Florida Native Plant Society Blog

A New Initiative As the weather turns nicer and chapter events start increasing, the Florida Native Plant Society is starting a new initiative for the fall this year.  Welcome to the first ever Florida Native Plant Month!   You can find a list of events at http://fnps.org/news/plantmonth . The St. Johns County Proclamation of October being Florida's Native Plant Month  We are working on a coordinated outreach and membership campaign to tell everyone we can find in the state about the work FNPS does.  As part of this, we are building relationships with local elected officials, media and organizations who may not know much about us. The proclamation document. There are currently 36 scheduled proclamations across the state for an event FNPS decided to proceed with in late July.  We have already found people that share a similar mindset as FNPS who were not members.  One of the coolest stories so far is a City Commissioner reaching out to us beca...

WHAT  Most of Florida's County Legislative Delegations have scheduled local meetings over the next couple of weeks. Your Legislative Delegation meeting provides local constituents with a rare opportunity to speak directly with the state lawmakers who represent them in Tallahassee. You may also have a chance to speak more personally with your delegates during breaks and/or at the conclusion of the meeting. (Find your representatives: Find your Florida senator and Find your Florida House representative . ) WHY  As a member of the Florida Native Plant Society or someone who cares for Florida's wild spaces and their native ecosystems. We ask you to attend your local delegation meeting to express your support for Florida. Please consider attending and speaking at your local meeting and emphasize the points below: Be organized because you'll only have 3 minutes to make your point. (G. Stibolt at a Clay County Delegation meeting.) MAJOR POINTS TO EMPHASIZE 1. ...

FNPS Conference, Born to Burn: May 28 - 31 in Tallahassee Last day to register online is May 22. Onsite registration will open on May 27th. (The online registration fee is $85/day. Onsite registration is $120/day.)   Born to Burn is our theme and we'll offer a good variety of presentations, workshops and panel discussions on the importance of fire for Florida's ecosystems. Of course, we are offering field trips  in Florida's Panhandle. Several still have openings on both Thursday and Sunday. (You must register for one day of the conference in order to participate in a field trip,) But wait, there's more...    3 social events : (Fees apply.) - Thursday evening: Welcome to the Capital. Dinner on the 22nd floor of the capital building - Friday evening: Dinner and optional boat ride at Wakulla Springs - Saturday evening:  Dinner at Tall Timbers Research Center & Land Conservancy. a fitting end to the conference. William Bartram (...

Are you one of the 4.2 million voters who supported Amendment 1 in the last election? If so, did you believe a primary purpose of the funding was to finance the purchase of additional natural areas as a way to help protect our water resources, wildlife, rivers, beaches and scenic vistas? The Florida legislature doesn’t believe that is what voters actually had in mind when 75% of them voted for passage of Amendment 1. Is there another way to explain why the House and Senate budgets include NOTHING for the purchase of land through the Florida Forever Program? Our will as voters is essentially being preempted by the people we pay to represent us in Tallahassee! Unless you like being slapped in the face, let's stop this disenfranchisement once and for all. $20 million to the Kissimmee River Restoration project (which is 85% complete) is terrific, but unacceptable as a budgetary substitute for Florida Forever project funding. The Senate budget currently proposes to alloca...