January 2026

News

• In December, Ash and Dana completed a highly successful four week expedition to Baja California Sur! During their field trip, they collected acorns for the locally led community conservation program of the Endangered arroyo oak, visited seedlings that had been planted on local properties in previous years to collect health and survival data, sampled leaves for DNA analysis, collected precise geolocation data to support better mapping of the oaks occurrences, learned from local landowners about oak phenology, and supported the Community Festival. They found new oak trees, witnessed the impact of last year’s drought (fewer acorns produced), and continued to help strengthen this long-term, exceptional research, outreach, tree planting, and conservation project. 
  
  • They also helped with the 4th Community Festival for the Conservation of the Encino Arroyero in Los Cabos. The Center for Northwestern Biological Research (CIBNOR) and The Morton Arboretum organized the festival’s several educational booths, environmental workshops, student activities, and two community contests focused on drawing and traditional acorn-based gastronomy.
• Sean Hoban led a group of collaborators from the IUCN Conservation Genetics Specialist Group in providing peer review of a new draft of the IUCN Red List Actions Classification Scheme. The Actions Scheme is a way of recording what actions are being taken to help species’ recovery. A standardized scheme helps understand what actions are being taken globally, for what kinds of species, and how this changes through time and with species’ threat level (see for example here).
• Catherine is planning a field expedition to Vermont to further evaluate forest composition impacts on butternut tree health, and to better document forest management activities. This is an exciting research endeavor to understand how some trees may facilitate butternut seedling recruitment and healthy adult trees. This research effort is in collaboration with local landowners, forest health professionals, and USFS collaborators. Thanks to several CTS PIs who have helped provide advice and equipment, and to Valerie Lenis (GTCP Research Aide, Rare Plants) for her assistance practicing the protocol!

Publications

• 2025. D O’Brien, E Bader, J Hall, S Hoban, G Segelbacher, ST Vilaça, DM Leigh.  Genetic diversity is key to a nature-positive future. People and Nature. Open Access link HERE.
  • ‘Nature positive’ is a biodiversity restoration concept focused on halting and reversing biodiversity loss, aiming towards a positive future, and also focused on integrating nature throughout all aspects of government and business decision making.  This article explains how genetic diversity has traditionally been neglected in this framework.  Several examples are used to demonstrate that genetic diversity is vital to include in biodiversity assessments, restoration plans, and business/ government planning, including European ash, and the tuatara of New Zealand.  Lastly, the article talks about measuring genetic diversity for quantifying nature positive trajectories.
• 2025. JB Parker, S Hoban, L Thompson, SE Schlarbaum. Evaluating the Central–Marginal Hypothesis: Introgression and Genetic Variation at the Trailing Edge of Quercus bicolor
  • The central–marginal hypothesis predicts small populations and reduced genetic diversity at a species’ range edge, which could impact populations’ ability to adapt to climate change.  This investigation examined genetic variation in swamp white oak, an oak which can live to 350+ years old.  We found that southern range edge populations of this species hybridize extensively with other oak species (especially overcup oak), while no hybridization occurred in central populations.  We also found that genetic diversity is not reduced in the range edge populations, so we conclude that hybridization may be helping alleviate low genetic diversity, helping those populations persist.  The findings of this study were used to guide the sampling and planting of a seed production orchard as part of the Tennessee Tree Improvement Program which helps produce and plant “high quality, locally adapted, and genetically improved seedlings by Tennessee landowners.” 
• “Renewed hope for the conservation of butternut trees” by Sean and Emma, published in the Illinois Forestry Association Fall newsletter.
  • We provide an overview of our project and observations from our first full season of fieldwork. The audience is forest landowners and managers in Illinois. We introduce foresters to the plight of the threatened butternut tree, explain our findings about the tree’s preferred habitat, and explain how some trees are thriving in spite of disease. We then summarize preliminary insight into management that can help foster healthy trees and seedlings.
• Griffith and colleagues (including Sean), 2026. BON in a Box: An Open and Collaborative Platform for Biodiversity Monitoring, Indicator Calculation, and Reporting. Open Access. BioScience. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaf189
  • This publication describes an effort by the GEO BON organization to create easy to use toolboxes for governments, NGOs, and others to analyze and make sense of biodiversity data. The article also describes a toolbox for the genetic diversity indicators, a concept and methodology originally developed by Sean Hoban and colleagues. This article envisions the next steps for this open and easy to use platform, as a part of global biodiversity monitoring and management, including for the Convention on Biological Diversity. This work was partly a product of Sean’s leadership in the GEO BON organization over the past seven years.