Thank You Washington Gardener for keeping us informed !!

http://botany.si.edu/sbs/

Presented by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History Department
of Botany in collaboration with the United States Botanic Garden with
support from the Cuatrecasas Family Foundation

Avoiding Extinction: Contemporary Approaches to Conservation Science

Conservation science seeks to provide a rational framework for the
protection of species and their habitats. At the inception of the
discipline, scientists recognized that environmental problems, including
land use change and pollution effects, were significant challenges to
sustaining biodiversity. Scientists now acknowledge that, while these
problems remain, other issues such as invasive species, interspecific
hybridization, and climate change impose additional threats to species
survival. Furthermore, paleoecologists have used the fossil record to
contextualize the current loss of biodiversity based on knowledge of past
extinctions and paleoclimates, and now models of predicted future climates
are helping to anticipate new challenges.

Forty years ago, the U.S. Endangered Species Act was signed into law. This
landmark piece of legislation was designed to protect plant and animal
species from extinction based on our knowledge of conservation science at
the time. The Act has led to many success stories, primarily due to the
growing sophistication of the conservation science it spurred, but will not
be sufficient on its own to address new conservation goals. With new
landmark conservation legislation unlikely in the near future, how will
scientists continue to move forward in their quest to preserve biodiversity?

The 11th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, hosted by the Department of Botany
and theUnited States Botanic Garden, will highlight past efforts and new
threats to conservation goals, as well as new approaches underway that
promise to safeguard biodiversity both here in the U.S. and around the
world. The invited speakers will cover a wide range of endangered organisms,
with a special focus on plants, to illustrate the challenges of modern-day
conservation science in a rapidly changing world.

Registration and poster abstract submission will begin February 1, 2013.

http://botany.si.edu/sbs/

Just a few of our varieties this year: Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Green, Kellogg’s Breakfast, White Currant, Black Cherry, Vorlon, Ananas Noire, German Johnson, Perth Pride, and many more!

For small gardens and containers, we have dwarf tomatoes: full-sized fruit on 3 to 4-foot plants, and they are delicious.

All proceeds go to support local FIRST LEGO Robotics teams. See our list of varieties at www.RobotTomatoes.org. Happy Growing!