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.
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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
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Frog in pitcher plant. Photo by Larry Mellichamp.
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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:
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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 |
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A team from the NASA DEVELOP program, in partnership with the North Carolina Botanical Garden and N.C. Natural Heritage Program, used remote sensing data and population records to produce maps predicting where in the Venus flytraps’ historical range plants might continue to grow best, and what sites in that range are most at risk for development. Results are informing seed-banking and reintroduction efforts and helping to prioritize new sites for protection. Explore this fascinating STORY MAP.
Think you might have Flytrap habitat on your land? Here's what to look for.
Flytrap NEWS!
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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**
The first organized rescue and relocation of Venus Flytraps in Boiling Spring Lakes (BSL) was in September 2022, when roughly 300 Venus flytrap plants were moved from an area about to be developed for the site of a new fire station. Tyler Gramley, then Vice President of the North American Sarracenia Conservancy (NASC), planned and led the effort, with help from the other NASC members, local members of the NC Native Plant Society, friends of Venus Flytrap Champions, and local residents.
NASC is a nation-wide conservation organization that since 2005 has worked to conserve pitcher plants (Sarracenia) and other insectivorous plants that grow in similar habitats. Their main focus is the conservation and preservation of the natural habitats and genetic diversity of the various Sarracenia species. Their assistance has been essential in saving flytraps doomed to eradication in the Boiling Spring Lakes area.
In North Carolina NASC has donated funds from their annual plant sales to the NC Nature Conservancy and the NC Plant Conservation Program, both of which own considerable acreage surrounding the town and also scattered lots within city limits. The contributed funds were provided for prescribed burning, which is essential to maintain and improve the unique wetland habitat for the flytrap and other insectivorous species. Other recent NASC conservation activities in the southeast include helping landowners in Georgia protect the parrot pitcher plant (Sarracenia pisttacina) from wild hogs and in California address issues of habitat loss of the California pitcherplant (Darlingtonia californica).
Little did we anticipate that since the first effort seven more "rescues’ have relocated flytraps from along the roadsides that would soon be impacted by driveways and the installation of water and sewer lines to allow home construction on lots purchased years before (see second article below). Homes are only now being constructed, as wetland permits from the Corps of Engineers are no longer required as a result of the Sackett v. EPA decision, which found that wetlands are only protected by the Clean Water Act if they have a continuous surface connection with a larger body of water.
Coordinated by Gramley, a group of dedicated local volunteers, with help from other NASC members, have moved over 2000 flytraps to safe locations that will be protected and not impacted by development or drainage and will be appropriately managed over time. Without Tyler’s expertise and enthusiasm these flytraps would have been lost; now they are well established, and most are flowering and setting seed. The concept is that the relocation site on BSL town property will become an educational/interpretive site open to the public and local school classes.
NASC is a nation-wide conservation organization that since 2005 has worked to conserve pitcher plants (Sarracenia) and other insectivorous plants that grow in similar habitats. Their main focus is the conservation and preservation of the natural habitats and genetic diversity of the various Sarracenia species. Their assistance has been essential in saving flytraps doomed to eradication in the Boiling Spring Lakes area.
In North Carolina NASC has donated funds from their annual plant sales to the NC Nature Conservancy and the NC Plant Conservation Program, both of which own considerable acreage surrounding the town and also scattered lots within city limits. The contributed funds were provided for prescribed burning, which is essential to maintain and improve the unique wetland habitat for the flytrap and other insectivorous species. Other recent NASC conservation activities in the southeast include helping landowners in Georgia protect the parrot pitcher plant (Sarracenia pisttacina) from wild hogs and in California address issues of habitat loss of the California pitcherplant (Darlingtonia californica).
Little did we anticipate that since the first effort seven more "rescues’ have relocated flytraps from along the roadsides that would soon be impacted by driveways and the installation of water and sewer lines to allow home construction on lots purchased years before (see second article below). Homes are only now being constructed, as wetland permits from the Corps of Engineers are no longer required as a result of the Sackett v. EPA decision, which found that wetlands are only protected by the Clean Water Act if they have a continuous surface connection with a larger body of water.
Coordinated by Gramley, a group of dedicated local volunteers, with help from other NASC members, have moved over 2000 flytraps to safe locations that will be protected and not impacted by development or drainage and will be appropriately managed over time. Without Tyler’s expertise and enthusiasm these flytraps would have been lost; now they are well established, and most are flowering and setting seed. The concept is that the relocation site on BSL town property will become an educational/interpretive site open to the public and local school classes.
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“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. 
Julie Moore of Venus Flytrap Champions. Photos for above articles by Kathy Sykes.
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.
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We are always adding articles & videos to our RESOURCES page. Check there, and see our News Archive HERE.
Save the Date!
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Introducing our poster about Venus flytrap. . . learn more on our RESOURCES page.
