Be Bold, Be Native: Speak for the Plants!

The election is over, now let’s vote for Colorado’s native plants and habitats! The CoNPS is collaborating this year with the Colorado Gives Foundation in our annual fundraising effort and we are reaching out to our members and friends for their support. The Foundation will make an added contribution to every donation you make no matter how small (or how large!) between now and December 10th. Your donation will help us become even more effective, assuring funds for outreach, educational materials, online programs, speakers, and workshops. Our website and our quarterly magazine, Aquilegia, are significant resources available to the public 24/7.

This quote from the Rocky Mountain Region Native Plant Materials Program,  (RM NPMP) illustrates perfectly the importance of our Society’s work. “ The CoNPs is a crucial partner in this (collection) project because they are able to increase capacity –  they can conduct public education events through public outreach, and advertise public collection events. They are able to get a lot more hands out into the field for an event and that lets us increase our collection weight.”  Yes, this is what we do! Our last seed collection of the year with the RM NPMP yielded almost 20 pounds of seeds for restoration!

We know that that using native plants in landscapes at home, commercial sites, schools, parks, and by the roadside is not just aesthetically pleasing but also an important building block for wildlife corridors and for preserving native species. CoNPS helps local groups who want to create these landscapes in multiple ways. For instance, the City of Loveland requested our help in creating a second pollinator garden in their city. CoNPS volunteers secured a grant from the People and Pollinators Action Network, (PPAN), choose plants, designed, and then installed the new garden recruiting help from other partners in their community.

One of the biggest challenges in promoting native plant use is the limited availability of native plants in the commercial market. To address this pressing issue, CoNPS has focused on educating the public about seed sowing and plant propagation techniques. We have also encouraged and supported seed-sharing and plant swaps within local communities, further increasing the availability of native plants, especially those adapted to specific regional ecotypes.

As our lands are re-purposed for housing, agriculture, and manufacturing, protecting and supporting biodiversity is more critical  than ever. CoNPS is at the very forefront of efforts to sow those seeds of change. Working together we can build a better future.

Colorado Gives is adding a contribution to every donation right now!

Your donation will support CoNPS efforts to advocate for our native plants and habitats. Our Conservation Committee volunteers were instrumental in convincing the Colorado legislature to include rare plants in HB 24-1117, the Nongame, Endangered, or Threatened Wildlife and Rare Plant Conservation Act. In the coming year we will be working with the Division of Wildlife to implement this bill.  We will also be involved in the State Wildlife Action Plan to assure that the division’s activities support the protection of our native flora.   In 2024, our volunteers, capping a five year effort, through rulemaking on oil and gas, got the ECMC Commission to adopt a definition of ‘biological resources’ which included protecting invertebrates and rare plants.  Hopefully, rare plants will truly be protected from oil and gas operations going forward!