FNPS Mission: To preserve, conserve, and restore native plants and native plant communities.
Learn more by visiting the FNPS website • Check our calendar for upcoming events sponsored by the Pinellas, Nature Coast, and Suncoast Chapters • Not a member yet? Join today!

Wednesday, August 7th, 6:30 pm: Monthly Program - Craig Huegel, Ecologist

Craig Huegel will present a program based on his new book, The Nature of Plants: An Introduction to How Plants Work.  Plants play a critical role in how we experience our environment. They create calming green spaces, provide oxygen for us to breathe, and nourish our senses. In The Nature of Plants, ecologist and nursery owner Craig Huegel demystifies the complex lives of plants and provides readers with an elucidating journey into their inner and outer workings. Craig will have books on hand to sell and sign.

Meeting starts at 6:30 with announcements and a native plant silent auction. The program starts at 7:00. Light refreshments provided.

Moccasin Lake Nature Park, 2750 Park Trail Lane, Clearwater

Saturday, August 10th: Herbarium Specimen Workshop

2-4 p.m., Moccasin Lake Nature Park, 2750 Park Trail Lane, Clearwater
$5.00 fee to cover cost of materials

If you've ever looked up a plant on the Atlas of Florida Plants, you've no doubt seen a range map that shows in which counties the species has been observed. For an observation to be recognized, a "voucher specimen" must be submitted to one of the 23 herbaria in the state of Florida.

At this hands-on workshop taught by University of South Florida field biologist David Eilers, you'll learn the proper techniques to select and collect specimens, and to prepare them for your own use or to submit to an herbarium.
Limit 20 attendees. To register, click here.

Saturday, August 17th: Butterfly Garden Volunteer Opportunity

9 - 11 a.m., Moccasin Lake Nature Park, 2750 Park Trail Lane, Clearwater

Landscape designer Nicole Jones will be leading a team of volunteers in maintaining the Butterfly Garden at Moccasin Lake. This is a great opportunity to learn more about which plants attract and host our local butterflies, what conditions they grow in and how to prune them.  Please bring hand tools, work gloves, sun and insect protection, and a reusable water bottle. The chapter will provide trash bags, ice water and snacks.

We really appreciate the City of Clearwater allowing us to use the classroom at the park for our monthly meetings, and volunteering in the park is our way of showing it.

Sunday, August 18th: Overnight Fieldtrip to UF Gainesville - Bats and Butterflies

Join trip leader, Bonnie Carine, at the University of Florida in Gainesville.  Travel on your own or carpool.  Join others for an early evening group dinner, then at dusk watch thousands of bats fly into the night sky from the University of Florida Bat Barns and Bat House on the UF campus. Meet up on Monday morning for a guided tour of the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera & Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History Exhibits.

The center includes the 6,400-square-foot living Butterfly Rainforest, an adjacent 4,600-square-foot exhibit gallery featuring information about Lepidoptera and rain forests worldwide, as well as more than 31,000 square feet of research laboratories and collection space.

With more than 10 million specimens, the McGuire Center houses one of the world's largest Lepidoptera collections, representing most of the world's 20,000 butterfly species and many of the estimated 245,000 moth species.

Minimum of 10 people needed for $25 PP guided tour, so RSVP today to pinellasfnps@gmail.com. Information on carpooling, hotel and dinner will be sent to those who RSVP.