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Save Plants
Advocacy Initiatives: Climate Change Position Paper | Center for Plant Conservation
Changing Relationships to Keep Traditions with the Sioux
Saving Land to Save Plants in a World of Change
Conservation Champion | Suzzanne Chapman
Conservation Highlights: UN Climate Change Conference
As Seen on CPC's Rare Plant Academy: Alpine Ecosystems
Recently, the CPC Board of Trustees adopted a Climate Change Position Paper. This document highlights the grave impacts of climate change on rare plants and outlines the solutions CPC supports to combat climate change. The impacts of climate change take many forms. In this issue of Save Plants, you can learn not only about how the Position Paper arose, but you can also learn about ways climate change is impacting Indigenous people and how the Native Plant Trust has developed a tool that will help identify climate-vulnerable and climate-resilient lands that hold large numbers of rare plant species. These Important Plant Areas are a way that we can visualize future conditions and make plans for the benefit of biodiversity. More and more, each of us has a story about how climate change has affected us personally. Our Conservation Champion Suzzanne Chapman's story of watching her conservation collection floating in flood waters is enough to strike fear in any plant lover's heart. Climate change is personal. It is important for us to tell our stories and to learn from others. One avenue is the online resources associated with the UN COP26 Conference and the Earth Project's photo competition. These pictures truly capture stories about climate change that are worth more than a thousand words! We all need encouragement to gear up to take actions to mitigate this threat. Please join our efforts.
Wishing you continued health and safety,
Joyce Maschinski
CPC President & CEO
Climate Change Position Paper | Center for Plant Conservation
An Interview with Diana Fish and Lindsay Marshall, CPC Board of Trustees
At the Center for Plant Conservation (CPC), advocacy is an important tool in our efforts to save rare and endangered plants. Through advocacy, we can share and advance the mission and work of our organization, and we can use our collective voice to shape public policies, laws, and regulations in favor of imperiled plants. One way we do this is by developing position papers on topics relevant to our mission and plant conservation.
We are pleased to announce CPC's new Position Paper on Climate Change, which was approved by the CPC Board of Trustees at the October 2021 Board Meeting. Collaboratively developed by the Board's Advocacy Committee* and staff, the Climate Change Position Paper outlines the urgent need to protect rare and endangered plants which are facing unprecedented and dire consequences as a result of the global climate change crisis. As a community, we must take action and advocate the importance of protecting imperiled plants and the environment. The Climate Change Position Paper will give our organization the foundation needed to do just that.
What was your path to becoming CPC Board members and working to conserve native plants?
Lindsay: The mission of the Center for Plant Conservation is to save rare plants and their endangered ecosystems. Diana and I came to the CPC Board with a love for plants and having backgrounds in many organizations involving plants and advocacy. We both have held leadership positions in The Garden Club of America; I was former Chairman of the GCA National Affairs and Legislation Committee, and Diana was on the same Committee as well as on the Conservation Committee as a Vice-Chairman for Partners for Plants. I became Chairman of CPC's Advocacy Committee in 2017.
Committee members are keenly aware of the need for advocating for imperiled plants and the urgency for action specifically relating to climate change, the most critical issue of today. Climate change impacts every aspect of our world and profoundly affects the existence and even survival of species and ecosystems. CPC's goal is to prevent plant extinction and our objective is to bring climate change to the forefront of legislation, policy making, and educational efforts to address this global problem.
What is a Position Paper?
Diana: For CPC, a Position Paper is not a statement about a specific piece of legislation, but a general framework of ideas that address an issue with a consistent viewpoint that supports our advocacy efforts in saving plants. A Position Paper covers a specific topic which CPC determines to be of critical concern. By creating such a document, CPC can use it as a basis for timely advocacy around legislation that aligns with the CPC mission.
Lindsay Marshall in her garden, where a pollinator garden is tucked between solar panels and she provides her plants water collected from a rain barrel. Photo courtesy of Lindsay Marshall.
Why was there a need for a Climate Change Position Paper?
Lindsay: CPC has a Position Paper in support of the Endangered Species Act and protection of Threatened and Endangered Plants. However, climate change is an overarching factor that affects our planet today in multiple ways, including extreme weather events, wildfires, coastal flooding, droughts, changing habitat requirements, altered plant hardiness zones, and loss of pollinators. Many rare, threatened, and endangered native plants have small population sizes and limited suitable habitats, making them particularly susceptible to extinction triggered by climate change. Higher temperatures cause native plants to experience more heat-related stress. Higher atmospheric carbon dioxide levels preferentially promote the growth of invasive plant species (1). While some animals are able to move when conditions become unfavorable, rooted plants are immobile and thus cannot as easily adapt to a quickly changing environment (2).
What was the process like developing the Climate Change Position Paper?
Lindsay: Working with people on the Advocacy Committee, such as outstanding botanical garden professionals Lucinda McDade and Christopher Dunn, helped us focus our endeavors. Diana developed the first draft with Lucinda, then I joined in, and Christopher added thoughtful edits to create the final CPC Climate Change Position Paper.
Diana: Ultimately, it required seven iterations with additions and corrections before the eighth and final version was agreed upon. The staff gave their input, the Executive Board needed to pass it, and finally, the entire Board voted in favor of passing and adopting the Position Paper.
Lindsay: What is wonderful about CPC's Board is that, despite Trustees living in many different parts of the country—for instance, Diana lives in central California and I live in Virginia and South Carolina—we collaborate and are like-minded in support of CPC's mission and initiatives like the Climate Change Position Paper.
Diana Fish tending to her native plant garden. Photo courtesy of Diana Fish.
Flooding on the eastern coast of Florida after heavy rains, 2011. Photo courtesy of Fairchild tropical Botanic Garden.
Why is it important for CPC to lead advocacy initiatives?
Diana: Advocacy is a crucial tool in our organization's toolbox for supporting or opposing legislation that affects the survival of imperiled plants. With our network of 68 Participating Institutions (PIs)—all dedicated to saving plants—CPC is a leading and respected voice in plant conservation. Our Position Papers offer an educational outline for communication and action.
What excites you about the future of CPC?
Lindsay: With its PIs and initiatives, CPC is a dynamic and exciting place to learn from leading botanists, directors of botanical gardens, and scientific National Office staff members such as President & CEO, Dr. Joyce Machinski, and VP of Science & Conservation, Dr. Katie Heineman. The Board at CPC is a committed group of mission-driven members. The future is bright for CPC.
(1) https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Plants/Climate
(2) https://extension.umd/resource/native-plants-and-climate-change
*Advocacy Committee Members: Lindsay Marshall, Diana Fish, Ruth Evans, Christopher Dunn, Lucinda McDade, Clark Mitchell, Barbara Millen, and Joyce Maschinski.
The Ferguson fire rages over the top of a ridge near El Portal, 2018. Photo from the US Forest Service.
The Porter Trail, home to natives like natives Ceanothus, pine, cypress and junipers, shown reduced to ashes following the Jesusita Fire in May 2009. Photo by Elizabeth Collins, courtesy of the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.
Based on information from Christopher Dunn, Ph.D., Executive Director
When we discuss climate change and its impacts on plants, we often think of heat, cold, and changes to the amount, location, and seasonal timing of rainfall. Sometimes we bring up its effects on relationships between organisms, such as when flowers bloom before pollinators are around to do their part in reproduction. We discuss how changes in plants impact resources for animals and other elements of biodiversity. But one important aspect is rarely brought up—the ways climate change influences our human relationships with nature.
