{"id":2399,"date":"2021-11-22T16:12:28","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T16:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.floridainvasives.org\/heartland\/?page_id=2399"},"modified":"2026-01-29T19:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:54:07","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.floridainvasives.org\/heartland\/about-us\/","title":{"rendered":"About Us!"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1617990056084{margin-top: 20px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”About Us!” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Heartland CISMA consists of five counties in west-central Florida including Polk, Hardee, DeSoto, Highlands, and Okeechobee counties. Our landscape contains a variety of ecosystems such as hardwood forested uplands, high pine and scrub, pine flatwoods and dry prairies, freshwater forested and non-forested wetlands, marshes, hardwoods, ponds and lakes, and rivers and streams. Protecting this landscape from invasive species requires a coordinated and dedicated effort to preserve the natural resources of these counties. The Heartland CISMA is one of sixteen statewide regional partnerships to prevent and control invasive species in Florida and works closely with neighboring Central Florida, and Osceola CISMAs.<br\/><\/p>\n

The first formal organized meeting was held in 2009, building on the success of the Lake Wales Ridge Ecosystem Working Group’s Invasive Species Committee. Our goal, then, was to facilitate a network for land managers to address the growing threat of invasive non-native species in west-central portion of Florida. We have since grown to include five counties, establish over twenty partnerships with federal, state, and local government agencies, private landowners, individuals, and various interested groups, and host many educational workshops and workdays. The Heartland CISMA’s mission is to provide the collective outreach, support, and strategic infrastructure to effectively manage invasive species across boundaries in DeSoto, Hardee, Highlands, Okeechobee, and Polk Counties.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none” css=”” css_params=””]<\/p>\n

Chair:<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Mary Apessos<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Biologist<\/span><\/p>\n

Polk County Parks and Natural Resources<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Vice-Chair:<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Olivia Wetsch<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Plant Conservation Biologist<\/p>\n

Forestry<\/p>\n

\n

Secretary:<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Andrew Black<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

FWC<\/p>\n

\n

Contact Us:<\/strong><\/p>\n

heartland@floridainvasives.org<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”2475″ img_size=”medium”][vc_custom_heading text=”Get Involved!” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]See our latest announcements and news, here on our blog.<\/a><\/p>\n

Stay up to date on our upcoming events, here on our events page.<\/a><\/p>\n

See partner job announcements, here on our job board.<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1617990056084{margin-top: 20px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_gallery type=”image_grid” images=”2483,2452,2482,2451,2480,2479,2478,2484,2477″ onclick=”” css=”” css_params=””][vc_custom_heading text=”Join Us: Steering Committee” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]The Steering Committee is a group of passionate resource managers and subject matter experts, who work together as the organizing body of the Heartland CISMA.<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, the steering committee meets for two hours every other month. Additional meetings for the event planning are possible, but everything is voluntary. We believe this is an organization in which you will get from it what you put in, or more.<\/p>\n

If you’re interested in helping drive the conversation around invasive species management in Polk, Hard, DeSoto, Highlands, and Okeechobee counties, please join us! Email us at heartland@floridainvasives.org<\/a><\/p>\n

We are especially interested in recruiting new participation from Hardee, DeSoto, Highlands, and Okeechobee Counties!\u00a0<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1617990056084{margin-top: 20px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”About Us!” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Heartland CISMA consists of five counties in west-central Florida including Polk, Hardee, DeSoto, Highlands, and Okeechobee counties. Our landscape contains a variety of ecosystems such as hardwood forested uplands, high pine and scrub, pine flatwoods and dry prairies, freshwater forested and non-forested wetlands, marshes, hardwoods, ponds and lakes, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2399","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridainvasives.org\/heartland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridainvasives.org\/heartland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridainvasives.org\/heartland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridainvasives.org\/heartland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridainvasives.org\/heartland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2399"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridainvasives.org\/heartland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2855,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridainvasives.org\/heartland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2399\/revisions\/2855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridainvasives.org\/heartland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}