Native Plant Conservation
Native Plant Trust is leading our region’s conservation community to save native plants and is the only organization in New England dedicated solely to protecting and restoring rare plant species, and to keeping common plants common.
Seed Banking
Today, 17 percent of New England’s native plant species are on the brink of being lost—and another 5 percent have already disappeared from the region. With threats to our native plants accelerating, seed banking is a critical strategy for ensuring the preservation of genetic diversity and for potentially reintroducing species to the wild.
Habitat Restoration
Plant communities translate the geophysical variation of the land—its soil, topography, hydrology, and so on—into the living habitats that sustain life. Conserving several intact examples of every habitat is an important strategy for sustaining the natural benefits plants provide and for maintaining the full diversity of other species that depend on them.
Controlling Invasives
Like their counterparts in the animal kingdom—Asian long-horned beetles, zebra mussels, spongy moths—plants such as Japanese knotweed, Asian bittersweet, bishop’s weed (pictured above), and Tatarian honeysuckle are nonnative species that have spread into native or minimally managed plant systems. There they cause economic or environmental harm by developing self-sustaining populations and becoming dominant and/or disruptive to the established systems.
Saving Imperiled Plants
New England’s rare plants are in peril, and we are at the forefront of global efforts to save rare plants from extinction. We’re banking their seeds to preserve genetic diversity and to ensure their survival in the face of multiple threats.
Conservation Services
Federal and state agencies, municipalities, land trusts, and other conservation organizations often turn to our expert staff to help with restoration, plant surveys, invasive plant control, and other projects.
Support
Native Plant Conservation
Help restore, protect, and promote native plants in landscapes that benefit pollinators and the entire web of life needed for a healthy environment.