Volunteers Helping Re-establish Native Plants at Circle B Bar Reserve

LAKELAND -- If you drove into Circle B Bar Reserve today, you'd see a plant you've never seen there.

It is saw palmetto, one of the most common, widespread native plants in Florida.

But whatever saw palmettos were originally growing on this 1,267-acre former ranch were cleared decades ago to make way for cattle grazing.

Now they're back and eventually will be joined by others.

Volunteers worked Wednesday morning to plant 50 saw palmettos and 50 longleaf pine trees along the winding entrance road. Then they mulched the area with pine straw to suppress weeds.

The plantings followed work earlier this year to mow and herbicide thick stands of exotic plants that had overrun the traffic islands and roadsides leading to Polk's Nature Discovery Center.

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