Re: Reaffirmation of Policy

[Ron Betzer <r_betzer@yahoo.com>]

I agree with this reaffirmation.   Ron.



--- On Wed, 1/28/09, Robert Pries
<robertpries@embarqmail.com> wrote:

From: Robert Pries
<robertpries@embarqmail.com>
Subject: [AISdiscuss] Reaffirmation of Policy
To:
"AISdiscuss" <aisdiscuss@aisboard.org>
Date: Wednesday, January 28, 2009, 8:37
AM

I am seeking the board of directorbs reaffirmation of a policy that has
been
in effect for 50 years but has had very little use. The policy is
essentially
that wild iris plants with good collection data will have any fee
waived if
they are registered. In essence, the goal is to create living
herbarium
specimens that document the diversity of an iris species. Since 1959
I can
not
point to an instance in which this has been done. Yet there are
still native
plant collectors who find interesting iris variations in the wild
and
distribute them. Presently most never get registered and these wild plant
enthusiasts are usually unaware of the Iris society having any interest in
native plants. I discussed this with our registrar Mike Lowe and he confirmed
his knowledge of this policy and saw no problem continuing it. It was
presented to the AIS board in the late 1950bs by the famous botanist Dr. Lee
Lenz who headed the scientific committee at that time. Dr. Lenz is in his
90bs
and still working at Rancho Santa Anna Botanic Gardens on California
floras.
In a practical sense it would cost us little. Even if I aggressively
sought
out plants to be registered it is unlikely that there would be on
average more
than 2-3 a year, maybe 10 the first year. I believe it would
enhance AISbs
credentials for having an interest in plant conservation.
Remember these
plants are not of garden origin, they would require data such
as state and
county of origin. While more detailed location data may be on
file we would
not want to be too specific in print so as to protect the
population from
unscrupulous collectors.

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