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The state of the world’s urban ecosystems: What can we learn from trees, fungi, and bees?

Positive interactions between people and nature inspire behaviours that are in harmony
with biodiversity conservation and also afford physical and mental health benefits.
Since most people live in towns and cities, urban greenspaces are...

Resource
10/9/20
Plant awareness disparity: A case for renaming plant blindness

“Plant blindness” is the cause of several problems that have plagued botany outreach
and education for over a hundred years. The general public largely does not notice
plants in their environment and therefore do not appreciate how...

Resource
10/9/20
Archiving Horticultural Legacies at Public Gardens

Digital media offers a unique set of properties which are not being utilized to their full potential
at public gardens. Digital repositories along with videography and technology have existed in
organizations such as universities and...

Resource
10/5/20
International collaboration between collections-based institutes for halting biodiversity loss and unlocking the useful properties of plants and fungi

The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17 calls for “strong global partnerships and cooperation” to support the other SDGs. The collections-based science community offers many examples of conservation of plant and fungal biodiversity,...

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10/5/20
Accelerating Education for the SDGs in Universities

Universities and other higher education institutions have a critical role in helping
society achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through their research,
learning and teaching, campus operations and leadership. This guide...

Resource
10/2/20
PLANT CONSERVATION REPORT 2020: A review of progress towards the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation 2011-2020

The adoption of a Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) in 2002 and its subsequent renewal in 2010 were significant milestones for the Convention on Biological Diversity. Not only did this strategy, its objectives and targets provide a valuable...

Resource
9/25/20
Plant eco-evolutionary responses to climate change: Emerging directions

Contemporary climate change is exposing plant populations to novel combinations of
temperatures, drought stress, and other abiotic and biotic conditions. These changes are
rapidly disrupting the evolutionary dynamics of plants. Despite...

Resource
9/10/20
Climate change winners and losers: The effects of climate change on five palm species in the Southeastern United States

Palms (Arecaceae) are a relatively speciose family and provide materials for food, construction, and handicraft, especially in the tropics. They are frequently used as paleo-indicators for megathermal climates, and therefore, it is logical to predict...

Resource
9/8/20
Creating a pollinator garden for native specialist bees of New York and the Northeast

The guide provides a detailed the native plants of New York that are crucial for supporting native specialist bees; including, where the region or habitat the plant occurs naturally, date of bloom, color of bloom, plant structure, how to obtain seeds...

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8/31/20
Interpreting the Science: A Toolkit to Communicate the Value of Native Plants

Native plants are important to the landscape. However, there is little clear information out there informing the lay public on native plant scientific benefits, uses in the landscape, and sourcing of plants. As centers of science, public gardens have a...

Resource
8/7/20
Scavenger Hunt and DIY Educational Activities from Botanical Gardens

Atlanta Botanical Garden:

https://atlantabg.org/calendar/family-led-fun/.

The Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden scavenger hunt online:

...

Resource
7/30/20
How Informal Education Programs Can Learn From Higher Education Assessment: Evaluating the Morton Arboretum's N-ACT Program

As a response to the debate about the worth of completing a degree, higher education has built a set of assessment practices intended to quantify the change in a student as they matriculate from a first year to a graduate controlling for the different...

Resource
7/15/20
Sustainability Ambassadors: Spearheading Student Engagement in Climate Change Education

Among its mitigation strategies, UC San Diego's (UCSD) 2019 Climate Action Plan (CAP) calls for
Behavior and Institutional Change where energy consumption habits are targeted and addressed
through education and engagement. Launched in...

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7/6/20
Discussing Extension Agents’ Role in Moderating Contentious Issue Conversations

Extension agents are finding themselves engaged in problem-solving roles as public needs adjust to a climate where issues facing the agricultural and natural resource industry are more often contentious than benign. As connectors between the Land-grant...

Resource
7/6/20
Reshaping the future of ethnobiology research after the COVID-19 pandemic

A geographically diverse group of 29 ethnobiologists addresses three common themes in response to the COVID-19 global health crisis: impact on local communities, future interactions between researchers and communities, and new (or renewed) conceptual...

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6/29/20
Outdoor Programs for Veterans: Public Land Policies and Practices to Support Therapeutic Opportunities

Many veterans returning from military deployment experience stress- or trauma-related symptoms
that make reintegration with civilian society difficult. Nature exposure and outdoor recreation can
be important parts of alternative and...

Resource
6/23/20
The pollination services of forests

This document was developed as a contribution to “mainstreaming biodiversity
into agriculture, forestry and fisheries”, as recommended at the 24th Session of the
Committee on Forestry in 2018. It also contributes to FAO’s Strategic...

Resource
6/18/20
Therapeutic Horticulture as a Healing Tool for Veterans

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) faces a plethora of challenges as it daily encounters and treats veterans. With a great prevalence of co-occurring diagnoses, veterans’ needs today are significant and arguably more complex than ever before. The...

Resource
6/5/20
Darwin in the garden: Engaging the public about evolution with museum collections of living objects

Polls continue to show distressingly high percentages of people around the world do not accept that evolution has occurred. Even among individuals who accept evolution, surveys indicate that many do not understand its mechanistic basis, natural...

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5/29/20

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