The Upstate chapter has provided funding to Upstate organizations for more than 20 years for projects that help preserve and restore native plants and/or for the education of the Upstate community on the importance of the biodiversity in South Carolina, and the importance of our heritage native plants.

This year, we celebrate our 20th year of the Upstate Native Nursery plant sales that have provided funding for a wide variety of projects in pursuit of the SCNPS mission.  In recognition of this milestone, this year, we have formed an Upstate Grants Committee and are very pleased to announce the launch of our Community Grants Program.  Each year, we’ll set aside funding for special projects in the Upstate that align with our Mission and have created an online application process to make grant requests easier and more streamlined.

Please visit our new Upstate Community Grants page on the SCNPS website to learn more about this new program and help us get the word out to the community for the inaugural grant invitation period opening March 15th through April 15th.

Thanks to all of you for your continuing support of the Upstate Native Nursery that makes this possible and we hope to see you at Conestee Park on April 15th for this year’s sale!

On March 24 at 5 p.m. ET (in person or online), the winners of the 2023 Reed Awards will be honored. This year’s awardees, Corban Addison (on his book, “Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial”) and Isabelle Chapman (on her CNN story, “Gambling ‘America’s Amazon’”) will speak.

Come help celebrate these extraordinary writers who brought attention to the polluting practices of industrial hog farming in rural North Carolina and concerns over toxic coal ash sitting on the banks of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta in Alabama. For more information, click HERE.

If the Upstate Sale hasn’t sated your need for new plants by then, the GGMGA will be holding their popular annual plant sale on Saturday April 29th at Jeff Lynch Appliances (17 Roper Mountain Rd, Greenville), from 8 am to noon, rain or shine! Hundreds of healthy plants will be available for sale at bargain prices, and Master Gardeners will be on hand to help you find the perfect plants for your yard. They will accept credit cards for purchases over $25 purchases as well as cash or checks. For more information, visit their website.

Our April meeting will feature Tim Lee, a longtime Interpretive Ranger at the Mountain Bridge Wilderness Area, which covers 11,000 acres of pristine southern mountain forest, encompassing Caesars Head State Park, Jones Gap State Park, and the Mountain Bridge Wilderness Area. His presentation will be “Trillium of the Carolinas,” particularly apt since Trillium is a harbinger of Springtime and the Upstate is home to the greatest diversity anywhere of these beautiful native plants! The meeting will take place at the Landrum Depot in Landrum, S.C., and via Zoom.  

Join us at 6:30 for time to socialize, the meeting will start at 7:00.  Zoom link will be added to the event one week prior to the meeting.

To add this to your calendar: CLICK HERE

Planning is well under way for the FoRR’s 2023 Spring River Cleanup in April. Cleanup locations will have been announced by the time this newsletter comes out. There will be a registration cap for each cleanup site to ensure that no undue pressure is put on the river or other resources at any one location, so be sure to register before your preferred location fills up!

For more information, visit their website. And we’ll see you on the river in April!

Judy Seeley is one of the most active and valued volunteers in the Upstate SCNPS. Having moved to the Upstate from Pennsylvania in the early “aughts,” Judy once didn’t know much about South Carolina’s native plants. But she joined SCNPS in 2010 and started (in her words) “learning from doing.” And she hasn’t stopped learning and doing since!

While serving on the Upstate SCNPS board in countless roles, the contributions she’s made to the organization have ranged from organizing field trips to leading plant sales. One of her favorite things is getting her hands dirty with the “Greenhouse Gang” at the Upstate Native Nursery, but she also loves tending the native plant garden at the Pickens County Museum. 

Even at home, she collects seeds to donate to the SCNPS nursery and pots up extra plants for the SCNPS Upstate plant sale. (Any given plant you buy at the upstate spring plant sale could very well have had its start in the Seeley backyard!)

Judy says one of the things she enjoys most about volunteering is getting to work with friendly, knowledgeable people who are willing to share their skills and expertise. And it’s obvious to anyone who’s met her that Judy is as much a people person as she is a plant person.

It’s an understatement to say that we are fortunate to have Judy as a member and leader of the Upstate chapter. If you’re considering volunteering with SCNPS, just follow her advice: 

“Don’t be intimidated! Just jump in! You don’t have to know everything to get started!” 

The SCNPS Upstate Chapter is seeking individuals to be part of our Grants Committee, where they (you!) will participate in the review and recommendation of grant applications received under the Upstate SCNPS Grants Program.

The Committee will meet as needed to discuss the grants, evaluate applications against the Community Grants criteria, and identify any outstanding questions/clarifications. 

Additionally, Committee members may be asked to follow a grantee’s progress for compliance with grant conditions. They may also assist in the research of grant and fundraising opportunities, including drafting documents or completing applications to solicit funding for SCNPS Upstate projects.

To serve on the Upstate Chapter’s Grant Committee, individuals should reside in the geographic area that makes up the SCNPS Upstate Chapter. Grant writing experience is beneficial but not required.

If you’re interested, please contact Grants Committee Chair Daren Jakeman at [email protected]. We’d love to have you!