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YourHub.com \\ Stuart \\ Stories \\ Non-profit Organizations \\ Volunteers

Stuart's Only Urban Forest

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Contributed by: Carlee Weston on 4/18/2007

Restoration of Audubon of Martin County's Possum Long Nature Preserve,
Stuart's only Urban Forest

When you go to Audubon of Martin County's Headquarters, "The Ruth Miles House", 621 Palm Beach Road, Stuart, take a minute to check out the 6 new Slash Pines in the front yard. They are the newest members in Stuart's only Urban Forest. You can't miss them. They're surrounded by PVC pipe to protect them from lawn mowers and to announce to the world, "Hey, look, we're new and we need special TLC until we get our roots down and our heads in the air." These Slash Pines were donated by the Cocoplum Chapter (Martin County) of the Florida Native Plant Society ("FNPS"). Stu Bishop a member of the Cocoplum Chapter delivered them on Thursday, April 12, 2007 and helped Ric Berger and Carlee Weston, Audubon volunteers, plant them in the ground. Thank you FNPS, thank you Joan Bausch for making the motion to donate the trees and thank you Stu Bishop for bringing them and planting them.

There are other changes this year at Audubon of Martin County ("AoMC") headquarters. Thanks to the volunteer work of Lucido and Associates, there's a new parking lot, a paver walkway from the parking lot to the front door and another from Palm Beach Road. They also rejuvenated the existing landscaping and added lots of new landscaping around the Ruth Miles House. A very big Thank you, Lucido and Associates.

Other changes of note: The tangle of exotic invasive pest plants along the north side of the Ruth Miles House property has been almost totally removed thanks to the Possum Long Worker Bees. (The Worker Bees are a group of volunteers who gather once a month, October - April, to work on the grounds of Possum Long.) The Ruth Miles House is part of the 6 acre Audubon property currently being restored as a Nature Preserve in the middle of downtown Stuart. If you are interested in joining the Worker Bees to get free exercise, meet a group of hard working, enthusiastic people and enjoy good food, call AoMC at 772-288-2637.

Beneath the "tangle" several stalwart Florida native plants were uncovered including several Sabal Palms, a Gumbo Limbo and several Wild Coffee plants. These will hopefully be joined soon by other native plants. Nursery grown Florida native plants are more expensive to purchase than your trucked in exotics, however, they are well adapted to our environment and provide much needed food and shelter to our feathered friends and other wildlife. Once established, they are very drought tolerant which makes them economical in the long run as water becomes an even more precious resource. Anyone wishing to make a donation toward the purchase of additional native plants for the Possum Long Nature Preserve restoration, please contact Ric Berger, AoMC Property Mgr., at 772-286-0634 for more information.

Work has continued in the ex-Mahoe field. This 10,000 square ft. field, the equivalent of two building lots, which fronts on Hibiscus Street was cleared last year by the Worker Bees. It could not have been done without their donation of over 800 hours of hard work. They removed one Mahoe tree that had taken over the entire space. The Mahoe provided no food or nesting for birds and as it continued to spread, it was rapidly killing every plant and tree in its path. It is now an open field. Two walking paths have been established (a special thanks to neighborhood resident Anika Vin) and work is underway on a third path. Thanks to the regular care given by Pam Hopkins, the plants and trees put in last year (marked with green flags) are doing well and those plants waiting to be planted have been kept healthy. The removal of "uninvited" plants, leveling of stump holes and new plantings with Florida Native Plants will continue as funds and volunteer labor are available.

Thanks to all our volunteers. Your labors will not be in vain. As the areas of native habitat are lost around us, sanctuaries such as Possum Long will be even more vital to the bird and wildlife populations in Martin County and Possum Long Nature Preserve will serve as a restful retreat for its human citizens as well.

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Submitted By: Ed Fisher

posted on 5/12/2007 @ 10:49:31 AM

Rated Story

Carlee- thanks for the very informative story about Possum Long. I'm doing a new website for AoMC and would publish any writing you care to submit about nature activities in our area. Ed Fisher aomcfl@yahoo.com

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