The Year Behind and the Year Ahead 2023-2024

As we reflect on 2023, our thanks to our members, Chapters, Board, supporters, and staff. During times that can be challenging, FNPS continues to inspire, educate, and advocate for our native plants and their habitats.

2023

Spring

Our Virtual Conference in April was attended by 356 people and we heard from 38 speakers. This was closely followed by our 3 amazing Field Days in May - Naples (details | photo album), Tallahassee (details | photo album), and Sanford (details | photo album). Hosted by Chapters, these events gave folks the opportunity to come together, socialize, explore new areas, and learn about new topics.

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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