The Institute for Regional Conservation
Conservation of rare plants, animals, and ecosystems

IRC's Chief Conservation Strategist, George Gann, helped author a new document titled "International Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration" along with IRC board member Kingsley Dixon through the Society for Ecological Restoration. Following the launch, Gann gave a talk titled "Report on Global Launch of International Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration" to the Global Partnership on Forest and Landscape Restoration. This meeting was part of the UN Biodiversity Conference held in Cancun, Mexico earlier this month. To read the international standards, click here.

As 2016 comes to a close, we begin preparing for the upcoming year and all we want to accomplish as we fulfill our mission of conserving rare plants, animals and ecosystems. Specifically, we are raising funds to hold a beach restoration event in Delray Beach in February of 2017 and a pine rockland restoration event in Miami in March 2017. We are seeking sponsors at the following levels to make these events a reality. To contribute, either click on the link to our Paypal account below or mail a check to 100 E. Linton Blvd. Ste. 302B Delray Beach, FL 33483.

Spider Orchid Level - $100
Longclaw Orchid Level - $50
Butterfly Orchid Level - $25

IRC's Senior Biologist, Michael Barry, will be featured in an episode of "Years of Living Dangerously" on the National Geogrphaic Channel on Wednesday December 7th at 10:00 pm. Mike will be sharing his passion for climate change issues with episode host, Bradley Whitford. For more information on the episode, click here.

Behind the Scenes with Bradley Whitford from YEARS of LIVING DANGEROUSLY on Vimeo.

IRC will kick off our end of year fundraiser with #GivingTuesday on November 29th. As a non-profit organization, we rely on your support to make our community outreach efforts possible. By supporting IRC with a tax-deductible donation, you will directly have an impact on conservation in 2017. The money we raise will be used to fund our community based restoration events throughout South Florida, enable us to provide innovative presentations and programs that are free to the public, and help us keep our databases up to date with the latest information. Help us continue our mission of conserving rare plants, animals and ecosystems by clicking here.

To kick off IRC’s Pine Rockland Initiative Program, IRC completed a restoration project at Coral Pines Park this November. The IRC restoration team worked on the three-acre site to remove twenty exotic species which included FLEPP Category I and II invasive plants such as Brazilian Pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius), Woman’s Tongue (Albizia lebbeck), and Shoebutton Ardisia (Ardisia elliptica). To see additional before and after pictures from the project, click here. The team also held a volunteer restoration day for passionate and curious community members, who were eager to learn more about an endangered ecosystem and lend their helping hands to remove the oyster plant (Tradescantia spathacea) infestation that was taking over the complete north side of the plot. By clearing out the area of the hundreds of oyster plants, we were able to discover some native understory such as coontie (Zamia integrifolia) and saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) from under the limestone rock outcropping, as well as finding pineland fern (Anemia adiantifolia) after removing all the invasive Burmareed (Neyraudia reynaudiana).

The Coral Pine Park pine rockland is also habitat for two threatened plant species, Crenulate leadplant (Amorpha herbacea var. crenulata) and Florida southern sandmat (Euphorbia pergamena). Also known as the Miami lead-plant, A. crenulata is endemic to Miami-Dade County, Florida. Crenulate lead-plant was listed as endangered on July 18, 1985. It has been almost entirely eliminated by agriculture, urban, and commercial development in it’s pine rockland habitats (USFWS 1997). In addition, fire suppression, invasion by exotic plant species, and drainage threaten the survival of the plant species thus possibly disrupting the flowering and seed production of the species (Roncal 1996). Today, threatened species like the Crenulate lead-plant and others continue to be in danger of extinction unfortunately due to development and urbanization, the primary causes for the imperilment of the threatened pine rocklands. IRC will continue to monitor Coral Pine Park as a means to maintain the beautiful pine rockland site and keep abreast of the presence of the threatened species at Coral Pines Park. To find the complete plant list for Coral Pine Park, please click here.

Photos © Maha Nusrat.

Volunteers are needed to help IRC on a Restoration Event at Coral Pine Park in Pinecrest, Florida on Saturday, October 22nd from 10 am to 12 pm. Volunteers will help hand-remove and bag Oyster Plant (Tradescantia spathacea) throughout the park. This is a great opportunity to make a difference at a beautiful park! Interested volunteers can contact Maha Nusrat at mnusrat@regionalconservation.org or 305-505-9192.

IRC’s Chief Conservation Strategist, George Gann, will be giving an invited presentation at the University of Miami on October 12th at 7:00 pm. The talk titled "Everglades Restoration and Rare Plants - Including a Critical Element of Biodiversity" will explore the abundance of rare plant species potentially affected by Everglades restoration and the need to include rare plants in Everglades restoration planning and monitoring – currently South Florida’s rare native plants receive little if any attention within the restoration process. This talk is for the Friends of Gifford Arboretum October meeting and is free to the public.

