May 2025 Meeting Minutes
Heartland CISMA Meeting
5/14/2025
Forestry Office, Lakeland
Mona, Mike, Kristen, Mary, Andrew Black – in person
Marissa, Andrew West, Olivia Husik, Olivia Wetsch, Richard Larson, Jackson – online
10:10 am start time
ROUND ROBIN
Mike – No ideas about budget yet due to legislature, working on pre-bid quotes. Hoping to get results out some time in June. Went through project rankings from West Central Working Group meeting. Will try to bid out 4 large projects and see what happens from there. Federal employees struggling, low staff – trying to come up with plans and strategies to help out. Americorps not funded this year, state parks only funded through the rest of this fiscal year and uncertain after that. DEP funding through OPS positions. Garden of Evil – Mike will not always be able to facilitate, Mike and Shannon discussed making SOP for GoE for future facilitators – funding sources? First step is establishing basic standard procedures. Maybe IFAS will continue, unknown at this time.
Mona – Fire prep, NRCS rankings for funding(?). Ambitions for landowner involvement in CISMA, will be working on that going forward. NRCS is currently the only place landowners can receive assistance for invasive control. NRCS takes applications year round, but funding cycles only occur once per year. Will be reaching out at various Landowner Expos, expanding beyond Polk County. Targeting ranchers as well as ag.
North FL has put together an Rx fire council, where landowners are creating their own groups to get things done, due to the nature of uncertain availability of external programs/organizations.
Mary – Wildlife monitoring, wrapping up sand skinks/starting Bachman’s sparrows next week, planning for scrub jays. Working on new plans/protocols for invasive treatments & monitoring with staff in new roles
Andrew Black – Newest member of Heartland CISMA, took over Kristen’s old region, she’s in Highlands County now. Working on uplands ranking projects
Kristen – Drone mapping for pre- and post-treatments in Highlands county
Andrew West – “Newish” to group, just had ranking meeting for Treasure Coast. Contractors coming through and taking advantage of dry season doing fire prep in natural areas.
Olivia H – Works for city of WH in NR division, just opened new nature park and doing outreach events – saw two red headed agamas the other day right outside city hall
- Commentary: Florida’s Natural plant is a hotspot for hitchhiking invasive reptiles
Marissa – Biologist at Polk County Mosquito Control, acting as source for snake freezer
Olivia W – Somewhat new to group, biologist at LWRSF. Techs completing large invasives projects, working on five-year plan. Working on looking for internal funding in case FWC can’t fully fund West Central Working Group project. FWC wants to know how they can help in ways other than funding as well.
Richard – Pine plantings, landowner technical assistance, 100-acre treatment currently on cogon, BP, rosary pea at PR state forest (?). Found paragrass and limpograss
Jackson – Hoping rains hold out for a while so they can adequately prepare for mosquito season. Haven’t seen jump in numbers yet. In process of finalizing new chemical building at Natural Resources Complex for Mosquito Control and Invasives techs to utilize. In middle of SIT program, releasing mosquitoes – trapping and not finding females yet. Four more weeks to go, the rains this past week gives them a chance to reproduce and see results. Working on budget and keeping an eye on agamas. Saw family of rock agamas at convenience store recently. Mona requested traps for her area in Pasco County, Jackson agreed to accommodate. Marissa has seen a brown basilisk at Mosquito Control office
WORKSHOP DISCUSSION
Mona – 48 attendees day 1, 27 attendees day 2
Olivia H – Went well, everyone enjoyed, drone was very cool but issues with overheating. Maybe future drone demos can occur earlier in the morning?
Kristen – Tablet is what overheated, working on solutions.
Mona hopes Shannon will be at next meeting to rehash and discuss ideas. Suggested Polk County Fire as resource for information on keeping tech cool
Mike – Overall good reviews, nothing specific from attendees
Andrew B – Plant ID much better to learn with GoE than just using pictures
Mona – We like doing workshops at Circle B, maybe putting signage to help people find their way into building? 40 seats + 20 tables = very crowded Day 1. Solutions for accommodating larger groups? New location? Different setup?
We should be able to share Cloud link or something using Microsoft sharing because we can’t upload presentations to the website anymore – OneDrive?
Mike – People can email and ask for presentations, we can turn them into PDFs and downsize/send back in an email
Shannon will be sending out survey some time in the next week
Mona – Getting giveaways to us earlier so we can plan to set up and hand out?
Mona has started attending Suncoast CISMA, they have workshops coming up soon and Mona will work on sending out information for those.
Next CISMA meeting July 9th at Bartow office/Teams
IDEAS FOR NEW PRESENTATIONS
Cogongrass Biocontrol presenter still on board for doing future event, Mona asks for ideas throughout the year so we can plan next workshop
Andrew W – Idea for presenters: Lakes and Rivers group, has been spraying paragrass so their group can discuss what’s involved/challenges
Andrew B likes reptile talks, referenced python talk from workshop 2 years ago
Olivia W – Someone mentioned a demonstration suggestion for how to clean vehicles, i.e. undercarriage seeds, etc. General decontam protocol – Andrew B offered to do demo
Mona suggested Andrew B uses cattle rancher connections to provide barbecue catering
BIG thanks to Cheryl for being able to sponsor catering for this last workshop!
