[BSW] See several messages below regarding the Norton Brown Herbarium

[Kathy Bilton]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2016 18:30:09 +0000
From: Rod Simmons <Rod.Simmons at alexandriava.gov>
To: Potowmack_Chapter VNPS <vnps.pot at gmail.com>,
     Botanical Society of Washington <BSW at botsoc.org>
Subject: Re: Norton Brown Herbarium


For those interested in lending support to the Norton Brown Herbarium - an
invaluable local institution for many years - it's probably most effective
for organizations to write the dean and individuals to email the dean and cc
Dr. Murphy.

Also, notes of encouragement for maintaining the collection, as well as the
importance and relevance of herbaria and natural history curricula, are most
effective if they're supportive and encouraging - not recriminatory.

____________________________________________________________________________
From: Rod Simmons
Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2016 12:08 PM
To: Potowmack_Chapter VNPS; Botanical Society of Washington
Subject: Re: Norton Brown Herbarium  

Some alarming news regarding the potential closure of the venerable Norton
Brown Herbarium at the University of Maryland, College Park.  See below and
also U.S. National Herbarium (US), Smithsonian Institution Asteraceae
Curator Vicki Funk's article regarding the importance of maintaining
herbaria and scientific collections. 

 
From: NativePlantseast at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:NativePlantseast at yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Friday, October 21, 2016 7:12 AM
To: NativePlantseast at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [NativePlantseast] Norton Brown Herbarium - can we save it?


I learned yesterday from the Director of the Norton Brown Herbarium that it
will close unless the Director can find $100,000 in operating expenses each
year starting in 2017.  This herbarium is the State Herbarium for Maryland
and is where botanists collecting within the state deposit their botanical
specimens.  It's an irreplaceable resource for researchers, state employees
at MDA and DNR, and for anyone else who needs to find out how long a species
has been in the state and what it's distribution has been over time. Or just
to learn about plant taxonomy!  They are working hard to digitize their
collections, but more collections come in every year and some times you
really need to be able to look at a physical plant specimen.

First of all you can support the herbarium monetarilyat http://giving.umd.edu/giving/fund.php?name=norton-brown-herbarium-fund,
 but I also think it is unconscionable that the University is unwilling to
provide the operating expenses for the herbarium.  They are a land grant
university and part of their mission is to support projects like the
herbarium that are vital to our understanding of the plants within the
state.  I would encourage you to write a letter of support for the herbarium
to the Chair of Plant Sciences, Dr. Angus Murphy, and to the Dean of Plant
Sciences, Dr. Craig Beyrouty.

Please email me if I can provide any further information for you.

Sylvan

--

Sylvan Kaufman
phone: 410-310-0160
www.SylvanGreenEarth.com

www.InvasivePlantGuide.com

____________________________________________________________________________
From: Funk, Vicki
Sent: Wednesday, November 5, 2014 6:48 AM
To: Rod Simmons; Wieboldt, Thomas
Cc: Chris Frye; Anton Reznicek; Charlie Davis; Strong, Mark; McCormick,
Carol Ann; W&m Herbarium; Andrea Weeks; Cowden, Nancy; Gonzalez-Acevedo,
Erika; W John Hayden
Subject: Re: "A Curator's Perspective"  
Thanks, there are some very interesting blog posts at the end of the article
if you go on line to the url below you should find them. Also you can go to
the Botany public webpage and look under Publications, then Plant Press and
the second article down is mine. You can click at the bottom and it will
take you to the full article and that is followed by the blog. vicki
http://nmnh.typepad.com/the_plant_press/2014/10/the-erosion-of-collections-based-science-alarming-trend-or-coincidence.html#more

____________________________________________________________________________
From: Rod Simmons
Sent: Tuesday, November 4, 2014 5:41 PM
To:
Cc:
Subject: "A Curator's Perspective"  

Hi all,

Forwarding along the latest edition of The Plant Press with an excellent
article by Vicki Funk, among others, on the importance of maintaining
herbaria and scientific collections.

All the best,

Rod