The Maryland Native Plant Society's mission is to promote awareness, appreciation, and conservation of Maryland's native plants and their habitats. We pursue our mission through education, research, advocacy, and service activities.
Membership is open to all who are interested in Maryland's native plants and their habitats.
Education
Education is a top priority. We provide opportunities to learn about native habitats, plant identification, and native and invasive plants, through a combination of:
- Monthly Meetings with speakers;
- Field Trips, lead by knowledgeable botanists and/or ecologists, who guide us through natural areas and assist us with plant identification;
- Workshops, where we can learn about plant identification, plant propagation, seed collection, and other things;
- and our annual Fall Conference, with speakers and outings.
A full listing of our events can be found on the Events page.
Because travel distances make it difficult for many of our members to attend the general meetings, we are developing educational and networking opportunities through the creation of Chapters, units of the Society which concentrate activities in a smaller geographic area. These are slowly growing.
Last, but not least, an important component of our education efforts are our Publications, most of which are available for download on this site without charge.
Research
Before we can even begin protecting and conserving habitats, we first need to identify them. Our knowledgeable botanists and ecologists conduct field surveys. We (the Web Committee) are working on making this Survey Data available on-line.
We are also engaging our members in research by asking them to record native plant observations on their field trips. For more information about this program, see Volunteer: Plant Lists.
We publish research in our occasional journal, Marilandica.
Advocacy
We provide testimony at county and state hearings on issues concerning habitat protection. We also work with other organizations to petition state and local governments to stop or restrict development around sensitive areas. We occasionally join with other organizations to initiate legal action.
Service Activities
An important part of our mission is to protect and conserve native habitats. While we are not ourselves responsible for managing sensitive areas, we post information on various Invasive Species Removal Projects around the state. We encourage our members to support these efforts.