GCA Zone VIII November 2009 Conservation Report
Susan Caven, Zone Representative
The GCA Zone VIII clubs have been very buy this year with a wide array of projects and activities. The club Conservation Chairmen submitted the following information on what their clubs are doing.
Carolina Foothills Garden Club - Anna Farrar Bishop
The conservation ball is continuing to roll in Greenville, SC and Carolina Foothills is constantly behind it with individual and group projects. The Fifth Anniversary of Falls Park, long supported by the Carolina Foothills GC, drew hundreds of people, with speeches by Mayor Knox White, and CFGC President Pedrick Lowrey. Falls Park received the Virginia Hand Callaway Award from the Southeastern Horticulture Society, given for outstanding accomplishment in reclamation, restoration or conservation of our heritage resources.
Concerned over Greenville's old and dying trees, the Club became involved with the Greenville Legacy Tree program (native trees expected to live over 100 years), which has planted hundreds of trees, including the many surrounding the LEEDS home built on the Furman campus. Other projects include concerns over water conservation, supporting the city-wide recycling projects, labeling of the trees and shrubs in Falls Park and expanding the Legacy Trees Project. Conservation issues are addressed at each meeting and club members will be sent to the February Washington meeting.
Cherokee Garden Club – Robin Croft and Caroline Vroon
One of the biggest projects now is the continued work on the Howard Park Project, a passive park on the Atlanta Beltline. The Club is in charge of clearing and replanting it. Recycling is constantly emphasized, and they just completed the 2nd annual E-Cycle collection day, collecting over 1500 pounds of old electronics and delivering them to Mollam International. In January, a workshop/meeting will be held where a compost site will be built, and in May, there will be a Wildflower Hike with an overnight at The Len Foote Hike Inn. Cherokee keeps their members updated on conservation issues at each meeting and in each issue of their newsletter.
Founders Garden Club of Sarasota - LeeAnn Gladding
The Founders club has partnered with Selby Botanical Gardens and Whole Food Markets on a Tropical Fruit Garden Project, germinating the seeds for the trees. The project will be presented at the Centennial Meeting in Philadelphia.
The Conservation Committee Exhibit for the February 24 and 25, 2010 Gardeners' Fair will be gaily painted rain barrels. Sarasota County Water Resources will demonstrate their use and importance to residential landscaping and they will be available for sale.
The Conservation Committee will be the club liaison in the Science and Environmental Council of Sarasota County. The informal consortium of public and private environmental groups meets quarterly to share ideas and resources for common objectives. For instance, they would expect the organization to be most helpful in disseminating information and identifying potential candidates for GCA scholarship programs.
Field trips will include walking the trail around the wonderfully reclaimed former County dumpsite perimeter, featuring an extraordinary example of Old Florida uplands, lush vegetation, birdlife and wildlife, where deer abound.
Conservation Corner has debuted in the monthly Compost Heap Newsletter. Members will attend a joint presentation of the Environmental Defense Fund and the Institute of Public Policy and Leadership of USF entitled Save the Rainforest, Cool the Planet. The speaker is the renowned champion of tropical forest conservation, John Cain Carter.
The Committee is ever mindful of its obligation to keep members informed and abreast of legislative developments affecting our environment. This year the offshore drilling debate is in sharp focus. Phosphate mining permits remain topical and of course the restoration of the Everglades continues to be critically important.
Garden Club of the Halifax Country - Barbara Young, Linda Freidus
The Conservation Committee’s main goal this year is to educate the membership on the problems facing our oceans and what can be done to help this growing problem. Since their community is on the ocean, this is pertinent and hopefully they can make an impact. They will also continue to give our members “Save the Planet” tips on how to help the environment on an individual basis, i.e. in their homes and community. At each meeting a member of the Conservation Committee gives a 5 to 10 minute report.
All Committee members receive ConWatch and Legislative updates, plus GCA position papers. The president e-mails the entire membership this information each month.
A SEEK scholarship is given each year to a high school student. In January Arbor Day is celebrated by planting a tree in various places. Last year it was at a needy elementary school. Donations are given to the following groups, Save the Loop, the Halifax River Audubon Society and the Nature Conservancy. Conservation speaker in March is Michael Brothers, Director of the Marine Science Center in nearby Ponce Inlet. Members plan on going to Washington.
Garden Club of Palm Beach - Beth Dowdle
The Conservation Committee is concerned that, for the first time in almost twenty years, State resources were not allocated for land conservation in the 2009 legislative session. Florida, today, stands at a critical juncture. The current real estate slump in Florida provides historic opportunities for land conservation purchases and the 2010 Florida legislature will be encouraged by the club to reinstate Florida’s outstanding tradition of land conservation.
Good news was that on March 2, in a 277 page decision, Administrative Law Judge Robert Meale ruled that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection deny the Town of Palm Beach a permit to dredge 700,000 cu. yards of poor quality sand onto local beaches, so the rare and fragile Florida Reef Tract will be protected.
Great progress has been made on the Partner for Plants project, which is restoring the native prairie at Pine Jog Environmental Education Center. Roughly 3,700 plants have been installed in the prairie and the project is being used as a learning opportunity to teach about 160 students from Pine Jog Elementary School's after-school program, about native plants and the importance of stewardship. There are still about 400 more plants to install, but the strong health of the vegetation, increased sightings of insects and birds and public enthusiasm speak to this project’s success.
A joint project with the Four Arts Children's Library will introduce "The Quest for Nature" to the children. Quest Maps from the 2009 Garden Show Conservation Exhibit will be distributed and a special program in the Garden with the children is being designed. The Committee will also send delegates to Washington.
