Let's Be A Good Neighbor to the Lagoon

10/28/2026

👻 Haunting music

Species spotlight: Scrub ghost pipe (Monotropa brittonii)

You may see ghost pipes out of the corner of your eye, growing beneath the trees in the deep, shady wilderness. These plants spend most of their lives hidden away underground, but when conditions are right, they emerge from the shadows with frightening flowers.

Their ghastly stalks and flowers are eerily white and turn a dark coal black when they die. Ghost pipes have no chlorophyll, and they don’t photosynthesize. Instead, they indirectly steal nutrients from other plants by tapping into a massive subterranean network of fungi.

At least 80% of plants are known to have symbiotic relationships with underground fungi. Plants give sugars from photosynthesis to their fungal friends in exchange for water and nutrients from the soil. They also create a sort of below-ground information highway, allowing plants to pass along signals to each other.

Ghost pipes hack into this fungal wood wide web and feed off the nutrient exchange network. It’s a hauntingly unique method of obtaining nutrients. They closely resemble the flowers of blueberries and cranberries, to which ghost pipes are closely related.

👻 Explore more spooky natural history: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover/story/spooky-natural-history/

Photo by Liz West, CC BY

10/28/2026

See the art. Meet the artists.

Join us at the ELC on November 11 from 4–6 PM for a FREE Artist Meet & Greet with artists from Palm House Gallery & Studio.

Explore “Reflections: Past, Present, and Future,” featuring work by 16 artists, and hear the stories behind the pieces on display. Bring a friend. Everyone is welcome.

The exhibition features Ambrus Diossy, Hank Feeley, Gerry Geary, Dede Gilbert, Xaque Gruber, Rick Kelly, Madeline Long, Liz Mayo, Leslie McGuirk, Suzy Mellott, Lee Moore, Sean Sexton, Barbara Tiffany, Emily Tremml, Janet Tribus, and Anneli Zeck.

Save November 21 for more artist events, including a creative workshop, painting demonstration, and roundtable.

RSVP and learn more:
https://www.discoverelc.org/palm-house-gallery/

10/28/2026

10/28/2026

Small bee, major shimmer! ✨ Meet the metallic green sweat bee, a tiny native pollinator with an eye-catching glow and an important role in helping flowering plants thrive. 🌼

Our Pollinator Passport series is checking in with the little visitors that keep our ecosystems buzzing. Want to give these native pollinators a warm welcome? Add pollinator-friendly native plants to your landscape and make your garden their next stop! 🌱

Seeing native pollinators in your garden? Tell us in the comments!

Photo: Mary Keim

10/28/2026

Hobart Scrub: The County Made the Right Call

Hobart Scrub won’t be bought with conservation bond money, at least not at the seller’s price. On October 20, the County Commission passed on the 161.87-acre purchase after the owner held firm at $25 million, well above the roughly $19.35 million the county’s two independent appraisals supported. Taking the deal would have spent half of the $50 million Environmental Lands Acquisition Bond on a single property.

That’s disappointing for a beautiful piece of scrub, but it was the right decision, and the commission deserves credit for making it.

IRNA worked alongside the Indian River Land Trust, Pelican Island Audubon Society and others to pass that bond in 2022. Voters approved it by 78.2% to protect water and habitat across the whole county, not to overpay for one tract. Spending half the fund here would have meant passing on other sensitive land down the road. Holding to the appraisals protects taxpayers and keeps the program credible. In fact, Florida law and county policy don’t allow the county to pay more than the average of its independent appraisals.

Hobart Scrub is still worth saving. Its deep sand soaks rain into the aquifer instead of sending runoff toward the lagoon, and it’s home to Florida scrub-jays and gopher tortoises, whose burrows shelter hundreds of other species. Florida has already lost most of its scrub to development.

The owner says the property is a good deal for development. Maybe so. He has it under contract with Pulte Homes for that same $25 million, but most of Pulte’s money isn’t due until 2028 and 2029, only if the property gets rezoned, and the owner keeps 19 acres for 340 apartments. The county was asked to pay the full price up front for all of it. If development goes forward, expect some very nice (and expensive) homes once you factor in relocating gopher tortoises from at least 285 burrows and grading a sand ridge. Good luck in this housing market.

If the price comes back down to earth, we hope the county returns to the table. In the meantime, the bond money is still there for other priority lands, which is exactly how it should be. And as the owner’s rezoning request heads toward public hearings, IRNA will be reading it closely.

Thank you to the commission and county staff for being good stewards of the bond voters trusted them with.

10/28/2026

Students - come join us on Friday, November 6th at the USF St. Pete STEM DAY FAIR from 3-6 p.m.!