Introduction

New England Wild Flower Society’s mission is to promote the conservation of temperate North American flora through education, research, horticulture, habitat preservation, and advocacy. Our strategy for fulfilling this mission begins with a far-reaching vision to lead the New England region in all aspects of native plant conservation, education and horticulture. Looking toward 2025, the Society has established visionary objectives that will determine the critical path for all strategic planning for the next 18 years, and will guide the planning and implementation of program initiatives, based on priority need and essential resources.

The Society’s Vision is rooted in core values and built on over 100 years of stewardship and achievement, while it acknowledges and addresses the current and future challenges to plant conservation.

This document of the Society’s Vision is presented in three sections: the Society’s core values, past accomplishments, and existing challenges; the Society’s Vision and indicators of success; an executive summary.

Core Values

Life on earth depends on plants. Native plants - both common and rare - form unique communities which provide the habitat and livelihood for all other creatures, e.g., insects and other arthropods, amphibians, birds, mammals, fungi and all other life forms. In short, plants are fundamental to the ecological communities and biodiversity of all regions on Earth, and without plants, life on Earth is unsustainable.

New England Wild Flower Society has been working for over 100 years to save native plants and their habitats. The Society’s core value – to protect and conserve New England’s native flora – is accomplished through direct action, professional and public collaboration, and public education.

New England features both common and rare ecological communities with concentrations of globally rare plants and animals that have evolved in the unique conditions of the region. They are the legacy of millions of years of evolution and geological change, and thousands of years of glacial processes. Many of these plants and the animal species dependent upon them are not found anywhere else in the world.

These native plants, which are the keystone to New England’s unique ecosystems, are aesthetically beautiful and distinct. They helped to form the cultural identity of the region, having inspired writers and artists such as Thoreau and Olmsted. Their existence creates a special sense of place that is not only important to the biological diversity and the quality of life in New England, but also encourages and supports regionally specialized agriculture and ecotourism.

Native plants inspire curiosity of the natural world. Unlike other organisms - birds, amphibians, mammals, and insects - most plants can be held, examined, and shared without harm to people or plants. They are readily accessible and can be enjoyed in hand.

The Society embraces the intrinsic value of biodiversity – that all species, particularly plants, have a right to exist and to evolve in the natural environment over the long term. Humankind has the right to enjoy, but also the responsibility to protect, native plants and the life that depends upon them.

Our Accomplishments

The Society is a nationally acclaimed plant conservation organization, and a global leader in native plant conservation. We are respected for our native plant expertise - both ecological and horticultural - and for our public educational programs, dedicated volunteers, and regional collaborations. We are one of the most focused, effective, and efficient conservation organizations in the United States.

• For over 100 years the Society has led efforts to preserve native plants and their natural communities in collaboration with others.
• We are one of the nation’s leading organizations focused exclusively on native plants and their habitats, which are fundamental to biodiversity. We are the only organization that leverages horticulture so extensively (through garden displays and nursery production) to promote and enable conservation.
• Our educational program is the largest, most comprehensive, and dynamic educational program for native plants of any conservation organization in New England and of any native plant organization in the country. By connecting people to plants through our educational programs, we inspire average citizens to become participating stewards.
• Our staff and trained citizen botanists complement the work of state Natural Heritage Programs throughout New England. We survey hundreds of rare plant populations on both private and public lands each year, supplementing the work of agencies and other conservation organizations
• We teach hundreds of volunteers how to identify wild plants, who then swell our ranks to help to conserve and manage critical conservation land. Our staff and volunteers conduct botanical inventories on public and private land, that are used to guide land trusts, conservation organizations, and state agencies in the protection of plant populations and elimination of invasive, exotic plant species.
• By propagating and distributing native plants in our nurseries, and providing a unique and accessible experience with native plants at Garden in the Woods, our horticulturists provide hands-on opportunities for the public to become engaged positively with their environment, whether in their own backyards or the shared green spaces in their communities.
• Our scientific expertise in seed collection, plant propagation, and management of plant populations is critical in efforts to restore lost or declining populations of rare species in New England. Other organizations look to us for this essential information.
• Our sanctuaries provide a safe haven for rare and vulnerable plant populations and communities that have become increasingly rare in recent years.

