Critic’s Choice Essay : “SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL HERBARIUM”

Are herbaria becoming threatened and endangered? Are natural science collections going extinct? These questions are being posed increasingly byamateur and professional biologists as we witness the closure, dispersion, and scaling back of natural history collections and cutbacks affectingcuratorial personnel. Noteworthy examples include the elimination of several collections and removal of the herbarium curator at the University of Nebraska State Museum, the transfer of the herbarium collections from the University of Iowa to the herbarium of Iowa State University, and the narrow escape from closure for the University of Arkansas herbarium in Fayetteville. These and other events at various institutions have prompted several recent editorials in the science literature stating that the nation’s natural history collections are “in crisis” (Dalton 2003, Gropp 2003, and Raven 2003). What about Oklahoma’s herbaria? Should we be concerned about their health and well-being? What can we do?