The mission of the California Native Plant Society is to increase understanding and appreciation of California’s native plants and to conserve them and their natural habitats through education, science, advocacy, horticulture and land stewardship.

Dedicated to the preservation of California's native plants

Happening now …

Join us Thursday, November 5 at 7pm

For our chapter meeting via Zoom

with Heather Schneider, PhD Rare Plant Biologist Santa Barbara Botanic Garden

From the field to the freezer:
A snapshot of the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden’s seed conservation program

HSchneider For many people, talk of conservation seed banks calls to mind an image of a vault buried deep into the side of a mountain surrounded by the frozen tundra, but most seed banks are much less complicated than that. Nevertheless, the size of the freezer does not dictate its importance! Join Dr. Heather Schneider, Rare Plant Biologist at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, as she shares stories from the field and laboratory to illustrate the process of planning, making and curating conservation seed collections. She will also discuss collaborative efforts across California to seed bank the entire California flora, starting with the rarest plants. From the Channel Islands to the Sierra Nevada, the Garden’s conservation seed bank program is safeguarding California’s unique botanical diversity one seed collection at a time.

Dr. Schneider earned her PhD at the University of California, Riverside studying the impacts of nitrogen pollution on invasive and native annual desert plants. From there, she studied desert tortoise health and habitat as an Ecologist with the US Geological Survey. In 2013, she moved to Santa Barbara to work as a postdoctoral scholar at UC Santa Barbara where she worked on a nation-wide project to create the first research seed bank dedicated to studying the evolution of wild plants. She joined the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden as the Rare Plant Biologist in 2016. As the Garden’s Rare Plant Biologist, Heather oversees the Rare Plant Conservation Program, which uses field, lab and greenhouse work to understand, protect and restore California’s rare plants.

Joining via computer? Zoom link: https://cnps-org.zoom.us/j/94378291818?pwd=YnRRdHk0Q1crb1ZnVXRHUEc3QlM2QT09

Joining via phone? (669) 900-9128
Meeting ID: 943 7829 1818
Passcode: 762440
Find your local number: https://cnps-org.zoom.us/u/adimtoQiOx