The Institute for Regional Conservation’s Post

Tomorrow, join Bethanie Walder, SER Executive Director, and George D. Gann, CERP, SER International Policy Lead, alongside other partners of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration at the 26th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA). Register for the Zoom event here: https://lnkd.in/dyQE336P

Join us for a fun & educational field trip to Delray Beach! On Wednesday, May 22nd from 9am to 11am, learn all about the State-Endangered Beach Jacquemontia at Delray Municipal Beach. Join IRC, Delray Parks and Sustainability Department, along with Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden for a wonderful opportunity to learn about our restoration efforts to conserve and restore habitat for Beach Jacquemontia. At Delray Municipal Beach there is a thriving population of this species, so we are inviting the public to come out and learn all about the efforts in this multi-agency project! We will have a brief talk and panel showcasing the work that has been on-going. Then, we will walk the dunes to see the beautiful flowering plant in action. After the walk, we will invite participants to join us for a second viewing of a Jacquemontia population over at Atlantic Dunes Park. We will have limited seating via a shuttle bus for this. To join us on May 22nd, visit our Events page at https://lnkd.in/eEvYsxTN to register ahead of time. You can also email our Conservation Program Manager, Liz Dutra at ldutra@regionalconservation.org with your RSVP. We hope you will join us for a fun educational event at the beautiful beaches of Delray Beach! * * * * * #IRC #InstituteforRegionalConservation #HabitatRestoration #PineRockland #Conservation #NativePlants #Volunteer #DelrayBeach #BeachJacquemontia #RestoreTheGoldCoast

One of the best parts about working in the field? Finding stunning flora & fauna around every corner! 🦋 Our Conservation Program Manager Liz Dutra recently stumbled upon this beautiful io moth (Automeris io) while out in the field. See those big black circles on its hind wings? When threatened, adult io moths flip their forewings forward exposing those large eyespots. The eyespots even have white highlights resembling the glint (reflections) of vertebrate eyes! Not only do the io moths use their eyespots as a defense, but adult io moths also use their coloring as camouflage! They are nocturnal & remain motionless during the daytime to mimic the dead brown, red, and yellow leaves that are common in forests. How cool is that?! Photo by Liz Dutra * * * * * #FromTheFieldFind #FromtheFieldFriday #IRC #InstituteforRegionalConservation #PineRocklandInitiative #PRI #PineRockland #EcologicalRestoration #EcosystemRestoration #HabitatRestoration #nonnativeplant #invasiveplant #RestoringtheGoldCoast #RGC #CoastalStrand #BeachDune #IoMoth #AutomerisIo

Register for this exciting Zoom event, featuring our Executive Director George D. Gann, CERP, here: https://lnkd.in/dyQE336P

For this #WildflowerWednesday, you have to look closely! 🧐 This is the Pineland scalypink (Stipulicida setacea) and its flowers are TINY! Believe it or not, the petals of the Pineland scalypink get no bigger than 2.5mm! While it is found in most areas in Florida, you can also find it in the Southern United States such as Louisiana & Georgia. It's even been found in Cuba! Keep your eyes peeled! Photos by Liz Dutra * * * * #Floridanativeplants #wildflower #floridanativewildflower #flawildflower #native #plants #plantID #botany #NativesForYourNeighborhood #NFYN #IRC #beachdunes #coastalstrand #pinerockland #conservation #habitatrestoration #Pinelandscalypink #Stipulicidasetacea

Guess how many garbage bags we filled with non-native, invasive plants.... 33!! 🤩 At our Ecological Restoration Volunteer Day at Orchard View Park over the weekend, we filled 33 bags FULL of invasive plants! That's over 1,600 pounds!! With over 20 awesome volunteers, we removed frequent invasives such as air potato (Dioscorea bulbifera) and American evergreen (Syngonium podophyllum). By restoring this maritime hammock, we're able to help foster the native ecosystem & benefit the diversity of the park for the future. Thank you to the @cityofdelraybeach for their help & support in allowing Delray's parks to thrive! We can't wait to plan our next volunteer event. Make sure you're the first to know about our next one by signing up for our email newsletter (just once monthly!) here: https://lnkd.in/dgXFza7G 💌 * * * * * #IRC #InstituteforRegionalConservation #HabitatRestoration #PineRockland #Conservation #NativePlants #DelrayBeach #Volunteer #InvasiveSpeciesRemoval

