragile
environments should be carefully planned. Students should be given adequate
direction by their instructor, and excessive collecting should be discouraged.
Better one person enter a fragile area to identify a plant than the whole
group.
7) Collecting should be considered only when identification cannot be
made in the field or when it will contribute significantly to educational
or scientific objectives. Collecting for whatever purpose should be done
as inconspicuously as possible. Casual observers may not understand the
reasons for collecting and may feel license to do likewise.
8) Collecting must never endanger a plant population. Collect seeds or
cuttings in preference to whole plants. Do not collect underground plant
parts except for identification purposes. Avoid excessive collecting;
this calls for exercise of good judgement by the collector. Consider the
use of rules of thumb for judging whether to pick or not to pick. Encourage
group study of one specimen. Consider using weeds, garden species, or
lab-grown specimens for educational purposes.
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1) Use of native plants--in wildflower shows, plant sales, and horticulture--must
never threaten their populations.
2) Native plant species for sale should be obtained by salvage, seeds,
or cuttings--in that order of priority--and whole plants should never
be dug up, except for salvage. Seeds should not be sold. Growers must
exercise discretion in collecting seeds and cuttings to avoid endangering
plant populations.
3) Native plants for sale should state on the label how obtained or grown.
Chapters should consider certifying commercial growers who follow good,
ethical practices, and should urge the public not to buy unless plants
were obtained or grown according to these guidelines.
4) The sale and use of particularly aggressive and successful exotic
plant species, such as gorse, broom, and pampas grass, should be discouraged.
5) Salvage of native plants should be encouraged when their destruction
is certain: at quarries, mines, dams, building construction sites, road
construction sites etc. Salvage is not necessarily called for, however,
on logging sites, some recreational areas, and rangeland. Salvaged plants
should be kept potted long enough before sale to ensure that they will
survive the shock of transplant
6) Wildflower shows should make maximum use of their educational potential.
Inform the public of the goals of NPSO: explain the guidelines your chapter
follows in studying, enjoying, and using native plants including guidelines
followed in collecting for the show. consider using all other education
options (slides, artwork, publications, herbarium collections, news media,
etc.), and continue the education "life" of display materials after the
show by donating them to schools.
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