Lecture At Santa Barbara Botanic
Garden
Saving Hawaii's Vanishing Flora
Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 7pm, 2007
$5 members/ $7 non-members (Reservations recommended)
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Hawaii has the most endangered flora of anywhere in the United States due
to the extreme isolation of the islands and the rapid change Hawaii has
undergone in the past 200 years.
Chipper Wichman, Director of the National Tropical Botanical Garden
(www.ntgb.org), will
share with you the story of how this organization was chartered by the
United States Congress in 1964 as a non-profit organization dedicated to
conservation, research, and education, and how it has grown over the past
40 years to become a national and international resource and a primary
force in saving Hawaii's vanishing flora.
Witness intrepid botanists who stop at nothing short of the end of their
rope and the beautiful and fragile tropical plants whose future depends
on them. Watch as plants are plucked from the edge of extinction and
nursed back to healthy populations through in situ and ex situ
conservation programs.
You will learn how the scientific discoveries at NTBG have changed the
way ecologists view evolution in the Pacific. NTBG scientists are also
helping humankind through anti-HIV research and finding innovative ways
to feed starving populations of the tropical world. In addition,
innovative educational programs for medical MDs, college professors, and
environmental journalists are provided. Wichman, who has been at the
Garden for 31 years, will share with you in his unique and passionate
way, the story of the NTBG and how it is working feverishly to save our
nation's most endangered flora.
Chipper Wichman
Chipper Wichman, Director and Chief Executive Officer
National Tropical Botanical Garden
For most of his life, Chipper has worked to preserve the precious natural
and cultural resources of Hawai`i where he was born and raised. He began
work at the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) in 1976 where he
worked with well-known botanists to conduct botanical surveys of Limahuli
valley and the N? Pali coast. During these exciting expeditions Chipper
discovered several new species of plants and helped to pioneer methods of
rappelling down cliffs to hand pollinate the species threatened with
extinction.
Over the past 20 years, Chipper and his wife Hau'oli, who is his
Executive Assistant, have developed an integrated resource stewardship
program in the 1,000-acre Limahuli valley which Chipper had inherited
from his grandmother, Juliet Rice Wichman. This Ahupua'a Stewardship
Program is based upon the traditional values that were the foundation of
Hawaiian society and helped Chipper and Limahuli Garden and Preserve
garner a prestigious award in 1997 for The Best Natural Botanical Garden
in America from the American Horticultural Society in commemoration of
the AHS's 75th anniversary.
Event Location:
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Blaksley Library
For more information & reservations,
contact:
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, (805) 682-4726, ext 102
1212 Mission Canyon Rd, Santa Barbara, CA 93105