Featured Projects - Conservation

Large, Diverse Projects

FNPS has a hands-on approach to conservation. The projects listed here are large conservation and restoration projects involving many FNPS members and FNPS leaders in multiple capacities. They range from buying and managing land to improving the protection and management of that land for target species, to major relocations of rare plants from areas to be developed or otherwise made unsuited to areas where the species can be protected and managed and their habitats improved.

Warea Conservation and Land Acquisition Project

In 2019, Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS) completed the purchase of 12.48 acres to preserve important habitat. This represents the first purchase of lands significant to the conservation of native plants by FNPS.

FNPS wrote a management plan for the property and is actively working to maintain it with mechanical fuel reduction as needed, prescribed fire, and control of non-native invasive species.

Thanks to the success of our Citizen Science Project to Map Rare Plant Species, we were able to map an undeveloped area of sandhill that if protected, will preserve important wildlife habitat and a natural corridor connecting publicly-protected conservation lands. The project area (aka "The Warea Area") is home to numerous rare plant and animal species including Clasping Warea (Warea amplexifolia), a critically endangered plant species, the Florida Sand Skink (Plestiodon reynoldsi), Florida Black Bear (Ursus americanus floridanus), Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus Polyphemus), and Sherman’s Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger shermani).

Working with our conservation partner, Putnam Land Conservancy (PLC), the first property was acquired by PLC and preserved in 2014. In 2018, Conservation Florida also donated a parcel to the project. Working together, we are engaging the assistance of scientists, students and concerned citizens while we continue to acquire properties, monitor rare species and habitat, and to manage these properties for the benefit of the species that depend on them for their existence.

Partners

Putnam Land Conservancy
Conservation Florida

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Warea amplexifolia, clasping warea. Photo by Shirley Denton

Warea amplexifolia (Clasping warea) on conservation lands acquired during this project. Photo by Deborah Curry.

How "Clasping" warea got its name. Photo by Susan Carr.

Conservation and Habitat Restoration for Two Florida Endemic Mints

FNPS is monitoring populations of two extremely rare mints, longspurred balm (Dicerandra cornutissima) and blushing balm (Dicerandra modesta). Both are federally and state listed as Endangered. We are also assisting land managers in habitat restoration that will benefit the mint populations as well as a suite of native species that depend on our public lands for their survival.

Dicerandra cornutissima occurs only in dry yellow-sand scrubs near Ocala in Marion and Sumter counties: the largest protected population is in the Cross Florida Greenway. A smaller population is also protected by the Putnam Land Conservancy.

Dicerandra modesta is endemic to Polk County where it is present at the Horse Creek Scrub Tract of the Lake Marion Creek Wildlife Management Area managed by the South Florida Water Management District. The population is bisected by the right-of-way for the SabalTrail pipeline and a Duke Energy transmission line. The Florida Native Plant Society is monitoring the population and restoring the area damaged during the installation of the pipeline.

Partners

South Florida Water Management District

Florida State Parks - Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway

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Dicerandra cornutissima. Photograph from habitat that no longer exists southwest of Ocala, by Shirley Denton.

Dicerandra modesta.

One of the restoration plantings at the Cross Florida Greenway.

TorreyaKeepers

Florida torreya (Torreya taxifolia), is North America's most endangered conifer, and its habitat is the steep ravines along the Apalachicola River in north Florida and extending in similar habitat to about 1 mile into southern Georgia.

Once growing to mature heights of 30-60ft tall, the few remaining Torreyas now rarely reach above 10ft, with the majority ranging between 2-5ft tall. Few trees reach sexual maturity before dying back to their roots again and (hopefully) resprouting.

So what is killing the Florida Torreya? The reasons for its decline have been hotly debated - though habitat degradation due to development, silviculture, climate changes, and other human causes have all contributed. The trees are also susceptible to damage by deer rubbing. Over the years, many hypotheses have been purposed for the disappearance of Torreya, however, the primary culprit of the death and decline of this species was named in 2011: Fusarium torreyae.

This fungal pathogen was unknown to science until recently identified and described by Dr. Jason Smith at the University of Florida. Jason suspects this fungus evolved in Asia along with relatives of Torreya taxifolia native to that region and was likely introduced through the import of those non-native species for horticultural uses, though more work will be needed to know for sure.

The FNPS TorreyaKeepers project is focused on working with private landowners to locate and conserve trees on private property. This project will expand upon the work that Atlanta Botanical Garden (ABG) is doing on public lands and help to conserve more of the genetic diversity of Florida Torreya. In partnership with ABG we collect seeds and cuttings for propagation and genetic safeguarding by ABG in their nursery. We developed a brochure to help private landowners identify Florida Torreya and distinguish it from other similar-looking trees. We also developed a brochure on best management practices to help private landowners protect the species on their properties.