National Science Foundation Interns Join Herbarium Pacificum Staff

Keith Tomlinson, Bishop Museum, Herbarium Pacificum News, December 1993

 In March, six Farrington High School students began internships at the museum on a National Science Foundation Minority Education Grant. Three students each joined the Botany and Entomology Departments. Keoki Nunies, Luan Pham, and Rosselle Canosa joined the Herbarium Pacificum staff. During the first part of the program all six interns were introduced to the museum as an institution. This process involved detailed tours of each department with entomology and botany familiarizing them with the overall function and operations of the museum. In addition, these tours helped the interns define their role within the museum’s research community as they began working directly with Botany and Entomology collections and research staff. Initial work focused on familiarization with curatorial activities in large-scale systematic collections.

 At the start of summer vacation, Keoki, Luan and Rosselle began working 35 hours each week in the Botany Department. At this time they became involved in a number of projects. These projects provided an ideal setting for collections staff to work directly with them in a “hands on” environment. Daily work in collections included specimen handling, filing, mounting, label generation, data-basing, preparation of exchange materials and reference searches. As a supplement to curatorial work in the collection areas, students were given several lesson plans during the summer. These lessons were taught by herbarium staff. The botany interns participate in 11 different lessons on everything from binomial nomenclature and plant taxonomy to historical geology and island biogeography. In addition, each Wednesday all six students attended a weekly natural history lecture sponsored jointly by the museum’s Education and Natural Sciences Departments. The combination of curriculum-based lesson plans and lectures with curatorial work provided the students with a comprehensive learning experience. Lectures covered a wide range of natural history topics from astronomy and plant identification to biological pest control.


In August, interns continued working on various curatorial projects and took part in two collecting trips. Building keen observation skills in an outdoor setting is a central goal of these outings. The insect collecting trip to Koko Crater on Oahu was conducted by David Preston of the Entomology department. This outing allowed students to collect several insect genera. Koko Crater’s xeric climate and volcanic landscape provided opportunities to observe several dryland insects in the habitat. Two introduced arthropods, the Large Centipede, Scolopendra subspinipes, and the Lesser Brown Scorpion, Isometrus maculates, were collected. Several introduced and native dryland plants are cultivated by the Honolulu Botanical Gardens in the crater. A large stand of wiliwi, Erythrina sandwicensis, provides a good example of the area’s prominent native dryland component. Planted among the wiliwili is the fragrant-flowered and endangered Gardenia brighamii. Also cultivated in the crater are various specimens of loulu, Pritchardia spp., the only genus of palm native to Hawai’i.

The second collecting trip focused on plants in the Manoa Cliffs region. This mountainous area contains both mesic and hydric forest communities. The interns immediately noted the pronounced difference in habitat and biota of Manoa Cliffs as compared to Koko Crater. This was further noted as we were subject to several prolonged downpours! Within an hour, the clouds opened up and a brilliant afternoon sun rapidly dried us out. To our north, Konahuanui, the highest peak in the Ko’olau Mountains, displayed its pyramidal summit in the clearing sky. Among the arboreal native flora, Metrosideros polymorpha, Hibiscus arnottianus, Acacia koa, Psychotria mariniana, and Myrsine lessertiana formed several large stands. Located in one stand we were able to closely observe a beautiful specimen of the endemic lobeliad, Clermontia kakeana, in full fruit.

On the bark of older upper canopy trees, epiphytic pteridophytes were abundant. The small linear fronds of Grammitis tenella were conspicuous, as is the pan-tropical fern ally Psilotum nudum. In the darkest shade, the tiny palmate fronds of Mecodium recurvum formed their own miniature forest. Close observation with a hand lens revealed this fern’s minute bivalve indusia loaded with microscopic spores. While making collections, the interns gained valuable experience recording label information and describing surrounding habitats. Through this process the interns began to recognize growth and competition between alien and native species. In addition to plant collecting, students had the opportunity to observe regional geographic features they had studied previously on topographic maps.

  The combination of curatorial training, lectures, lesson plans, and field trips has provided all the interns with a varied and, at times, demanding learning experience. Moreover, the biologic and natural history content of their museum training has fostered increased interest in natural science course work at school. The museum has benefited greatly from having six highly motivated interns who are eager to learn and take on new tasks. Perhaps most importantly, these six students are actively learning in a working environment where methods of scientific investigation are applied to a continuum of knowledge based on systematic natural history collections. 

