Conservation / Tree Health

Societal Impact Statement

Will black cottonwood poplars, balsam poplars or their hybrids grow and thrive this far south?

That’s a question Lockerly Arboretum hopes to help North Dakota State University answer in the coming months and years through a research project that recently put its roots in the ground. Lockerly is one of 18 arboretums and universities across the country participating in the project that will determine where these trees can be grown and later broken down for uses like biofuel. The effort is being funded by the National Science Foundation’s plant genome research program.

There is increasing interest in tree planting as a nature-based solution to climate change. Many countries around the world have made pledges to the Bonn Challenge to bring millions of hectares of degraded land under restoration. However, there is growing concern in the biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration community that there is too little attention paid to which species are planted and where.

The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is excited to announce a new partnership with Eden Reforestation Projects and Lamu Conservation Trust in Lamu County, which will not only expand our existing tree-planting efforts, but begin the restoration of severely degraded mangrove forests along the coast.

For Madagascar farmer Edmond, who goes by one name, it was a breakthrough. In 2019 he perfected a complicated technique to grow a rare species of tree known as Dalbergia normandii.

The plants hail from a valuable, and difficult-to-propagate family of trees known as rosewoods, which have been felled near to the point of extinction in many parts of Madagascar.

When thinking of tree conservation, sprawling forests generally come to mind. But cities, although covering only 2% of land globally, could harbour a sixth of the world’s tree diversity, according to Australian researchers.

And among the more than 4,700 tree species they counted, one in 10 faces conservation risk in the wild. Six are even thought to be extinct.

“Urban areas represent an overlooked opportunity for plant conservation globally,” says lead author Alessandro Ossola from Macquarie University.

In collaboration with ArbNet, Dr. Jill Hamilton, assistant professor at North Dakota State University, and colleagues at Virginia Tech, University of Vermont and University of Maryland have recruited 18 universities and arboreta nationwide to plant ‘mini’ common garden experiments of black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa), balsam poplar (P. balsamifera), and their hybrids as part of a new garden-based research network, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Plant Genome Research program.

The Red List of Acer: revised and extended, published in September 2020 by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), gives the conservation status of all 158 maple or Acer species.

The Himalayan mountains are known as a treasure trove of medicinal plants, many of which have not even been scientifically studied. But one rare tree with proven anti-cancer property is on the verge of extinction, and needs urgent protection.

Areas with low tree coverage and poor soil quality are more likely to experience flood and drought, as the soil is less able to retain excess rainwater writes Jacqueline Skalski-Fouts.

Humanitarian crises have recently been declared in Sudan, Yemen, Niger, Mali, and Somalia—affecting at least 450,000 people—due to flash floods and landslides.