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Saving peyote requires your help

Peyote needs your help.
 
You are no doubt familiar with the challenges faced by the peyote cactus both in the wild cactus populations and as a sacrament of increasingly short supply among adherents of the peyote faith. Collaborative efforts are underway to mitigate this challenge by two organizations: Cactus Conservation Institute, a 501(c)3 and Sia: The Comanche Nation Ethno-Ornithological Initiative, the Piah Puha Kahni, Mother Church of Comanche Native American Church 1918 Charter Association.
 
Our shared goal is furthering peyote conservation by establishing a sound and reproducible methodology for cultivating peyote on a large scale. Our cultivation project is intended to produce seedlings for the eventual use as medicine for ceremonial use as well as hardened seedlings for future repopulation of wild localities that have been wiped out.
 
Sia has many years of success in working with endangered eagle populations and eagle propagation, including pioneering innovative breeding approaches. It is the only tribal feather repository. Cactus Conservation Institute is the foremost producer of high-quality academic and field research on peyote conservation since 2004 with a focus on the Tamaulipan thornscrub, the primary habitat for peyote in the U.S.
 
Our interests extend to greenhouse production and cultivation for ceremonial use and to appropriate reestablishment in the wild and the ways we can help existing populations recover from harvesting pressures. Our goal is to engage in reproducible, evidence-based science with studies generating peer-reviewed papers. We intend to validate a marriage of science, culture and religious aspects of the peyote cactus and show that the goals of these interests are not necessarily competitive or in conflict but can complement each other.
 
We already have the people and the skill sets. We need your help to secure a place to perform this work. Our goal is to raise $99,000. Of these funds, approximately $55,000 will be used to purchase nine acres of land adjacent to Sia’s existing location, where research can occur and oversight will be easy to maintain. The remaining $44,000 will buy a greenhouse and supplies necessary to begin our cultivation studies.
 
You can help us solve both the pressures placed on wild plants and the supply challenges faced by future generations of Native American Church members who choose a path of cultivation by making a tax-deductible contribution of any size, large or small. Your support is vital to achieving our goals of peyote conservation through developing sustainable harvesting management and land stewardship practices. We must succeed in our mission while wild peyote is still left in the world.  If you would like to better understand why it is rapidly disappearing, please visit our website and that of Sia The Comanche Nation Ethno Ornithological Initiative.Cactus Conservation Institute

Organizer

Leslie Townsend
Organizer
Alpine, TX
Cactus Conservation Institute Inc
 
Registered nonprofit
Donations are typically 100% tax deductible in the US.

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