The Wilderness Garden- Cranberry Glades Botanical Area West Virginia

 Keith P. Tomlinson, The Virginia Sportsman Garden Column, Spring 2017

The Allegheny Highlands harbor many botanical secrets. Comprising the highest elevations in the mid- Atlantic it's a place of subtle contrast and surprising northerly climes. Perhaps no place embodies this remarkable region better than West Virginias Cranberry Glades. The "Glades" as it's known among wilderness enthusiast, is a rich mix of northerly hardwood forests and dense stands of red spruce among a random mosaic of shrubby cranberry and sphagnum moss glades. Buffeted by a massive ridge on the east it forms two watersheds, the Cranberry and Williams River. Ultimately both merge into the ancient Gauley River further downstream. The attending mountains and hollows that steward these highland rivers are biologically more akin to parts of eastern Canada than the Virginias. Vast expansive views spread across boggy hollows and steep ravines. While the backcountry wilderness is a major attraction, there is something very special for the garden enthusiast and plant explorer.

A quick walk into this highland ecosystem reveals a world of moss and lichens adding an elfin woodland affect to the forest. Dome shaped mounds of star and plume moss provide an important seed nursery for trees and shrubs. Intermixed in the moss mounds are many lichens, some leaf-like, others like tinny green flakes. Reindeer moss (a type of lichen) forms demur, tendril-like fingers to create a tiny ghostly, pale green shrub. Most interesting perhaps, are the British soldier lichens. Like miniature trees the "soldiers" frequently exhibit a stunningly bright red cap of spores, some curiously trumpet shaped. Often attending the mounds of moss are clubmoss, the most primitive vascular plant in the forest. Not a moss at all, but a fern ally. Club mosses are indeed club-like or like perfect miniature pine trees. The life cycle for clubmoss is twenty years, spores require highly specific soil conditions, rich in fungus and undisturbed by human activity.

Much of Cranberry Glades fascinating plant life is only accessible while hiking on mountainous trails. But one particular area along the Cranberry River is so beautiful and unique the U.S. Forrest Service recognized it should be conserved and interpreted as a distinct botanical area...a wilderness garden for the horticulturally curious native plant enthusiast. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1974.

Around the country many botanical gardens work hard to recreate particular habitats to cultivate native plants. At the National Arboretum, Fern Valley displays native plants from the mid-Atlantic. Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in northern Virginia has a garden for plants found only in the Potomac River basin. Near Boston, the New England Wild Flower Society grows an amazing variety of north easterly native plants. Not far from Newark Delaware, Mt. Cuba Center for the study of Piedmont flora is world renowned for native plant horticulture. Huge effort goes into these collections; they are both botanically and horticulturally focused. Garden staff may spend decades propagating and tending the most difficult native plants in a prized collection. Yet they can never recreate a true ecosystem developed over millions of years that fostered growth of a complex native plant habitat. Only the wilderness can do that, and the Cranberry Glades Botanical Area is proof. Instead of visiting a botanical garden to see the carefully curated native plant collection, here you visit a natural area where the gardening is up to nature.

The botanical area at Cranberry Glades is circled by an elevated board walk; this allows access where it’s nearly impassible due to deep, wet, boggy soil. For the garden visitor interested in native plants this is the ultimate collection, entirely wild but blissfully accessible. Walking into the botanical area one realizes open pasture-like glades are a big part of the habitat. The tell-tale sign that the area has a distinct northerly character is the cotton grass. Not a grass, but a sedge with cotton -like filaments that speckle the glade with tawny-white tufts. These curious plants spread for acres beyond the board walk above a mix of emerald sphagnum moss and squat cranberry shrubs. Mixed along the walk as if planted in an intentional boarder are large rust-colored cinnamon ferns, often reaching four or five feet high. This unique fall coloration would thrill any ornamental gardener. Nestled among the ferns, native winter berry displays a spray of bright red berries as if ordered from a fine florist. But their more than beautiful, when the harsh cold arrives, the berries will sustain many native animals who ride out the mountain winter.

Fall flowers in the botanical area make a visual statement any carefully tended garden would be lucky to achieve. Blue lobelias emerge happily from a damp margin, their deep color unique in the fall landscape. Nearby, boneset burst forth with a whitish-gray flowers reaching for the sun as butterflies happily harvest nectar. Golden rod makes an appearance in several locations, but determining which one is tricky, more than fifty species are known in the mid-Atlantic. New England asters form a cluster of small daisies draped over a perfectly reclining log. Bright yellow tick-seed sunflowers flow along the boardwalk in a near perfect bunchy, floral display. Very often these flowers emerge from shrubbery of great rhododendron and one of several native viburnums.

