Florida Native Plant Society Blog

Live Oak seedling By Devon Higgenbotham Have you ever planted a young Live Oak or Hickory knowing you might never it see reach maturity? In this age of instant gratification, too often we want results today, but in 1980 the founders of the Florida Native Plant Society had the foresight to start an organization that would outlive them. "Too old to plant trees for my own gratification I shall do it for posterity." said Thomas Jefferson, age 83. The Florida Native Plant Society was started by individuals that were looking into the future and planning for an organization that would grow and provide benefits to all Floridians for many years.  We have been handed the benefits of their foresight, the full grown shade tree that was planted years ago, perhaps before we were around. We in turn have the responsibility to nurture this organization for the generations that will come after us, keep it healthy and leave it stronger than when we found it.  This is the time of...

By Arlo H. Kane, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Welcome to Spring Canyon LLC in Gadsden County, a 100-acre property owned by Helen and Tom Roth. This beautiful property is home to steephead ravines and longleaf pine-wire grass sandhills. Helen has traced the history of the property through property records and aerial photographs back to 1926 near the end of the turpentine era. In 1960, the land was donated to the First Baptist Church of Greensboro. The church put in a dam on Crooked Creek to create a small lake in the center of the property. Fire was excluded from the uplands during their ownership. Helen’s brother, Mark Bane, bought the property in 1993 and began working with the Forest Stewardship Program in 1994. He harvested the hardwoods from two of the three upland areas and applied prescribed fire to one of the areas be- fore he passed away in 2005 and the property passed to Mark and Helen’s father. Helen Roth, owner and manager of Spring Canyon In 200...

By Laurie Sheldon We got lost on our way, but finally made it to the Disney Wilderness Preserve late Friday afternoon. A quintet of wild turkeys ushered us in as we navigated along Scrub Jay Trail en route to the Conservation Learning Center. Petra Royston showed us the lovely room that the Board and Council would be using on Saturday for our meetings, then handed us a map and pointed out where our accommodations were, noting the trails nearby. After dropping off what we'd brought for the business portion of our trip, the eight of us piled into the two vehicles capable of driving on the unpaved road to the "dorm" we were staying in without getting stuck. "Dorm," as it turned out, was code for a double-wide trailer that had once served as the Preserve's offices. It had several rooms of beds, some bunked, a small kitchen, two bathrooms at the end of the hallway (one labeled "ladies" and one labeled "guests"), and two gathering ar...