The Plant Rescue Project and How It Works!
By JENNIFER CORDIER Plant Rescue Team

Here volunteers work with the Flame Azalea.

The Plant Rescue Project is not a new idea and is certainly not unique to the North Georgia and Western North Carolina mountain communities. The Georgia Native Plant Society has had an active Plant Rescue Project for many years and has been successfully working with developers and landowners in the Atlanta area to preserve and protect native plants. The United Plant Savers, a national organization with offices in Vermont, has been active since the early 1990's, initiating programs designed to preserve important wild medicinal plants. Many concerned individuals have "rescued" plants about to be bulldozed and have created native plant sanctuaries on their property. As the North Georgia and Western North Carolina mountains experience rapid development and triple digit population growth, it is essential that attention be turned to our mountain ecosystems and our native plant habitats.

The Preservation Committee of the Community Council of the Georgia Mountain Research and Education Center was formed in 2004, setting a goal to protect and preserve the native plants in our area which includes Union, Fannin and Towns counties in Georgia as well as Cherokee and Clay counties in North Carolina. The committee is pursuing that goal through community education and community action. Native plant demonstration gardens and trails at the Georgia Mountain Research and Education Center, as well as free seminars and bi-monthly newspaper articles, serve the education arm of the Preservation Committee. The Plant Rescue Project aids education and follows through with community action.

Here a site survey is conducted by Plant Rescue.

How does the Plant Rescue Project work?

1) Volunteers: The Plant Rescue Team is comprised of volunteers who are interested in preserving native plants and who are willing to survey development property and help move plants that may be in "harm's way". The goal of the team is to work with landowners to identify important plants on the property before the property has been under brushed and the building site cleared. Too often valuable plants such as flame azalea, lady's slippers, carolina allspice, and sourwood and dogwood trees are needlessly removed, when an initial survey might have saved or relocated those plants.

A native plant i s found and tagge d to be res- cued.

2) Developers and Landowners: Property owners who understand the environmental and economic importance of preserving native plants, contact the Plant Rescue Project to request a site survey.

3)Permission: A plant rescue team facilitator meets with the property owner and obtains a property plat and written permission to conduct a site survey. The landowner and facilitator set a survey date.

4) Site Survey: Members if the Plant Rescue Team conduct a survey of the property, flagging those trees, shrubs and native plants that are important and valuable to the property and to the property owner.

5) Plant Rescue: Following the site survey and before building begins, the Plant Rescue Team sets a date with the land owner to visit the site and remove any plants that are in "harm's way" and that can successfully be transplanted to a safe haven. Many of the rescued plants are re-planted in the demonstration gardens at the Georgia Mountain Research and Education Center.

Darin Bender of Bender Realty in Hiawassee, Georgia, recently requested a site survey of a fifty acre parcel being developed in Towns County, Georgia. The Plant Rescue Team conducted several site visits, surveying and flagging many valuable plants throughout the property. As development proceeds, those plants will, ideally, be preserved on the property or possibly transplanted to another location.

For more information about site surveys and the Plant Rescue Project contact: Jennifer Cordie, 706-745-9317, ivylog@alltel.net; Glen Henderson, 706-745-1840, abletinker@aol.com or Joyce Hall, 706-781-9816, joycehall113@ hotmail.com.