Beyond the shrubs many northerly trees signal the fall color change. Red maples crimson leaves mix with shades of yellow from basswood and sweet birch while the clustered red berries of mountain ash feed south-bound migrating birds. Standing like knowing sentinels, the mighty red spruce changes little and simply awaits another cold winter, its branches soon to be swept with blowing snow. For the true high Appalachian garden experience Cranberry Glades Botanical Area shows that nature can be the ultimate gardener when native plants in the wild are revealed in their natural habitat.

 

 

 

The Urban Nature Reserve: They Play an Important Role in Our Parks but Require Special Management Practices.

Keith P. Tomlinson, Parks and Recreation Business Magazine Spring 2018

Many readers of this magazine will negotiated some kind of rush hour on the way home. Our parks are often nestled within busy urban centers. Highways, side streets and shopping centers hem us in. It’s this very setting that illuminates the value of open space and parkland. Our pools, batting cages, waterfronts, golf courses are critical to earned income. Active Recreation is time tested to yield earnings when patrons arrive with wallet in hand. Add food concession’s and rentals fees to user fees, and things look pretty good in the annual budget report. But what about the nature reserve, they make no money, but are highly prized by the public.

Islands in an Urban Sea

The urban nature reserve can be more important to the public than a distant national park. It’s accessible, offering a local green space where nature is found. A true reserve will have minimal development with the exception of a nature center and signage; otherwise its trials, benches, creeks, lakes and the wild…the urban wild. The industry of human activity is never too far away. Yet these natural “islands” are vital part of our park systems and of profound importance to the public. In fact, most surveys in urban areas demonstrate open space and trials are most important to the visiting pubic.

Managing these spaces requires special attention to detail if a nature reserve is to survive biologically, spatially and culturally. The days of acquiring land and as a reserve and simply announcing your newest holding are over. With the advent of invasive species these reserves require active management from trained natural resource professionals. Would you purchase a new convertible and let it sit in the driveway for several years? The tires will go flat, paint fades and the roof rots. An urban nature reserve can undergo similar degradation over time. Weeds takeover, native plants decline, specimen trees need pruning, trails need maintenance. But there’s no direct source of income. Many park agencies struggle with this very situation and urban reserves can drift into ecological decline, ultimately becoming less attractive, less biologically diverse and less user friendly.

Planning for the Future

It’s relatively easy to look at our built facilities and know what needs upgrading; a pool house roof, old parking lots, a picnic pavilion or camp ground facilities. But planning for the urban nature reserve will require keen assessment of nature itself. This is the realm of natural resource expertise. The notion that trees, creeks, lakes and trails are a commodity is very real. Both ecological and cultural capital needs defining in planning for long-term success to actively conserve an urban nature reserve. Many forces are at work just outside the reserve as well. Water flow and pollution, invading plants, deer browse and user impact to name a few. A well-managed nature reserve is revered by the public. That visceral attraction to local well maintained nature is often an underused marketing tool. The public wants to help conserve these areas and will provide time and if asked. Natural resource planning and effective branding are closely associated when managing urban natural areas. The public expects us to be skilled stewards of natural resources and its incumbent upon us to meet that expectation. 

Setting the Standard

Operationally we can look to a few agencies that set a high bar for managing urban nature reserves with notable skill. The city of Alexandria Virginian across the Potomac River from Washington DC has a long-term detail oriented natural resource program. A vibrant densely populated city, Alexandria has a finite amount of open space left. The city pays close attention to the ecological quality and function of its natural areas. Not only is vegetation thoroughly documented, invasive species are removed and specific criteria are in place for the introduction of any new plants. Furthermore, the city staff has documented underlying geology and soil types important to the health forest in highly urbanized settings. It’s a holistic approach that achieves outstanding results for public use, conservation and interpretation.  Metroparks Toledo in Northeast Ohio also has clear conservation mission connected to the Maumee River basin and its various ecosystems. Rare plant monitoring, deer management, insect diversity surveys and freshwater ecosystem management increase the capacity to effectively oversee urban nature reserves for biodiversity conservation and public enrichment.

