by azhadminKM

As I sit to type my final AZH President’s report, I am a little saddened but also very excited to pass the torch to your new AZH President and board members. It has been an amazing experience to serve on the AZH Board of Directors since 2006 as Treasurer and President. Our organization is led by a passionate and dedicated group of professionals who volunteer their precious time to grow the organization, expand our reach, support our members, and promote zoo horticulture and plant conservation. AZH is unique in the fact that we determine our direction and where we can make the biggest impact through exhibit design, conservation, IPM, or simply promoting the value of horticulture. We need to continue to educate and promote ourselves as the experts in the field of zoo horticulture–not just as an organization but also as individuals.

Each one of you is an expert and plays a vital role in the success of AZH.  I challenge all of you to seek opportunities to become a larger part of the success of AZH by joining a committee, running for a board position, writing articles about your projects, and becoming a mentor to those new to our organization. I thank you for allowing me the opportunity to lead AZH and share in our success.

Soon we will gather here in Naples to educate each other and revive our passion for what we do every day. I cannot thank you enough for your flexibility and support through one of the most difficult experiences of my life. Many of us have experienced natural disasters and I think I can speak for some who will say the phone calls, emails, and messages during that time are often what will get you through the days, weeks, and months of recovery efforts. We have learned a lot about each other and what we can accomplish as a staff and family. We are excited to share our paradise that we call Naples with you and can’t wait to see you!

 

by azhadminKM

The horticulture department kicked off spring this year by giving back to the Florida State Parks community. JZG horticulture technicians went on a trip to lend a hand restoring the wetlands at Deer Lake State Park. Over the last 50 years, due to fire suppression, many of the park’s natural plant inhabitants declined due to being crowded out by other native, yet aggressive growing plant species, especially the native shrub known as black titi (Cyrilla racemiflora).

The mission of this trip was to plant... (Read entire article)

Jennifer Dambrose, Horticulture Technician
Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens

 

 

By Peter Szymczak, publications manager, Oregon Association of Nurseries (Diggermagazine.com)

The horticulture industry must accentuate the positive if it is to cultivate a new crop of plant professionals.

 

The law speaking, goes like this: “You catch more flies with honey than you do attraction, colloquially with vinegar.” The horticulture industry is heeding this homespun wisdom as it tries to attract new workers to its ranks.

There’s good reason for sweetening the pitch. The average age of Oregon farmers and ranchers is at an all-time high — 60 years and climbing. The United States is on the cusp of the largest retirement of farmers in its history, with more farmers over the age of 75 than between the ages of 35 and 44.

Ideally, there would be a new generation to take the outgoing one’s place, but
that is not the case.

A recent survey found only 26 percent of 18–24-year-olds agreed with the statement, “Horticulture is a diverse area of study, and it offers viable, fulfilling and respected career paths.”

Why have young adults today soured on horticulture? Partly because only one percent of the population is farmers, so many simply lack first-hand exposure to ag. The rest have been conditioned to associate jobs in horticulture with long hours, hard work and low pay. (Read full article here.)

 

by azhadminKM

The year is nearly half over and the 2017 AZH annual conference is fast approaching! We are busy planning the details of the conference and tours as well as trying to raise money. Easier said than done, but we keep asking! The pre- and post-conference tours are posted on the AZH annual conference registration site, and don’t miss the sunset cruise icebreaker aboard the Naples Princess—register online to reserve your spot! You can access the registration site via the AZH website or here http://napleszoo.org/azhconference2017.

You can expect sunny days, afternoon rains, and gorgeous sunsets during your visit to paradise. Our theme for the conference is “vintage beach party,” so pack your Hawaiian shirts and grass skirts for the banquet. The Program committee is wrapping up the schedule of educational sessions and we should have the details posted soon with CEUs offered. Applications are being accepted for the 2017 AZH Plant Conservation Grant Program until July 27. We are looking forward to another collection of great conservation projects and partnerships from the AZH membership.

You should have received a survey on traveling exhibits—be sure to complete this as the information collected will be shared at the conference. We are hosting a traveling exhibit this fall so I am eager to hear about other organizations’ experiences. You will be receiving another survey soon on browse species offered to avian species. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums Avian Scientific Advisory Group Chair contacted us for information on what species are used as browse, perching, etc. and we offered to poll AZH members to gather this information for them. Remember that we are the best resource for what we do. We are all—but make some time to share your knowledge with others.

Cant’ wait to see you in September!

