The Ada Hayden Herbarium at Iowa State will soon grow by half with the addition of some 250,000 plant specimens from the University of Iowa Herbarium.

However, not everyone is happy about the decision to combine the University of Iowa’s collection of dried and pressed plants with Iowa State’s collection. The director and curator of the U of I herbarium is calling the move, “hasty and ill-advised.”

Negotiations began more than a year ago to combine the two collections into one that will be housed at Iowa State. Lynn Clark, professor of botany and director of the ISU herbarium, said the addition of the Iowa collection to the ISU herbarium is an important resource for Iowa.

“It belongs to the people of Iowa,” Clark said. “Initially we would have liked to see two strong herbariums, but if it is not possible, [the U of I collection] should not leave Iowa.”

The decision to move the entire collection to Iowa State was made by U of I officials in what Diana Horton called a unilateral decision made without the input of faculty and user groups at the U of I.

The decision was made by U of I’s former president Mary Sue Coleman and the final papers authorizing the move were signed in August.

Horton said she is worried about the impact of this decision on the citizens of Iowa as a whole. Horton said she sees the U of I herbarium as “an integral part of the [University of Iowa’s] history.”

By moving the herbarium, Horton, associate professor of biological sciences at the U of I, said the possibility of the University of Iowa eventually moving away from the research of environmental sciences could be more likely.

“Forty years ago U of I had a strong [environmental science] program. In recent years [their focus] had become increasingly directed towards molecular biology,” Clark said.

Iowa State currently has the largest herbarium in Iowa. It is ranked among the top 30 herbariums in the United States, Clark said. The addition of the U of I’s collection will drastically increase the specimen number.

In the past, directors of both herbariums have agreed to not exchange specimens so they would have a complementary collection across Iowa, Clark said.

The U of I collection is the oldest in Iowa and will specifically bring specimens of plants from the eastern Iowa area. While enhancing the collection at Iowa State, Horton said she worries that, after the move, “we won’t be learning as much about the natural habitat in eastern Iowa.” In recent years, the U of I herbarium has identified 10 new species of plants in this area, Horton said.

The ISU herbarium is making plans to house the new specimens. The collection is housed in Bessey Hall. Clark said the additional specimens from the U of I will create a “window of opportunity” for the herbarium to make better use of their space.

Aside from the one-time cost associated with the track system, Clark said there should be no additional costs to Iowa State. The day-to-day management would continue in the same way, she said.

Clark said the herbarium is useful to ISU students, researchers and the general Iowa public. She said she believes it works into “all aspects of the ISU mission: teaching, researching and outreach.”

According to the herbarium’s Web site, www.public.iastate.edu/ ~herbarium/homepage.html, the Ada Hayden Herbarium was established in 1871 and represented 2,500 species. Named for Ada Hayden, the first woman to receive a doctoral degree at Iowa State College, it now has grown to some 435,000 specimens.

The purpose of Iowa State’s herbarium is to provide long-term maintenance for the plant specimens.

Everyone with legitimate research motives can come and use the herbarium, Clark said. The specimens are often used by graduate students and professors to do research. There is a separate collection for general classroom use. Workers at the herbarium also identify plant types for the general public.

Although the U of I specimens will be moved to Iowa State, researchers at the U of I will still have access to them, Clark said. Horton said she is concerned, however, that the 250 to 400 students that use the herbarium at the U of I will suffer.

The grant to fund the renovation is being prepared. If plans go as scheduled, Clark said she expects the U of I collection to arrive in the spring of 2004, “bringing almost all of Iowa’s collection together.”

Although the plans have been made, Horton said, “We have not accepted this decision, we continue to fight it.” She said she is trying to make the public aware of the transfer.