Research Projects:
BOTANICAL GUARDIANS' POSTCARDS FROM THE FIELD
Jennifer F. Ceska, Conservation Coordinator
Heather Alley, Research Lab Coordinator
State Botanical Garden of Georgia
January 2004
We have had an exciting and rewarding year in the Plant Conservation Program with the official launching of the Botanical Guardians project. Botanical Guardians are comprised of volunteers from around the state who serve as stewards for imperiled rare habitats under powerline right-of-ways, and help locate and monitor lost rare plant populations. Project coordinator Heather Alley has done an exceptional job recruiting, training, and coordinating volunteers for our local stewards and species search projects. We have some extraordinary highlights we'd like to share with you.
Nearly 20 volunteers from throughout the state tackled 15 species search projects, looking for populations of some of Georgia's rarest plant species. They found nearly all the species on our list, which is no small task when you realize some have not been seen in over 30 years. Since directions to the sites are often cryptic if not downright mysterious, "north side of road on I-20 south of Metter near Sam's Bar BQ" (which is no longer there), our volunteers need to be good sleuths as well as botanists!
- Richard and Teresa Ware of Rome, Georgia, found Yellow Giant Hyssop, Agastache nepetoides, which which is listed as critically imperiled and thought to be extinct throughout much of its range along the east coast to Canada. The Ware's found a large, apparently healthy population of 40 stems that had not been seen since 1951. This population in a meadow near a springhouse in Chattooga County is now the only documented one in Georgia. They also located another occurance in Murray County, just one individual plant left on the side of the road near where it was last seen in the 1980's.
- Hugh and Carol Nourse of Athens revisited a missing Georgia species they relocated for us in 2002. Carolina Birdfoot Trefoil, Lotus helleri, a rare piedmont species, endemic to the southeast, survives in a grassy area behind a church in South Georgia. Their close monitoring enabled us to alert botanists at the Department of Natural Resources that the only known Georgia population had declined to 11 stems. The Nourses were quickly given permission to collect seeds. Now this Trefoil is being propagated and multiplied at botanical gardens in case the last natural population disappears. We hope some day our volunteers can replant this population with individuals grown from the Nourse's rescued seeds.
- Kathryn Litton of Blairsville and our project coordinator, Heather Alley, were able to stop mowers before they sheared off this year's flowers of a state protected species, the beautiful, true-blue Fringed Gentian, Gentianopsis crinita. Thanks to Kathryn's vigilance in watching over the five roadside populations, Heather was able to stop the mowers in their tracks with a series of urgent phone calls to DOT. Since it blooms in the fall, this annual wildflower often gets mowed down when it is in the peak of flowering, preventing good seed set for the next generation's plants. Kathryn collected seeds from some of the mown stems, enabling the botanical gardens to successfully propagate this species for future safeguarding collections. Now Heather is working with DOT and county officials on better signage for the roadside populations, but you can be certain Kathryn and Heather will be watching for the mowers again next year.
In our local stewards projects, six volunteer teams are watching over rare plant habitats under six power-line right of way areas. These areas are often sprayed with chemicals or mown with heavy machinery despite promises and written agreements with the utility companies that manage the powerlines. We've learned that local folks in the area watching over these sites are the best protection.
- Local steward Jeff Painter in Rome found the federally endangered Royal Catchfly, Silene regia, under an electrical line on a roadway. This species was feared to be extinct in Georgia until its rediscovery this summer. Jeff is working with local power companies to manage and protect the site.
- Hewitt and Martha Joiner of Metter are stewards for one of the most significant and biologically diverse pitcherplant bogs in the state. This site is ranked among the top three most important habitats in Georgia by both The Nature Conservancy of Georgia and the Georgia DNR. The site has been sprayed with herbicide repeatedly over the last several years. Martha and Hewitt have been local stewards for a year now, and they have secured an agreement with the local electrical company that turned over all management of the site to the Botanical Guardians. The power company has agreed to only mow once every five years, with guidance from our group. Now the Joiners are working with the local landowners on projects such as periodic burning to encourage restoration of the wiregrass ground cover and curbing ATV wheel traffic through the soft bog soils.
- We have trees of the last Georgia population of Florida Willow (Salix floridana) at two botanical gardens thanks to local steward David Varnadoe of Newton, Georgia. The trees have not been flowering for many years because of repeated herbicide spraying and bush hogging in their powerline habitat. But David located some flowers and later fruits, collecting them and growing up trees from seeds and cuttings, enough to create a safeguarding population on land owned by The Nature Conservancy not far from the original population.
The Botanical Guardians project is growing as we prepare for the 2004 field season. Because of this year's project successes, Georgia DNR is assigning more species search projects to us and bringing on board another suite of powerline sites for local steward's protection. The word has been getting out, and volunteers from around the state, many with professional field experience, are contacting Heather to sign up.