This project seeks to enhance the national tropical botanical gardens (ntbg) capacity to grow ferns in support of conservation and restoration efforts across public and private lands across the island…

This $344,000 Project Grant awarded by the U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Recovery Implementation program (CFDA 15.657) will enable the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) to enhance its capacity to grow native Hawaiian ferns in support of conservation and restoration efforts across Kauai. The project aims to upgrade NTBG's nursery facilities, collect fern spores from the wild, propagate ferns, and out-plant approximately 800-1,000 young ferns as part of ecosystem restoration initiatives. As a leader in Hawaiian fern propagation, NTBG will leverage its 60 years of tropical plant conservation experience and 16 years of fern research to help address threats to Kauai's native fern populations, such as competition from invasive species, fires, and climate change. This grant will position NTBG to continue supporting fern-focused restoration projects beyond the award period.

This project seeks to enhance the national tropical botanical gardens (ntbg) capacity to grow ferns in support of conservation and restoration efforts across public and private lands across the island of kauai. This will be accomplished through nursery facility upgrades, collection of fern spores from the wild, propagation of those ferns in an upgraded growing facility, and ultimately out-planting those new young ferns again as part of restoration projects. Ferns make up 27.4 percent, or more than a quarter, of hawaiis native flora, making them vital to conservation efforts and restoration projects. We depend on ferns in our ecosystem because they remove heavy metals from the environment, rehabilitate disturbed areas, and provide microhabitats for animals and plants. A successful ecosystem restoration must incorporate extensive use of ferns. Native hawaiian cultural practitioners as well as biologists have contributed to our current understanding of native ecosystems. We know they are vital to ecosystem function in native forests and play a wide variety of ecological roles. Altogether there are 159 native species of ferns and lycophytes in the hawaiian islands. About 74 percent are considered endemic (found only in hawaii). The greatest number of endemic fern taxa are found on kauai and maui. There are 17 single-island kauai endemics, meaning those species exist only on kauai, and six more that are two-island endemics, existing only on kauai and one other island. Ntbg, a non-profit conservation organization with three gardens and two preserves on kauai, operates a fern propagation lab, the only such facility in hawaii. The purpose of the lab is to grow ferns from spores in order to actively contribute to ecosystem restoration projects, to improve ferns ability to withstand disease and pests, and to adapt to climate change. With ntbgs 60 years of tropical-plant conservation experience, and 16 years of fern propagation research, ntbg is a leader in hawaiian fern propagation. Kauais native ecosystems have been highly impacted by invasive species. The stripping away of native groundcovers such as ferns has led to higher levels of erosion and degradation of the forest. Some of the threats that ferns face is competition from invasive plants, fires, trampling and predation by introduced ungulates. They also are vulnerable to environmental conditions that are shifting due to climate change. Many fern species can be propagated only from spores, a complex process that takes time. Some native species can be propagated by division, but this creates only clones that lack genetic diversity, making them more susceptible to pathogens and less adaptable. With the fern lab at ntbg, we create a place and a means for systematic propagation of healthy genetically biodiverse fern species that can be out-planted in preserves, gardens and other ecosystems to keep kauai s (and hawaii s) fern populations healthy and abundant. We propose to propagate and outplant 800-1,000 ferns during the grant period. Proposed capacity improvements also position ntbg to continue propagating ferns in support of restoration projects at the same or greater rates beyond the grant period.