The threatened with destruction 470,000 herbarium specimens at the University of Louisiana at Monroe were rescued by the Botanical Research Institute of Texas this Tuesday. Half of the herbarium cabinets were loaded into freezer trucks (for pest prevention) and hit the road. They are moving from Monroe, Louisiana to Fort Worth Texas. The other half will be fetched in two weeks.
BRIT recognizes the hard work of the many curators, as well as those people who worked closely with and supported the collections. BRIT vows to honor their contributions by making sure this priceless scientific collection continues to be accessible to the world. This herbarium will live on (and retain its name as the R. Dale Thomas Collection)!
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Four days later, I reported Good News: saviors line up to rescue threatened ULM natural history collection. Museums and universities heard the news and rallied to save the collections.
Along with news of the rescue, details about how a natural history collection came to be in conflict with an athletic stadium emerged. In 2012, the 6 million fish and 500,000 plant specimens were in storage while the museum was renovated. A fire damaged a different classroom and the specimens needed to be moved from their storage location to free up classroom space. Because the fish are preserved in alcohol and are flammable, storage conditions must be fire-safe. The university’s stadium has temperature controlled rooms with a sprinkler system and so the collection was moved into the stadium.
This points out, once again, what has priority for building conditions — sports. And now the stadium and surrounding area are slated for more improvements to be suitable for track events.
BRIT is a center for botanical research, documentation, and education.
The BRIT research staff strives to incorporate the "three Ds" into each of our projects: discovery, documentation, and dissemination. Our researchers generally focus their projects around the themes of biodiversity exploration, botany science core, and sustainability. By participating in a variety of projects around the world, from Peru and Jamaica to our home in Fort Worth, Texas, our researchers are always on the go...and always learning.
The drama of this near loss and the highlight on athletics over-riding science represents deeper issues in universities and in education. Research needs more than scientists and study grants. We need collections and suitable storage space, laboratories, instruments, and other infrastructure that isn’t covered in grants. We need academia.
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