The Holistic Approach

An urban nature reserve is often a window into the regions unique natural history. To understand the reserves potential and management we need to know the underlying ecology. Geology, soil types, site hydrology and vegetation will need complete analysis in order to effectively conserve the space for public access and environmental integrity. Then add the dynamic pressures of an urban setting. It’s a complex task that requires expertise and commitment. But it takes funding. Many park systems secure such funding through tax revenue devoted exclusively to natural resource management. This use of tax money is increasingly popular with the local citizens. The public values access to well-managed urban reserves and will support their existence. Earned income can also contribute, but these funds are most often applied directly to active recreation facilities maintenance.

Alternative funding is also available in the form of grants, gifts and endowments. People value the conservation of nature in no uncertain terms. Very often we associate this with larger international organizations focused on biodiversity conservation, such as World Wildlife Fund. Park systems willing to purse potential donors for urban conservation can realize similar success over the long term. Emphasizing conservation and educational priorities is always a winning combination with donors. If a natural area is donated to a park system for the express purpose conservation, a fund raising program for maintenance should be launched at the first opportunity. Branding, agency mission and strategic planning will be paramount to a successful effort.

A park systems ability to maintain urban nature reserves is bound to many programmatic priorities and staff skill endowments. Financial planning that fosters ecological quality is central to operational success. That success is measured by the commitment to authentic management in service to environmental health for the public and ecological integrity for our parks. If you’re driving in rush hour this evening, maybe its time for a break in a local nature reserve. It’s sure to replenish the spirit and celebrate the enduring magnitude of urban nature in our parks.

Keith Tomlinson has worked in environmental education and natural resource conservation for more than 35 years; he’s a Biology Fellow at the Washington DC Academy of Science and Manager of Meadowlark Botanical Gardens with NOVA Parks in Northern Virginian.

New Filing System for Melanesian Specimens at the Herbarium Pacificum (BISH)

Taxon, Summer 1993

The flora of Melanesian has long been of interest to curatorial and research staff and affiliates of the Herbarium Pacificum (BISH). Dr. A. C. Smith’s study of Fijian plants has made this one of the best documented components in the BISH Herbarium. Similarly, collections from New Guinea form a large and diverse representation of the Melanesia section at BISH. The Herbarium contains one of the finest collections of Papuan alpine flora in the world due to the work of Dr. Pieter van Royen. Substantial collections from the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and Vanuatu are also filed in the Melanesian genus folder. Specimens from recent expeditions in New Guinea are now being processed. This new material comes primarily from Dr. Wayne Takeuchi’s collecting as part of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) phytochemical screening project. Furthermore, we are receiving duplicates on exchange from NCI collaborators in Irian Jaya, the Indonesian state on the western half of New Guinea. The arrival of these combined collections is adding many new specimens of Melanesian material.

 In order to accommodate these incoming specimens, a new filing system has been instituted. Previously, our Pacific collections had been divided among eight geographic regions and specimens from New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and the Solomon Island were filed in one folder labeled “Melanesia”. This system had worked well for many years, but rapidly increasing number of specimens has created the need to subdivide our collections from Melanesia. The new arrangement will retain the same herbarium-wide alphabetic filing system. However, three distinct sub-regions within Melanesia are recognized: New Guinea (both Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya) which includes the Bismark and Louisiade Archipelagos; New Caledonia including the Loyalty Islands; Fiji, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands (including Bougainville). These changes provide a more precise curation of all Melanesian collections. Moreover, they also illustrate the variable phytogeography and floristic diversity of Melanesia as a whole. This is particularly true when considering the high levels of endemism in both New Caledonia and New Guinea.

 

Actual reorganization of Melanesian specimens in the BISH collection was initiated in April 1992. Currently 350 genera have been converted to the new filing system. In this process all specimens in each genus folder for Melanesia are sorted by location. Those from New Guinea and New Caledonia are segregated into new region-specific folders. The remaining island groups are kept in the folder labeled “Melanesia”. However, many larger genera will be specified by island group within the Melanesia folders. With larger genera such as Ficus, Pittosporum and Psychotria considerable time is spent sorting out specimens. Alternatively, genera with fewer species such as Palmeria, Stegnanthera ,and Basisperma are rapidly integrated into the new system. This rather large curatorial project will have been completed by the end of 1992. Ultimately this new filing system should improve collections management in the world herbarium at BISH. For further information and a monthly update of refilled genera from Melanesia contact Keith P. Tomlinson, Herbarium Pacificum, Bishop Museum, 1525 Bernice St., P.O. Box 19000a, Honolulu, Hawaii 96817-0916, U.S.A.; Telephone (+1-808)848-4181.