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 County Fire Rescue Joins International Colleagues in Holiday Parade

On Saturday, March 13, firefighters from Florida, the United States, Canada and Ireland joined ranks performing, displaying and marching in the 42nd annual Delray Beach St. Patrick’s Day parade.

Members of Palm Beach County Firefighter’s Pipe & Drum Corps rallied 47 Florida fire-service agencies and approximately 1,000 uniformed and nonuniformed firefighters to march with the Delray Beach Fire-Rescue Department.

More than 85,000 spectators attended the parade in downtown Delray Beach. Parade participants came from all parts of Florida and as far as Dublin, Ireland and Sacramento, California. This was the largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in Delray Beach’s history, and a new initiative was proposed to make firefighter appreciation the new theme for subsequent St. Patrick’s Day parades.

County Fire Rescue would like to transform this parade into the largest fire service-themed St. Patrick’s Day parade in the southeastern United States.  

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12-Point Buck Spotted at Riverbend Park

On a brisk morning in November at about 9:30, Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office Chief Investigator Harold Ruslander and a friend were walking the trails in Riverbend Park. Ruslander was lucky to have his camera ready just as they saw a 12-point buck, and he took this picture.

Ruslander often enjoys walking and photographing animals in our county parks. Recently he saw three does in Riverbend Park when he was there for a Boy Scout fund-raiser. He has also seen turkeys, raccoons and all kinds of birds. Ruslander tries to spend one day every weekend photographing nature.

For more information about Riverbend Park, visit: www.pbcgov.com/parks/nature/riverbend/ or call 966-6617.

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You Can Help Our Sea Turtles

Sea turtle nesting season runs until Oct. 31. Palm Beach County’s coastal visitors need our help to make this season a success. Sea turtles have already made their presence known with the first recorded nests in the county occurring on March 5. The three types of sea turtles that commonly nest on our beaches are loggerheads, greens and leatherbacks.

 

The Department of Environmental Resources Management is asking residents and visitors to take precautions to ensure the protection of these threatened and endangered species.

 

Our coastline is one of the most vital sea turtle nesting habitats in the world. In 2008, Palm Beach County recorded 12,703 loggerhead nests, 2,272 green nests and 243 leatherback nests. One of the largest threats facing the sea turtle population is artificial lighting that shines on the beach possibly disrupting the critical nighttime behavior of adults and hatchlings. Adult females may be deterred from nesting, and hatchlings may become disoriented and wander inland where they can die of dehydration or predation.

 

The following practices can help sea turtles:

1. Turn off all non-essential beachfront lighting.
2. Replace incandescent and fluorescent bulbs with red or amber LED bulbs.
3. Reduce lighting visible from the beach by lowering, shielding, recessing and/or redirecting fixtures.
4. Use draperies or blinds to reduce interior lighting.
5. Be turtle-friendly by removing chairs, toys, floats and boats from the beach at night.
6. Replace wooden cabanas with lighter alternatives and store lightweight beach furniture behind the primary dune.

For more information about sea turtles, visit http://www.pbcgov.com/erm.

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Landscaping Tip: Save Money by Propagating Your Own Plants

 

Gardeners can easily buy new plants from a garden center or nursery, but to save money, you can have fun propagating your own plants. Colorful shrubs, such as croton, datura (pictured here), ixora, jasmine, alamanda, firebush, oleander and copperleaf are easy to reproduce. You can also propagate shade trees for your yard, such as gumbo limbo, seagrape, buttonwood, magnolia or crape myrtle.

 

Spring is a good time to multiply shrubs or trees by rooting a cutting of a parent plant. Cuttings are probably the most important method for starting new plants. A cutting is any detached plant part which, under favorable conditions for regeneration, will produce a new plant identical to the parent plant.

 

To propagate a cutting, start by selecting five to six inches of the terminal of a healthy stem tip of the shrub or tree you wish to reproduce. Using a hand pruner or sharp knife, make the cut just under the bottom of one of the leaves. Strip the leaves from the lower third of the cutting. Then put it into the rooting soil about one or one-and-a-half inches deep.

 

The environmental conditions necessary for successful rooting of cuttings are proper air temperature (65 to 75 degrees F), a humid atmosphere, ample light (not full sun) and a moist, well drained and well aerated soil medium. A medium of professional potting soil consists of a one-to-one ratio of peat moss and perlite or peat moss and sand. The time required for rooting will vary considerably with the plant material used.

 

For more information on growing your own plants from cuttings, visit the Cooperative Extension Service Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 531 North Military Trail or call 233-1750. For information on the Mounts Botanical Garden Plant Sale on April 24 – 25, visit http://www.mounts.org/calendar.asp.

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