Background photo: Psoralea esculenta in bloom. The strongly hirsute stems and leaves are distinctive of this low growing species. Image by Matt Lavin, courtesy of Flickr creative commons.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has rich biocultural ties to the area once known as the Great Sioux Nation, which includes the current Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and beyond. The impacts of climate change on this heritage are illustrated by the prairie turnip (Psoralea esculenta), a salient ingredient in a stew served during an early summer festival. Reduced snow cover is causing the ground to freeze at greater depths and take longer to thaw, which leads to a later emergence of the turnip. The Sioux must alter their festival traditions—but how? Should they move the date of their celebration? Substitute the prairie turnip with another main ingredient? Or do without?
Shifts in plant phenology also impact the ability of the Sioux to prepare for seasonal change. Shadbush (Amelanchier) flowering has long been used as an indicator that shad are spawning in the rivers. However, shadbush is flowering earlier and is no longer a reliable indicator. Animals important to the Sioux are also changing—many community members have noted a reduction in the quality of bison fur and hide.
Prairie turnip (Psoralea esculenta) harvests are occurring later due to delayed thawing of soil, as a result of a changing climate. This delay impacts this culturally important food resource within traditional Sioux festivities.
Christopher Dunn, Ph.D., Executive Director of Cornell Botanic Gardens, and a group of Cornell faculty and graduate students are working with the Sioux of North and South Dakota and other Indigenous peoples as they document and navigate climate-induced changes in their cultural and ecological relationships. A key project objective is to obtain a detailed understanding of the changes happening to the Standing Rock community, especially with ecological indicators such as the shadbush. The desired outcome is to determine a strategy to find workable climate adaptations, including new plant or animal indicator species, that will allow this community to maintain its traditional ways of living on the land.
The Cornell project team is large and varied. Critically, it includes members and leadership of the Sioux community, as well as faculty and students at Standing Rock's Sitting Bull College. The partners from Cornell largely consist of university faculty in the fields of natural resources, social sciences, avian ecology, and the biophysical aspects of climate and climate change. Their roles relate to each person's expertise: collecting hard scientific data, conducting workshops and interviews with members of the community, and developing works of art that depict issues, challenges, and the promise of hope.
When beginning a partnership with Indigenous communities, the first challenge is to establish trust. This takes time and a lot of listening. The Cornell team members realize and demonstrate that their role is to help, not to dictate or direct. For this project, a second challenge lies in understanding the magnitude, speed and impact of the environmental changes that are occurring. Recent years have seen significant progress with respect to a third challenge: the tendency of western universities and institutions to devalue this work as not sufficiently academic or important. Dr. Dunn finds it "enormously gratifying to see a significant increase in conferences, peer-reviewed publications, funding opportunities, and public garden programming that explicitly relate to and support greater collaboration between western and Indigenous ways of knowing." Many international conventions, platforms, and agreements now acknowledge the impacts of the climate crisis on Indigenous and other vulnerable communities.
Community gardens are one way that the community stays connected with native foods and where changes in phenology due to climate change can be noted. Photo courtesy of Christopher Dunn.
Community members and visitors explore the community garden at Standing Rock Reservation. Photo courtesy of Christopher Dunn.
Increasing awareness and support presents another way for Cornell Botanic Gardens to help with biocultural conservation. Their new Strategic Plan, mission, and vision clearly articulate the centrality of biocultural diversity in much of what they do. Interpretation of plants and landscapes adds important cultural elements to the stories the plants tell, going well beyond the usual topics of ecology, evolution, or taxonomy. As Executive Director, Dunn is proud of the progress his garden has made. "At Cornell Botanic Gardens, we explicitly connect visitors to the human and cultural importance of plants. Botanic gardens generally tend to focus on plant conservation for the plants' sakes. But gardens (and other natural history organizations) also need to conserve the cultural stories, cultural heritage, and languages that are equally threatened."
He believes that fostering a greater understanding of local Indigenous communities—and, ideally, establishing partnerships with them—is something that all botanic gardens can and should do. If a garden does not have the capacity to engage directly, it can certainly do more in the areas of interpretation, education, and public programs. Garden staff should be not only stewards of plants and landscapes—they must also recognize and articulate the cultural history and significance of the plants and landscapes. Those stories are our human stories.
The Native Plant Trust
Based on an interview with Michael Piantedosi, Director of Conservation
For over a hundred years, entities in New England have been working to conserve land in order to conserve nature. While the acreage or quantity has been adding up, the quality of the land—how effective it is at conserving biodiversity—has been unknown. Recently, Michael Piantedosi, Director of Conservation, and the staff at the Native Plant Trust (NPT) realized they were in a good position to examine the quality of the region's land conservation efforts. The NPT team knows plant diversity, which is the foundation for overall biodiversity. For decades, NPT has gathered information on rare plants across New England and shared it with the appropriate Natural Heritage Program in each of the six states. This work has equipped the states with solid knowledge of their rare plant ranges, status, and threats.
Background photo by Jenny Wollensak Lussier
NPT partnered with the Nature Conservancy (TNC) to combine data and expertise, strategically applying spatial data in maps to account for where and how different ecosystems would—and would not—be altered by climate change. Armed with a robust plant dataset, Michael and the NPT team were able to identify Important Plant Areas (IPAs), which are regions with significantly higher populations of rare plants than neighboring areas. Key resources developed by TNC included habitat maps that allowed the team to focus on habitats rather than species, models of habitat climate resiliency (how features in the landscape might buffer species from the impacts of climate change), and data compiled on the conservation status of lands in New England.
Alpine Sub-Alpine. Photo by Liza Green courtesy of Native Plant Trust.
Diapensia lapponica and Rhododendron lapponicum. Photo courtesy of Native Plant Trust.
Site Resilience Map. Image courtesy of Native Plant Trust.
Using these data, the team was able to assess the state of biodiversity conservation in New England and compare those results to 2030 goals set for the region (side bar). In the end, the two entities created the "Conserving Plant Diversity in New England" report and accompanying mapping tool. Overlaying various information layers in the mapping tool reveals what percent of each habitat type falls in protected areas, how much of that preserved habitat is also climate resilient, how IPAs are distributed across the habitats, and how the IPAs are protected. This tool can be used by land trusts, public officials, and others to identify lands that would most benefit biodiversity conservation efforts into the future.
After looking at the protected status and climate resiliency of habitat and plant diversity, the report team looked at the percentages of land secured to where New England was doing well and where needed more conserving. National and international guides provided benchmarks for comparison to measure success at reaching specific conservation goals. President Biden's America the Beautiful Initiative recognizes the Global Deal for Nature's recommendation to protect 30% of the world's ecosystems by 2030 while the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) recommends conserving 75% of the most important areas for plant diversity and protecting 15% of each vegetation type. Tailoring New Englands goals to these larger standards, the team created targets to parallel the GSPC targets with a timeframe of 2030: 1) At least 5-15% of each habitat protected and at least 30% secured against conversion. At least 75% of the securement on climate resilient land, and 2) At least 30% of each climate-resilient area with the highest rare plant diversity (IPA) protected and at least 75% of each IPA secured against conversion across habitats and states.