IRC will be holding a Beach Restoration/ International Coastal Clean-Up Event on Saturday, October 1st from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Delray Beach municipal beach across from the Delray Beach Marriott. Volunteers of all ages are needed to help with planting native species and picking up trash along the beach. RSVPs are appreciated and can be sent to IRC’s Education and Outreach Coordinator, Cara Abbott, at 305-304-6610 or abbott@regionalconservation.org for additional information.

This event is funded and supported by Waste Management and Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful, Inc.

IRC is pleased to announce that we have been awarded a “Think Green” Grant in partnership with Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful, Inc. from Waste Management. Part of the awarded “Green Delray” program includes a Beach Restoration/ International Coastal Clean-Up Event that will be held on Saturday, October 1st from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Delray Beach municipal beach across from the Delray Beach Marriott. Volunteers of all ages are needed to help with planting native species and picking up trash along the beach. Anyone interested in volunteering can contact IRC’s Education and Outreach Coordinator, Cara Abbott, at 305-304-6610 or abbott@regionalconservation.org for additional information.

The grant will also support IRC as we implement a Think Green school program with Delray Students First and provide a free native gardening workshop later this fall. Stay tuned for more information on all three components of this exciting grant!

Photo © Cara Abbott.

IRC’s Senior Botanist, Jorge Carlos Trejo Torres, helped author a new article published in Phytotaxa earlier this week. The article reports on the identification and conservation status of the critically endangered, endemic vine, Marsdenia calichicola, in the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula. To access the abstract of this publication, click here.

Photos © Germán Carnevali.

IRC’s newest field biologist, Trevor Watts, has been conducting rare species surveys by foot and kayak in the lower Florida Keys. Despite the intense heat recently, he has documented the presence of several rare birds including the Roseate spoonbill (Platalea ajaja), the Reddish Egret (Egretta rufescens) and the Least Tern (Sternula antillarum). For additional pictures taken by Trevor during the surveys, click here.

TOP: Roseate spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) MIDDLE: Reddish Egret (Egretta rufescens) BOTTOM: Least Tern (Sternula antillarum) Photos

© Trevor Watts.

IRC’s Ecological Restoration Management program is making great progress on an Invasive Plant Management project at FAU Pine Jog Environmental Center in West Palm Beach. IRC staff members are working to remove a variety of Category I and Category II invasive plants including Nephrolepis falcata and Sansevieria hyacinthoides. To see before and after pictures of the fishtail fern and snake plant, click here.

The complete manuscript of IRC’s landmark publication "Rare Plants of South Florida : Their History, Conservation, and Restoration" is now available in a free electronic book. This critically acclaimed document, which includes data on all of the regionally extinct and imperiled plant species in South Florida, was originally published as a printed book in 2002. Not only is this manuscript now available for free, but also all 1081 pages of the electronic pdf are fully searchable.

For nearly 15 years, "Rare Plants of South Florida : Their History, Conservation, and Restoration" has been a tool for conserving, restoring and understanding the history of rare native plants and their habitats in South Florida. As always, we hope that you will consider supporting our work as we continue expanding our conservation efforts.

"Rare Plants of South Florida : Their History, Conservation and Restoration" authors, Steve Woodmansee (left), George Gann (middle) and Keith Bradley (right) in the premier issue of Orion Afield in 1997.

IRC’s Chief Conservation Strategist, George Gann, recently attended Biodiversity Without Borders: The NatureServe Network Conservation Conference held in San Juan, Puerto Rico. NatureServe is a network of over 1,000 conservation professionals that have collaboratively assessed over 70,000 species and mapped over 1,600 ecosystems. The conference hosted a select group of leading conservationists for a week of plenaries, symposiums, workshops, panels, presentations, and field sessions focused on conservation and biodiversity trends in the western hemisphere.

Gann was an active speaker at the conference and gave presentations titled “Improving species selection for restoration: global context, resources and tools” and “Plants of the island of Puerto Rico: an innovative web-based conservation tool for scientists and enthusiasts”. Additionally, Gann served as a panelist on “Developing a protocol for assessing the regional conservation status of species” and “Present and future priorities for plant conservation in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands,” the latter at a one day workshop held at the Doña Inés botanical garden.

IRC’s participation in this conference helped fortify our international presence and relationships with scientists at the forefront of global biodiversity conservation.

Participants of the Biodiversity Without Boundaries Workshop including George Gann, past IRC board member Joyce Maschinski, and Director the Doña Inés Botanical Garden Christian Torres Santana.