Working to Conserve and Protect the Alpine Environment of North America

North American Botanic Garden Strategy for Alpine Plant Conservation

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Alpine Strategy

Our Work

The Alpine Strategy is a blueprint for alpine plant conservation, focusing on the role of botanic gardens. Through in situ and ex situ conservation, we aim to preserve this unique habitat.

  • OBJECTIVE 1. Understand and document alpine plant diversity.

    • TARGET 1. Develop a working map of all North American alpine areas by 2022.

      • Progress: Complete

      • Image: map of North American alpine areas

      • Text: We used Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a powerful data and mapping technology that allows us to build digital maps using a variety of criteria including climate variables, slope, aspect and more. The transition from montane ecosystems to alpine is understood to be dependent on temperature, so we use the mean growing season temperature of 6.4°C as the cutoff. Using this criteria, Jodie Kirschner, a former Research and Conservation GIS Intern at Denver Botanic Gardens, made this map of our North American alpine areas! In 2021, we updated the map with help from Dr. Dara Seidl, Associate Professor of GIS at Colorado Mountain College. 

    • TARGET 2. Create a list of all known alpine plants of North America that highlights alpine plants whose conservation status is ranked G1/T1 – G3/T3 by 2022.

      • Progress: 95% complete

      • Will need to link to the final list, beta version here

      • Text: Over the past several years, staff and interns at Betty Ford Alpine Gardens and Denver Botanic Gardens have been combing through resources including local field guides, Plants of the World Online (an online database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew), The Flora of North America, the PLANTS database from the US Department of Agriculture, and more to develop the Alpine Plant List. The challenge has been how to reconcile taxonomic nomenclature, aka how plants are named. Many taxa of plants go through name changes over the years as we continue to develop our understanding of their place on the genetic tree. For example, did you know that the latin name for Old-Man-of-the-Mountain is currently Hymenoxys grandiflora, but previously, it has gone by Tetraneuris grandiflora, and before that, Rydbergia grandiflora? It is important that we keep track of all the synonyms and former names for each taxa so that when we look at historical records, we know who we’re talking about! The Alpine Plant List  is currently in the home stretch, with the final step being to add in the conservation status for each species, which is obtained from NatureServe, a non-profit organization that is a hub of conservation knowledge and data. Thank you to Mike Kintgen, Curator of Alpine Collections, and Jen Toews, Plant Records, for their hard work on this target.

    • TARGET 3. Assess land management designations for all North American alpine habitats by 2023.

      • Progress: 95% complete

      • Image of Dena and interactive map

      • Text: Using GIS and the IUCN protection designations, Dena Bergman, 2022 Regis Graduate Extern, mapped the land management designations of alpine areas in North America. 

    • TARGET 4. Provide online access to floristic inventories and research on North American alpine plants to minimize gaps in knowledge by 2030.

      • Progress: 5% Complete

      • Text: Stay tuned for updates on this target!

  • OBJECTIVE 2. Conserve alpine plants and their habitats.

    • TARGET 5. Protect 50 percent of the most Important Plant Areas (IPAs) for alpine plant conservation in North America by 2030.

      • Progress: 5% Complete

      • Image: PCAs from CNHP

      • Text: Stay tuned for updates on this target!

    • TARGET 6. Conserve at least 25 percent of all identified North American alpine flora in-situ by 2030.

      • Progress: 5% Complete

      • Text: Stay tuned for updates on this target!

    • TARGET 7. Conserve 60 percent of threatened alpine plant species in North America in-situ by 2030.

      • Progress: 5% Complete

      • Text: Stay tuned for updates on this target!

    • TARGET 8. Conserve 60 percent of all identified alpine plant species in North America ex-situ by 2030.