The results held their share of ups and downs, as well as surprises. One of the ecosystem types, coastal plains, was found to be both susceptible to development and occurring in areas of low climate resiliency, making it particularly vulnerable. Fortunately, a portion of this habitat type is conserved on climate-resilient land. Although forests cover 86% of the landscape, only one of the 10 forest types was found to meet the regional goal of being 15% protected. An additional 2 million acres of climate-resilient forest is needed to meet that goal across all forest types. Michael was encouraged and surprised by the fact that the IPAs were proportionally distributed among habitat types, not just in patchy "specialty" habitats like alpine grasslands or bogs—indicating that efforts to conserve all IPAs would generate great progress in conserving most of the habitat type.!
As the team disbursed and promoted the report, they learned how much people had been looking for such a tool. Land trusts—non-profits that acquire and manage land and conservation easements—want to conserve ecologically important land, and many had been contemplating how to measure this. Now they have that ability. Michael has been busy sharing the report with every land trust in the region, local agencies, and local and national politicians, as well as training others on how to use the mapping tool. The report's positive reception is a sign of hope for plant diversity as people gear up to take action.
IPA map. Image courtesy of Native Plant Trust.
Although NPT does not use land acquisition as a primary tool, the report will guide their actions in other ways. The IPAs identified will be good sites for surveys and inventories to monitor diversity. The tool will also help with selecting rare plants to target for seed banking or other ex situ protections. For instance, for a species with nine out of ten occurrences on land that is climate-vulnerable or at high risk of development, those nine populations would be high-priority seed banking targets. The maps can also help the team plan experiments in assisted migration, by identifying plants that have at-risk populations but suitable habitat nearby on climate-resilient land.
The report team views their product as living document, with an electronic format lending itself to additions and edits. Michael is looking forward to examining the data at a finer scale, taking a look at microhabitats or more precisely defined habitat types. And, of course, the team will examine progress in 2030 to determine how close the six states come to meeting the ambitious goals set in the report.
Schwalbea americana. Photo courtesy of Native Plant Trust.
Saco Heath, Saco, ME. Photo courtesy of Native Plant Trust.
The strength of Natural Heritage Program plant data across the U.S.–along with TNC's widespread efforts to conduct conservation land gap analyses and map climate resiliency–will allow the analyses behind the Conserving Plant Diversity in New England report to be recreated in many regions. Learn more about the data used in this report below.
Rare Plants – NPT has worked with partners in its New England Flora Committee to keep rare plant rankings updated, most recently in a 2012 update to Flora Conservanda. Location data on the occurrences (or populations) of these rare plants is held in the Natural Heritage programs of each state.
Conserved Land – This project identified four levels of conservation status: 1) Protected for nature and natural processes (e.g., natural reserves, designated wilderness areas); 2) Secured for nature with management (e.g., National Parks); 3) Secured for multiple use, some of which may cause disturbance (e.g., national forests with logging or grazing lots); and 4) unsecured. The data came from a conservation land gap analysis in TNC's Secured Land dataset.
Habitats – The Northeast Terrestrial Habitat Map, which served as the key data source for habitats/ecosystems, delineates 43 unique habitat types across New England. The habitats are comparable to the NatureServe ecological system classification.
Climate Resilience – TNC devised an approach for assessing based on enduring geophysical characteristics of the land. They score every pixel of mapping images to account for diversity of microclimates and connectedness between patches of an ecosystem and key landscape features like water sources. This system allows TNC to identify areas of high and low resilience to ecosystem changes resulting from a changing climate.
Development Threats – To estimate the threat of conversion from natural to developed lands, the report team used a Land Transformation Model that was developed by the Human-Environment Modeling and Analysis Laboratory at Purdue University to determine land likely to be developed by 2050.
Conservation Champion
Suzzanne Chapman
Retired Botanical Collections Curator, Mercer Botanic Gardens
Our Conservation Champion, Suzzanne Chapman spent many of her working years dedicated to saving plants. Working at Mercer Botanic Gardens, she had many opportunities to be a hero for rare plants facing threat from climate change. Her great love of nature and of plants continues in her retirement, where she continues to share the message that we (humans) are an integral part of nature.
Suzanne Chapman with Chloris texensis at the Harris County Precinct 4 Preserve. Photo by Anita Tiller.
Congratulations on your recent retirement! What are you looking forward to in this new life chapter?
I've just moved to a 'new' home and am busy working on it. Now that cooler temperatures are with us in Houston, I've been moving potted plants and dividing plants from the old garden to install in my new garden. I now have more space, so I'm thrilled to remove lawn, add garden beds, and amend the soil with some wonderful local compost when I plant more native pollinator plants. This summer, as a volunteer, I met up with Anita Tiller and the Mercer Botanical Center (MBC) interns to forage for seed of Asclepias viridis in a local park near me. I just recorded my new garden as part of the Homegrown National Park, a scheme designed by professor/author Doug Tallamy to show how much home gardens can contribute to the collective green space to support plants and wildlife biodiversity.
When did you first fall in love with plants?
Growing up in England, it is innate to feel connected to the outdoors and nature. We lived in a small town with plenty of green space, woods with bluebells and primroses in springtime, and trees to climb. Some of the words I remember using as a child are Syringa and Rhododendron, the botanical names for Lilac and Azalea. My Nana encouraged me to play in the garden and pick her tulips.
What was your career path to Mercer Botanic Gardens?
I came from an accounting position, then was laid off in one of the 'leveraged buyouts' that occurred during the 1980's. I looked at my options and knew I wanted something more personally fulfilling—and I loved gardening. I started to volunteer at Mercer in the greenhouses on Saturdays, while attending Houston Community College part-time for an AS in Horticulture and working full-time at two jobs. I was hired part-time by John Fairey at Peckerwood Garden—now The John Fairey Garden in honor of its founder—to assist with propagation (primarily of conifers) and the garden's seed distribution program. I was still volunteering at Mercer, which was much closer to home, and I took a full-time position as gardener there in 1994. In my 27 years at Mercer, I was greenhouse manager, horticulturist, and volunteer coordinator. When I retired, I enjoyed the position of botanical collections curator. Surprisingly, my accounting background was very useful, as timing and numbers are critical for greenhouse operations with propagation of plants by seed.
In your experience, what are some of the pressing conservation needs related to Texas' rare and native plants?
Communication and education of the public is one pressing need, since most Texas land is privately owned. Education of developers is another, since the population continues to expand dramatically in the Houston area. We are in a sub-tropical floodplain, and many of the trees and natural areas we enjoy are still being cleared and paved over. It drives me crazy that new commercial spaces get surrounded by rows of Ligustrum shrubs when we have native plant options.
Remove the word weed from so many common names of wild native plants! We need more engaging terms to encourage folks to try growing natives in their home gardens as ornamentals.
Suzanne Chapman with a long leaf pine seedling at Sandyland Sanctuary in east Texas, July 2006.
How did the effects of climate change impact your work at Mercer Botanical Gardens? What successes and challenges did you encounter?
With Mercer being adjacent to Cypress Creek, our challenges were definitely the floods. The winter of February 2021 was a shock to the system, but remarkably most plants came through strong! The extremes are always an issue. The successes are that we have become very well-prepared and resilient to the floods.
Better weather reporting contributes to MBC's planning. We have a whole building generator to protect the rare refrigerated/frozen stored seed bank. The MBC herbarium is housed on the second floor for safety, and the building is being secured with hurricane shutters.
