The Institute for Regional Conservation
Conservation of rare plants, animals, and ecosystems

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May 4, 2023 - IRC held a webinar titled "Emerging Invasives in Coastal Ecosystems" where we highlighted 17 species of nonnative plants that we believe have the potential to become problematic invasive species. Our hope is that early intervention by homeowners and land managers can prevent these species from taking hold. To view the recording, click here

April 29, 2023 - IRC teamed up with the City of Boca Raton Office of Sustainability to participate in the global "City Nature Challenge" by holding a bioblitz at Spanish River Park on Saturday, April 29. IRC staff members Cara Abbott, Kelly McLoughlin, and Michelle Smith took participants on a guided walk around the park, teaching them about coastal ecosystems and the diverse native plants that inhabit them. Participants learned to identify several rare species and report their findings in iNaturalist. For more photos from the event, click here.

On Monday, April 24, IRC Assistant Director of Programs, Cara Abbott, was invited to speak at the quarterly Town of Jupiter Beach Committee meeting. Her presentation gave background into IRC's Restoring the Gold Coast Program and discussed the importance of dune restoration. We are thankful for this opportunity and hope to collaborate with the Town of Jupiter soon!

On March 31, 2023, IRC held an educational event all about coastal conservation with elementary homeschoolers and their families at Red Reef Park in Boca Raton as part of our Restoring the Gold Coast Program. We began the morning with a guided tour, describing our coastal ecosystems, discussing threats these ecosystems face, and pointing out rare native species. We then planted roughly 25 plants including beach morningglory (Ipomoea imperati), sea lavender (Tournefortia gnaphalodes), beach creeper (Ernodea littoralis), and seaside joyweed (Alternanthera maritima). For more photos from the event, click here.

IRC's Coastal Biodiversity Restoration Technician, Kelly McLoughlin, and Program Associate, Michelle Smith, participated in TurtleFest 2023 at Loggerhead Marinelife Center. They handed out educational materials and free native plants to attendees and Kelly gave a featured talk titled "Healthy Dunes". Be sure to check out this great annual event next year!

On March 5, 2023, IRC held an ecological restoration volunteer event at South Beach Park in Boca Raton with Rollins College students. As part of our Restoring the Gold Coast program, the students installed 15 native plants into the dunes, which included inkberry (Scaevola plumieri), sea lavender (Tournefortia gnaphalodes), and baycedar (Suriana maritima). They also removed a giant patch of beach naupaka (Scaevola taccada), in the pioneer zone of the foredune. Thank you, Rollins College students and Keith Buttry with Neglected Plants for all your hard work. For more photos, click here.

February 25, 2023 - We are excited to share that our Restoring the Gold Coast (RGC) program is expanding into northern Palm Beach County! On Saturday, February 25, we held an ecological restoration volunteer day with Loggerhead Marinelife Center (LMC) staff and volunteers along the beach dunes adjacent to LMC (Juno Dunes Natural Area). We planted over 100 plants including sea-oats (Uniola paniculata), beach morningglory (Ipomoea imperati), inkberry (Scaevola plumieri), sea lavender (Tournefortia gnaphalodes), beach creeper (Ernodea littoralis), and beach ragweed (Ambrosia hispida).

Thank you to Neglected Plants, staff and volunteers from LMC, staff from PBC Environmental Resources Management, and staff from PBC Parks and Recreation. Also shout out to Roots n Shoots and Delray Beach Children's Garden for growing and supplying the beach ragweed we used at this planting event!

February 17, 2023 - IRC's Assistant Director of Programs, Cara Abbott, and Coastal Biodiversity Restoration Technician, Kelly McLoughlin, co-led a "Let's Go Explore" hike at Red Reef Park in Boca with the Florida Wildflower Foundation's board member, CJ McCartney. Participants got to hear about the conservation work IRC is conducting at the site while learning about the unique plants that make up beach dunes and coastal strands. Some highlights from the Let's Go Explore field trip included inkberry (Scaevola plumieri), sea lavender (Tournefortia gnaphalodes), beach clustervine (Jacquemontia reclinata), baycedar (Suriana maritima), yellow joyweed (Alternanthera flavescens), and 3 black racers!

January 21, 2023 - Ecological Restoration Volunteer Event at Atlantic Dunes Park (Hands-On) - We continued removing more nonnative, invasive Schinus terebinthifolius (Brazilian-pepper) tree. To restore native biodiversity to the historical coastal strand, we added Agave decipiens (false sisal), Ardisia escallonioides (marlberry), Chamaecrista fasciculata (partridge pea), Citharexylum spinosum (Florida fiddlewood), Coccothrinax argentata (Florida silver palm), Heliotropium polyphyllum (pineland heliotrope), Lantana involucrata (wild-sage), Quadrella cynophallophora (Jamaica caper-tree), and Trichostema dichotomum (forked bluecurls)!

