2025 Theme: Plant Conservation in an Era of Rapid Change
Virtual | December 9th, 2025
The challenges facing plant biodiversity have never been more urgent—or the solutions more complex. From navigating climate uncertainty to securing sustainable funding, plant conservation requires innovative thinking, interdisciplinary collaboration, and adaptive strategies. This year's free and virtual symposium will explore how conservation professionals are addressing these challenges while developing resilient strategies for protecting Oregon's state-listed and regionally rare plant species.
A detailed agenda can be downloaded here: 
2025 PCS Agenda detail.pdf
Abstracts can be downloaded here: 2025 PCS Abstracts_All.pdf
We're excited to announce this year's plenary speakers for the Symposium:
Olga Kildisheva, PhD
Consultant, Viridian Ecosystems
Chair, International Network for Seed-based Restoration (INSR-SER)
Olga is a restoration ecologist, passionate about seed-based restoration in its broadest sense—from species biology to market drivers improving native seed supply and use. She is the board chair of the International Network for Seed-based Restoration, where she contributes to building a global community of practice. Olga holds a Ph.D. (University of Western Australia), an M.Sc. (University of Idaho), and a B.S. (Purdue University), all focused on restoration and reforestation. Her most recent work experience includes roles as a restoration and natural climate solutions Consultant with Viridian Ecosystems, Regional Manager at Land Life Company, and Program Manager at The Nature Conservancy - working to bridge science and practice for better restoration and conservation outcomes.
Presentation: “Decoding dormancy: Understanding seed traits to help conserve and restore Great Basin forbs"
Olga will explore different seed dormancy mechanisms and germination traits of important Great Basin forb species, including many found across eastern Oregon. She will discuss how understanding these essential aspects of seed biology can help us conserve and restore our biodiverse plant communities in an era of rapid change.
Ed Alverson, MS
Natural Areas Coordinator, Lane County Parks
Ed is the Natural Areas Coordinator for Lane County Parks. He has a BS in Biology from The Evergreen State College and a MS in Botany from Oregon State University and has worked as a field botanist and stewardship ecologist in the Pacific Northwest for over 45 years. Ed's botanical expertise includes threatened upland habitat such as savanna, prairies, woodlands, old growth forests. He is well known for Willamette Valley taxonomy and ecology, floristics and endemism in vascular plants, and conservation and restoration of native plants in these ecosystems. Ed has authored or co-authored numerous scientific articles on botanical and ecological topics, from plant taxonomy and ecology to botanical history and exploration.
Presentation: “Willamette Valley ecosystems: Past, present, and future"
In the mid-19th century, Oregon's Willamette Valley supported 1.5 million acres of prairie and savanna, in contrast to the dense conifer forests dominating the adjacent Cascade and Coast Ranges. Most of this historic prairie and savanna habitat has been lost to an onslaught of change: habitat conversion, invasive species, and fire exclusion. As a consequence, this landscape, along with the diversity of plants and animals that depend upon it, has been a focus of intensive conservation efforts over the past 40+ years. What have we accomplished, and what more is needed? Ecological time provides a foundation upon which we may ground our day-to-day work.
The Zoom meeting link will be in a forthcoming announcement and will be posted on this website.