Mercer recently was awarded grants to move the vulnerable conservation nursery from its current remote greenhouse location to the 'backyard' of the MBC, where plants will be easily accessible and above flooding potential. During the 2017 Hurricane Harvey, flood waters floated plants and nursery tables over the existing nursery area—despite its surrounding 10' fence! Most plants floated and settled to the ground when the water receded, and others were retrieved from the tree line further away. Luckily, we did not lose a single plant.
Suzzanne Chapman visiting Claude Monet's garden at Giverny.
What conservation project/initiative are your particularly proud of from your time at Mercer Botanic Gardens?
The R.A. Vines SBSC Herbarium was a great project. Three staff with 20+ volunteers and interns moved a collection of ~50,000 herbarium specimens to the MBC. We boxed, froze, unboxed, filed, and refiled as names or families changed. In just over two years, we completed a basic digitized inventory of the collection for the first time. Hurricane Harvey made the project even more memorable. We had to move our work upstairs from a gutted ground floor until repairs could be made.
The staff, volunteers and interns have accomplished some amazing work during my time at Mercer and continue to do so. One of the latest projects has been working with BRIT and the Global Genome Initiative for Gardens, collecting living tissue and storing herbarium specimens at Mercer. Another is Mercer's involvement with the Global Conservation Consortium for Oak. Personally, I am thrilled to have known some folks for 25+ years as volunteers who are great friends outside of work. The more folks we touch through gardening and nature, the word gets out to protect plants and biodiversity everywhere.
In the early 2000's, Anita Tiller brought the Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) project to Mercer through Michael Eason from the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center. Michael Eason is the author of 'Wildflowers of Texas' and conservation botanist for Texas Flora – Facebook, and San Antonio Botanic Garden. At that time, as a volunteer, I and others accompanied Michael to East Texas for many seed collecting forays. Staff from Kew also joined us, and this gave me a perfect opportunity to reconnect with Janet Terry while on vacation visiting family in England. We were given a behind the scenes (or should I say underground) tour of the MSB at Wakehurst Place/Kew, a real treat!
What advice do you have for newcomers to the field of plant conservation?
I am excited by the enthusiastic young folks entering the field of plant conservation. Mercer has had some amazing interns. During the COVID pandemic in 2020, one intern working from home designed signage and prepared a guide to grasses for the HCP4 Prairie Dawn Preserve. It's very rewarding to work with like-minded folks, co-workers, volunteers, interns and friends. I love to to see that spark in someone new to plants, gardening and conservation.
Connect with everyone you can! Even with COVID, we attended fabulous online meetings to keep up to date on projects and meet new folks. One of the rewards from last year was to see more folks with their kids getting back outside and learning to garden!
What has it meant to you to be a member of the CPC network? How has CPC supported your work?
It's exciting to be part of a network of people working in the same field and see their successes. CPC provides opportunities to share best practices and techniques for working with rare plant propagation. Real-time information is increasingly available to everyone online, and we enjoy more collaboration among groups. Thanks to the involvement and encouragement of CPC conservation work in addition to other programs at the MBC, our needs have grown from one staff botanist to a full-time staff of four, with seasonal interns and over 20 volunteers.
What advice would you give to the public who want to learn more about how they can help save imperiled plant species?
We need to feature how amazing plants are, and that they are crucial to all life on the planet. Plants provide the habitat that supports all the charismatic endangered wildlife. We are an integral part of nature, not just viewing it from the sidelines!
Get involved with local public gardens and look at their conservation programs. At Mercer, check out the Endangered Species Garden, and consult the conservation interpretive signage and educational booklets for details on protecting plants.
In your home gardens, save some space for the wild to sneak in. Keep native trees, ditch the lawn, save the leaves, learn the plants, plant for pollinators, feed the birds, and embrace the wilderness close at hand.
Neches River Rosemallow (Hibiscus dasycalyx) plant at east Texas preserve site, July 2017. Photo by Suzzanne Chapman courtesy of Mercer Botanic Gardens.
Suzzanne Chapman at the dedication of support for the Endangered Species Garden by the Kingwood Garden Club, June 2004. Photo courtesy of Kingwood Garden Club
Closeup of Large-fruit Sand-verbena (Abronia macrocarpa) at Mercer growing in sandy soil. Photo by Greg Wieland.
Conservation Highlights
UN Climate Change Conference
The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) is currently underway in Glasgow, Scotland, bringing together world leaders to commit to urgent global climate action. The adverse effects of climate change impact all life on Earth, including imperiled rare plants. As a lead-up to the COP26, CPC President & CEO, Joyce Maschinski, partnered with the Earth Project to share about our network's plant conservation initiatives, and how swift action must be taken to safeguard rare and native plants from the threats of climate change. Watch the video and hear from other leading conservation organizations here.
Background photo: Yucca brevifolia Graveyard. Sobering aftermath of the 2020 Dome Fire in the Mojave National Preserve, California. Photo by Kim Schaefer.
As Seen on Rare Plant Academy
Alpine ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Learn how the Denver Botanic Gardens is seeking to protect rare species from these regions, banking seeds from multiple Alpine populations by maternal line, performing germination trials, and growing seedlings to be reintroduced. Plants are also added to the living collections at Denver Botanic Garden and the Betty Ford Alpine Botanic Gardens to further preserve these rare species.
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MS Opportunity | SDSU Native Plant Initiative/TNC/USGS/USDA-NRCS
MS Position Available
USDA-NRCS: Deciphering Diversity for Landowners
Department of Natural Resource Management
One funded Masters graduate research position is available beginning in Spring semester 2022 in the
Department of Natural Resource Management under the supervision of Drs. Maribeth Latvis and Lora
Perkins for students interested in conservation and management of biodiversity, ecosystem services, soil
heath, and stakeholder engagement and education.
This graduate position is part of a collaboration among the SDSU Native Plant Initiative, The Nature
Conservancy, and the U.S. Geological Survey with funding from USDA-NRCS. Overall project objectives
include multidimensional assessment of biodiversity, soil health, pollinator response, and development
of educational tools for land management.
Application Here
Postdoc | SDSU Native Plant Initiative/TNC/USGS/USDA-NRCS
Post-Doctoral Researcher Position Available
A new position for a postdoctoral research associate is available with the Native Plant Initiative at South
Dakota State University (SDSU). This position is part of a collaboration among the SDSU Native Plant
Initiative, The Nature Conservancy, and the U.S. Geological Survey with funding from and in
collaboration with the USDA-NRCS. The project will use experimental plots at Oak Lake Field Station (26
miles NE of Brookings, SD) to examine multidimensional aspects of biodiversity and their impact on soil
health and pollinators.
Habitat Program Restoration Coordinator | Georgia Audubon
Georgia Audubon is hiring a Habitat Program Restoration Coordinator to assist in the implementation of habitat restoration and related conservation programming under the direction of the Habitat Program Manager. To learn more or to apply, please click on the job description below.
The successful candidate will be hired as a full-time, 40-hour per week exempt employee. The employee is expected to work 40 hours per week, including occasional weekends or weeknights. Starting pay will be in the low to mid $30,000 annually, including paid time off. Group health insurance, participation in a voluntary retirement plan, and professional development opportunities will be available, including participation in the Georgia Audubon Master Birder program.