Thank you to the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin County, the City of Delray Beach, Neglected Plants, and our wonderful, hard working volunteers. Without you, we wouldn't be restoring this historical coastal strand habitat!For more photos from the event, click here.

IRC Executive Director, George Gann, gave a presentation titled, "Restoring Resilience and Beauty - The Dunes of Delray Beach" to the general members meeting of the BPOA of Delray Beach.

We had a great turnout at our Ecological Restoration Volunteer Day at Atlantic Dunes Park in Delray Beach on December 3rd. We had beautiful, cool weather to haul away and remove countless Brazilian-pepper branches, Beach naupaka, and Oysterplant (all of which are invasive and harmful to the ecosystem). This hard work made room in the forested area to add plant diversity at future restoration work days. Stay tuned for future volunteer days!

Thank you to the City of Delray Beach, the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin Counties, New York Life, Neglected Plants Nursery and our amazing volunteers!

On Friday, October 21st, IRC collaborated with the Schoolhouse Children's Museum in Boynton Beach to offer "Explore Our Dunes with IRC". Our Coastal Biodiversity Restoration Intern, Kelly McLoughlin, led children aged 3-7 through an exploration of our coastal ecosystem using their 5 senses. They read a book on climate change, did a "build your own dune" activity with real materials from the beach on a piece of paper, and then did a dune immersion activity using the 5 senses talking about what we hear, see, feel, taste, and smell at the beach dunes.

Our first ever Do Good Delray fundraising event, Clash for the Coast, was a huge success! You helped us raise $7,171 for our Restoring the Gold Coast program in Palm Beach County! Thank you to everyone who made this event come together on October 11th. We are so grateful to our sponsors, volunteers and community partners and especially thank our Gold level sponsors: The Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach and Erin L. Deady, P.A.

On October 1st, we collaborated with the City of Boca Raton, Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, Youth Environmental Alliance and volunteers from Office Depot at Red Reef Park in Boca Raton. We planted 100 native plants including Florida Keys blackbead, Florida fiddlewood, Blacktorch, Yellow necklacepod, Corkystem passionflower, Baycedar, Sea-lavender, and others. Volunteers also removed non-native, invasive beach naupaka and picked up trash along the beach to help create healthy dunes for wildlife and humans alike!

On September 24th, we held our Restoring the Gold Coast Program's Phase II Kick Off event at Red Reef Park in Boca Raton. Volunteers focused on removing non-native, invasive plant species from the coastal dune and also helped out-plant the federally and state endanagered beach clustervine (Jacquemontia reclinata). Beach clustervine was grown by Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, thank you! Thank you to New York Life and the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties for funding this important restoration work. For more photos from the event, click here.

IRC's Coastal Biodiversity Restoration Intern, Kelly McLoughlin, had the pleasure of joining the Delray Beach Children's Garden in their Roots n Shoots program! The group talked about beach dune ecosystems, biodiversity, and native plants before they were able to plant propagated natives on their own. We had a blast and look forward to seeing these plants and people again soon for a Restoring the Gold Coast planting event!

As part of the City of Delray Beach's Climate and Art Weekend, George Gann gave a talk titled "Beach Conservation Efforts in Delray Beach - Past and Present" at the beach pavilion located at the Atlantic Ave and A1A intersection. View the video on YouTube

As part of the Society for Ecological Restoration’s “Make a Difference Week”, we worked with volunteers and the City of Boca Raton at the north end of South Beach Park in Boca Raton. We removed two large patches of the invasive Scaevola taccada (Beach naupaka), picked up over 70 pounds of trash from the beach, and planted 10 federally endangered Jacquemontia reclinata (Beach clustervine).

IRC’s Cara Abbott and Atea Anderson set up a booth at this Earth Day event where they gave away native seeds, handed out IRC print materials and recruited future RGC volunteers!

IRC continued work with the City of Boca Raton, Gumbo Limbo Nature Center staff, and volunteers to expand our restoration efforts at Red Reef Park. Together, we removed several large patches of the invasive Scaevola taccada (Beach naupaka) and Tradescantia spathacea (Oysterplant) and also cut back some Coccoloba uvifera (Seagrape).

