Sponsoring a Lichen

Sponsorships are the process that the CALS Conservation Committee uses to ensure that we have solid background information on our Lichens of Conservation Concern.  Sponsoring a lichen requires effort and the approval process can be lengthy, but given that the biogeography of lichens in California remains less well known than for vascular plants, this process is necessary to justify coverage under environmental laws.

  1. Volunteer contacts the Conservation Committee with interest in sponsoring a lichen for ranking and listing. The committee requests this contact in order to coordinate sponsorships and to avoid duplication of effort by volunteers.

  2. Sponsorship is completed. This may involve filling out a form, but more recently has focused on providing equivalent information in a manuscript submission for The Bulletin of the California Lichen Society along with a complete list of known occurrences (this list will not be published in order to protect rare taxa). We recommend using the papers on Calicium adspersum or Hypogymnia schizidiata as models for content. Please note that bulletin submissions should be provided as a manuscript with minimal formatting.

  3. The Conservation Committee reviews the sponsorship and either accepts it or requests changes.

  4. Once accepted, we begin a 90 day review period. Comments on technical accuracy are requested to be provided to the Conservation Committee by the end of this review period.

  5. Upon completion of the review period, the conservation committee may agree to rank and list the taxon according to the sponsorship proposal, or rank and list the taxon with adjusted ranks and lists as warranted, or defer ranking and listing pending additional information, or reject ranking and listing.

  6. Conservation Committee provides sponsorship information including occurrence data to the CNDDB and the CNPS Inventory.

The Committee may submit taxa to List 4 (watch) without a full sponsorship, although some general details are required for inclusion in the CNPS Inventory.

Proposals to add lichens as "Considered but Rejected" are also welcome and may be useful for documenting taxa that are thought to be sufficiently secure, but are perhaps under-collected or otherwise poorly known.