This application period will remain open until the position is filled.
Ways to Help CPC
Support CPC By Using AmazonSmile
As many of us are now working from home and relying on home delivery more and more, we want to remind you that you can keep your home stocked AND Save Plants. If you plan to shop online, please consider using AmazonSmile.
AmazonSmile offers all of the same items, prices, and benefits of its sister website, Amazon.com, but with one distinct difference. When you shop on AmazonSmile, the AmazonSmile Foundation contributes 0.05 percent of eligible purchases to the charity of your choice. (Center for Plant Conservation).
There is no cost to charities or customers, and 100 percent of the donation generated from eligible purchases goes to the charity of your choice.
AmazonSmile is very simple to use—all you need is an Amazon account. On your first visit to the AmazonSmile site, you will be asked to log in to your Amazon account with existing username and password (you do not need a separate account for AmazonSmile). You will then be prompted to choose a charity to support. During future visits to the site, AmazonSmile will remember your charity and apply eligible purchases towards your total contribution—it is that easy!
If you do not have an Amazon account, you can create one on AmazonSmile.
Once you have selected Center for Plant Conservation as your charity, you are ready to start shopping. However, you must be logged into smile.amazon.com—donations will not be applied to purchases made on the Amazon.com main site or mobile app. It is also important to remember that not everything qualifies for AmazonSmile contributions.
So, stay safe inside, and when ordering online, remember you can still help save plants. Please feel free to share this email with your friends and family and ask them to select Center for Plant Conservation.
Thank you all for ALL you do.
Save Plants: February 2023 Newsletter
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Off the Clock: The Surprising Compatibility of Social Work and Remodeling
To create a path into the trades for women, Hope Renovations runs training programs for free
By James F. McClister May 6, 2021
This article first appeared in the Mar/Apr 2021 issue of Pro Remodeler.
Nora El-Khouri Spencer, who owns Hope Renovations, wasn't born into remodeling. Her parents weren't even handy. Though, they were kind and generous—which makes sense, knowing Nora and her business, an operation that helps train and find remodeling jobs for underprivileged women.
Most people start in social work and later move into a corporate position—for Spencer, it was a second career. After years in corporate positions, first in advertising and then recruiting, Nora wanted to find a better way to give back. With her master's in social work and drive to facilitate change in her North Carolina community, she launched Hope Renovations, a combination training center for underprivileged women and remodeling business that provides discounted services to those in need of universal design modifications.
After only a year in operation, more than a dozen young women have graduated from Hope's training operation (complete with a handful of certifications) and another cohort is already underway. In the inaugural episode of Pro Remodeler's interview series "Off The Clock," Nora shares her story and the story of Hope Renovations. Watch the video below to learn more.
Handywoman
Nora's parents were never handy—she is. "There was a window in my college dorm room with this thin strip of the window sill," says Nora. "It occurred to me to make it bigger." A plank of wood and some work later and she had something of a shelf.
Not born to it, Nora took to remodeling like she was, making small home improvement projects a personal habit—which became a more serious endeavor after she and her husband purchased their first investment property. "I went to work on it."
For a long while, Nora worked at Lowe's, first in advertising and later in recruiting. "It was a great way to get familiar with the products and categories," she says. It was also a good way to get tools as remodeling turned into her side hustle. "The employee discount was generous."
But after years of Lowe's (and later IBM), her commitment to a corporate career waned. "I got tired of giving everything I had to a company's bottom line." Instead, she wanted to give back.
During her years in corporate HR, Nora had earned her Master of Social Work (MSW). She imagined a future in which she would marry business with social work. However, how to do it wasn't as certain as the need to.
"An internship during grad school at a homeless shelter got my wheels turning." She engaged with the women staying at the shelter—got to know them enough to ask questions like: ever considered a job in remodeling? "The thought had never occurred to them," she says. "They liked working with their hands but thought construction 'a man's job.'"
Eventually, something clicked: a remodeling business that would also facilitate the training and job placement of underprivileged women.
On-Going Mission
After two years of chasing partners and then acquiring a training workshop through nothing short of serendipity, Hope Renovations was realized and officially launched in July 2020. "One of our founding partners, Fitch Lumber, just happened to have this old door manufacturing space it was using for storage," she recalls. "I remember Miles Fitch showing us the place and profusely apologizing for all the boxes and stuff that had built up over the years. But I knew right away it was perfect."
Half of Hope Renovations is the renovations—the majority of which are universal design updates for people with disabilities and serious illnesses, typically older people, done at a discount or totally free of charge. The other part, the smaller part, is anything for anyone. "A kitchen remodel, bathroom, new floors, paint, windows—whatever." The revenue generated through those jobs funds discounted work.
The other half is training and job placement. Over 10 weeks, using HBI's Pre-Apprenticeship Certificate Training program, Hope exposes trainees to a wide array of skills and opportunities for certification. "The intention is to get our graduates into an apprenticeship or job somewhere in the industry," she says. "We pack in as many certifications as we can, including OSHA 10, first-aid, CPR, and fire safety."
Social Work Lens
But what's especially unique about Hope Renovations is the social work. The organization has four MSWs on staff, including the construction supervisor. It shapes how they approach training and employment.
"We spend a lot of time talking about soft skills—conflict resolution and self-care. We also deal with a lot of underlying mental health issues that have to be dealt with," she says. "We want to address these issues through a social work lens while they're in our program so that when they come out, they can be not only the best employee they can be for an employer but that they can be better for themselves."
An Open Book Culture
After transitioning into ownership, this remodeler found success in transparency
Is Custom Remodeling Ready for Alair?
In an industry constantly seeking solutions to decades-long issues, is Alair Homes' franchise model the answer?
This Roofer's On Fire
How this business owner used past problems to fuel future successes
A Catalyst for Change
A remodeler shares the silver lining of personal challenges
AnotherStory: Revamping the Second-Story Addition
An architect and remodeler are marketing a new method for completing second-story additions
Breaking Through the Brand
Three remodeling companies share their motivations, stories, and experiences of redefining their outward identities for the next stage of growth
CQC Home: Never Just Average
CQC Home's Ken Combs' journey from lemons to $15 million lemonade
Tom Kelly Retires After 43 Years of Leadership
Kelly will remain majority owner and current CFO Dan Watson will become CEO.
2022 Forty Under 40
The 11th annual Pro Remodeler Forty Under 40 list highlights the industry's shining future.
Project Management Through Collaboration
Operations Manager Kareena Gray talks about her background and finding solutions through teamwork.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Tagged: Europe
02Jun 2011
Posted in Tour Blog
Can't believe we are less than four hours away from home. Currently waiting at Newark airport for our last connection to Charlotte, NC where Michael and Alec will be waiting with two 12-passenger vans to take us back to Virginia Tech (approx. 2.5 hour ride from the airport).
Looking back, it's been an amazing three weeks full of surprises, twists, turns, curve balls, and stories we all will be retelling for many seasons to come. More importantly, it's been a tour filled with successful performances.
Last night, we played as part of the closing concert at the international NIME conference in Oslo, a performance that I think was particularly well received. As I write this, my computer is slowly chewing on the video footage which I will be uploading to our YouTube page as soon as it is done.
Yesterday, I also received an email informing me that another interview aired on Croatian National TV (HTV) as part of the e-Hrvatska show covering our performance in Zagreb. You can view the video here.
