The Year Behind and the Year Ahead 2023-2024
Valerie Anderson • January 4, 2024
2023
Spring
Chelsea LeNoble presents at the 42nd Annual Conference Sanford Field Days to the group at Dees Brothers Brewing.
Tallahassee Field Days attendees admire the restored longleaf pine understory at the Coastal Plains Institute.
Summer
A quiet time for being outdoors, our teams made the most of this relative downtime to work on FNPS. Thanks to Melanie and the Council of Chapters we launched a survey for our members and friends and were blown away by the response - 3000 folks relayed their thoughts on our organization. Our Board met in August to review the strategic plan. We launched our first National ‘Make a Will’ month campaign in partnership with FreeWill.
We received way more responses to our 2023 survey than we were expecting.
Fall / Winter
The busiest time of the year, this fall we celebrated Florida Native Plant month in style with our new merchandise. Lake County and Collier County proclaimed October Florida Native Plant Month. We held the inaugural Dicerandra Day in Marion Oaks, focusing on Dicerandra cornutissima (longspur balm), revamped the Landscape Awards, and co-hosted Torreya Talks for landowners and researchers in Quincy.We also recruited our TorreyaKeepers intern - Maddie Snuggs - supported by funding from the Florida Wildflower Foundation, donated in honor of Carolyn Schaag, Nancy Bissett, and Anne MacKay.
FNPS TorreyaKeepers Intern Maddie Snuggs poses with pitcherplants.
2024
Next year we are looking forward to continuing our Central Florida plant rescues, surveying for Torreya taxifolia (Florida Torreya), sponsoring the 2nd Annual Groundcover Restoration Workshop, inviting you all to the 2nd Annual Dicerandra Day, and continuing our educational programming with Terminology Tuesdays, Palmetto, and our monthly Lunch and Learn series.
Dicerandra Day 2023 attendees pull invasive plants around
Dicerandra cornutissima.
This article was originally published in the Sabal minor
Vol 25, Issue #6.
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Saturday, July 26th 10am-12pm The Florida Native Plant Society holds a members meeting once a year. All FNPS members are invited to participate. We provide a year in review and announce grant awards, Palmetto Awards for members and vote on new officers. A link to register has been emailed to all members. Please contact us if you are a member in good standing and have not received a link (info@fnps.org & 321-271-6702) AgendaOPENING REMARKS Introduction by President Eugene KellyOLD BUSINESS Approve the 2024 Annual Member Meeting MinutesNEW BUSINESS Introduction of New FNPS Executive Director (Eugene Kelly)Remarks from the Executive Director (Melissa Fernandez de-Cespedes)Update on the Council of Chapters (Past-Chair: Melanie Simon)COMMITTEE REPORTSConservation Committee (Chair: John Benton)Science Committee and Research Grants (Chair: Paul Schmalzer)Finance Committee (Chair: Ann Redmond)Landscape Committee (Chair: Natalia Manrique)Policy & Legislation Committee (Chair: Eugene Kelly)Education Committee (Chair: Andrea Andersen, Presented by Susan Earley)Conference Committee (Chair: Athena Phillips)Announcement of FNPS Awards (Melissa Fernandez de-Cespedes)Silver Palmetto Awards (Eugene Kelly)VOTE FOR FNPS OFFICERS AND BOARD OF DIRECTORSOverview of FNPS Board Nominees and membership vote (Chair: Chris Moran)Motion to adjourn (Eugene Kelly)2024 MinutesReview them here.
On Monday seventy-three businesses and organizations, including the Florida Native Plant Society, representing every corner of the state sent a letter urging Florida legislators to prioritize certain conservation land acquisition, water quality protection, and resiliency funding during the 2025 legislative session that began Tuesday.We have eight major asks:$500M to Florida ForeverSeparate funding for the Rural & Family Lands Program$30M to the Florida Communities TrustProper supplemental use of Indian Gaming Compact $$$Everglades Restoration$150M for springs restorationCease funding coastal armoring & instead fund Resilient FloridaRepair soon-to-fail wastewater infrastructureRead the full letter here.
A coalition of 70 conservation organizations, including both the Florida Native Plant Society and the Ixia Chapter of FNPS submitted this letter to the lead sponsors of Senate Bill 80 and House Bill 209. Known as the State Parks Preservation Act, the legislation is intended to prevent future attacks on our State Parks – attacks like the one last fall that sparked so much public outrage across Florida.We all appreciate Senator Harrell filing SB08 and Senator Bradley’s co-sponsorship, and Representative Snyder’s sponsorship of the companion bill in the House. The coalition has shared recommended language with the legislation’s sponsors that would more explicitly prohibit such uses as golf courses and hotels, and provide additional guidance to prevent other incompatible uses or developments that would commercialize or materially disturb the resources protected within our Parks.“We just don’t want to be back here again next year, the year after, fighting the same battle, we just suggest that there should be a much-clearer statement on prohibitions of incompatible uses.” -FNPS President Eugene Kelly in the Orlando Sentinel, 2025-02-11, speaking to the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