 

By Amy Yarger, Horticulture Director

A healthy landscape will foster a complete food web with producers, predators, pollinators, decomposers, and yes, even plant-eaters. When the damage from herbivores exceeds the agreed-upon threshold, horticulturists have a toolbox full of possible management strategies. Fortunate is the horticulturist, however, who can encourage nature to “take its course.” Garden food webs may already include predators and parasites that can make short work of many common garden pests. Some landscapes support diverse trophic levels better than others, however.

It will probably come as no surprise that gardens that sport plants of different heights, shapes, chemical profiles and bloom seasons tend to provide more ecological niches for beneficial insects. The most diverse gardens in structure and species will have food and shelter available for insects of different sizes, different life cycles and different habits, mimicking the natural environment. Compare the complexity of this sort of “wild” garden to the old school monocultures of bedding plants popular decades ago.

Structural diversity not only supports more different kinds of beneficial insects, but supports the entire, often complicated, life cycles of these “good bugs”. Juvenile predators, such as syrphid flies, ladybugs and green lacewings, have entirely distinct needs from their parents. In many cases, the larva are hungrier predators than the adults; one larval ladybug can eat 40 aphids a day! Allowing some moist spots, leaf litter, loose bark or other potential habitats can provide shelter for these “hidden” (and often misunderstood) predators. Including small-flowered plants such as fennel and lovage may add some nectar to the diet of adult ladybugs and lacewings, making it more likely that they will stick around and reproduce.

Most of us understand that many chemicals in the garden environment can negatively impact common insect predators such as ladybugs and syrphid flies, and professionals have become, by and large, more careful about chemical pesticide use. The next step may well be to look at how we design and maintain our gardens from an ecological perspective. These habitat gardens can be even more attractive and engaging than the traditional flowerbeds often seen in public places, drawing people to investigate and appreciate the natural world in a safe space. They can also serve as spots for educational programming and citizen science. I have a feeling many of us are already approaching our landscapes from this perspective, and I’d love to hear about your successes and challenges!

 

By Christy Powell, San Diego Zoo

From May 4–6, 2017, San Diego Zoo Global hosted nearly 100 conservation professionals from 27 of the 43 participating institutions of the Center for Plant Conservation (CPC). The CPC is a network of participating botanic gardens and plant conservation organizations throughout the United States. In 2016 it moved its headquarters to San Diego Zoo Global. In addition to participating institutions, several partners and guests were in attendance. These included the U.S. Forest Service, American Public Gardens Association, Botanic Gardens Conservation International, Nature Serve, Institute for Applied Ecology, and the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership-Kew Gardens.

Dr. Joyce Maschinski created an excellent agenda that featured the ever-popular Lightning Talks. Highlights of these presentations focused on conservation genetics, plant propagation and reintroduction efforts, and data analysis and information sharing opportunities. The network brainstorming session on assessing the challenges and opportunities of seed collections and break-out groups provided input for the seed collection protocols that are key to plant conservation.

This year’s annual CPC Star Award, presented to plant conservation professionals for their service to ending plant extinction, was awarded to Joan Yoshioka of the Hawaii Plant Extinction Prevention Program and to Anita Tiller of Mercer Arboretum in Houston, Texas. Congratulations to Joan and Anita. Thank you for inspiring all of us.

About 4,500 of the roughly 18,500 species of plants in the U.S. and Canada are considered to be of conservation concern, with almost 1,000 of them either listed under the federal Endangered Species Act or qualified for listing. Without human intervention, many of them will be gone within the next few decades. The CPC and its partner institutions have become known world-wide as the leaders in saving endangered plants.

CPC network gardens are helping to reduce extinction risk of the rarest plants in North America. In 2016 with funding from National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), the organization collectively made 37 seed collections of 30 globally rare species that occurred on federal lands. These seed collections safeguard the genetic resources of some of the rarest plant populations in the U.S. They provide a resource for future recovery actions and are a safety net against catastrophic loss. All seed collections are stored at the National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation in Ft. Collins, Colorado.

The species collected will become part of the CPC National Collection of endangered species. The network participating institutions are custodians of these species ex-situ. In addition, they contribute to in-situ conservation actions. The 2018 CPC conference will be hosted by the Botanical Research Institute of Texas in Fort Worth, Texas, from April 25 through 28.

 

by Danielle L Green, Director of Gardens & Grounds, Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens

Top Tropicals recently posted a great article on what a great workout gardening is and quantified elements of what we do everyday with how many calories are burned. What a simple reminder that what we do for a living is what many have to pay for at a gym! Remember that mobility is a critical part of our ability to do our job over time, so don’t forget your warm up stretches!