I would like to use this opportunity to once again sincerely thank our Stakeholders who have generously sponsored this gargantuan undertaking. Likewise, I would like to thank our guest soloists Ron Coulter and Aurora Martin who have been brave (crazy? :-) enough to partake in the tour. I would also like to acknowledge my European Colleagues who have helped me coordinate venue planning, Robin Gareus, Marc Groenewegen, and Martin Kaltenbrunner. Finally, I would like to thank all l2orkists for their selfless contributions and sacrifices that have made this tour possible. Have a great summer all! You've definitely deserved it!
Eleven days behind us and another eleven to go, today marks the midpoint of the tour. Having performed last night at Hamburg's Academy of Music and Theater as part of the Blurred Edges Festival, we are using one day to catch-up with sleep and follow-up on outstanding matters. For one, I spent a better part of today producing long overdue L2Ork performance videos. Consequently, we got seven new videos ready out of which four have been already uploaded onto the DISIS YouTube channel. Similarly, we've been trying to consolidate tour photos which should be finding their way onto the media and facebook pages hopefully soon. Tomorrow morning, we head to Amsterdam. On the 24th we have a workshop at STEIM, followed by two performances, in Amsterdam on 25th, and Utrecht on 26th. Stay tuned for more updates soon!
Energize!!!
I cannot help but chuckle at the mysterious ubiquity of number 13 in our Friday's arrival to Linz, Austria: 13 l2orkists flew on Friday the 13th with the last leg leaving Frankfurt at 13h (1pm)–prime number bonanza, to say the least. Going through the TSA checkpoints with our hemi speakers has been, well, an adventure :-). But, in the end, it all worked out just fine. In the process, we even got a great idea for our next poster…
Yesterday, still under heavy jet lag, L2Ork held a 3-hour workshop, followed by a 9pm performance as part of the LiWoLi festival. Our concert was complemented by Martin Kaltenbrunner's improv on the cool Reactable (many thanks Martin!). Footage to follow hopefully soon. Our engagement as part of LiWoLi has been covered by two Austrian technology-oriented news sites.
Today, after another night with less than 3 hours of sleep we got up early to catch a 7am train to Ljubljana where we arrived seven hours later. Despite being long, the train ride was really comfortable and going through the Alps was awe inspiring (at least for those who managed to stay awake). Later this evening at 9pm, we will be performing at Kino Šiška.
P.S. I was also really pleased to have found our custom L2Ork bags living up to their expectations of not only fitting perfectly in the overhead compartment of three different jam-packed airplanes, but also under the seat. Yay! ;-)
To keep up with our latest blog bits, check us out on our Facebook page.
L2Ork Sets Sail for the Old World
I guess holding off on the big announcement any longer would be simply uncivilized ;-), so here it goes…
After 8 months of planning, fundraising a metric ton of greenbacks, and literally thousands of hours of hard work distributed across dozens of souls, L2Ork is truly excited to announce our maiden tour of Europe May 12 – June 1, 2011. Joining forces with our guest soloist Ron Coulter and our talented soprano l2orkist Aurora Martin, the ensemble will be touring 7 countries, performing and holding workshops in following locations:
May 14 – Linz, Austria (as part of LiWoLi festival)
May 15 – Ljubljana, Slovenia (Kino Šiška)
May 18 – Croatia (Museum of Contemporary Arts)
May 21 – Hamburg, Germany (Academy of Music and Theater)
May 24 – Amsterdam, Netherlands (STEIM)
May 25 – Amsterdam, Netherlands (Zaal 100)
May 26 – Utrecht, Netherlands (HKU)
May 30 – Paris, France (IRCAM)
June 01 – Oslo, Norway (NIME 2011)
I cannot thank enough to all who have generously contributed their precious time and helped us make this opportunity a reality: Ron Coulter, Robin Gareus, Marc Groenewegen, l2orkists, as well as our Stakeholders, both new and old who have played critical role in meeting the needs of our formidable budget.
So, there you have it! The cat is finally out of the bag :-). Hope to see you at one of our upcoming destinations! In the meantime, to stay up-to-date with the latest developments join our facebook page.
TOTAL L2ORKDOWN!!!!!
Not, really… I wanted to title it "Final L2Orkdown" but someone had already taken a title close to it… sneaky Ico. ANYWAY: It is Tuesday night before Friday's big Sneak Preview and on top of the billion of other things to do this week, I couldn't be more excited and I'm sure my fellow L2Orkists agree (even if for entirely different reasons). I'm excited to finally bring this to the public, even if it winds up being a select few, but I think more than anything I'm ready to take this thing to the next level.
I know, it seems as though I'm rushing ahead of myself, and other things, but I honestly feel like L2Ork is ready for the next step: fresher pieces, community involvement and fresher faces. I believe that after a month off some L2Orkists will begin to miss their time with the tiny netbooks and hemispherical speakers and want to return to making music. I believe that the L2Ork as we know it will be completely different than the L2Ork of the future and that will be made possible by fresh faces, new ideas and the innocence of children… wait what? You'll see…
Well, it is time to go back to work; hopefully, we'll see you on Friday!
!epic_fail 5th graders amazing amps back to school boy meets world boys & girls club Boys & Girls Club of Roanoke community congrats Dave Phillips DISIS education EPIC Eric Lyon Europe Facebook full steam ahead great success haiku Happy New Year hemis hindsight ICAT it's over 9000 K-12 l2ork Linux linux journal milestone news NIME outreach pd-l2ork performance punny Ron Coulter software soldering summary Tour ubuntu upcoming upcoming events Updates
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Dr Steven Gil
steven.gil@uqconnect.edu.au
Degrees: BA Hons Class I (UQ), PhD (2014)
Supervisor: Prof. Phil Almond
Area of Research: My thesis analyses the ways in which science fiction television represents science and works through cultural debates about the status and role of scientific knowledge. Within this study, the history of science's incorporation into and influence on narrative fiction is also examined. I am broadly interested in the cultural history of science, science fiction, and the impact of science on popular epistemology.
Gil, Steven Science wars through the Stargate: explorations of science and society in Stargate SG-1. Lanham, MD, United States: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
Gil, Steven (2015). 'Time machines are nothin' but trouble': Stargate SG-1's thought experiments on time travel. In Sherry Ginn and Gillian I. Leitch (Ed.), Time-Travel Television: The past from the present, the future from the past (pp. 147-156) Lanham, MD, United States: Rowman & Littlefield.
Gil, Steven (2015). Sword and science: science fiction interpretations of Medieval Arthurian literature and legend in Stargate SG-1. In Helen Young (Ed.), Fantasy and science fiction Medievalisms: from Isaac Asimov to A Game of Thrones (pp. 141-160) Amherst, NY, United States: Cambria Press.
Gil, Steven (2017) John Fogerty: An American Son. Journal of American Culture, 40 4: 421-422. doi:10.1111/jacc.12818
Gil, Steven (2015) Questioning Science and Genre: The X-Files as Dangerous Science Fiction. Thesis Eleven, 131 1: 65-80. doi:10.1177/0725513615613458
Gil, Steven John (2014) 'Remember the nox': Stargate: SG-1 's narrative structure and the changing form of television fiction. New Review of Film and Television Studies, 12 2: 178-202. doi:10.1080/17400309.2014.880643
Gil, Steven (2013) 'Am I the only one here who sees the alien': science in Invader ZIM. The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, 2 2: 239-251. doi:10.1386/ajpc.2.2.239_1
Gil, Steven (2012) Telefantasy's competing versimilitudes: composite genre and The X-Files. Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA-PGN, 5 2: 75-93.


