CNPS 2009 Conservation Conference: Strategies and Solutions

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Session Topics

Indicate which of the following session topics is most appropriate for your presentation. While we are accepting all abstracts for presentations and posters within these main topics, the subtopic areas are those that session chairs wish to emphasize. Use this information as a guide in planning your presentation.

NOTE: If “posters only” is indicated, the session will include only invited speakers, but we are still seeking posters.

1. Assessing and Mitigating Impacts to Sensitive Plants and Communities
   
   • Federal and state policy perspectives on impact assessment and mitigation
   • Tools for impact assessment, including cumulative impacts
   • Impacts to metapopulations, landscape-scale conservation approaches
   • Specific mitigation strategies and case studies
   • Effectiveness monitoring, monitoring methods, and adaptive management
2. California Floristic Province in Baja California
   
   • The big picture: current status, future changes & climate
   • Detailed views: floristics, vegetation, species & habitats
   • Integrative approaches and focal areas for conservation
   • Conservation of California Floristic Province in Mexico
3. Climate change and California’s native flora
   
   • Effects of climate change on rare or otherwise vulnerable plant species
   • Effects of climate change on the spread of invasive non-native plants
   • Tools for predicting the effects of climate change on California’s flora
   • Impacts of climate change on land management strategies
4. Equal Protection for Plants (posters only)
   
   • Differences in endangered species conservation laws and programs for plants and animals
   • Science perspective
   • Local and regional government protection of plants versus animals
   • Perspectives of land management agencies on the problems if plants as second class conservation citizens – and solutions
   • Regulatory and legal solutions to move toward equal protection
5. Invasive Plants
   
   • Impact of invasive plants on native species internationally and in California
   • Invasive plants threatening California native plant communities
   • Innovative California programs and projects addressing invasive plants
   • Innovative management tools
6. Land Acquisition for Plant Conservation
   
   • Acquisition planning
   • Conservation easements and easement monitoring
   • The role of local land trusts
7. Land Management
   
   • Sustaining plant species and communities affected by management of:
         fuels and fire
         grazing
         roadsides, levees, and rights-of-way
         recreation
         timber production
         water resources
8. Planning Tools for Conservation of Rare Plants and Natural Communities (Posters Only)
   
   • The role of conservation organizations in regional planning
   • Habitat Conservation Plans
   • Natural Community Conservation Plans
   • County General Plans and the planning process
   • Using CEQA to conserve plants and vegetation
9. Plant Science for Conservation
   
   • Taxonomic updates (posters only)
   • Local flora conservation
   • Polyploids, local ecotypes, cryptic species, hybrid zones, and other conservation challenges
   • Hybridization and conservation
   • Bridging the gap between academia and applied conservation and management
   • Identifying and publicizing research priorities
   • Habitat fragmentation, reserve design and buffers
   • Plant population genetics and conservation
   • Tools for conservation (e.g., predictive habitat modeling)
10. Rare Plants
    
    • Successes of our current rare plant conservation programs (from local to regional)
    • Recent discoveries and rediscoveries
    • Case studies on specific species and their habitats
    • The future of rare plant science and conservation
    • Management and conservation tools
11. Regional Sessions (4)
        Great Basin and Desert Provinces
        Northwestern, Cascade, and Sierra Nevada
        Central Coast and Central Valley
        Southwestern California and Channel Islands
    
    
    • Attributes and conservation status of the California’s major floristic regions
    • Research and management topics unique to the regions
    • Developing regional collaborations in conservation
      
12. Restoring Rare Plant Populations (Posters only)
    
    • Science-based efforts to manipulate vital rates in situ
    • The role of re-established disturbance regimes (e.g. fire, grazing)
    • Field-based evidence for the role of genetic composition in founding populations
    • Effective approaches to adaptive management
    • Institutional constraints on restoration success
      
13. Using Vegetation Classification and Mapping to Promote Native Plant Conservation
    
    • Value of vegetation data for regional conservation planning efforts
    • Use of vegetation data for predictive ecological modeling
    • State of the art concepts in vegetation assessment: Increasing efficiency while maintaining value
    • Defensible classification and mapping techniques for rare communities: case studies

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