Conservation, Restoration &

Citizen Science

PRESERVING, CONSERVING, AND RESTORING THE NATIVE PLANTS AND PLANT COMMUNITIES OF FLORIDA

Presented by: Juliet Rynear, FNPS Conservation Chair

Within and without …

We’ve lost our connections to the life around us

What is at stake?

We have an Urgent Need to Save Plant

Species and Plant Communities

before it is too late!

Imperilled Plant

Communities

Pine rockland

Upland glade

Keys cactus barren

Sandhill

Upland pine

Dry prairie

Limestone outcrop

Rockland hammock

Scrub

Upland mixed woodland

Connections …

Facebook Connections

How can we reconnect with nature?

The 5 Step Plant

Establish Connections ~ Educate and Engage,

Promote Participation and Advocacy

1.

Educate

2.

Engage

3.

Participate 4.

Advocate

5.

Run for Public Office or support those who do

Preserve

Conserve

Restore

Creating more

consumers

≠

Mission

Don’t get stuck at Step 1

Reclamation

Restoration – prescribed fire, invasives removal

Critically endangered sandhill

community supporting the 2nd largest

population of Warea amplexifolia. One

of only 7 remaining.

Most species

will never be sold in a nursery

Connecting -

Through Citizen Science

• Outdoor classrooms

• Seed collection & floristic inventories

• Propagation & restoration on protected lands

• Statewide species mapping – Scott Davis

• Monitoring plant populations

• Habitat surveys & habitat monitoring

• Conservation Grant projects

Outdoor Classrooms – creating citizen scientists

Seed collection & floristic inventories:

The Importance of Citizen Scientists

Plant Propagation

Restoration on

protected lands

Scott Davis Created a State-

Wide Milkweed Map:

• 1,170 colonies, and counting!

• We can’t reduce mowing and

manage populations if we don’t

know where they are.

Scott Davis created a

State-Wide Rare

Species Map:

We can’t reduce mowing and

manage populations if we

don’t know where they are.

Monitoring: The Importance of Citizen Scientists

Monitoring Pawpaw – monitoring Deeringothamnus rugelii

(Rugel’s False PawPaw), a Citizen Science

project since 2012

Conradina - plant inventories at Malabar

Scrub Sanctuary and Ais Lookout Point Park

Nature Coast & Hernando - monitoring

Campanula robinsiae (Brooksville bell flower)

Heartland & Tarflower – monitoring numerous

rare species at several restoration sites

Cocoplum - Seagrass Surveys

Roadside Milkweed Surveys: The Importance of CITIZEN SCIENTISTS

Development Site Rescues

Invasive Species Removal:

Citizen Participation

Reducing Fuel Load

Fun with chainsaws

Habitat Restoration - Reducing Fuel Load

Fun with chainsaws

Run for Public Office

Run for Public Office

What Engaged Citizens Have Achieved

Mackay Gardens and Lakeside Preserve: a 123 acre property, with a historic

home, 115 acres of sandhill, scrub, slope forest, seepage slope, and

oak/hickory hammock communities.

Oakland Nature Preserve: 128 acres of uplands and forested wetlands south

of Lake Apopka, was acquired by a collaboration of The Friends of Lake

Apopka, Florida Native Plant Society, Sierra Club, and Audubon Society.

PEAR Park: 50 acres of Scrub Jay restoration, 5 acres of meadow restoration,

a nature center with a geology lab, and home to hundreds of species of plants,

animals, birds, and invertebrates.

Connect and Protect

Thank you!

Learn more about Florida Native Plant Society: