The conservation of Three Federally Endangered Sarracenia by the Atlanta Botanical Garden

Madeleine Groves

Conservation Projects Development Unit • Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew • Richmond • Surrey TW9 3AB • UK

As part of its mission statement and Conservation Program, the Atlanta Botanical Garden (ABG) is a key player in the monitoring and restoration of the low nutrient, acidic wetland habitats of the genus Sarracenia (pitcher plants) in the southeastern USA. Many pitcher plant communities have now been drained or reduced to small, fragmented plots of land surrounded by urbanisation and agriculture and under threat from invasive species, use of herbicides, over-collection and harvesting. There has also been a dramatic reduction in or complete elimination of many of the natural processes that maintain these habitats, including beaver activity and fire. ABG has concentrated its efforts on those Sarracenia listed as Federally Endangered under the USA Endangered Species Act (1973)--S. alabamensis in Alabama (12 populations), S.rubra subsp. jonesii in North and South Carolina (9 populations), and S. oreophila in Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina (35 populations).

Under contract to the US Fish and Wildlife Service and TNC on a number of projects, ABG focuses on establishing a good working relationship with state, federal and, in particular, private landowners, especially given that the majority of extant habitat is now in private hands. ABG has developed a number of low-cost, low-tech restoration techniques to restore Sarracenia habitat and, where possible, natural processes are reinstated (use of winter/summer burns, hydrology), and material available at the site is used. ABG has also developed educational programmes and techniques (e.g. building carnivorous plant bogs for schools), that use Sarracenia and other carnivorous plant taxa to highlight the loss of wetlands world-wide.

For more information contact Ron Determann or Carol Helton at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, 1345 Piedmont Ave, Atlanta, GA 30357, USA, Tel:404-876-5859, e-mail: rchelton@mindspring.com