Key Themes

On August 19 & 20, 2025, more than 100 senior leaders in U.S. plant conservation from across the country convened in-person at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, and online, to confront unprecedented challenges. In light of federal funding instability, policies that protect plants being rolled back, and climate impacts accelerating, the Summit called for new frameworks, partnerships, and bold strategies.

Key Themes

• A new mindset: Participants agreed the field cannot “return to normal.” Instead, conservation must adapt—protecting and strengthening existing resources, blocking harmful policies and practices, disrupting outdated approaches, and growing new models of collaboration.

• Funding volatility and opportunity: With federal funding sources eroding and increased competition for traditional philanthropy, there is urgency to reach new audiences, including cultivating unconventional partnerships (such as with industry). Tailoring our conservation “pitch” to center impact and alignment with our target audience will be key.

• Shared national vision: Attendees strongly endorsed creating a unified U.S. strategy for plant conservation; broadening focus beyond rare species to ecosystems, and aligning across institutions to avoid duplication. We also acknowledged the need for both immediate actions to meet the moment and a longer-term structure.

• Narrative power: Recovery success stories such as Tiehm’s buckwheat showed how conservation and economic development can co-exist. Framing plant recovery as efficient, pragmatic, and beneficial to communities is key.

How It Went:

The atmosphere across both days was electric — a mix of realism and resolve. Conversations moved quickly from diagnosing our challenges to sketching out new systems for action. Leaders from public gardens and nonprofits identified clear priorities: building advocacy capacity, stabilizing funding streams, and strengthening coordination between networks.

Participants repeatedly emphasized that this moment calls for courage and collaboration — and that the relationships forged in Atlanta mark the start of a new, more unified phase for our sector.

What's next for our coalition?

A subset of the planning group for the Summit is coalescing around interim and longer-term structures to lead these efforts forward. Our goal is not to create a wholly new nonprofit entity, but rather to pool resources and increase coordination, while adding some policy and advocacy-specific capacity that our sector currently lacks. 

Virtual Follow-Up Meeting Recap – October 2025

Nearly three months after the in-person Leadership Summit, more than 160 participants reconvened online to continue the work that began in Atlanta. The virtual session focused on translating the Summit’s ideas into coordinated action and establishing the structure to carry those efforts forward.

Key discussion points:

• Major takeaways revisited – The field cannot “return to normal.” Participants reaffirmed the need for new funding models, stronger advocacy, and a unified voice for plants.

• Progress since August – The Pledge of Collaboration launched; working groups began coordinating policy engagement and federal recovery efforts; and the first round of the ESA species survey identified 28 candidate species for potential delisting, downlisting, or taxonomic review.

• Advocacy and partnerships – Attendees shared early policy wins and examples of working with unconventional partners, emphasizing long-term relationship building across agencies, states, and philanthropy.

• U.S. Strategic Action Plan for Plant Conservation – Planning officially began for a national framework aligned with the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. Virtual meetings in early 2026 will lead into in-person sessions at CPC (May 2026), APGA (June 2026), and a culminating convening at Desert Botanical Garden in fall 2026.

Participants were invited to sign the Pledge, join quarterly informal gatherings of conservation leaders, and contribute to the Strategic Action Plan development.

Many of the Summit’s speakers shared slides that captured key insights, data, and frameworks from their sessions. These presentations illustrate the breadth of discussion — from the state of federal funding and policy to success stories, advocacy strategies, and the path toward a national action plan.

Each set of slides offers a snapshot of the thinking that shaped the two days in Atlanta and continues to guide our collective next steps.

→ View and download Select Slides and Recordings

2026 U.S. Strategic Action Plan for Plant Conservation

Planning is underway to start working on a U.S. Strategic Action Plan for Plant Conservation.  We will plan to have in-person meetings at the Center for Plant Conservation Annual Meeting in May and then a workshop at the American Public Garden Association Annual Meeting in June.

We will continue to provide updates here.    

Questions or ideas?

We appreciate everyone’s strategic thinking, open-mindedness, and engagement as we build something new, together. Between now and our forthcoming virtual convening, if you have questions or suggestions, please reach out to these members of the Summit planning team:

Emily Coffey, Ph.D., VP of Conservation and Research, Atlanta Botanical Garden | ecoffey@atlantabg.org 

Michelle Provaznik, CEO, American Public Gardens Association | mprovaznik@publicgardens.org 

Wes Knapp, Ph. D., CEO, Center for Plant Conservation | wknapp@saveplants.org