Presidents message

Cumberland Pitch Pine Barrens of Pine Mountain, a rare community in Kentucky

Hello fellow native plant enthusiasts.  It’s been roughly 6 months since the pandemic took hold of our daily lives.  Plans were put on hold.  Refocused efforts on health and safety of our families and friends immediately became priority.  KNPS had started out the year with a lot of momentum with our strategic planning meeting, and I would like to personally thank our board member Jeff Nelson for leading this effort.  Our committee members were planning hikes, symposiums, seed exchanges, forming an official plant conservation alliance, and bringing back our native plant stewardship program.  But these plans quickly had to be canceled or postponed out of caution for our members and friends.  So much uncertainty affected everyone and it does not seem to be getting any better at this time.  Life is precious and we only have one chance to live it.  It’s okay to switch gears in order to remain focused on what is fundamentally most important.  Despite all the unexpected events of this year, our online newsletter continued with some really great articles.  I want to personally thank Susan Harkins, our editor in chief, for all her work organizing and publishing The Lady Slipper along with coeditor and EKU student Nick Koenig. 

We are now beginning to regroup and plan for a virtual meeting this fall.  In the meantime, I know many of you all have been getting outside and continuing to find solace and comfort in the constant yet ever changing natural world, where spring fades to summer, fall, and the inevitable winter,  always changing, yet always there for us to witness all of the amazing diversity we have outside our back doors.  Seek out diversity of the plants in our natural areas, as well as the company you keep.  It’s important.  We will all come together again eventually, but until then let’s navigate this virtual world. 

Join our Facebook and Instagram groups.  Join the discussions.  Don’t forget to document your observations on our naturalist projects for documenting native plants on roadsides and our Botanists Big Year 2020, https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/kentucky-roadside-native-plants and https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/kentucky-botanists-big-year-2020.  If you are interested in helping with any of our ongoing plant conservation projects, please contact us to find ways to plug you into some of our ongoing projects that we coordinate through the Office of Kentucky Nature preserves.   

Tara R. Littlefield, KNPS president and Kentucky Plant Conservation Coordinator

Above are a few of the interesting plants and communities I have worked on this year, from remnant grasslands in our natural areas, powerline and roadsides, to seeps/bogs and orchid restoration, and forest biodiversity surveys. Kentucky is such a beautiful state with so much diversity! T.R. Littlefield