This spring, the Rare Plant Care and Conservation program (Rare Care) launched a new initiative in partnership with the Washington Natural Heritage Program to conduct botanical surveys of several Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Natural Area Preserves (NAP) and Natural Resource Conservation Areas (NRCA). Our goal is to expand our understanding of the botanical diversity of these preserves and the flora of Washington State. 

Over the summer, my fellow intern, Maya Kahn-Abrams, and I monitored twelve species of alpine plants in Olympic and Mount Rainier National Parks. These plants were chosen from a list developed by botanists from each park to describe current status and collect long-term data to develop strategies for adaption to climate change. These species are generally tracked by the Washington Natural Heritage Program, while a majority of them are endemic to Washington State. 

This year the Rare Plant Care Internship worked with the National Park Service on a project focused on establishing long term monitoring plots in alpine and subalpine ecosystems in Washington state National Parks (Olympic Mountains, Mt. Rainier (Tahoma), and North Cascades). This monitoring programs seeks to understand the effects of climate change on vulnerable alpine/subalpine communities as a whole and rare and largely endemic species in particular. 

Each year, the Washington Rare Plant Care and Conservation Program (Rare Care) designates a handful of species as focus species – species that we are attempting to monitor all known populations on public lands within a three to five year period. This year, we added snow cinquefoil (Potentilla nivea) to our list of focus species.
In Washington, snow cinquefoil is a relic of a much colder period, when glaciers covered the northern part of the state. 

The Washington Rare Plant Care and Conservation program (Rare Care) is beginning a new initiative with the National Park Service to monitor rare plant species in alpine communities and bank their seeds in the Miller Seed Vault. This work will occur over the next three years at: Mount Rainier, North Cascades, and Olympic National Parks (NP). The primary goals are to improve our understanding of the vulnerabilities of sensitive alpine plants to climate change and to develop management strategies to alleviate impacts of a warming climate. 

The UW Botanic Gardens is a member of the Center for Plant Conservation (CPC), a network of botanic institutions whose mission is to prevent the extinction of U.S. native plants. The CPC was founded in 1984 and operates the only national program of ex situ conservation of rare plant material in coordination with 40 leading botanic institutions. They maintain the National Collection of Endangered Plants with over 1,400 species represented and also conduct research, restoration, education, and advocacy programs. 

The John A. Wott Botanic Gardens Endowed Student Award was awarded this spring to Sarah Shank, a first-year Master of Environmental Horticulture student at the University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.
A native of Pennsylvania, Sarah recently moved to Seattle for graduate school and is enjoying the opportunity to learn about the diverse flora of the Pacific Northwest. 

Stacy Kinsell is the Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator for the Rare Plant Care and Conservation Program (Rare Care), but it hasn’t been a straightforward path to get there. Kinsell’s undergraduate work was in social work and urban studies. After school, she packed up for an adventure in a new city far away from her native Georgia and moved to Seattle. She quickly fell in love with the city, but not the career and after a few years of working in her new field, Kinsell was feeling burnt out. 

Myesa Legendre-Fixx spent the summer as an intern for the Rare Plant Care and Conservation Program (Rare Care). She completed her Bachelor of Science in Biology and Oceanography at UW June 2017.
Working as a Rare Care intern has been a thrilling summer! Over the summer, Ceci and I monitored 17 different plant populations, did 10 seed collections, worked with the US Bureau of Land Management doing rare plant and weed surveys and fire severity assessments of burned areas, improved the seed vault and started almost 500 seeds of Whited’s milk-vetch (Astragalus sinuatus) for an outplanting. 

Cecila Henderson spent the summer as an intern for the Rare Plant Care and Conservation Program (Rare Care). She completed her Bachelor of Science at the UW School of Environmental And Forest Sciences in June 2017.
This summer I was lucky enough to work with Wendy Gibble as an intern for Rare Care, and I can hardly express my gratitude for what has been an incredibly rewarding experience.