FNPS News - Annual Conference Co-hosted by Lake Beautyberry Chapter

Our local Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS) chapter - Lake Beautyberry - will be co-hosting the annual FNPS Conference in May of 2011. Other chapters helping organize this conference are Tarflower (Orange), Cuplet Fern (Seminole) and Pine Lily (Osceola). The Conference will be held in Maitland.

PEAR Park has been selected by the Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS) as one of the field trip sites for the annual conference. On May 22, 2011, Lake County Parks and Trails and PEAR Association will display their restoration efforts to attendees from around the state of Florida. The FNPS awarded PEAR Association a starter grant for the scrub restoration project. Many of the rare and difficult-to-purchase plants we used for the project were donated by Lake Beautyberry Chapter members.

Other field trip sites within Lake County are Alexander Springs, Sawgrass Prairie, Lake Apopka Restoration Area, Lake Norris and Black Bear Preserve.

Many of our OVAS chapter members are also PEAR volunteers as well as members of the Lake Beautyberry Chapter of the FNPS, and are working to help make the 2011, 31st annual conference the best ever. There are 2 days of field trips and 2 days of programs and workshops, with evening social events. If you are interested in learning more about native plants, learning more about environmental projects around our state and meeting some really interesting people, consider attending the conference for one or more days. It is the original and premier environmental conference in Florida. For more information, see the FNPS website https://www.fnps.org/pages/conference

Lake Beautyberry Chapter meetings are the 3rd Sunday of every other month, 1:30 p.m. at Trout Lake Nature Center in Eustis. The next meetings are March 20 and May 15, 2011. We have a plant exchange, social and speaker. Everyone is welcome.