Botanical garden to study climate change
Official calls both sites prime locations to collect research data
Officials from the Santa Fe Botanical Garden say a research grant from the California-based Dancing Star Foundation will help allow for better understanding of the effects of climate change on the local environment.
“We are thrilled,” said Mollie Parsons, director of education and interpretation at the botanical garden.
The grant, awarded earlier this year, will allow for deepened biological surveys at the Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve in La Cienega and the botanical garden at Museum Hill’s Piñon-Juniper Woodland, a 3¼-acre parcel scheduled to open this year.
Expanded research will allow for extensive recording of plants in both locations, plus add to data collected by the garden’s network of volunteers, who monitor the biodiversity of plants, birds, nests, dragonflies, butterflies and bumble bees.
The botanical garden tracks changes throughout the Rio Grande Valley with the National Phenology Network. Though there’s already plenty of data collected, officials said they wanted to have a broader reach in hopes of expanding the study of biodiversity.
Botanical garden officials declined to give a dollar figure for the grant, but said it will allow for the creation of a staff position that will be dedicated to monitoring the surveys and studying biodiversity at both sites, as well as creating signs that will help educate visitors and the public on the data that’s collected.
The botanical garden will have the opportunity to apply for another grant.
The garden’s two sites — one a piñon-juniper habitat; the other a juniper savannah with a wetlands area known locally as a cienega — are prime study spots to collect data and eventually share it with the public, Parsons said.
“It will allow us to give classes on how to reduce alien invasive species and erosion,” she said. “We’ll be able to take that and use it so that we can share how best to protect the land.”
The botanical garden hosts more than 60,000 visitors each year.
According to its website, Dancing Star Foundation is focused on international biodiversity conservation, global environmental education and animal protection.
It is involved in active ecological restoration efforts and intensive environmental field research and works with partners around the world to help raise awareness about the importance of environmental stewardship, ecological ethics and conservation biology.