Challenges and Purpose

Even though the native plants and their habitats of New England are uniquely valuable and inherently important to the region, they are under tremendous pressures that threaten their survival, and the very existence of all life forms that depend upon them.

Suburban sprawl is fragmenting and eliminating our region’s natural habitats at an unprecedented rate. Throughout New England development continues to shrink wetland habitats, fragment large forests, reduce meadows and farm fields, confine coastal marshes, and eliminate local patches of nature.

Rampant invasive non-native plant species are rapidly colonizing natural areas and cultural landscapes. With no natural controls to moderate their spread, they quickly overwhelm natural ecological communities that have evolved over thousands of years. The invasive non-native plant species damage biodiversity and destroy the unique character of our region.

Illegal and unethical collection of native plants from the wild, often decimating entire populations in one single action, continues to be a problem that the Society has been fighting since its inception, more than 100 years ago.

Global climate change is the latest threat to our native plant habitats and all the species that depend upon them. Recent scientific studies indicate that plants and animals are moving north of their historic ranges, and the seasonal flowering and fruiting patterns of many plant species are changing. The uncertainly and magnitude of the effects of global climate change on biodiversity is an unprecedented challenge to the ability of human society to respond. While we do not yet fully understand the impact of this new threat to our native plants, we are monitoring any observable changes, evaluating the potential risks to our native plant populations, and developing appropriate action plans.

As human society becomes an increasingly suburban and urban society, the risk of “nature deficit disorder” also increases as people are removed and disconnected from nature. Children, in particular, are less likely to discover or experience nature, and therefore are less likely to understand or appreciate nature as adults, and may not support the conservation of native plants and natural habitats.

Funding and legislation in support of endangered species, plant conservation, land protection, and land stewardship has diminished dramatically in the beginning of the 21^st century.

The Vision

New England Wild Flower Society’s vision for 2025 holds that all native plants of the New England region exist in vigorous populations within healthy, balanced, natural ecosystems, with suitable protections that allow these ecosystems and the native plants within them to adapt and evolve over time, and that the citizens of the region are actively engaged in conservation of New England’s native plants, while enjoying native plants in the wild and in their own gardens.

Leading the Way

The over-arching vision for the New England Wild Flower Society is to be the leader in plant conservation in the region. In order to accomplish this main objective, the Society must realize a definite position and strive to meet larger, overall goals by 2025:

• The Society will be the most authoritative source for information about native plants, and their conservation and cultivation in New England.
• The Society will be a catalyst for others to become trainers in native plant botany, cultivation and conservation, and to become advocates for plant conservation.
• The Society will be the primary drivers and leaders of in situ and ex situ plant conservation in New England.
• The Society will have established collaborations and partnerships with other organizations, professionals, and communities that increase the Society’s ability to meet our critical objectives while enhancing the impact of our partners’ efforts. We will leverage and complement the resources of others.
• The Society will embrace its regionality, and develop a strategy to have a “presence” throughout New England.
• The Society will be on the leading edge of the issues and challenges that impact plant conservation. We will influence attitudes by creating policy, exercising advocacy, developing strategies and programs in response to those issues and challenges.
• The Society will be poised to take advantage of opportunities, respond with flexibility to new challenges as they arise, and act with urgency where needed.
• The Society’s organizational culture will be forward-thinking and provocative, encouraging diverse participation, fostering innovation and encouraging activism.
• The Society will be committed to environmental sustainability, and will practice it in all organizational activities and projects.
• The Society will meet the cost of programming with funding, so as to maintain fiscal balance and stability in programs and efforts. We will be creative and entrepreneurial in developing a range of funding/earned income sources.
• The Society will attract challenge, respect, and reward/compensate the best talent – board, staff, volunteer – thereby ensuring the continued innovation and progress of the Society and plant conservation throughout the region, country and the world.

