Live blogging from the conference Friday

The crowd assembles on Friday morning for announcements and awards.
Anne Cox accepted the award for the Society,
and of course, for herself.

Friday at the FNPS conference

Susan Grandin, Director of State Lands for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection,  presented awards of appreciation for FNPS, for Anne Cox, and then for the whole land review comittee. (Anne Cox, chair; Danny Young and Kevin Love, vice-chairs; and to long-time reviewers Annie Schmidt and Jack Stiles.)

The land review committee does phenomial work and puts FNPS high on the list of influencial organizations that make the decisions concerning lands in Florida.





One of Jim Draper's ecosystem paintings.


Jim Draper

Friday's keynote speaker Jim Draper, a Jacksonville artist spoke about Florida's natural systems and how he depicts them his topic was the Feast of Flowers.
 



 

 

The Native Plant Sale


The eight native plant vendors have worked hard to provide a wide variety of plants for conference attendees
and the general public.

Dick Workman's basket weaving workshop.

The process of weaving.

Pametto Basket Workshop


Dick Workman led the hands-on workshop on how to weave a basket from one palmetto leaf which uses the stem (with the thorns scraped off) as the handle.

There were 25 participants. When asked later if there were too many participants, Dick said, "Well, if they had been fourth graders, it would have been great. Adults tend to overthink!"

Workshop explains the conditions where dahoon holly grows best.

The Tree & Shrub Planting Workshop


FANN member and local native plant nurseryman, James Loper, presented a workshop on planting a tree.

We'd completed all the paperwork to obtain permission to plant this dahoon holly on the UNF campus. Everyone was pleased with the information, whether it was new knowledge or mostly review of what they knew.

James Loper with the newly planted Dahoon holly on the slope near the pond.

St. Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rineman talks with FNPS members
after her talk about the St. Johns River and what her organization
can do the improve the state of the river.

Friday Evening Social


The Friday social sold out quickly when people found out that we were going on dinner cruise on the St. Johns River and that Lisa Rineman, the St. Johns Riverkeeper would be joining us.

The St. Johns is the longest river in Florida and is one of the few major north-flowing rivers in this country. Lisa talked about how its slow flow leaves it more vulnerable to pollution.

Jacksonville, the River City, was built up around the area where the river takes a sharp eastern turn as it flows out to the Atlantic.

Sunset reflection.

Sunset Jacksonville profile

Sunset Jacksonville showing some of the bridge illumination.
Friday was a great day at the FNPS conference. More to come...

I wish you were here! Reported and post by Ginny Stibolt
 

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