Frond Forum Florida Native Plant Society Cuplet Fern Chapter :: Seminole County Volume 10, Number 2 :: April – September 2020 2020–21 Board President: Get to Know Your New Board Members Mark Kateli Vice President: Jennifer Hopton-Villalobos—I grew up in Barbara Whittier Lake Helen (West Volusia County) and I’ve VP of Programs: Vacant lived in a few places within central Florida. Secretary: Thinking about childhood, it was definitely Stacy Klema taken for granted. I spent much of my time Treasurer: on my grandparents’ and great grandparents’ Susan Blount-Angermeier property, on an almost self-sustaining farm. Chapter Representative (interim): Mark Kateli I spent most of my time outside playing Director-at-Large: and eating in an orange grove, vineyard, Cali Adams blueberry orchard, great grandma’s personal Gia Leigh Ekdahl Jennifer Hopton-Villalobos garden, blackberry patches, ponds, horses, cattle pasture, amongst a large flock of 2020–21 Committees geese, chickens, bees, even peacocks, not to Website: mention the terrifying hogs. There was also Mark Kateli Website (advisory): undeveloped land. That was always where Ken Bell we favored. I have countless fond memories Membership: within the varied Florida habitats the Christine Brown property possessed. Youth Eco Camp Ambassador: Barbara Whittier Education: My children reawakened my love of nature. I am a collector of plants, a phytophile, Neta Villalobos-Bell Photo and introduction courtesy of Mark Kateli and have been growing them for my entire Jennifer Publicity: life, but at my current residence, I’ve had 12 Jan Mangos years to experiment, intimately observe growing cycles, in my yard and natural Marketing: Chris Calder Florida land next to me. I’ve grown a collection that I am now aggressively Social Media: integrating native flora within, with big plans to create habitat in my yard with Stacy Klema native plants and trees. Kristin Sloan-Brown Jennifer Hopton-Villalobos I am volunteering with FNPS Cuplet Fern Chapter as the invasive plant removal Jennifer Ferrell coordinator and have been attending removals at Spring Hammock Preserve. Newsletter: My other volunteer work with Cuplet Fern is at Seminole IFAS for the Florida Kathleen Poole Friendly Landscape demonstration garden, and I help out with Cuplet Fern social media. Continued on next page Frond Forum Florida Native Plant Society :: Cuplet Fern Chapter :: Seminole County Volume 10, Number 2 :: April – September 2020 Get to Know Your New Board Members—continued My goals as Cuplet Fern Director are to continue and expand with my current efforts and encourage and facilitate others to turn their property into a habitat for wildlife and volunteer in restoration projects including starting their own community efforts to restore public lands and waterways. I also want to learn how WE as citizens can reduce growth and where growth is inevitable, work with the government and developers to do it in a way that reduces destruction of habitat and integrates native flora where possible. We need an army of native plant ambassadors to go out and save Florida! Gia Leigh Ekdahl—I started my native plant journey as a gardening enthusiast with a love of the outdoors. I spent a lot of time camping in my youth, and the woods became my happy place. I always felt at peace in nature. Until about 3 years ago, I was a traditional gardener, and pined over unusual tropical plants and flowers. I never knew gardening with native plants was a thing! When I heard a fellow gardener talk about her excitement over native porterweed, I was intrigued. To combine my love of natural Florida with gardening sounded too good to be true. My research on the topic led me to find a whole community of people who garden with Florida native plants. They led me to the Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS). My interest intensified, and now there’s no going back to the kind of gardener I once was. Before I gardened for just beauty. Now I garden for that, as well as wildlife, conservation efforts, and habitat restoration. Photo and introduction courtesy of Gia Cali Adams—I’m a lifelong Seminole county Florida native, and I live within our rural boundary and get to enjoy a very diverse and natural environment in my own yard. I went to school for Early Childhood Education, and worked as a preschool teacher for a few years before returning to staying at home as a mom of two young children. These days I spend my time tending my gardens, playing and teaching my kids, making art and learning new techniques to use, and living rural life out in the woods. The reason I got interested in native plants is all thanks to the land my husband and I inherited, 5 acres of scrubby woods! I found gardening to be difficult at first with traditional plants, so I began learning more about natives and now I am absolutely passionate about