Partners for Plants

Partners for Plants Turns 20!

Partners for Plants (PFP) is a program that began as an idea in 1990 by 12 Garden Club of

America women who investigated endangered plant issues nationwide on federal managed

public lands. Federal Funding for endangered plants was meager and on staff botanists were

few and far between. Because plants are the constituency of the Garden Club of America, a

program that provided volunteers to conduct much needed but underfunded botanical work

seemed like a logical way to make a difference. This Partners for Plants was born.

The chairs of the PFP projects are the go between for the federal or state land management

agencies and the members of the individual Garden Club of America clubs (which number 199

clubs in the United States). The Garden Club of Mount Desert’s Project takes place in various

areas in Acadia National Park.

The Garden Club of Mount Desert is the longest running project in the Garden Club of America.

(GCA) The Partners for Plants project was started in 2003 and then chaired by the late Garden

Club of Mount Desert member, Elise Felton. We are blessed to have Jill Weber and the late

Sally Rooney as our botanist/ecologist coordinators and former and current Acadia National

Park staff Linda Gregory, Judy Hazen Connery, David Manski and Jesse Wheeler as the Park

contacts. Over the years, we have helped control invasives such as: garlic mustard, narrow-leaf

bittercress, multiflora roses, bittersweet night shade, bull thistle, Japanese Barberry and

Morrow’s honeysuckle. Rare plants that we have monitored are New England Northern

Reedgrass, Seaside Lungwort, Boreal Blueberry, Canada Ricegrass, Northeastern Sea-blite,

Mountain Firmoss, Hybrid Firmoss, Wiegalend’s Sedge, Mountain Sandwort, Blinks,

Northeastern Seablight and Nantucket Shadbush. Recently, volunteers have added seed

collecting to their tasks; juniper, golden rod, flat topped astor, green alder and Spirea Alba and

meadowsweet. Park staff sow the seeds as part of vegetation restoration efforts on the

summits of Cadillac, Sargent and other mountain- tops that have been impacted by Park

visitors.

At the Park’s current funding and staffing levels none of the PFP projects undertaken by the

Garden Club of Mount Desert would have been completed without the program. When the

program started on Mount Desert, botanists Sally Rooney and Jill Weber conducted an

experiment to determine whether data collected by amateurs was as accurate as that collected

by professional botanists. The result was that data collected by PFP volunteers was accurate and

valuable. Not all of the species mentioned above have been repeatedly monitored over the last

20 years, however, PFP has consistently monitored the rare boreal blueberry by sampling

permanent plots almost every year. Multi-year data seeds are incredibly valuable to scientists,

but very difficult to obtain as people come and go and priorities change. Acadia National Park

now has almost 20 years of data about these populations-whether they have grown, shrunk or

remained stable; and how they are interacting with the plants that grow with them. Another

Garden Club of Mount Desert PFP highlight is the unplanned and exciting documentation of

very rare hybrid firmoss. PFP volunteers were inventorying the number and locations of

mountain firmoss (Huperzia appressa) on Sargent Mountain. One of the volunteers found a

plant that looked similar to but different from mountain firmoss. A specimen was collected and

sent to an expert, who determined that it was the rare hybrid Huperzia X protoporophila! In

making this discover, Partners for Plants made a significant contribution to the Park’s knowledge

of the flora.

The participants of Partners for Plants are hardy, cheerful walkers and lovers of Mount Desert

Island. It is a chance to help and be educated at the same time and is very rewarding.

By: Elly Andrews-GCMD Partners for Plants Chair

Jill Weber- Botanist/Ecologist