During the Dixie fire in 2021, 70% of Lassen Volcanic National Park was burned, severely impacting the plant communities for the foreseeable future. In the midst of the fire, the Lassen Volcanic National Park Herbarium (LVNP) collection was evacuated to UC Davis. This collection contains a nearly complete set of the plant taxa found in the National Park, and serves as an invaluable resource for it. The UC Davis Herbarium has agreed to fully database and image the 2179 specimens that make up the collection, before sending back a set including one of each species to be housed in the LVNP Herbarium. 

The UC Davis Herbarium is also actively adding to its collection of Lassen Volcanic National Park specimens. This includes the processing of over 1000 unmounted specimens from 2009 & 2010, collected during the preparation of a vegetation map for the park. This set of specimens consists primarily of dominant species from dozens of plant community plot samples, representing a snapshot of common species of representative vegetation communities that

existed prior to the Dixie Fire. Additionally, the PLS 148 class (Flora of Northern California’s Mountains) led each of the past two summers by Prof. Dan Potter, with assistance from National Park Service staff, has been based at the newest UC Reserve System unit at the park headquarters in Mineral, California (https://ucnrs.org/reserves/lassen-field-station/) The course has focused on documenting the post-burn landscape of the park. Students that participate in this class have collected over 450 specimens, gaining hands-on experience in the plant collection process, including pressing, identification, and mounting.