UVM's $6 million collection saved from incineration by federal grant

Nicole Higgins DeSmet
Burlington Free Press

It didn't take a high-tech sprinkler system to save the University of Vermont's collection of preserved flowers and fungi, estimated to be worth $6 million, from being rendered worthless in a fire that hit Torrey Hall on Thursday.

All it took were some new storage units, purchased in 2014 with help from a federal grant.

"If we didn’t have the funding support from the National Science Foundation, which provided us full replacement of the old cabinets, the material would have been incinerated. We would have lost the whole thing,"" Dave Barrington, plant biologist and curator of the herbarium, said in statement from UVM. 

The grant for the storage units said they would reduce "the chance of damage from fire, water and pests. It will also enable the university to significantly expand digital imaging efforts currently under way."

On Thursday morning a fire damaged the University of Vermont's Torrey Hall where the Pringle Herbarium stored over 300,000 prized specimens from Vermont and other locations dating to the 19th and 20th centuries. Most of the specimens remain intact according to UVM officials.

"Even if you could replace the collection, you would have to spend quite bit of money," said Barbara Thiers, the vice president for science and herbarium Director at the New York Botanical Garden. "It would be an undertaking."

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Thiers on Friday, speaking on UVM's collection, said the specimens were beyond price scientifically because a person would have to go back in time to collect a plant at the same time and location in the 19th century as Cyrus Guernsey Pringle did. And even if you could time travel, there simply aren't enough experts to collect and identify the specimens.

    On a more practical level, Thiers estimated the cost at approximately $20 per identified sample, which would place the cost of the collection at approximately $6 million. The cabinets were purchased with a $470,000 grant.

    The damage to Torrey Hall is still being estimated, according to the university.

    A major portion of the herbarium collection has been digitized, but that cannot replace actual physical examination. Biology departments often loan out plant specimens. In fact, an international disaster in plant biology occurred in May when an Australian customs official incinerated 18th century plant specimens on loan from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.  

    Thiers said the plants samples are a record, a rich resource, in which to study our changing environment.

    Samples collected now will serve as a baseline for a study done in 20 to 30 years.

    Contact Nicole Higgins DeSmet at ndesmet@freepressmedia.com or 802-660-1845. Follow her on Twitter @NicoleHDeSmet