habitat restoration and gardening for wildlife. I especially love supporting wildlife, and aim to teach my kids and others about being good stewards to the environment Photo and introduction courtesy of around us. Cali - 2 - Frond Forum Florida Native Plant Society :: Cuplet Fern Chapter :: Seminole County Volume 10, Number 2 :: April – September 2020 Cuplet Fern Wins Bat BnB Contest! The bat box was donated to UF/IFAS Seminole County’s Florida Friendly Landscape (FFL) By Mark Kateli, Cuplet Fern President Cuplet Fern chapter won a nonprofit contest This particular model can hold up to 120 bats. where our chapter was nominated to receive a The artisan bat box is made in the USA using free Bat BnB! Retailing at over $200, we donated sustainably sourced western red cedar and stainless this wonderful prize to our county partner, the steel hardware to ensure resistance to corrosion, rot, University of Florida’s Institute of Food and and wood-boring bugs. As stated earlier, multiple Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) in Sanford. The Bat BnBs tend to attract occupancy faster. The best Florida Friendly Landscape (FFL) over there already time to purchase and install them is springtime has a bat box on property before reproduction. They can be mounted on a pole but according to Bat BnB, or on the side of a building (instructions for either the more bat houses on are included). property, the higher the chances of bat occupancy. The Lubee Bat Conservancy hosts three Florida native species: big brown bats, evening bats, and Bat BnB states the a southeastern myotis for the public to view following about their (including many other bat species from across the products: “Bat BnB is a world). Back in 2018, five chapters participated in comfortable, safe, and an interchapter field trip to Lubee-Ixia led by Cate stylish home for bats. By Hurlbut, Tarflower led by Pete Dunkelberg, Cuplet putting one up in your Fern led by Mark Kateli, Lake Beautyberry led by yard, you’ll offer a habitat Pat Burgos, and Paynes Prairie led by Mark Elliott for an animal in need, where 40 attendees showed up including the late Dr. while also leveraging their Mark Whitten. pest eating abilities to The ‘Seneca’ model featuring significantly reduce the dual bat chambers from Bat number of mosquitoes BnB. and garden pests in your area. You’ll also do your part in educating friends and neighbors as to the value bats bring to the ecosystem, and how silly it is to be afraid of these great little guys.” According to the Florida Museum, there are 13 recognized species of bats that live in Florida with a few more that are vagrant. Two of the recognized species happen to be endangered in our state. They are all insectivores (no native ones are pollinators). Our native bats eat moths, flies, dragonflies, beetles, A “Sky Puppy” as quoted by University of Florida’s Florida Museum via Instagram. Photo wasps, ants, mosquitoes and more. They are capable of a (Florida native) brazillian freetailed bat, of eating their body-weight in insects every night. Tadarida brasiliensis, by Angel Soto-Centeno. - 3 - Frond Forum Florida Native Plant Society :: Cuplet Fern Chapter :: Seminole County Volume 10, Number 2 :: April – September 2020 The Journey to Restore Lake Helen— Part 1 Photos courtesy of Save Lake Helen Lake Committee. Article By Jennifer Hopton-Villalobos Lake Helen is the name of a city and the principal (FWC) to raise funds and receive professional lake in the area. Both were named after the daughter support. Joe joined University of Florida’s (UF) of its founder, Henry DeLand. LakeWatch program and sent in water samples. The team worked on gaining membership for financial Part 1 covers the ordeal to get Lake Helen on the support and eventually, volunteer efforts. In the path to restoration. Part 2 will cover the progress beginning of the project, it was Joe, Joy Taylor, that has been made and will be published in the David Robertson, James Evans, and Tod Preston. next Frond Forum. Each individual brought unique skills to the project and participated jointly in these efforts. In the summer of 2019, I began volunteering— jumping in chest-deep mucky, stinky water and pulling out armfuls of hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata) and Peruvian primrose (Ludwigia peruviana). We piled them up into mountains in the middle of summer. It was intimidating and appeared absolutely impossible. On the first day I volunteered, I thought there was just too much! We had a forest of shrubs above the water and a ‘green spaghetti bowl’ of hydrilla below. And I still didn’t know how terrible torpedo grass (Panicum repens) would be later on. As land and waterways continue to deteriorate, it seems more individuals want solutions. Clean-up events are becoming commonplace—which only highlights an underlying environmental problem.