The Baby-Sitters Club 1995 - 92 min. - Color Genre: Family Rated PG Country: USA LaserDisc Movie Storyline: It is a pivotal moment in the lives of The Baby-sitters Club--seven very special girls growing up in Stoneybrook, Connecticut. With most of the girls turning 13 and the summer upon them, they hope to devise a brilliant plan to make some money, have some fun and keep their remarkable friendships intact, but with new boyfriends showing up, rival girls, and long separated parents, the baby-sitters will test the fabric of their long-standing friendships. Each girl rises to the challenge in her own way and by the summer's end they discover their friendships have not only survived, they have thrived and flourished.


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Borg Challenge: Part Two where I begin the search with a random sample
This is the second in a series of reports on a fifty-hour predictive coding experiment using a modified Borg approach to predictive coding. I say a modified Borg approach because I refused to eliminate human judgment entirely. That would be too hideously boring for me to devote over fifty hours of my time. Some of the modifications I made to slightly humanize the Borg approach are explained in the first video below.
In this segment I begin the search project with a random sample. Then I began the first two rounds of machine training with the usual auto coding runs and prediction error corrections (steps four and five in the below diagram). The second video below describes the first two iterative rounds. For these videos to make sense you first need to read and watch Borg Challenge: Part One of my experimental review of 699,082 Enron documents using a semi-automated monomodal methodology.
Creating a random sample at the beginning of a review is not necessarily part of a Borg review, and may not be included in most Borg-like software, but it easily could be. It is a best practice that I always include in large scale reviews. When I explain hybrid multimodal machine training using an eight-step model, the first random sample is the third-step, which I call Random Baseline in this diagram.
I use the first random sample as part of my quality control program. With the sample I calculate prevalence, the percent of relevant documents in the total collection. This information gives you a good idea of how many of the relevant documents you have located during the course of the project. Of course, what information scientists call concept drift, and we lawyers call improved understanding of relevance, can impact this calculation and should be taken into account. In this search concept drift was not really a factor because I had already done this same search before. Since this was a repeat search, albeit using a different method, the Borg did have an advantage in this comparative test.
I included a random sample at the beginning of the Borg experiment to give the monomodal method every possible benefit and make the comparison as fair as possible. During the experiment I used several other quality control methods that Borg-like software may not have for the same reasons.
Watch the video and learn more about how I used a random sample of 1,183 documents to begin the Borg Challenge. The next video will describe the first two rounds of training after the baseline sample. These videos will provide many details on the methods used and progress made.
Although in the video I refer to the first two rounds of training, to be technically correct, they are actually the second and third rounds. Since I found some relevant documents in the random sample, I trained on them. The computer used at least some of them as part of its training set to calculate the first 200 documents for my review. Each round of review trained on at least 200 documents. I selected this 200 documents number (it could be configured to be any size), because in my experience with Inview software, this has been a good minimum number of training documents to use.
To get even more technical, some of the documents I identified as relevant in the first random sample were not used in the first training, instead they were held in reserve, also known as held-out data, in what Kroll Ontrack and others call the testing set. Manning, et al, Introduction to Information Retrieval, (Cambridge, 2008) at pg. 262. This testing set derivation from an initial random sample is part of the internal quality control and metrics evaluation built into the Kroll Ontrack's Inview and other good predictive coding enabled software. It allows the software itself to monitor and validate the progress of the review, but as you will see, in my modified hybrid approach, I primarily rely upon my own techniques to monitor progress. See Human–computer information retrieval (HCIR).
The first round of training came after coding the random sample. In the random review some documents were marked as relevant and provided for training. So what I call the first round of 200 documents in the video was selected both by random and internal evaluation, which I have previously labeled the Enlightened Borg approach. Three-Cylinder Multimodal Approach To Predictive Coding. This means that, to be entirely accurate, when my training sets are concluded (and I am not yet going to reveal how many rounds I went before it concluded (care to place bets?)), you should add one to the total count.
You should also know that the very first round of training, here described as the random sample, was what I call a Luck Borg round based on chance selection. Id. All of the ensuing rounds of training used an Enlightened Borg approach, enhanced with limited HCIR, but excluding any kind of search other than predictive coding based search. I will explain these subtle distinctions further as this Borg Challenge narrative continues.
Stay tuned for Borg Challenge: Part Three where I continue my search through round sixteen of machine training.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 at 7:44 pm and is filed under Review, Search, Technology.	You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
4 Responses to Borg Challenge: Part Two where I begin the search with a random sample
Borg Challenge: Part Three where I continue my search through round 16 of machine training | e-Discovery Team ® says:
[…] of the training. For these videos to make sense you first need to read and watch Part One and Part Two of the Borg Challenge. If this still makes no sense, you could try reading a science fiction […]
Borg Challenge: Part Four where I complete the experiment | e-Discovery Team ® says:
[…] in a Kafka novel. For these videos to make sense you first need to read and watch Part One, Part Two, and Part Three of the Borg Challenge. Even then, who knows? Kafkaesque videos providing […]
Borg Challenge: Part Five where I summarize my findings | e-Discovery Team ® says:
[…] in every respect, except for methodology. The experiment itself is described in Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four of the Borg Challenge. The results reported in my videos below may […]
BORG CHALLENGE: The Complete Report | e-Discovery Team ® says:
[…] narrative of the Borg Challenge that was previously reported in five installments: Part One, Two, Three, Four and […]
Ralph's Tweets
Note lawyers aren't mentioned. Yet look what happens without law. twitter.com/davidasinclair… 1 day ago
GOOD. Looks like (??) green-light to "... actively investigate the sources of funding for the individuals who part… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2 days ago
RT @tribelaw: Yet another leading scholar explains why no president can "grant" a pardon to . . . himself: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/… 2 days ago
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e-Discovery for Everyone, (ABA, 2017). Also see Ralph's video on this book.
Perspectives on Predictive Coding, co-editor & contributing author (ABA, 2017).
Adventures in Electronic Discovery (West Thomson Reuters, 2011).
Electronic Discovery: New Ideas, Trends, Case Law, and Practices (West Thomson Reuters, 2010).
Introduction to E-Discovery: New Cases, Ideas, and Techniques (ABA 2009).
e-Discovery: Current Trends and Cases (ABA 2008).
Ralph Losey is a practicing attorney and shareholder in a national law firm with 50+ offices and over 800 lawyers where he is in charge of Electronic Discovery. All opinions expressed here are his own, and not those of his firm or clients. No legal advice is provided on this web and should not be construed as such.
Ralph has long been a leader of the world's tech lawyers. He has presented at hundreds of legal conferences and CLEs around the world. Ralph has written over two million words on e-discovery and tech-law subjects, including seven books. He is also the founder of Electronic Discovery Best Practices, and e-Discovery Team Training, an online education program that arose out of his five years as an adjunct professor teaching e-Discovery and Evidence at the UF School of Law. Ralph is also publisher and principle author of this blog and many other instructional websites.
