Re: Native Plant Rescue

**"* W* G* <t*@earthlink.net>**

Lois: Boy, have things changed since you left! We now have foreign import garages, more trendy restaurants than you could count on a kudzu root, and the old grindhouse and porn movie house on Biltmore, now shows art films. But still waters run deep and there's always that element that wants to cut down every tree and build a new condo.

I did my basic training at Ft Dix and remember hikes through the barrens including one time I got in big trouble for staying on the ground too long (small planes flew overhead to drop bombs made of paper sacs full of flour) when the sergeant said "Everybody, down!" Unfortunately, I found my eye about two inches away from some flowering pixie-moss ( Pyxidanthera barbulata), that were in full bloom and very beautiful. 

Would love to see the ferns and will let you know when next I come up your way to lecture.

All best, Peter

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <loisdan@juno.com>
To: <gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>
Cc: <gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 11:01 AM
Subject: Re: [GWL] Native Plant Rescue

> Hi Peter,
> 
> My stint in Cherokee ran from 1972 through 1978; Asheville's biggest
> claim to fame was that you could get your car fixed at Sears. The
> Biltmore Estate was closed to the public because it was in such
> disrepair. The big plant scavenger hunt in the mountains was always for
> ginseng. I know there have been drastic changes since then. 
> 
> I'm quite a bit north of the Pine Barrens, in Sussex County. In the last
> two years, there have been stories in my local paper about cranberry
> farmers overstepping the bounds of their permits and the like, but the
> most egregious assaults have come from the building lobby, which is
> trying to convince the legislature that there just isn't enough land in
> South Jersey and that some new towns should be built inside the protected
> area in order to accommodate them. 
> 
> New Jersey is run by the building industry and those towns in the North
> that are outside the Highlands protection area have targets on their
> foreheads. One of those would be my town. We have an activist
> Environmental Commission, which I chair but like many, we first had to
> apply triage to development proposals before we could turn our attention
> to educating other township officials about such things as habitat and
> rare plant communities.
> 
> I see native plants as the next big trend here. Ordinary people are very
> concerned and want us to post pictures of invasives on the town web site.
> We have two Master Gardeners on the Environmental Commission and a third
> is the wife of our Planning Board Chair. Our local MG group will meet in
> January to form a separate sub-group devoted just to native plants. I
> already received a positive response to the idea of a plant rescue group.
> 
> Peter, please contact me offline if you come up this way. Andover
> Township has an abundance of limestone fens, some on property protected
> by The Nature Conservancy and there are globally rare habitats here.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Lois J. de Vries
> PO Box 125
> Lafayette, NJ 07848
> 973-383-0497; Visit http://loisdevries.blogspot.com
> 
> On Mon, 31 Dec 2007 09:14:26 -0500 "The Wild Gardener"
> <thewildgardener@earthlink.net> writes:
>> Lois: Down here in the mountains around Asheville, we've been out 
>> saving 
>> plants--to my own knowledge--some fifteen years. My books on native 
>> plants 
>> continue to sell and I lecture (for whatever the specific group can 
>> afford) 
>> on growing and preserving native plants. The local Botanical Gardens 
>> at 
>> Asheville and the bigger North Carolina Arboretum, not to mention 
>> all the 
>> Master Gardeners, answer calls whenever land is up for 
>> development--which 
>> now seems to be all the time. The NPS actually impregnates 
>> unspecified 
>> collections of galax and other rare medicinals with fluorescent 
>> dyes. And 
>> the days of collecting, then selling wild orchids only happens these 
>> days in 
>> Hendersonville. Out biggest battle is the fight between craftspeople 
>> who 
>> dote on Japanese honeysuckle and the preservationists, like the rest 
>> of us, 
>> who want it outlawed forever.
>> What's happening with the Pine Barrens?
>> Regards, Peter
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: <loisdan@juno.com>
>> To: <gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2007 5:57 PM
>> Subject: [GWL] Native Plant Rescue
>> 
>> 
>> > Hi All,
>> >
>> > I thought some of you who are Master Gardeners, or otherwise 
>> involved
>> > with your local extension service, might be interested in this 
>> article
>> > 
>>
> <http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20071230/NEWS/712300306/1018/SERVICE
>> > S03/NEWS/Rescuing_native_plants>. As a former resident of the 
>> Great
>> > Smokies in North Carolina, I'm glad to see that some people are 
>> taking
>> > action before it is too late.
>> >
>> > Regards,
>> > Lois de Vries
>> > Visit http://loisdevries.blogspot.com
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> 
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