Stewardship: Plant Conservation/Habitat Protection

Land management is critical to plant conservation, encompassing a wide range of activities depending on the type and quality of habitat or land being managed. There is, in essence, a continuum from pristine land or habitat, to degraded land or habitat. The Society advocates the application of the most suitable management practices to each habitat, according to the needs of the plants, animals and people that would benefit from the appropriate level and type of management.

The Society has focused plant conservation fieldwork primarily on rare plant species in habitat types that are the most vulnerable to loss or destruction. Intact ecosystems are the most valuable because they have the essential elements to continue to adapt and evolve over time, so therefore are the Society’s top priority. To date, we have not made efforts to conserve plants further along the land management continuum, but we acknowledge that common habitats, and those areas subject to higher degrees of disturbance, are also deserving of management activities. Open land is increasingly scarce, and so all open land, (and the native plant communities on them), no matter where on the continuum, will become more valuable. Highly disturbed sites may become conservation opportunities.

• The Society will expand current collaborations for a greater focus and broader impact on plant conservation.
• The Society will develop new collaborations, with the Society serving as a partner with land conservation and wildlife conservation organizations, and as a consultant to land management teams/consortiums.
• The Society will build a land management enterprise that has the flexibility to pool all the Society resources, either exclusively or in collaboration with other conservation entities, to take on select land management projects that conserve plants/plant habitats and/or restore habitats, and generate earned income. The land management enterprise would include both horticultural and conservation projects. The Society will position the nursery enterprise to support the land management enterprise.
• The Society will take an active role in applying and teaching conservation techniques at a local level where local efforts (Conservation Commissions, community conservation initiatives, local/state land trusts, grassroots organizations) can have an immediate and lasting impact.
• The Society will establish a program of ecological research for future field application by the Society and anyone engaged in plant conservation.
• The Society will collaborate with academicians and other conservation entities to prioritize and direct critical research.
• The Society will establish land/plant management protocols that serve as models within and beyond the region.

Indicators of success in Stewardship: Plant Conservation/Habitat Protection

• Due to the Society’s accessibility, information, expertise, contacts and active work, anyone with concerns, anywhere on the land management continuum, looks to the Society for information and support.
• Critical areas and natural communities are designated and mapped in each state, and are fully inventoried and assigned stewardship plans.
• The Society generates adequate funding (earned and contributed) to support all its planned conservation projects.
• Income is earned by accomplishing priority conservation work – the Society is paid to do projects that are critical to our conservation objectives.

Regional Reach

The Society aspires to be known as the plant conservation organization that is immediately accessible to everyone in New England. In a de-centralizing world, people are changing the way they search for information, goods and services. The Society will be positioned to be visible and approachable through modern means, and to have capacity to respond to anyone in New England. Therefore, we will create a regional presence that is obvious, influential, targeted and dynamic. The Society will achieve regional reach through several methods.

• The Society will create a greater physical presence in New England – human contact and person-to-person interaction is essential. Physical presence should be targeted to reach the bulk of citizens – in/near key urban/suburban communities, regardless of state boundaries.
• Regional reach will integrate all Society resources (conservation, education, horticulture, advocacy, etc.) to provide comprehensive services and programming.
• The Society will develop communication strategies and education programs that respect differences among communities within the region.
• The Society will become the “trainer of trainers” – providing training to those individuals and organizations that can have the greatest impact in their communities.
• The Society will continue to develop and expand collaborations and partnerships with other conservation organizations with common goals.
• The Society will leverage relationships with partners and collaborators to promote grassroots conservation.
• The Society will embrace and utilize technology for significantly increased and diverse learning opportunities, and for outdoor use. The Society will fully adopt and apply technology as a tool to ensure public access and exchange with the Society.
• The Society will have direct or indirect plant sales outlets located at targeted markets in the region. We will have established relationships with partners who can help widen the distribution and use of native plants.

