GNPS Volunteers Distribute Ferns to Conservation Sites
Volunteers installing ferns for Piedmont Park Conservancy
Ferns aren’t the showiest of plants but they can have important uses in conservation. GNPS volunteers just completed 10 rescues of Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) from a construction site in Gainesville, GA. This effort resulted in thousands of plants being saved. These ferns were planted at an array of conservation sites and parks in Georgia, many of them by the same volunteers who dug them.
These rescues were in coordination with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GA DNR) and Georgia State Parks. The site being developed is owned by them and will be the home of a new regional headquarters.
GNPS is grateful that we had the time and resources to rescue thousands of plants – mostly ferns – and get these plants to projects that are replacing invasive plants – particularly the invasive Autumn fern – or adding to the natural beauty of Georgia’s parks.
Here are where most of those plants found new homes:
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Four State Parks: Don Carter SP, Black Rock Mountain SP, Tallulah Gorge SP, and Chattahoochee
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Bend SP. Plants at Don Carter SP were installed by GNPS volunteers for beautification.
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Herbert Taylor Park & Daniel Johnson Park in Atlanta – replanted in areas where volunteers removed invasive Liriope and for bank stabilization on a steep slope
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Zonolite Park in Atlanta
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Proctor Creek restoration project in Mozley Park in Atlanta
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South Fork Conservancy for a streambank project in Atlanta
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Glen Emerald Park in Atlanta
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Deepdene Park in Atlanta; the Birds Georgia team (who participated in the rescue) used them to replace autumn fern
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Piedmont Park on a Trees Atlanta project
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Briarlake Forest in Decatur
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Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve in Decatur; removed a large area of autumn ferns and replaced them with Christmas ferns along a hill and drainage ditch near the front of the preserve
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Woodlands Garden in Decatur; these were used to revegetate a slope where volunteers worked to remove English ivy
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Mill Creek Nature Center in Buford
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Hunter-Walker Trail greenspace restoration project in Norcross
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Sandy Creek Nature Center in Athens to replace some autumn ferns
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American Legion/The Redbud Project native plant project in Gainesville
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Wilshire Trails Garden in Gainesville
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Tumbling Creek Woods at the University of North Georgia in Oakwood
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Harold Cox Nature Garden at Stone Mountain Park
Rescuing native plants is part of the GNPS conservation policy because rescuing plants is a one step in conserving Georgia’s native plants. For rare plants, we work in cooperation with DNR to get them to safe areas such as state parks, but we also work with them and the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance (GPCA) network to rescue and distribute non-rare plants where they can be used, helping to beautify conserved natural areas and stabilize areas when invasive plants are removed.