Ralph is a specialist who has limited his legal practice to electronic discovery and tech law since 2006. He has a special interest in software and the search and review of electronic evidence using artificial intelligence, and also in general AI Ethics. issues. Ralph was the only private lawyer to participate in the 2015 and 2016 TREC Recall Track of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and prior to that competed successfully in the EDI Oracle research.
Ralph has been involved with computers, software, legal hacking and the law since 1980. Ralph has the highest peer AV rating as a lawyer and was selected as a Best Lawyer in America in four categories: Commercial Litigation; E-Discovery and Information Management Law; Information Technology Law; and, Employment Law - Management. Ralph also received the "Most Trusted Legal Advisor" industry award for 2016-17 by the Masters Conference. His full biography may be found at RalphLosey.com.
Ralph is the proud father of two children, Eva Losey Grossman, and Adam Losey, a lawyer with cyber expertise (married to another cyber expert lawyer, Catherine Losey), and best of all, husband since 1973 to Molly Friedman Losey, a mental health counselor in Winter Park.
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Sedona Principles 3rd Ed
1. Electronically stored information is generally subject to the same preservation and discovery requirements as other relevant information.
2. When balancing the cost, burden, and need for electronically stored information, courts and parties should apply the proportionality standard embodied in Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(2)(C) and its state equivalents, which require consideration of importance of the issues at stake in the action, the amount in controversy, the parties' relative access to relevant information, the parties' resources, the importance of the discovery in resolving the issues, and whether the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit.
3. As soon as practicable, parties should confer and seek to reach agreement regarding the preservation and production of electronically stored information.
4. Discovery requests for electronically stored information should be as specific as possible; responses and objections to discovery should disclose the scope and limits of the production.
5. The obligation to preserve electronically stored information requires reasonable and good faith efforts to retain information that is expected to be relevant to claims or defenses in reasonably anticipated or pending litigation. However, it is unreasonable to expect parties to take every conceivable step or disproportionate steps to preserve each instance of relevant electronically stored information.
6. Responding parties are best situated to evaluate the procedures, methodologies, and technologies appropriate for preserving and producing their own electronically stored information.
7. The requesting party has the burden on a motion to compel to show that the responding party's steps to preserve and produce relevant electronically stored information were inadequate.
8. The primary source of electronically stored information to be preserved and produced should be those readily accessible in the ordinary course. Only when electronically stored information is not available through such primary sources should parties move down a continuum of less accessible sources until the information requested to be preserved or produced is no longer proportional.
9. Absent a showing of special need and relevance, a responding party should not be required to preserve, review, or produce deleted, shadowed, fragmented, or residual electronically stored information.
10. Parties should take reasonable steps to safeguard electronically stored information, the disclosure or dissemination of which is subject to privileges, work product protections, privacy obligations, or other legally enforceable restrictions.
11. A responding party may satisfy its good faith obligation to preserve and produce relevant electronically stored information by using technology and processes, such as data sampling, searching, or the use of selection criteria.
12. The production of electronically stored information should be made in the form or forms in which it is ordinarily maintained or in a that is reasonably usable given the nature of the electronically stored information and the proportional needs of the case.
13. The costs of preserving and producing relevant and proportionate electronically stored information ordinarily should be borne by the responding party.
14. The breach of a duty to preserve electronically stored information may be addressed by remedial measures, sanctions, or both: remedial measures are appropriate to cure prejudice; sanctions are appropriate only if a party acted with intent to deprive another party of the use of relevant electronically stored information.
Third Edition, Copyright © 2017 The Sedona Conference®. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted courtesy of The Sedona Conference®.
Go to www.thesedonaconference.org to download a free copy of the complete document for your personal use only.
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Bach More Bach Debussy Gershwin


text:
Posts Tagged "City news"
Havas Posts 5.7% First Half Organic Growth
Havas reported a 2.7% revenue increase for the first half of 2014 to 844 Euros, which is about $1.1 billion at today's exchange rate
Perform group reports widened H1 pretax loss
Perform Group widened its H1 pretax loss to £4.2m, from a loss of £2.6m. Revenue was £118.8m, from £92.4m
Chime reports strong growth in Sports & Entertainment division in H1 2014
Christopher Satterthwaite, Chief Executive of Chime Communications, said: "We have had a strong first half driven by our involvement in the Winter Olympics, the FIFA World Cup and the Commonwealth Games
Archant appoints new CEO
Community media group Archant, publishers of the EDP, Norwich Evening News and weekly titles including the Lowestoft Journal and Great Yarmouth Mercury, has appointed Jeff Henry as its new chief executive
WPP ravaged by Sterling's strength but grows 8.7% on like-for-like basis
On a constant currency basis, total billings were up 5.7pc to £22bn, but the growth was wiped out by converting international business into sterling
WPP ravaged by Sterling's strength but grows 8.7% on like-for-like basis
UTV Media profits rise by 62%
TalkSport owner UTV Media's pre-tax profits jumped more than 60% to £10m in the first half, thanks to a World Cup ad spend boost and an improving economy. For the full story read The Guardian
Eight reasons why newspaper groups are reaching the tipping point and making digital pay
DMG Media and Trinity Mirror have recently revealed figures showing spectacular digital advertising revenue leaps
Axel Springer profits from digital business model growth
In the second quarter of the current financial year, Axel Springer's operating results continued the growth trend of the first three months, thanks in large part to consistently strong growth in its digital activities.
AppNexus attracts investment of upto $100m, valuing it at $1.2b
One of New York's Most Successful and Highly Valued Technology Companies Attracts Investment of up to $100 Million for Opportunistic Acquisitions and Aggressive Expansion in Booming Markets
A Second Major Investor Takes Stake In IPG
Harris Associates has taken a nearly 3% stake in Interpublic Group, the Chicago-based investment company has confirmed
Global firms sitting on $7 trillion war chest
The world's corporate giants are poised to tap into record cash reserves and possibly embark on a long-awaited spending spree, fuelling hopes of a massive boost to the global economic recovery
Dentsu Billings Surge 17% In July As The Firm Expands Holdings On Two Continents
Tokyo-based holding company Dentsu reported a 17% surge in client advertising expenditures in July to more than 139 billion Japanese Yen (about $1.4 billion at today's exchange rate) versus July 2013. Separately, the company reported two M&A deals in the last two weeks.
News Corp revenues fall 3% in last quarter amid circulation decline
News Corp revenues fell 3% in the last quarter, the company said on Thursday amid a "challenging advertising environment" and declines in circulation revenues
Ashfield now the biggest component of UDG Healthcare
Profit growth in the nine months to June has been driven by the strong performance of the Ashfield Commercial and Medical Services division.
Bauer launches €100m digital business fund, Bauer Venture Partners
Bauer Media, which owns a number of magazines, radio stations and TV stations, has established the "Bauer Venture Partners" fund and will invest over the next ten years in digital business models across Europe, according to Tech City News
Johnston Press revenue down 11.5%
Regional publisher says that stripping out exceptional items such as the impact of sale of titles in Ireland means total fall is 4.3%
TechTarget Reports Q2 2014 Financial Results
Technology media company TechTarget, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTGT) today announced financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2014
UBM reported solid performance in H1 2014 results
UBM reported revenue of £361.0m (H1 2013: £391.8m), down 7.9% reflecting a strong currency headwind; broadly flat at constant currency (0.3%), with solid underlying growth of 2.0%