Botanist Certification Study Guide and Resources
How to prepare for the CNPS Botanist Certification
The guide and resources listed below cover everything you need to know about preparing for a successful exam. However, several years of professional full-time experience as a field and/or consulting botanist is necessary to provide the breadth and depth of knowledge and experience to pass the exams.
- Study Guide (updated Oct 10, 2019)
- 500 Plants for Sight ID (updated Mar 17, 2020), excel file version also available
Additional Online Resources
and FAQ
Sample Environmental Reports
Laws and Protocols
Databases and Other References
- CNPS Rare Plant Inventory online <link to come>
- Note: Other offline references indicated in Study Guide PDF
What sort of input was provided by the larger botanical community in the development of this program?
The current certification program has been under development since 2002, with many discussions with many botanists throughout the state. Many of these discussions have been within CNPS, but also at California Botanical Society, Southern California Botanists, Northern California Botanists, as well as collaboration with many different consulting botanists. These discussions have included representatives from federal, state, and local agencies, consulting firms (large and small), academic botanists (herbaria, professors, etc.), local planning agencies, and conservationists. The certification idea has been presented and discussed at major conferences and smaller symposia, held by BSA, CNPS, SCB, NCB, CBS, etc.
As far as laws and policies, to what degree of detail will I be expected to be familiar such things as specific sections of documents amending CEQA/NEPA guidelines, or is a holistic knowledge of such topics acceptable?
If you have a general understanding how CEQA and NEPA work, the differences between them, the basic terminology used, then you should be fine. Also, study the Code of Ethics carefully.
Will the CNPS guidelines and policies be the most relevant and important to know for permitting and reporting procedures?
The CNPS guidelines and policies are certainly important to know, but also you need to be fluent with CDFW and USFWS survey protocols/guidelines. Each of these are quite similar but there are some differences between them.
Will you have information on PDCs available prior to the certification exams? Will workshops from a variety of organizations other than CNPS be valid (e.g. NorCalBot, SoCalBot, Jepson Herbarium, RSABG, Chico Herbarium, UNR)? Roughly how many PDC’s will be issued per class?
Not for the first set of exams. However, as soon as vendors of trainings and workshops have submitted materials to the BOC for consideration, and those materials are considered sufficient, CNPS will post a list of all such training that will earn PDCs on the botanist certification webpage, with links to the provider’s webpage (or contact information). Some CNPS workshops will also qualify. In addition, the general types of opportunities to earn PDCs will be posted.
I have been through some of the review material already, and am thinking of shooting for the Consulting Botanist Cert. Is there any way I can get my hands on a practice test?
There are no practice tests available and there will not be. However, the BOC is continuing to develop and will post online materials and information covering topics the Certified Field and Consulting Botanists are expected to know.
Otherwise, knowing your common and characteristic plants and the terminology used in botanical references such as the Jepson Manual are important to know. Basically, if you are conducting field surveys, identifying plants, and preparing reports to satisfy CEQA and/or NEPA reporting requirements, you should be in a good position.
I hear the exams are hard. How much experience and education do I need before I can have confidence of passing?
This certification is focused on the senior level of botanist working in the consulting profession. That means that you should have at a bare minimum 5 years of full-time experience as a BOTANIST. Ten years of such experience is even better. There is a lot to know and consulting wildlife biologists that also cover botanical resources are just not likely to have the level of knowledge and experience that is required to pass each of the exams. If you have any doubts, contact a BOC member and talk to them. Be self critical.