Indicators of success in Regional Reach

• New England Wild Flower Society is perceived as a “local” entity across the region.
• The Society will have reached audiences with all levels of interest and participation, and moved them to higher levels of awareness and participation in native plant conservation.
• Key citizens throughout the region’s communities become “voices for the native plants.”
• The Society’s training program serves as a model within and beyond the region so that major population centers have their own corps of plant conservation volunteers.
• The Society is known as the best source of nursery-propagated native plants in the region.
• Constituents actively engaged with the Society will increase throughout the region, and our constituency will include a younger and more diverse population.
• The Society’s base of supporters will be appreciably expanded, and will contribute significant financial support to all disciplines and efforts of the Society which are not supported in their entirety by earned income.

Influence/Advocacy

As the leader in plant conservation in the region, the Society must actively influence the attitudes and actions of citizens in the region. We want all citizens to take personal responsibility and be stewards of the environment in a way that makes sense to them. The Society must be positioned to respond to the issues and concerns of existing and emerging audiences in order to influence them to support native plant conservation.

• The Society will direct advocacy efforts to targeted entities (federal and state government and agencies) that control environmental legislation.
• The Society will mobilize key citizens and organizations to engage in advocacy and promoting advocacy in their communities.
• The Society will provide advocacy information to key audiences who may be most impacted by conservation legislation, such as public and private land owners, and the professional conservation community.
• The Society will use Garden in the Woods, a regional reach strategy, and education programs to influence and inspire active stewardship by diverse audiences.
• The Society will use print, technology and non-traditional forms of media (e.g. broadcasting, video games) to influence a broad range of audiences using differing methods for seeking/receiving information.
• The Society will collaborate with youth education organizations throughout the region to integrate botany, ecology, plant science, plant conservation and natural history into their curriculums.

Indicators of success in Influence/Advocacy

• The Society is a visible organization with a clear position, and a reasonable and sound voice for important plant conservation issues.
• Every state in New England has the laws, policies and resources that protect native plants and their habitats.
• Every state in New England has laws banning the production, sale or importation of invasive, non-native, plant species.
• At the federal and state levels, plants are given the same level of recognition, protection and funding as animal species.
• New England’s youth have a keen awareness of ecology, botany and native plant conservation.

Executive Summary

New England Wild Flower Society’s mission is to promote the conservation of temperate North American flora through education, research, horticulture, habitat preservation, and advocacy. New England Wild Flower Society has been working for over 100 years to save native plants and their habitats. The Society’s core value – to protect and conserve New England’s native flora – is accomplished through direct action, professional and public collaboration, and public education.

Looking toward 2025, the Society has adopted the Vision that all native plants of the New England region will exist in vigorous populations within healthy, balanced, natural ecosystems, with suitable protections that allow these ecosystems and the native plants within them to adapt and evolve over time, and that the citizens of the region are actively engaged in conservation of New England’s native plants, and enjoying them in the wild and in their own communities.

Four key areas of focus comprise the Vision that will determine the critical path for all strategic planning for the next 18 years, and will guide the planning and implementation of the Society’s program initiatives, based on priority need and essential resources:

Leading the Way

The New England Wild Flower Society is the acknowledged leader in plant conservation in the region.

Stewardship: Plant Conservation/Habitat Protection

Land management is critical to plant conservation, and the Society advocates the application of the most suitable management practices to each habitat, according to the needs of the plants and animals that would benefit from the appropriate level and type of management, and the people who may understand, appreciate and enjoy them.

Regional Reach

The Society will be known as the plant conservation organization that is immediately accessible to everyone in New England, and will create a regional presence that is obvious, influential, targeted and dynamic.

Influence/Advocacy

The Society will respond to the native plant conservation issues and concerns of existing and emerging audiences, and will educate and influence all citizens to take personal responsibility and be stewards of the environment and support native plant conservation in a way that makes sense to them.

The Society will accomplish this Vision through our tradition of timely and relevant innovation, excellence in programming, rewarding collaborations, and effective mobilization of volunteers and communities.