IRC worked with the City of Boca Raton, Gumbo Limbo Nature Center staff, and volunteers to continue restoration efforts at Red Reef Park. Together, we removed several large patches of the invasive Scaevola taccada (Beach naupaka). We also cut back some sea grapes to open up an area containing a beautiful patch of the federally endangered Jacquemontia reclinata (Beach clustervine) to provide more sunlight. Finally, we increased diversity of native plants in the coastal strand by adding plants such as Serenoa repens (Saw palmetto), Jacquemontia reclinata (Beach clustervine), Ernodea littoralis (Beach- creeper), and Dalea floridana (Florida prairieclover).

IRC held a volunteer day at Atlantic Dunes Park in honor of World Environment Day, the launch of the United Nation's Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and the Society for Ecological Restoration's Make a Difference Week. Volunteers removed invasive species and planted Tephrosia curtissii (Curtiss' hoarypea) (state endangered and IRC critically imperiled) and Dalea floridana (Florida prairieclover) (Federally and state endangered and IRC critically imperiled), which have been grown specially for our RGC project by Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Thank you to New York Life and Pugliese Public Relations for sponsoring this important work!

IRC’s Samantha Gabriel joined the City of Boynton Beach’s drive-thru 200-tree giveaway event for Earth Day 2021. We had a booth to hand out stickers and info on IRC’s work with some of our friends like Community Greening, Sea Turtle Adventures, Surfrider Foundation, Loggerhead Marine Center, and more!

IRC continued restoration work with Neglected Plants, Coastal Growers, Inc., and a few volunteers at Red Reef Park in Boca Raton by improving areas of the park to benefit native coastal plants. To follow up this habitat restoration work, we planted over 130 native plants including Baycedar, Beach morningglory, Blacktorch, Blolly, Marlberry, Saw palmetto, White indigoberry, and much more. These efforts were made possible by a collaboration with Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and the City of Boca Raton.

IRC led 12 members of the Beach Property Owner's Association through a field workshop at Delray Municipal Beach. Participants learned how native plants were added in areas where sea grapes had been trimmed as well as in areas where undesirable invasive species were removed. The benefits of biodiversity were described and shown in the middle of the dune system, which opened several eyes and minds.

IRC worked with small group of volunteers to continue restoration of Delray Municipal Beach IRC continued adding diversity to the dunes at Delray Municipal Beach. We added a variety of hardwoods and herbaceous plants, including Common snowberry, Blolly, Varnishleaf, Beach verbena, Seaside goldenrod, and Marinevine.

IRC worked with small group of volunteers to continue restoration of Atlantic Dunes Park.

Volunteers joined Cara Abbott and Keith Buttry on this chilly morning at Oceanfront Park. We built upon our last planting at this park by adding an additional 125 native plants to the dunes. The City of Boynton Beach coordinated this event with us.

This morning our volunteers added 20 Saw Palmettos in this dune crest which was recently cleared of invasive Brazilian-pepper at Atlantic Dunes Park.

IRC collaborated with Jimmy Lange from Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden at Red Reef Park and South Beach Park in Boca Raton. Together, we removed invasive species such as Scaevola taccada in areas of the parks that may be suitable habitat for the federally endangered Jacquemontia reclinata (beach clustervine). Six J. reclinata plants were added to the park and several were observed naturally occurring at South Beach Park.

IRC worked with the City of Boynton Beach and the Surfrider Foundation to restore native biodiversity in the dunes of Oceanfront Park. The Palm Beach County Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation sponsored this event.

This month IRC began restoration work at Red Reef Park in Boca Raton. After removing patches of invasive Beach naupaka (Scaevola taccada), we added more than 75 plants including Horizontal coco-plum (Chrysobalanus icaco), Yellow neclacepod (Sophora tomentosa var. truncata), Baycedar (Suriana maritima), and Sea-lavender (Tournefortia gnaphalodes).

IRC worked with Under Blue Waters at a planting event in Delray Beach. Led by IRC’s Cara Abbott, campers learned about coastal conservation first hand! They helped plant Sea-lavender and Baycedar plants before spending the rest of their day out on the water. Bob Cawood of Outdoor Youth Adventures helped us coordinate this event and Coastal Growers Inc. donated the plants and helped with the installation and watering of the plants.

IRC continued restoration work at Atlantic Dunes Park. With the support of Coastal Growers Inc., Neglected Native Nursery and a few volunteers, we continued cutting back invasive plants within the park and planted 24 plants of 12 species.

IRC delivered the first batch of purchased biodiversity starter plant kits! We distributed 35 plants from 9 species to 5 sites, which will attract up to 26 species of butterflies or more, including 15 larval host plants and 18 nectar plants. These were assembled from our partner native plant nurseries: Amelia’s Smarty Plants, Indian Trail Native Nursery, Meadow Beauty Nursery, Silent Native Nursery, and George Gann’s private stock.

