UpS "At-Risk" & "To Watch" List

“To-Watch” List

At-Risk Update January 2008

By David Bunting, (with Kelly Kindscher, Jim Chamberlain, Sara Katz, Lynda LeMole)

United Plant Savers’ At-Risk list is the cornerstone of our medicinal herb conservation efforts. This widely regarded list identifies wild medicinal plants of concern and creates a forum for action.

The original list, created in 1994, was based on the observations and knowledge of a variety of plant experts including the UpS board, UpS members, herbalists, botanists, wildcrafters, and others concerned about the over-harvesting of wild medicinal plants in the U.S and Canada.  A broad effort was made to gather as much feedback and participation in evaluating the plants as the new organization could muster.  After several formative meetings and collective efforts, it was determined that the plants of most concern would be called the At-Risk herbs and there was a secondary list of To-Watch herbs.  The data used was a combination of available empirical reports and scientific statistics/knowledge about medicinals in the wild.  Over the years, this list has become widely adopted and referred to by individuals and organizations worldwide.

About five years ago, the UpS board of directors formally recognized that the
At- Risk list information would be enhanced and more useful by collecting additional scientific data to then determine a plant’s status. Based on an evaluation matrix concept originally developed by UpS At-Risk Committee members Mark Wheeler, Richo Cech and Christopher Hobbs, a more detailed adaptation was proposed by UpS board member Kelly Kindscher and Lisa Castle of the Kansas Biological Survey at the University of Kansas.  To review and further develop the work, a ‘summit’ of botanists, herbalists, harvesters, growers and participants from various plant-related fields came together in July 2005 to ‘grow’ the evaluation process.  This concerted effort has resulted in UpS’ new, comprehensive At-Risk Assessment Tool.

The At- Risk Assessment Tool is designed to gather and quantify detailed data on various parameters, factors and variables (i.e., part used, mode of reproduction, use in commerce, etc.) to indicate that a plant is either At-Risk or should be classified To-Watch.  As more scores are collected, UpS will be able to move from a simple list identifying At-Risk plants to a prioritized inventory ranking the status of our important medicinals.  It is interesting to note here that the original list of At-Risk herbs was recently challenged through the more formal, scientific, statistical tool and the list does, in fact, remain almost exactly the same!  However, there are many other plants needing to be scored, and the more scores we receive, the more accurate the survey becomes.

Scores provided by the new assessment tool can range from negative twelve
(-12) to positive ninety-four (+94) with higher scores indicating a relatively higher at-risk status. This broad range, coupled with the refined data being collected, helps to quantify the degree to which a particular plant may be at risk. Eventually, we will be able to list plants by their at-risk status and focus our conservation efforts on those plants higher on the list. First, we need to accrue more scores in order to publish a ranked list of at-risk plants that is truly meaningful.

The complete At-Risk Assessment Tool consists of two complementary parts designed to be used together to rate each plant. Part one contains basic guidelines for completing the score sheet, the scoring schedule to be used when ranking a plant, and five groups of detailed questions regarding each plant. The second part is the Score Sheet, which calls for information about the scorer and provides a format to record specific plant scores.

Each question category section contains one main question, which defines the category, and several supporting questions. Main categories consist of a plant’s life history, effects of harvest on individual plants and populations, abundance and range, habitat and annual amounts of the plant used in commerce. For each score the tool asks for reasoning on the assigned score and for a source of the information, whether published or personal.

The assessment tool is a dynamic tool that will continually be improved through use and feedback. If you are knowledgeable about a wild-harvested medicinal plant and would like to participate in the UpS At-Risk assessment program, you can download the At-Risk Tool Instructions and Score Sheet from UpS’ website, (www.unitedplantsavers.org), or contact UpS office manager, Betzy Bancroft, at plants@unitedplantsavers.org or PO Box 400, East Barre, VT 05649, and we will mail you a paper copy of the Tool forms.

It is our hope UpS members and the plant community will participate in the
At-Risk survey so that we can collect more information about medicinal plant communities.  With more current data, we are better informed to assess the ‘big picture’ and to then make regional plans to preserve, conserve and restore our native medicinal herbs, while ensuring their abundant renewable supply for future generations.

UpS thanks David Bunting for his recent work on the At-Risk project.  He will continue to coordinate our findings.

Pink Lady’s Slipper, 78.  Stinging Nettles, 4, what a great score!                                                                     (2005)

These initial scores from the new At-Risk Assessment tool heartened researchers as they suggested that the tool was working at separating those plants growing in abundance (like nettles) from those vulnerable to over-harvest (like lady’s slipper).

The United Plant Savers committee working on the assessment tool already knew that the tool met many of our basic criteria.  It was quantitative (each plant receives a numerical score so relative risk can be assessed).  It was transparent (users can see what traits are scored).  It was expandable (new plants can be added at any time without affecting the others).  It was simple to use (interested parties from different walks of life tested it).  And it was easy to update (if critical information about a plant or its habitat changes, the score can be easily altered to reflect that change).  But did it work?

Initial scores with lady’s slipper and nettles at the extreme and echinacea in between, suggested yes.

Knowing that we had a solid tool for a starting point, we pulled together some of the best in the business to make it better.  On July 29, herbalists, scientists, herbal products manufacturers and government officials met for an all-day working meeting to improve the tool.  We met in southern Oregon a day in advance of the fabulous Planting the Future herb gathering.  Everyone agreed that we were asking generally the right questions, but everyone had suggestions about the right way to ask them.  By the end of the day, many changes had been made.  Ambiguous questions were clarified.  The scoring system was changed so that now the highest-risk plants have the highest score.  The score range was expanded to better distinguish among the plants in the middle.  And a cover page was added to elucidate information about the regional knowledge of the person doing the scoring.

The tool works.  Now we just need people to use it.

If you know a wild-harvested medicinal plant well enough to answer questions about its life history and habitat, you can contribute to this effort.  Eventually, the assessment tool and the list of plants most at-risk will be available on-line.  However, before we can create the list, we need many plants, both those thought to be at-risk and those whose populations are more secure, to be ranked.  Contact the Vermont office if you would like to participate in this effort.  Having plants ranked with the assessment tool lets us know which plants are most vulnerable and why.  This lets us better focus our conservation efforts and as a result all plants can be winner, regardless of their scores.
by Lisa Castle

Lisa Castle Walker, a doctoral student in plant ecology, works with the UpS At-Risk Committee to quantify threats of over-harvest when she's not counting prairie turnips across the Great Plains.