Research Projects:
GEORGIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY
Vision
To be the premier organization promoting the stewardship of Georgia's native plants and their habitats.
Mission Statement
To promote the stewardship and conservation of Georgia's native plants and their habitats through education and with the involvement of individuals and organizations.
At the 1994 Cullowhee Native Plants in the Landscape Conference at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, a group of attendees from Georgia posted a notice on the bulletin board asking any Georgians interested in forming a Native Plant Society to sign up. The Georgia Native Plant Society first met on September 14, 1994 with 40 people in attendance. This group of Atlanta area native plant gardeners organized a core of activities around a newsletter, NativeScape, an annual symposium and plant rescues and began to spread the word. 250 native plant enthusiasts attended the December 1994 symposium and the April 1995 Symposium was very successful.
Eight years later, the Society has around 1200 members and has extended its programs to include a popular yearly plant sale using many donated rescued plants, native plant research grants, scholarships, native plant garden grants as well as six open-to-the-public general membership meetings a year. Restoration projects have become a high priority activity with membership involvement in removing "pest plants" and replanting areas with native vegetation such as the Heritage Trail segment (part of the Silver Comet multi-purpose trail system), active work with greenspace groups and educational classes on plant communities.
Event information, meetings and speaker information, membership and other useful data can be found at our web site at www.gnps.org or by calling the GNPS answering service at 770-343-6000.