The 30th annual Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference kicks off Tuesday, and saving seeds is just one of many things on the agenda.
McBryde Garden on Kauaʻi, part of the National Tropical Botanical Garden, will be presenting the work of Emily Saling and Dustin Wolkis.
Wolkis is the Seed Bank and Laboratory Manager at the garden. He helps oversee roughly 17 million seeds of rare and critically imperiled plants.
When it comes to conservation, Wolkis is committed to figuring out the shelf life of seeds.
"It turns out that seed banking is the most efficient and cost-effective means of practicing off-site plants conservation," he said.
Although the garden's collection is relatively small, Wolkis said it is significant because "we focus on some of the rarest of the rare."
This interview aired on The Conversation on June 26, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m.