IRC had the privilege of working with Sea Turtle Adventure's iCare Nature Club and students from St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic School at Gulfstream Park! Participants got to enjoy a beautiful morning on the beach while helping us restore native coastal biodiversity and doing a beach clean up. Specifically, volunteers helped us plant False-sisal (Agave decipiens), Beach ragweed (Ambrosia hispida), Inkberry (Scaevola plumieri), Saw palmetto (Serenoa repens), Bay-cedar (Suriana maritima), and Sea-lavender (Tournefortia gnaphalodes). Link to photos.

IRC's Cara Abbott and Samantha Gabriel held an exhibitor booth at the 21st Annual Everglades Day Festival in Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. They shared with visitors about our Restoring the Gold Coast Program, Pine Rockland Initiative Program, and Natives for Your Neighborhood.

IRC's George Gann spoke at Delray Beach Chamber's Nonprofit Luncheon on The Institute for Regional Conservation: Conservation in a Changing World. George talked about IRC's history, current projects like Restoring the Gold Coast and urged attendees to personally get involved with restoring biodiversity.

IRC took students from Atlantic Community High School on a coastal restoration field trip to Delray Beach! Students learned about restoring coastal biodiversity first hand by helping IRC add 25 Saw palmetto, 2 Myrsine, 2 Florida privet and 1 Spanish stopper into the dunes. Students also worked hard to remove asparagus fern and picked up trash off of the beach. This event was co-sponsored by New York Life Foundation. Link to photos.

We worked with volunteers planting native species including: 26 Serenoa repens (saw palmetto), 3 Flaveria linearis (narrowleaf yellowtop), 2 Tournefortia gnaphalodes (sea-lavender), 1 Dodonaea viscosa var. viscosa (varnishleaf) and 1 Chamaecrista fasciculata (partridge pea); removing invasive species like Scaevola taccada (beach naupaka), Schinus terebinthifolius (Brazilian-pepper), Asystasia gangetica (Chinese-violet), and Sansevieria hyacinthoides (Bowstring-hemp); and picking up 16.73 kg of trash and microplastics and 11.81 kg of recyclables off of the beach. This event was sponsored by Erin Deady Law. Link to photos.

IRC held a workshop on Restoring the Gold Coast in Ocean Ridge at the Ocean Ridge Town Hall. Residents who attended the workshop listened to a presentation from IRC's Chief Conservation Strategist, George Gann, participated in an open forum, and helped plant several native species along the town of Ocean Ridge's easement south of Oceanfront Park. Link to photos.

IRC had the pleasure of taking Earth Science students from Atlantic Community High School on a coastal restoration field trip in Delray Beach! Students learned about restoring coastal biodiversity first hand by helping IRC add native plants to the coastal strand, removing invasive species and picking up trash. Link to photos.

IRC had the pleasure of working with ML61 in Delray Beach. For part of their legacy project, they raised funds to plant a variety of coastal plants including Saw palmettos, Spanish stoppers and blood leaf. They also picked up trash along the beach and in the dunes. Link to photos.

With about 40 volunteers, we planted over a dozen different native species within the dunes including the state listed sea lavender and silver palm at our Restoring the Gold Coast Kick-Off Event. Volunteers also removed Sprenger's asparagus-fern, Wild balsam apple, and St. Augustine grass which are invasive species. Other participants picked up 9.02 kgs of trash and 7.07 kgs of recycling off of the beach and dunes. Link to photos.

IRC's Education and Outreach Coordinator, Cara Abbott, was the guest speaker for Atlantic Community High School's Science National Honor Society’s October Meeting. Students learned about the Restoring the Gold Coast program and how they can get involved with restoring native coastal habitat in Delray Beach! Link to photos.

IRC led Dr. Rachel Wellman's AICE Environmental Management class from Boca Community High on a field trip to South In Park. These Boca Community High School students got hands-on experience restoring coastal biodiversity by planting a fun variety of natives in the maritime hammock. They also picked up trash off the beach and brainstormed solutions to current issues coastal habitats face. Link to photos.

IRC worked with nearly 100 volunteers at the International Coastal Clean-Up event at Atlantic Dunes Park, despite the wind and rain. Participants helped us increase coastal biodiversity by planting native Saw palmetto and Spanish stopper and removing invasive Bowstring hemp (Snake plant), Brazilian pepper, and Beach naupaka. These volunteers also helped remove 64.98 kg of trash (which was mostly comprised of microplastics) and 27.75 kg of recyclables off the beach. Link to photos.