Light snacks are a great call to keep people engaged before lunch. Sandwiches and fruit/veg best option so people don’t get sluggish
FISC GRANT
Mona would like to update existing ID flip-deck
Andrew B recommended Jack Jordan, he’s an engineer and plants are his hobby. He’s got spreadsheets full of information
Andrew B likes hands-on experiences, seeing plants in the landscape
Mona showed multiple flip decks to group, highlighted different features – would love to see flipdeck with Exotic AND Lookalike info – Uplands AND Aquatic?
Mike doesn’t think we will have enough time this year. Work with FNAI for lookalike presentations/printing out cards of their handouts?
Mike suggested utilizing main office in Tallahassee to print some materials
Discussion about ways to teach material – using technical terminology vs. layman’s terms?
We have time to submit drafts, up to 3 months after award announcement
Mary and Andrew B will work on writing and submitting grant, Mona will assist and we will possibly include Shannon if needed. Olivia Wetsch has also offered to help with the grant writing process
FISC SYMPOSIUM
Mike – Interesting talks, ear leaf acacia biocontrols in the works (multiple biocontrols – do they compete?)
SEAS TO TREES
First day CISMA meeting, animal EDRR list – a little more difficult than plants because animals are mobile
CHAIR/CO-CHAIR/ETC DUTIES
Set up TEAMS call with current, past, future chairs to discuss duties
Keeping up with CISMA emails
Social media presence for CISMA? Working on website? – Olivia H happy to help out with Instagram and social media, will try website but no guarantees – will discuss when Shannon returns
Group effort! Yay!
Kristen and Mary discussed exploring the website and potentially handling that together(?) – if not, will reach out for other assistance
WHAT NEXT?
List of items from January – Mini workshop? Presentation series? Event? Grass workshops for Oct/Nov? Aquatics workshop? In-depth uplands species? Can go to any other county in Heartland footprint.
Andrew B – Full-time GoE setup? Mike and Shannon have already talked about building a greenhouse to remove logistical and transportation difficulties, having dedicated people to water plants, etc.
Mary – Field trip ID series, go to properties in different counties to see invasives in landscape. Focus on plants that aren’t as well known to increase exposure to real-life examples
Mona – Schedule any field trips on weekdays, accommodate peoples’ schedules – poll of which species they want to see, travel ability, schedules, etc.?
Mike – Put together list of ideas and send email out to everyone for thoughts on what’s next
Andrew B – Biocontrol demonstrations in the field
Mike – Send email to steering committee folks with options to poll interest
Andrew B – FFA kids have interest in ecological integrity; involve them in some outreach and education events
Mona has lots of material regarding job opportunities, uses at events such as Great American Teach-In to generate interest and engagement. Our goal is to corral landowners and land managers
Olivia W – Enjoys field trip series ID idea, perhaps incorporating elements like post-burn response etc. – knows there will be interest from State Forest. Has done some of these before
Mike asks about logistics for those events?
Olivia says most people attending were land managers/agency people who came in their own trucks
Jackson has done field trips with Parks Service, sent out invitations to interagency folks and logistics can be a challenge. Likes the idea of seeing biocontrols in action
Jackson – May have been good to get survey from people at small workshops, maybe do surveys in the future to see what people want and what it will take for them to participate in excursions/in general
We can add Jackson’s questions to Shannon’s survey BEFORE she sends out next week
Air potato beetle released at Paynes Creek in the past – still active in a lot of places, seems to have maintained viable populations in county
Mona – Released air potato beetles at her parents’ house 8-9 years ago, they’re still there and come back every year
Jackson – Anyone using other control methods in addition the beetle? What else is being done? Herbicides, or do we want to keep a small amount of air potato plant to keep the beetle fed? They won’t likely eat all the air potato so they can continue their food source
Mike – Air potato senesces, beetle struggles during that time
Jackson – Interested in keeping an eye on the plant and the ways the plant and beetle coexist and adapt
Adjourn 11:56
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Post-Meeting Action Items:
Mike:
- Email notes/pertinent information to Steering Committee
- Mona emphasized that not everyone may be on the existing mailing list, as there are some newer Steering Committee members
- Send out poll for interest about different “event” ideas
Mary:
- Create TEAMS group for those interested in helping with FISC grant (currently Mary, Andrew Black, Mona, Olivia Wetsch)
- Set up “Chairs” Meeting (past, present, future chairs)
- Create general task list & Annual Workshop checklist; have members volunteer for tasks and assign
Mary and Kristen:
- Explore CISMA website, determine if it’s something we want to work on or reach out for other help