Junior Ladies Garden Club- Rinne Allen Smith
In an effort to be more ‘green’, many announcements & tips are now being shared on our website, http://www.juniorladiesgc.org/conservation.html, rather than printed handouts at meetings. Conservation chairwomen to visit the website to see the growing list of resources and share with resources they have themselves found helpful. Conservation-related info are shared in our monthly newsletter and brief announcements made at each meeting in an effort to keep conservation topics on everyone’s mind.
ConWatch is shared with our members and as is other conservation-related information sent from GCA. The club organized Privet Pulls at our State Botanical Garden, and is currently collecting corks to raise money for Korks for Kids (http://www.korks4kids.org/Korks_4_Kids_Program.html ). Corks are collected throughout the year and in May are sent to the K4K headquarters in Pennsylvania. At the end of each year, the club takes a ‘poll’ of members habits to see how ‘green’ they are. Results are compared with previous years’…so far, they are only getting greener.
Jupiter Island Garden Club - Ann Calder, Peggy Lord
The Jupiter Island Garden Club owns and maintains the beautiful uninhabited Harbor Island dedicated to conservation. Its plantings are well labeled, and it is open to visitors.
This year their club voted to devote their energy over the next five years to the legacy of the
Ficus Allée – a famous Allée of Ficus and oak on Bridge Road leading to the north end of Jupiter Island. They established a propagation workshop with the Boys and Girls Club of Martin County, planting tree saplings of ficus nitida and oak. They also sponsored a poster contest at the Hobe Sound Elementary School, with over five hundred entries on the subjects of squirrels, field mice and snails in the garden were submitted.
As a conservation committee, they keep members totally informed on a monthly basis of conservation issues in the United States, Florida and on Jupiter Island. The Everglades, the nesting turtles and terns on the beaches, iguanas, crocodiles coming from the south, algae, manatees in our neighborhood, government policies and changes – members are well informed on their environment. They will send representatives to Washington.
Last year, The Jupiter Island Garden Club Board, authorized their president, Joanne Payson, to file a brief as "interveners," through an attorney, on behalf of the South Florida Water Management District in favor of the restoration of the Everglades. She and second vice-president, Kathy Carew, spent the day in court, representing their club and advocating for the Everglades. This dedication to the protection of the Everglades will continue this year.
Late Bloomers Garden Club - Mary Pietan
The Late Bloomers hope to start Partners for Plants and an E-cycle program this year. They are working with the Horticulture Chairman on their Centennial Tree project, which is growing and planting long leaf pines, with a planting at the Jacksonville Zoo planned. A conservation report is given at each meeting, the club’s newsletter carries a conservation article each month and ConWatch is shared. Several representatives will be sent to Washington.
Little Garden Club of Birmingham - Carey Hinds, Ellen McWhorter
The Conservation committee gives a”teachable moment” at each meeting, which educates the club about the GCA position papers. Used sneakers are being collected to be sent to Nike for recycling and old cell phones and small electronics are also collected to be recycled. ConWatch is sent to the membership and they will be represented at the Washington meeting.
Conservation speakers are Henry Hughes, Director of Education, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, who is leading the Little Garden Club-Red Mountain Garden Club 2013 Tree Project and Nelson Brooke, Riverkeeper and Executive Director of the Black Warrior Riverkeeper’s.
Palmetto Garden Club - Eleanor Pope
The Conservation Committee keeps their club up-to-date at each meeting on the conservation issues affecting their community, speaking up on issues such as billboard proliferation and water and energy conservation. They are also active in the Historic Columbia tree planting program. Palmetto GC has continued to work with the Partnership For Plants at the Congaree National Park, removing the invasive "beefsteak plant”. During the fall work day ten 45 gallon bags of the invasive plant were collected by a hard working group of the club. The Park service people said that area was cleared of this invasive by our hard work.
Red Mountain's "Going Green” theme will be carried out for a second year. Last year they gave each member "green" bags and encouraged everyone to use them on a regular basis and members have loved using their bags. In November they will survey the membership, asking how many times a week they use their bags, and if they are used for shopping other than the grocery store.
Red Mountain along with Little Garden Club just planted 150 seedlings at George Ward Park. Ten members showed up to plant seedlings at the park on a Saturday morning in October. What makes this effort different from most tree-planting projects is that instead of buying new trees, they decided to generate offspring from the original trees in the park.
Usually they say something every month about Conservation and the Conservation Speaker this year is Allison Creel, former horticulturist at Barber Motorsports Park.
The Conservation Committee decided to look into sewer discharge regulations for ocean going vessels just off our coast, level of service ordinances governing the construction of high rise apartment buildings, new methods of dealing with biting midges (no-see-ums) so constructive advice can be offered and thereby curb the pesticide spraying that some residents favor, and a project to plant native trees and remove non-native specimens, in a new oceanfront park just donated to the city of Ocean Ridge.
A conservation minute is given at each meeting, water and energy conservation is encouraged (sometimes with contests). Because their newsletter editor is on the Conservation Committee, the committee’s information regularly appears in the newsletter. They share ConWatch and Legislative up- dates and will have Nathaniel Reed come speak on Water and Land Management. They plan to once again send members to the Washington meeting.
Trustee Garden Club - Connie Darbyshire
The Trustee Conservation Committee began the year emphasizing trash recycling, especially plastic bags and bottles. Members are encouraged to actively recycle. The club decided to advocate, in addition educating, and lobby their town to begin instituting curb-side recycling. Next, they will discuss the importance of using other mulches besides cypress mulch. This summer they collected the pop-tops from aluminum cans for the Ronald McDonald House.
At each meeting, there is a “conservation minute” with a follow-up in the newsletter and they will have Partners for Plants project this year and send delegates to Washington.