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Invasive Plants on Her Don’t List
“Fifty percent of invasive plants in California are introduced by gardeners,” says Ashley Boren, MBA ’89. Boren is executive director of Sustainable Conservation, which has teamed with stakeholders in the horticultural industry, environmental organizations, and government to prevent gardeners from innocently cultivating plants that jump from garden to wilderness and take over. Not all non-native plants are invasive, but the group has identified and listed the state’s worst offenders, suggested attractive alternatives, and posted the information where California gardeners can easily find it at www.plantright.org. The taskforce is also enjoying considerable success at enlisting nurseries and garden centers to voluntarily stop selling 21 identified invaders.
Sustainable Conservation, a San Francisco–based nonprofit with a $2.3 million annual budget and 18 staff members throughout California, collaborates with businesses and other groups to find sustainable solutions to environmental problems without involving excessive legislation or costly litigation. “We’ve established a strong track record across the state,” Boren says.
Its partners are as diverse as its projects. Sustainable Conservation has worked with brake pad manufacturers and auto recyclers to find ways to alleviate pollution caused by those industries. It put together an alliance of everyone from the Audubon Society to the California Cattlemen’s Association in an effort to grow communities of tricolored blackbirds and keep them off the endangered species list, which would in turn endanger the Central Valley farmers whose land they inhabit. And it is currently working with dairy farmers to turn their cows’ other major product, methane, into energy.
Boren was appointed to the California State Board of Food and Agriculture by Governor Schwarzenegger, and she received the 2007 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award for her important work in “advancing solutions for California’s future.