We all know that gardening provides a bit of exercise, but we do not realize how much exactly. Research has determined that three hours of gardening can have the same effect as an intense one-hour gym session. The study was carried out with a group of 100 gardeners who were asked to monitor the amount of time spent doing a series of common gardening tasks over a four-week period. Gardening tasks that were monitored included weeding, digging, mowing lawns, hedge trimming, trimming shrubs and trees, raking, planting shrubs, and moving garden waste using a wheel barrow. Here are some facts and numbers:

• Just half an hour of weeding can burn up to 150 calories and tasks that involve handling heavy electrical equipment such as hedge trimming will burn 400 calories per hour.
• Spending one day or five hours each week in the garden will burn roughly 700 calories.
• A gardening season that burns 20,000 calories per year is the equivalent to running seven marathons!
• Gardening could help burn a million calories over a lifetime.

Here are some figures for calories burned in one hour of various activities:

340 calories: chopping wood, splitting logs, gardening with heavy power tools, tilling a garden, operating a chain saw, mowing lawns, walking, operating a hand mower, shoveling by hand

272 calories: carrying, loading or stacking wood, loading/unloading or carrying lumber, digging, spading, filling garden, composting, laying crushed rock or sod, clearing land, hauling branches, wheelbarrow chores

238 calories: operating blower, walking, planting seedlings/shrubs/trees, trimming shrubs or trees, operating a manual cutter, weeding, cultivating garden

224 calories: raking lawn, sacking grass and leaves

136 calories: picking fruit off trees, picking up yard, picking flowers or vegetables, walking, gathering gardening tools

102 calories: walking, applying fertilizer, or seeding a lawn

34 calories: watering lawn or garden, standing or walking

 

by Rob Halpern, Zoo Horticulture Consulting & Design

What does it take to get the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) membership to hear our message? Just put together a compelling session for the annual AZA Conference! The AZA Program Committee has been welcoming the topic of zoo horticulture into the conference for several years.

At the 2011 AZA Conference in Atlanta, one panel considered the question "Can Zoos and Botanical Gardens Live Together?" The session had light attendance but there was good discussion by panelists and attendees.

In 2014, I put together a panel of three zoo directors and one aquarium director to present why these industry leaders value and support horticulture at their institutions: “The Lure of Landscape: You Should Catch The Gardening Bug." The idea grew out of Satch Krantz's welcome talk at the Association of Zoological Horticulture (AZH) conference hosted in 2013 by Riverbanks Zoo & Botanic Garden in South Carolina. The room was about half-full with zoo designers and zoo staff who were there to hear from Satch, Patricia Waickman (Interim President & CEO of Akron Zoo), Bart Shepherd (California Academy of Sciences), and Rick Schwartz (Nashville Zoo).

Last year I organized another panel, inspired by several great presentations from the 2015 AZH Conference. Originally titled "I'm Gonna Botanize The Sh*t Out of This Enclosure: Animal Care Problems, Horticulture Solutions," this session was standing-room only. Animal care staff, veterinarians, and others couldn't get enough from the panelists: Jeff Pera (Oregon Zoo), Hassena Kassim (Phoenix Zoo), Dan Simpson (San Diego Zoo), and a stand-in speaker from the Denver Zoo on Afromomum.

And so we return to AZA this year with a new session that grew out of some inspiring presentations at last year's AZH Conference in Cincinnati! In an effort to spread the recognition of how valuable zoo horticulture is to another corner of the larger zoo community, this year's panel targets marketing and community relations. "Communities Come Together Over Gardens: Using Horticulture to Connect With Our Neighbors" is a panel that includes Paul Bouseman (Mesker Park Zoo), Bob Chabot (Jacksonville Zoo & Gardens), Christine Nye (Shedd Aquarium), and Steve Foltz (Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden) sharing their work connecting with the community through both on-site programs to bring gardeners into the facility and off-site projects to bring the facility's horticulture expertise into the community.

Over the past few years the strategy has been to make zoo horticulture a regular presence at the annual AZA Conference and to direct each session to a different part of the zoo community. We're hoping for another popular panel this year in Indianapolis on Wednesday, September 13 (10 a.m.). Spread the word in your institution and join us if you can!

by azhadminKM

The 2017 winners of the Wendy Andrew Cultivation Grant were announced earlier this year: Michaele Bergera of Sacramento Zoo and Melanie Anderson of Buffalo Zoo. Both projects will utilize signage to encourage guests to explore plant collections and significant specimen trees.

