Ixia Chapter -- Florida Native Plant Society

The Ixia Chapter Conservation Newsletter is written by Chadd Scott, an art, culture & travel writer, talk radio personality, and podcast producer and coach as well as the Ixia Chapter Conservation Chair. To receive his weekly Conservation Newsletter directly to your email, complete the Subscribe form at the bottom of this page. Past issues are listed below the latest newsletter

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Conservation Newsletter, May 9, 2021

A new, peer-reviewed study by scientists at the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the
Earth and the University of Maryland shows how pesticides devastate soil life. The work represents
the largest, most comprehensive review of its kind ever done.

Just one shovelful of healthy soil contains more living organisms than the planet has human beings.
This subterranean community grows our food, filters our water, recycles nutrients and helping
regulate the Earth's temperature among its many benefits. Native plants, of course, support this
web of soil life.

Much of this is overlooked by the Environmental Protection Agency when approves pesticides for
ornamental, non-native plants, lawns and row crops; it doesn’t consider how pesticides affect
beneficial, soil-dwelling invertebrates like earthworms, ants, beetles and ground-nesting bees.

You can tell the EPA to protect our soil by sending this automated email message.

DYK: glyphosate, the active poison in Roundup, which is used ubiquitously by the tens of millions
of gallons annually across America by farmers, homeowners and municipalities to kill insects,
invasive plants, “weeds” – and which kills pretty much everything else it comes in contact with
from bees to manatees and people and soil life – was once banned in the U.S. as a cancer causing
chemical? It was removed from that classification by the Reagan Administration. More than 20
countries around the world, including Mexico, ban the use of glyphosate, but not the United Sates.

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Environmentalists are using Orange County’s recently passed “Rights of Nature” law to sue a
developer from filling in 115 acres of wetlands for a mammoth project near Lake Nona. Among the
defendants are two lakes, two creeks and a marsh. The “Rights of Nature” movement seeks to
establish, and then defend in court when necessary, nature’s inalienable rights to exist and
flourish.

“Rights of Nature” is a relatively new pursuit among the conservation community, as is “30 x 30” –
a global effort to protect 30% of all the earth’s land and water in a natural condition by 2030.
“Natural condition” doesn’t mean “wild,” so ranchers, farmers and private landowners will be a
major part of this effort.

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The Biden Administration this week announced it has committed the nation to protecting “30 x 30”
under executive order. We have a long way to go. Only roughly 12% of land in the U.S. is under any
type of environmental protection and reaching 30% would require the addition of land equal to about
the size of Texas – times 2.

“30 x 30” is an effort to simultaneously fight climate change and biodiversity collapse.

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Great news here, Delaware has banned the import and sale of invasive plants!

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Protecting the environment can often seem like a fatiguing series of losses. This week on my
“Welcome to Florida” podcast, I highlighted the biggest environmental “win” in state history –
stopping the Everglades Jet Port. I also explain what is meant by “environmental justice” using an
ongoing example from Big Sugar.

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Conservation

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The mission of the Florida Native Plant Society is to promote the preservation, conservation, and restoration of the native plants and native plant communities of Florida.