California Native Plant Society

PLANT SCIENCEAs California accelerates efforts in large scale conservation and climate mitigation, best available science is needed more than ever. This year, the combined work of the CNPS Rare Plant Program, the Vegetation Program, and CNPS stewardship staff helped provide much-needed data, review, and best practices on California's rare plants and habitats. CNPS Vegetation staff, volunteers, and subcontractors completed over 1,650 vegetation surveys and installed 40 Bureau of Land Management Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring plots across California; and completed updates or additions for at least 50 alliances in our Manual of California Vegetation online. The Rare Plant Program completed 46 rare plant status reviews, led two major rare plant seed collection expeditions in Modoc Co. and the Tahoe region, and made over 600 voucher collections in the Utom River Watershed. Highlights included the launch of the Rare Plant Inventory v9.5, the completion of fine-scale vegetation maps for Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties, and an unprecedented $20M State of California budget allocation to help complete fine-scale vegetation mapping across the state and $13M to update the California Natural Diversity Database and eliminate its backlog. In horticulture and stewardship, CNPS wrapped up its successful three-year Bloom! California campaign by increasing control group native plant sales by 96% over the course of the campaign. The CNPS Fire Followers community science project achieved 150,000 observations, a 50% increase over its original goal.

CONSERVATIONThe CNPS Conservation Program is focused on the environmental review, legal action, and advocacy needed to protect California native plants and habitats today and into the future. This year, members of the team joined CNPS Executive Director Dr. Jun Bando as part of an extended California delegation to the United Nations 15th Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in Montreal, where they advocated for native plant conservation globally and here in California. The Montreal trip was part of CNPS's ongoing work to conserve native plants and habitat through large scale conservation efforts like "30x30," the state, national, and international goal to conserve 30% of lands and coastal waters by 2030. In 2022-23, the CNPS team focused heavily on the Molok Luyuk expansion of Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument and other emerging national monument campaigns, which are key to achieving 30x30 in California. In addition, the CNPS Conservation team and chapter conservation leaders continued project-based work to protect native habitat and halt harmful projects in places like Tejon Ranch and Conglomerate Mesa. The team also provided important science-based comment to address concerning attacks on environmental regulation as California balances its goals of biodiversity protection and wildfire resilience.

ENGAGEMENT AND OUTREACHThis year, CNPS continued its work to engage a diversity of people in the enjoyment and protection of California native plants. CNPS and partners celebrated the success of the Saging the World campaign, a multimedia effort to raise awareness of white sage poaching and the global cultural appropriation of sage smudging. The campaign's centerpiece documentary received accolades worldwide as the official selection for the Cannes World Film Festival and the Indie Short winner of the Los Angeles International Film Festival. The CNPS School Nature Gardens Project began work at Los Angeles area public schools and completed preparation for the first-of-its-kind native plant educator conference. The CNPS Public Affairs team continued its leadership at the intersection of communications strategy and public policy, serving as the communications lead for the Power in Nature 30x30 coalition. CNPS also was proud to co-sponsor Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan's Assembly Bill 2146, which would have helped protect imperiled pollinators by banning the use of dangerous neonicitinoids for non-agricultural uses. The bill passed through both the California Assembly and Senate before the Governor vetoed it, directing the Department of Pesticide Regulation to address regulatory gaps. The year ended in an exciting partnership with Assemblymember Laura Friedman to introduce and sponsor Assembly Bill 1573, the first legislation of its kind to create a requirement for the use of native plants in public and commercial landscaping.