Sacramento Zoo:
Michaele proposes to create and install signs that will educate/inform zoo visitors about the significance of trees that are endangered, threatened, or otherwise in need of protection. Among the trees that will be highlighted at Sacramento Zoo are:

• Valley Oak (Quercus lobata): Three Heritage Oaks, 300-plus years old, are currently under protection at Sacramento Zoo. Signage will explain the importance of these trees to our visitors, as well as the steps being taken to protect their future.
• 

  Chilean Wine Palm (Jubaea chilensis): Signage will address the importance of protecting this species, which is listed as Threatened on IUCN Red List.

• Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis): Signage will address the importance of protecting this species, which is listed as Critically Endangered on IUCN Red List.

Educational signage for these trees will show guests that the Sacramento Zoological Society places a priority on plant conservation as well as animal conservation.

Buffalo Zoo:
The goal of the Melanie’s project is to help the Buffalo Zoo’s guests explore the plant collection, as well as the importance of those plants to ecosystems and our daily lives. This goal is part of a three-year strategic plan objective of using horticulture to enhance the visitor experience.

To accomplish this goal, the interpretive plan of the Zoo will be expanded to include plant signage. Significant plant species along major Zoo pathways will be tagged to include identification as well as information about the plant’s connection to its ecosystem. Active engagement in learning is more effective for knowledge retention, so the signs will include questions designed to encourage guests in exploring plants. The Zoo will also enhance horticulture training for docents to help them integrate plants into their general tours.

by azhadminKM

One day I noticed that a large number of the animal keepers at my facility were outfitted disproportionately with Keen shoes/boots and high-end rain gear brands. I asked what that was all about? They said it was from “pro deals” that the keepers applied for. I did a little research. Turns out it isn’t just for animal keepers and lots of companies offer these deals. I have been well outfitted ever since and you can too.

What is a “Pro Deal”?
In a nutshell: Pro deals are for people who are employed and/or volunteer in specific fields were it would be beneficial for the company to have you wearing their gear and promoting their products to potential buyers. The companies will regularly give you free shipping and/or discounts of 40–60 percent on items purchased.

More info on pro deals:
www.wayfinderali.com/2015/02/how-to-pro-deals-on-outdoor-gear.html
http://sectionhiker.com/how-to-get-pro-deals-from-outdoor-gear-and-clothing-manufacturers/

How to the find deals?
Use any search engine you like with the keywords “pro deal” or “pro purchase.” Additionally, you can include the name of any company from which you are interested in receiving a discount. Next, see if you match the companies’ requirements for receiving a pro deal. Fill out the application and provide the required documentation. The company will review and respond with an official approval or a “not qualified” e-mail. Read closely the requirements. Most only allow you to order items for yourself (no gifts), and, yes, they do pay attention to the sizes ordered and for what gender. They will cancel your pro deal if misused. A few will let you buy items for others. Please use your special discount wisely and do not ruin it for others.

Several websites allow you to sign up for pro deals from multiple manufactures. Depending on what you qualify for, you can receive deals for everything from mountain bikes, to eye-wear, snowboarding gear, clothes, etc. You could start with these two:
Outdoor Pro Link: www.outdoorprolink.com/
ExpertCity/Promotive: www.promotive.com

You should be prepared because they will be emailing you with deals pretty consistently. In my experience, I have found the best deals by going to each company and applying for their pro deals separately. Thanksgiving through Christmas is the best time for deals, so wait to make your big purchases for the most savings. Watch for Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals for greatest discounts.

Have fun, enjoy your discounts and tell people what you think of the companies’ products. Below are some links to get you started.

Happy Savings, Jake Pool, Horticulturist/Arborist Lead
Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, www.nwtrek.org

Company links to pro deal websites:

http://pro.keenfootwear.com

www.gerbergear.com/proprogram

https://blackdiamondequipment.com/en/pro-requirements.html

www.mountainhardwear.com/pro

www.merrell.com/US/en/pro

www.patagonia.com/us/patagonia.go?assetid=47074

www.giro.com/us_en/prodeal

www.eddiebauer.com/custserv/pro-deals-application.jsp

www.columbia.com/pro

http://snowpeak.com/pages/prodeal

www.outdoorresearch.com/en/vip

www.nrs.com/contact/nrs-wholesale.asp