Preservation Foundation guest says native plants are the answer to healthy ecosystem
For entomologist and ecologist Doug Tallamy, everything begins and ends with insects.
“The planet’s entire ecosystem depends on pollinating insects and the native plants that sustain them. If we lose our pollinators, we lose 80 to 90 percent of plants on the planet. And if we lose that, the food web that supports all the animals would collapse, and they would all disappear,” he said. “The earth would rot without them, because you would only have bacteria and fungi to turn things over.”
Tallamy, a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has taught insect-related courses for 40 years, will give a virtual lecture Monday to discuss his new book,
Marie Penny
Special to the Daily News
Editor s note: Each month this season, we will publish a column from the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach featuring a landmarked property.
With its fish-scale scalloped shingles and pointed finials atop each gable, Duck’s Nest conjures up the Victorian era.
Viewed from Lake Trail, it may appear to be a charming house from the turn of the 20th century. But it also has a fascinating history, which includes weathering hurricanes, architectural styles, and the development of Palm Beach.
The house gets its name from the ducks that roosted on the extensive freshwater marsh, now filled in, which were formerly located east of the building. It’s hard to imagine, but at the time the only way to access this house was by boat via Lake Worth (now referred to as the Intracoastal Waterway).
Palm Beach Daily News
Billionaire real estate investor Jeff Greene’s plan to expand his landmark oceanfront Palm Beach estate received tepid approval Wednesday from the town’s Landmarks Preservation Commission – despite concerns that the historic home was being “swallowed” by additions.
Greene and his wife, Mei Sze, want to build a two-story addition to the Addison Mizner-designed estate, including an exercise room, home office and a casual “ocean room,” architect Mark Marsh told commission members Wednesday.
It would be the second expansion the Greenes have made to the property – known as “La Bellucia” – since purchasing it in 2009 for $24 million. While the first addition added a formal living room to the property, he said, it did not create enough casual space.
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Palm Beach custom home on Island Road brings $26M, MLS says
The Bermuda-style compound built by James D. Berwind at 320 Island Drive won an award recognizing excellence in architecture from the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach.
Darrell Hofheinz
Palm Beach Daily News
UPDATE, Jan. 12, 2020: A Tennessee-based limited liability company paid James D. Berwind a recorded $26.2 million for his lakefront compound at 320 Island Road, the deed shows.
The buyer was Jones Lakeland LLC, a limited liability company controlled by W. Allan Jones, who founded Check Into Cash Inc., one of the country’s largest payday-lending companies.
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Award-winning lakefront garden opens for pandemic-delayed tour
Kit Pannill took visitors through her 1-acre lakefront garden Dec. 17, more than eight months after she won the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach s Lesly S. Smith Landscape Award.
Jodie Wagner
Palm Beach Daily News
A planned tour of Kit Pannill s award-winning garden was delayed for more than eight months, first by the coronavirus pandemic and then by a meandering hurricane.
Last month, the longtime Palm Beach resident finally had the opportunity to show off the 1-acre lot she has carefully cultivated for more than three decades.
Nearly 50 people walked through the lakefront garden bordering the Lake Trail and the Intracoastal Waterway as part of a tour arranged by the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach.