Friends of the LSU Herbarium
and Volunteer Opportunities

Purpose

The Friends of the LSU Herbarium support the mission of the herbarium to serve both the scientific community and the public. The friends will maintain an endowment through donation to enhance the research and educational opportunities.

Volunteer Program

We are actively searching for people with time and enthusiasm who are interested in getting involved in volunteering. This is a great experience for motivated older kids looking for something to do or looking to gain experience in computers or the life sciences. No botanical/technical experience is necessary and there is no minimum time involvement. Some sample projects we are working on include specimen preparation/curation, typing and databasing, developing relational databases and web pages, field surveys and inventories, contributing and caring for the "Microkew" demonstration/teaching garden, and fundraising.

Donations

Due to less and less funding from government and other traditional sources for botany, we are soliciting donations to defray the operating costs of the herbarium. Although we get a small sum of money from LSU, it does not cover the total operating costs. Grants have been our main source of funds, but they are increasingly difficult to obtain and far from reliable. Any donation to the herbarium would be a substantial contribution to us and would be used solely for herbarium operating costs.

Since we must use only archival/museum quality supplies for our specimens, the costs can get rather high. Some examples of our expenditures include acid-free mounting paper, folders, fragment packets, and label paper, pH-neutral glue and gummed tape, fade-proof ink pens, insect-proof storage cases and pest management supplies, library books, etc.

We set up a “Friends of the Herbarium” endowment in 2002. If you are interested in contributing, please CLICK HERE or contact Dr. Lowell Urbatsch at leu@lsu.edu