Joint Report by the Past President and Policy and Legislation Committee
FNPS Executive Committee Meeting
July 17, 2010
Although my appointment as Chair of Policy and Legislation has not been formalized, I have undertaken some actions in that capacity and wish to summarize them as the Committee report. In addition, as Past President, Ann assigned me to continue coordinating with other native plant societies from throughout the Southeastern US in order to organize a 2nd Annual Summit, to be conducted in association with the Cullowhee Conference in July 2011. The proposed Policy and Legislation budget includes funds to support FNPS attendance of the second Summit.
The follow-up communication to the native plant societies that attended and/or were invited to the Summit explained the very positive result of the Summit, which is largely summarized by the attached work plan. FNPS will need to identify representatives to serve on each of the committees that will be formed to implement the plan. Please review it and be prepared to identify qualified FNPS members to serve on each of the committees.
The Policy related actions centered on review of a proposal by the Suwannee River Water Management District to declare specific tracts of lands as “surplus”, i.e. no longer needed for conservation purposes, and then sell those lands back into private ownership. Our review resulted in submittal of a letter protesting their proposed action, which unfortunately was unanimously approved by the SRWMD Governing Board at their June meeting, and subsequent submittal of a follow-up letter that was jointly prepared and submitted by FNPS, Florida Audubon, Defenders of Wildlife, Florida Wildlife Federation, and The Nature Conservancy. Both letters are attached for your review and an update on the status of the SRWMD issue will be provided at the meeting.