On Thursday, April 6, Jackie Rolly, Oakland Nature Preserve restoration board chair, was awarded this year’s Citizen Conservation Award from the Florida chapter of the Wilderness Society.
The University of Florida’s Master Naturalist Program sponsored the award.
As an active ONP board member, Rolly has contributed more than 6,000 volunteer hours over the past 10 years.
In addition to her extensive sandhill restoration work at the preserve, Rolly supports the organization’s mission by participating in everything from native plant sales at fundraising events, to giving educational seminars and supervising volunteers.
She is also the lead instructor for both the Uplands and Freshwater Systems Florida Master Naturalist Program (FMNP), hosted at the preserve. FMNP is a program of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Science.
Rolly has been a board member of the Florida Native Plant Society and is active in central Florida’s Tarflower Chapter of FNPS, serving on the conservation committee and organizing the salvage and rescue of endangered plants from sites about to be developed.
