UOG: Guam to get training on preventing plant extinctions

This month, a team from the Hawaii Extinction Prevention Program will be conducting training for the Guam Plant Prevention Extinction Program at the University of Guam to help develop strategies to prevent Guam’s rare plants from going extinct.

Both programs also hosted a public presentation about the plant extinction prevention yesterday, June 12, at the Multi-Purpose Room 129 located in the University of Guam Jesus & Eugenia Leon Guerrero School of Business and Public Administration Building.

The Guam PEP Program is an islandwide program dedicated to preventing the extinction of Guam’s rarest plant species that have fewer than 200 individuals remaining in the wild by working with conservation partners to protect wild populations, preserve their genes off-site, and reintroduce plants to their natural habitat.

Presently, Hawaii is home to 235 “PEP species”—species that have fewer than 50 plants remaining in the wild. HPEPP is a project of the Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit at the University of Hawaii and works collaboratively with landowners and government agencies statewide to protect Hawaii’s rarest plants.

The training is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service Private and State Forestry Grant, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Hawaii Division of Forestry and Wildlife.

About GPEPP

The Guam Plant Prevention Extinction Program was initiated through a collaboration of the University of Guam, College of Natural and Applied Sciences and the Forestry & Soil Division of the Department of Agriculture with the Hawaii PEP Program. GPEPP receives funding primarily from the U.S. Forest Service State-Private Stewardship grant and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Guam PEP Program values public input and participation and hopes to share knowledge and find ways to protect the rarest plants in the Mariana Islands. The program is also looking to develop local and regional partnerships that encourage shared responsibility for protected species management and recovery, which could help reduce the risk of extinction of many of these species.

The Guam Rare Plant Restoration Group serves as GPEPP’s advisory committee and is comprised of Guam native plant specialists whose expertise is used to review program objectives, provide recommendations, and follow up with the Guam PEP Program progress.

For more information about the GPEPP visit www.gpepp.org. (UOG)