Florida Native Plant Society Blog

Russ Hoffman by Laurie Sheldon On November 15, 2014, the FNPS Board of Directors and Council of Chapters met at Disney Wilderness preserve. We had Russ Hoffman, a former psychologist and the owner of Beautiful Ponds (a Venice, Florida firm focused on lake, wetland and preserve management) as our guest speaker prior to launching into "business." He delivered a presentation on the subject of Ecopsychology in which he introduced a handful of  topical theories in a relatively short period of time. I have elaborated on these in this blog. I believe that you will find them to be both enlightening and useful in all of your communication endeavors, environmental and otherwise. Ecopsych: Definition and Applications What is Ecopsychology and why does it matter to FNPS? The term Ecopsychology, coined by Theodore Roszak in his 1992 text entitled The Voice of the Earth , can be vaguely defined as a study of the interrelationship between humans and nature. Essentially, Eco...

Thanksgiving always makes me feel, well, thankful. With the first official Wildflower Walk at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve over, and a great success, I am especially thankful. It was the first park event sponsored by the Friends of Kissimmee Prairie Preserve. Our goal was to bring new people to the preserve, show them the beauty of the dry prairie and educate them on the importance of its preservation and protection. We also wanted to recruit new members to the group, and send people home with wonderful memories that they will share with others. I believe we achieved all of our goals, and we owe that success to many. Here are my thanks: Mother Nature: Some might say she was a bit too generous with the wind that day, but she kept us cool, and provided a beautiful blue sky and the perfect light to view the prairie. Thank you, Mother Nature . Roger Hammer and Craig Huegel each know a lot about plants. Together they are walking encyclopedia of Florida wildflowers. With each questio...