It's From the Field Friday! 🌿 Recently, the Crew had a work day at Phipps Ocean Park. They removed nonnative, invasive species such as Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius) and Beach naupaka (Scaevola taccada). In addition, they manually cut back some Seagrape (Coccoloba uvifera) & Coinvine (Dalbergia ecastaphyllum) to make room for installing plants as part of a new ecological restoration project under our Restoring the Gold Coast Program. Stay tuned for progress pictures over the next coming months! If you want to learn more about the work we are doing, check out our projects page on https://lnkd.in/eem3Fivk. Photos by Alex Andes Garcon * * * * * #FromtheFieldFriday #IRC #InstituteforRegionalConservation #PineRocklandInitiative #PRI #PineRockland #EcologicalRestoration #EcosystemRestoration #HabitatRestoration #nonnativeplant #invasiveplant #RestoringtheGoldCoast #RGC #CoastalStrand #BeachDune

Meet the wonderful Purple thistle (Cirsium horridulum)! It's Wildflower Wednesday and as you can see, this showy flower is a huge host for pollinators! It is the larval host plant for little metalmark (Calephelis virginiensis) and painted lady (Vanessa cardui) butterflies. It's a nectar plant for black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes), Delaware skipper (Anatrytone logan), palamedes swallowtail (Papilio palamedes), palmetto skipper (Euphyes arpa), three-spotted skipper (Cymaenes tripunctus), twin-spot skipper (Oligorio maculata) and more butterflies. AND the flowers attract bees, wasps, beetles and other insects, and hummingbirds. Birds eat the seeds, too! You can find the Purple thistle in most natural areas in South Florida as it is a Florida native species. Keep your eye out on your next hike & watch its prickly leaves! Photos by Liz Dutra * * * * * #WildflowerWednesday #Floridanativeplants #wildflower #floridanativewildflower #flawildflower #native #plants #plantID #botany #NativesForYourNeighborhood #NFYN #IRC #beachdunes #coastalstrand #pinerockland #conservation #habitatrestoration #purplethistle #Cirsiumhorridulum

What a great end to Earth Month! Yesterday, we were thrilled to have 40 volunteers join us at Red Reef Park in @citybocaraton ! With the city's Sustainability Manager Lindsey Roland Nieratka, we participated in Boca Raton's Nature Challenge to help document their nature in the iNaturalist app! Volunteers took photos of the wild plants & animals in Red Reef Park to help contribute to the world’s largest community science event. The findings go into the iNaturalist database, which will be used by scientists to help them better understand – and therefore, take care of – nature that lives in and around urban areas. In addition to learning about the various plants in the area, we planted some native species such as our favorite- the Partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata). It was a wonderful day of learning & restoring! Want to join the fun? Join our next volunteer event in Delray Beach on May 4th by following this link: https://lnkd.in/eEvYsxTN . See you there! * * * * * #IRC #InstituteforRegionalConservation #HabitatRestoration #BeachDune #RestoringTheGoldCoast #Conservation #NativePlants #NatureChallenge #BocaRaton #Volunteer

Happy From the Field Friday from one of our restoration sites! 🔥 Melany Flint, Field Supervisor, and Liz Dutra, Conservation Program Manager, measured char heights to assess the fire intensity after our restoration site at the USCG Richmond site had a wildfire. Why do we do this? Measuring char height intensity can tell us how intense the fires burned within the Pine Rockland. As you may know, our Pine Rockland Initiative aims to restore and enhance these vital ecosystems through thoughtful management strategies of Pine Rockland fragments on both public and private lands throughout the range of Pine Rocklands. This includes providing well-informed leadership needed to move beyond "business as usual" and save this unique part of our natural heritage. Photos by Liz Dutra * * * * * #FromtheFieldFriday #IRC #InstituteforRegionalConservation #PineRocklandInitiative #PRI #PineRockland #EcologicalRestoration #EcosystemRestoration #HabitatRestoration #nonnativeplant #invasiveplant #wildfire