Venus Flytrap Champions
recognizing & assisting landowners with Venus Flytrap on their property
WHY WE ARE HERE Help us to defend populations of the amazing Venus Flytrap! |
Surveys of known populations of Venus Flytrap in the Carolinas in 2019 and 2020 documented a continuing decline due to urban/suburban development and a lack of burning where appropriate habitat for this rare, charismatic plant species still exists.
|
Venus Flytrap Champions recognizes and assists landowners and land managers in the Carolinas who want to care for populations of this rare carnivorous species. We believe landowners can play a significant role in maintaining and increasing the remaining habitat for
|
Venus Flytrap and the other insectivorous and uncommon plant species that grow with it. We are collaborating with the following agencies and nonprofit organizations to create a support network for people managing Venus Flytrap habitat on private property:
|
North Carolinians have a specialty license plate featuring Venus Flytrap! Proceeds from this specialty plate go to the North Carolina Botanical Garden Foundation, Inc., and the Friends of Plant Conservation to support native plant conservation and the restoration of healthy landscapes across North Carolina.
LEARN MORE |
|
|
Introducing . . . A Flytrap Film! A documentary film about conservation efforts to save the iconic Venus Flytrap is being produced by an international team. Tentatively titled “Flytrap Town,” the film will focus on efforts to save and maintain the carnivorous plant’s few remaining natural habitats in Brunswick County, NC, and will highlight stories of the individuals fighting for the Flytrap’s future. The film is intended as a wake-up call to generate action to preserve our natural world and its biodiversity. Please consider financially supporting the creation of this film: DONATE HERE (you will be re-directed to Southern Conservation Partners, the fiscal sponsor for this project). |
**Ongoing Efforts to Secure Habitat for Flytraps in Boiling Spring Lakes, NC**
“Saturday April 26, 2025, was a banner day for our little dedicated Boiling Spring Lakes Plant Rescue Volunteer Group,” reported Boiling Spring Lakes resident Kathy Sykes. “This marks the eighth effort to save our precious natural treasure of Venus Flytraps from imminent annihilation from that most dangerous wildfire of all—destruction of habitat. . . . It's my understanding that we have now hit the monumental milestone of saving 2,000 plants! That’s quite an undertaking for just a handful of folks!”
Since September of 2022, volunteers from this small town in southeastern North Carolina, plus other folks from farther afield, have worked together to relocate Venus Flytraps found in roadside ditches and other wet habitats where homes and golf courses are rapidly springing up (see above article). The flytraps had migrated to these ditches alongside roads that were built years ago to accommodate planned new housing. Though there was a pause in those development projects due to recognition of the ecological value of those isolated wet habitats, but in September 2023 a U.S. Supreme Court decision changed the definition of “wetlands,” allowing developers to start up the building process once more. On this April Saturday, internationally known Emmy Award-winning director Robert Ford was filming the plant rescue team as they went about their work. The film—a 90-minute documentary—is tentatively titled “Flytrap Town” and will be two years in the making. In no time the group of seasoned volunteers had filled trays to the brim and were ready to move to Phase 2: transplanting to a protected area. Kathy Sykes reflected as she looked back at photos of the day: “Although our uniforms were mismatched our hearts were in unison as we marched to our appointed destination, where the Flytraps would be lovingly planted into a safe place, free from the threat of man-made destruction” in the form of “cheaply built houses and concrete driveways.” The long-term plan is for the relocation site to become an interpretive preserve for not only Venus Flytrap but for other insectivorous plants and the numerous other native species that grow with them. May 2025: "Ask the average person where they think the Venus flytrap comes from, and they might guess the Amazon rainforest or the mountains of Indonesia. But the Venus flytrap is not an exotic, tropical species. It’s native only to a roughly 90-mile area around Wilmington, North Carolina, where it teeters on brink of endangerment and where poachers risk jail time." . . . From an article titled "Flytrap Country" in WILMINGTON MAGAZINE.
|
We are always adding articles & videos to our RESOURCES page. Check there, and see our News Archive HERE.
Save the Date!
|