      • Progress: 10% Complete

      • Images: Seeds, Seed Collecting, Seed Banking, Troughs 

      • Text: Remember, ex-situ means “off site”, so this target aims to conserve alpine plant species through seed-banking, cryopreservation, tissue culture, and in the living collections of botanic gardens. Here at Betty Ford Alpine Gardens, we focus our summer field season on collecting seeds of alpine plants. Most of the seeds are sent to the National Lab for Genetic Resources Preservation in Fort Collins for long-term banking, while a small portion is grown in the Gardens to be preserved as a living collection. This is especially important because there is actually very little research about whether alpine seeds retain their viability after storage! One of our Alpine Strategy colleagues at Denver Botanic Gardens is Alexandra Seglias, Seed Conservation Research Associate, who is experimenting with artificial aging of alpine seeds to fill in our understanding of how these species will survive in a seed bank. 

    • TARGET 9. Ensure that at least 75 percent of all identified threatened North American alpine plant species are held in ex-situ collections, and 10 percent are in recovery and/or restoration programs by 2030.

      • Progress: 10% Complete

      • Images: Alex Seed Collecting, Ipomopsis globularis 

      • Text: This target is similar to last week’s, except that it focuses on threatened species and has an additional recovery/ restoration goal. Remember, threatened species are those whose Global Rank is G1: Critically Imperiled, G2: Imperiled, or G3: Vulnerable. Our goal is to conserve at least 75% of these species in living collections, like a botanic garden, or preferably in a seed bank. This summer, our Conservation team scouted out populations of and collected seeds from several of these threatened species with our colleagues from Denver Botanic Gardens, including Globe Gilia (Ipomopsis globularis), endemic and ranked G2 (1, 2, 3, 4); Alpine Larkspur (Delphinium alpestre), ranked G2 (5, 6); Weber’s Saw-Wort (Saussurea weberi), ranked G2G3 (7, 8); and Rothrock’s Easter Daisy (Townsendia rothrockii), which is also endemic and ranked G2G3 (9, 10). All of these collections require special permits and are conducted in accordance with best-practices from leading conservation organizations.

  • OBJECTIVE 3. Promote awareness of the alpine ecosystem and plant diversity through education and outreach.

    • TARGET 10. Incorporate the irreplaceable value of the North American alpine ecosystem and plant diversity into educational and public awareness programs at botanic gardens by 2025.

      • Progress: 50% Complete

      • Image: Exhibit panel

      • Text: Betty Ford Alpine Gardens is continuously working to promote awareness of the alpine ecosystem through education and research. This summer, the Gardens will create an indoor exhibit that will encourage families to be alpine conservationists with hands-on activities. This image is a preview of one of the panels! Our Education Director, Nanette Kuich, has assembled content that highlights the plants and animals of the alpine ecosystem, and we have a trunk full of activities ready to travel to gardens and classrooms to further spread awareness and appreciation of the alpine! 

  • OBJECTIVE 4. Build capacity for the conservation of alpine plant species and associated habitats.

    • TARGET 11. Increase the number of trained professionals working on North American alpine plant conservation to address local, regional and national needs by 2030.

      • Progress: 10% Complete

      • Image: Interns

      • Text:  While there are many passionate plant-people out there, the number of educational and professional opportunities for trained botanists has been decreasing over time. But the need for skilled botanists and conservationists hasn’t! One of the ways Betty Ford Alpine Gardens is working to achieve this goal is through our summer internship program, where recent college graduates learn what it’s like to work in conservation, horticulture, and science education, and hopefully get inspired by the amazing alpine ecosystem. Here are some pictures of former interns botanizing in the field, working in the Gardens, and creating educational content. This summer, we are also leading a Native Plant Master Class focusing on alpine plants. Again, we aim to spread awareness and appreciation of alpine plants and botany skills to our community.

    • TARGET 12. Establish and strengthen networks, partnerships, associations and stakeholders for alpine conservation activities at regional, national and international levels by 2030.

      • Progress: 5% Complete

      • Image: Colleagues

      • Text: Only by working together across organizations and regions can we succeed. This target sets a goal for botanic gardens to collaborate with other stakeholders to strengthen conservation activities across all scales, including other gardens, universities, horticulturists, and the public. For example, are you collecting seed in the alpine for your research or collections? We want to know! We are setting up an Alpine Strategy Network to link interested people and organizations.