How to Get Involved with the Alberta Native Plant Council (ANPC)

The Alberta Native Plant Council (ANPC) offers several ways to participate, depending on whether you want to volunteer your time, apply for funding, attend educational events, or use its native plant resources. The main entry points on anpc.ab.ca are Join Us, Volunteer, and Donate, with specific programs listed under Featured Activities and Featured Resources. Below is a practical guide to each option and what it involves.

Membership, Volunteering, and Donations

ANPC describes its work as sharing knowledge and supporting the conservation of native plants and native plant habitat in Alberta through outreach, publications and guidelines, stewardship, advocacy, research, and funding and implementing native plant projects.

• Join Us — the membership entry point on the site.
• Volunteer — for those who want to contribute time to ANPC's work.
• Donate — for those who want to support the organization financially.

These three actions appear as primary calls to action on the homepage, so they are the fastest route if your goal is simply to become a member or supporter.

Featured Activities You Can Take Part In

ANPC lists the following under Featured Activities:

If you are looking for funding for a project, the Small Grants Program is the relevant entry. If you want to learn or build skills, webinars, workshops, and plant study groups are the options to check. The Native Plant Garden Challenge suits people working on their own native plant garden.

Featured Resources for Native Plant Projects

ANPC's Featured Resources include practical materials you can use directly:

• Growing Native Plants from Seeds
• Native Plant Source List – Excel
• Native Plant Source List – PDF
• Alberta Wetland Plant List
• Native Plant Suppliers and Demonstration Bed Interactive Map

The Native Plant Source List (in Excel or PDF) and the Native Plant Suppliers and Demonstration Bed Interactive Map are the most useful starting points if you need to find where to obtain native plants or see demonstration plantings. The Alberta Wetland Plant List is relevant if your project involves wetland species.

ANPC has also released Recommended Plant Lists by Natural Region, a resource to help with appropriate plant selection for a native plant garden, presented as a Storymap with recommendations for species best adapted to each of Alberta's natural regions.

Publications Available from ANPC

If your involvement includes reference material, ANPC points to these publications:

• The Rare Vascular Plants of Alberta, 2nd Edition — available for purchase, ordered through UBC Press.
• Vascular Flora of Alberta: An Illustrated Guide, 2nd Edition — available as a paperback or e-book through Amazon.ca, with illustrated keys to all native and naturalized vascular plants in Alberta.
• Vascular Flora of Alberta: Illustrations and Maps — an accompanying resource to the keys, with enhanced illustrations and maps, available through Amazon.ca.
• Wildflowers of Whitehorse Wildland Provincial Park — available through the Alberta Native Plant Council.

Staying Current: News and Events

The Featured News and Events section is where ANPC posts current projects and issues. Examples currently highlighted include:

• Rare Plants within Coal Leases of the Eastern Slopes of Alberta — a Storymap compiled by ANPC volunteers documenting known rare plant occurrences within proposed coal mine footprints in the eastern slopes of Alberta's Rocky Mountains.
• Recommended Plant Lists by Natural Region — the new plant selection resource described above.
• Proposed Grassland Conversion in MD Taber — in March 2026, ANPC provided information to the Municipal District of Taber regarding a proposal to convert approximately 3,100 acres of native grassland into irrigated cropland.

These items show the kind of advocacy and research work ANPC engages in, and they are a good way to see where volunteer or member involvement may be needed.

A Note on ANPC's Mandate

ANPC acknowledges that what is called Alberta is the traditional and ancestral territory of many peoples, presently subject to Treaties 6, 7, and 8, including the Blackfoot Confederacy (Kainai, Piikani, and Siksika), the Cree, Dene, Saulteaux, Nakota Sioux, Stoney Nakoda, and the Tsuut'ina Nation, and the Métis People of Alberta. This context is part of how the organization frames its conservation work.

Quick Decision Guide

• Want to support ANPC financially or become a member? Use Join Us, Volunteer, or Donate.
• Need funding for a native plant project? Look at the Small Grants Program.
• Want to learn? Check Webinars, Workshops, and Plant Study Groups.
• Planning a native plant garden? Start with Recommended Plant Lists by Natural Region, then the Native Plant Source List and the Suppliers and Demonstration Bed Interactive Map.
• Need reference books? See the publications list above for ordering details.
• Want to follow current issues? Read Featured News and Events.