The Acadia Seed Bank at the K.C. Irving Environmental Science Centre has just reached an impressive milestone: 500 seed collections! One collection represents hundreds if not thousands of seeds from one location at one time. At 500 collections and growing, it’s easy to imagine the monumental amount of effort this required from seed bank volunteers and staff over the years.

Seeds from the Acadia Seed Bank are used for academic research, restoring land, and for safeguarding the Acadian Forest Region’s biodiversity, much of which is at risk by climate change, invasive species, habitat destruction, and other threats. Seeds in our collection allow us to learn about this region’s ecosystems and how sensitive some of them are. They allow us to increase biodiversity in our backyards as we learn how to share the world with all other creatures. They also provide some peace of mind that we won’t lose those species that are threatened the most.

Currently, the Acadia Seed Bank’s collections represent over 250 species and approximately half a million seeds! A sincere thanks goes out to all who have contributed to the seed bank’s success. For more information on the Irving Biodiversity Collection as a whole visit our Research page.