The California Native Plant Society's Rare Plant Treasure Hunt: Citizen Science as a Tool for Understanding the California Flora

The California Native Plant Society’s (CNPS) Rare Plant Treasure Hunt (RPTH) program seeks to answer this basic question: what is the status of our State’s rare plants? The premise of the program is to engage, train, and... [ view full abstract ]

The California Native Plant Society’s (CNPS) Rare Plant Treasure Hunt (RPTH) program seeks to answer this basic question: what is the status of our State’s rare plants? The premise of the program is to engage, train, and support volunteers to relocate populations of rare plants that haven’t been seen in decades. This is an important goal, as nearly half of California’s known rare plant populations haven’t been seen in over 20 years. The data generated in this program inform the CNPS Rare Plant Program and California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), which maintain data on all of California’s 2300+ rare plant taxa. The data are crucial to conservation efforts, as they help CNPS and CDFW determine which plants merit protection under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Educational outreach and training help raise awareness of the plight of rare plants and engage hundreds of volunteers. The program offers several different opportunities for volunteer participation. Many CNPS Chapters have formed groups that participate in the project by collecting data on their local rare plants, while other individuals and small groups lead their own surveys with direction from CNPS staff. Also, CNPS staff lead trips and trainings in areas where land managers award grants to support rare plant surveys. These staff-led events offer opportunities for beginning plant enthusiasts to become exposed to the field of botany and gain rare plant survey skills. To date, RPTH volunteers and staff have gathered data on over 2200 rare plant populations. There have been important discoveries among those observations, including significant range extensions, addition of new plants to the Rare Plant Inventory, and even the downranking of plants too common for protection under CEQA. In the future, there are plans to expand the scope of this project to include specimen collection and conservation seed banking.