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- EIN 31-1689940
- (510) 883-3148
- 1700 Shattuck Ave. # 198 Berkeley CA 94709 USA
- http://www.calflora.org
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Nonprofit Overview
Causes: Biological & Life Sciences, Environment, Natural Resources Conservation & Protection
Mission: CalFlora's mission is to:
- serve as a repository, clearinghouse, and stable forum for coordinating and integrating plant information from diverse sources, including public agencies, academic institutions, and private organizations and individuals.
- develop electronic information resources on biological, nomenclatural, ecological, photographic, and distributional characteristics of California plants relevant to analysis of plant biodiversity and species distributions
- develop information processing and online presentation infrastructure suitable for serving public information needs related to scientific study, land management, conservation, education, and appreciation of California plant life.
Programs: With California's unique plant diversity increasingly at risk, the centralized information CalFlora provides is crucial to protecting and promoting responsible environmental resource management. When planning new developments of changes in land uses, county planners currently have no one source of information to go to when evaluating potential impacts to the entire flora of an area.
This information is used by a variety of people for many different purposes. CalFlora's habitat information, species descriptions and the photograph database is used by instructors and students to teach about the plants of California. Land managers use information about the plants that occur within their jurisdiction. Botanists use CalFlora to track information on reports and observations of particular plant species or groups across the state. Agency biologists use CalFlora to track and manage sensitive species that are in their care. The basic nature of the data we include makes it an invaluable centralized resource. Response and demand for the information we provide has been huge.
CalFlora now is a standard reference source for many biologists, civil servants, students, and others. We receive over 2,500 online database queries per day, providing immediate information for land-use planning, education, and scientific research.
The approach CalFlora has taken to build our online collection is now serving as a model for on-line plant information databases in other parts of the world. With CalFlora now firmly established as a widely valued public service, we need to take steps to ensure that it continues to provide information vital to the health of California's flora.