Leading efforts to prevent extinction and secure the world’s threatened tree species.
The Global Tree Conservation Program at The Morton Arboretum works to safeguard tree species through research, conservation, and collaboration. The program integrates conservation in the wild (in situ) and in collections (ex situ). Species are prioritized for action through IUCN Red List assessments and conservation gap analyses, with a special focus on oaks (Quercus) in biodiversity hot spots. The Global Tree Conservation team works with local research and conservation partners to develop and implement conservation action plans to promote preservation, management, and recovery of threatened tree species, while building capacity for conservation and raising awareness about conservation issues.
Determining which tree species are most threatened and need action first.
Working with a wide range of stakeholders to prevent extinctions and ensure healthy tree populations for the future.
Developing a network of partners to tackle key challenges facing threatened trees.
Sharing research is one of the most important ways the Global Tree Conservation Program engages with other scientists as well as the general public. The GTCP staff dedicates time to communicate their conservation work in a variety of ways through technical reports, scientific publications, training materials, and social media.
The Morton Arboretum, through a partnership with the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), established The Center for Species Survival: Trees—a hub for coordinated action to conserve tree species around the world. It is the only IUCN SSC Center for Species Survival to focus specifically on trees, and one of only five Centers for Species Survival in North America.
Many oak species are threatened with extinction, and oak-dominated ecosystems are declining worldwide. Living collections, such as those in botanical gardens, are one critical conservation tool. The Global Conservation Consortium for Oak is a partnership between The Morton Arboretum, Botanic Gardens Conservation International, and dozens of other partners to prevent extinctions and ensure healthy oak species and populations for the future.
The Arboretum’s Global Tree Conservation Program performed a conservation gap analysis for native oaks in Mesoamerica to coordinate and prioritize conservation action.
To conserve the genetic diversity of priority oak species, the Global Conservation Consortium for Oak (GCCO) coordinates living ex situ collections, known as metacollections.
The Center for Species Survival: Trees aims to expand capacity in tree identification, propagation, restoration, and conservation, particularly in biodiversity hotspots where species loss is greatest.
The Center for Species Survival: Trees is collaborating with botanic gardens across the United States and Mexico to ensure the survival and sustainable management of threatened or at-risk species of U.S. trees
This project assessed conservation needs for important native U.S. trees by analyzing pest and disease and climate change vulnerability, wild-collected germplasm in botanic gardens and seed banks, and current conservation actions.
Prioritizing species and conservation actions for native U.S. oaks through in-depth analyses of species distributions, threats, representation in botanic gardens, and ongoing conservation actions.
The Arboretum is developing a sustainable and integrative conservation and management plan for Mesoamerican Montane Cloud Forests that combines prioritization of conservation areas using spatial modeling, tree planting, and capacity-building, and that uses the endangered oak, Quercus insignis, as a flagship species to promote conservation of this threatened habitat.
The Arboretum’s collaborations in Asia generate knowledge to inform threatened tree species protection and to build capacity for tree conservation throughout the region.
The Morton Arboretum collaborates with partners from multiple sectors in Latin America to research and protect threatened tree species and to advance tree conservation across the region.
The IUCN is the globally recognized and standardized system for assessing the threat of extinction for the world’s plant, animal, and fungal species.
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