Natural Resources Pre-Conference Tour Highlights

Day One

Nine Extension agents from seven different states joined up in Hollywood, Florida to begin a three-day tour of South Florida natural resources. We began the journey on July 14 with a catamaran ride through the only wetlands National Park in the world. The 90-minute excursion ventured across Chokoloskee Bay, into Indian Key Pass, and through the 10,000 Islands of mangroves on the western side of the Everglades.

Along the way, we experienced Roseate Spoonbills (that’s a bird) feeding, manatees surfacing for a breath, and Bottlenose Dolphins using the boat for some “engagement time” (you can figure out what that means when you look up the mating rituals of dolphins). After lunch, we traveled to the eastern side of the Everglades for an airboat ride through the “River of Grass” to experience the immenseness of this sawgrass wetland, while watching for alligators. While most of the alligators in the grass were settling in to the cooler muddy bottoms, we did get to see a land demonstration of the mother gator’s protective behavior with a freshly laid nest of eggs.

That evening, we joined the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation team at Nova Southeastern University for a discussion of the endangered species and the efforts to restore populations during the current nesting season. Then, with 1-3 day old hatchlings and a red flashlight in hand, the volunteers led the group to the beach for a release to the Atlantic Ocean to begin the turtles two-day journey to the Sargasso Sea. The young sea turtle will spend the next 20+ years at sea before the females will returning to those same beaches to lay her eggs. With lots of encourage and patience about half of the young turtles began their adventure while we headed to bed exhausted.

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Day Two

We put on our swim clothes and headed to Biscayne Bay (over the causeway from Miami) for a morning of kayaking and snorkeling. While paddling along the mangrove shoreline, we learned about the different plant and animal species existing only in this environment and the critical important for these natural areas for storm surge protection during hurricane events. As we made our way to saltier waters (some of us more gracefully than other), we encountered the chattering and rustling of numerous wading birds nesting in the mangrove rookery. Upon arrival, we snorkeled for juvenile fish and marine shellfish. Our guide introduced us to a large starfish, the conch and its resident toadfish.

With a quick beach shower and change of dry clothes, we headed to Crandon Park for a lunch-and-learn with the Miami-Dade SeaGrant Agent to gain a better understanding of the challenges facing large urban areas, particularly with water quantity and quality issues.

Dry and rested, we headed to meet the University of Florida Croc Docs. And the UF Davie/Ft. Lauderdale campus. The University of Florida “Croc Docs” are a team of about 20 biologists, ecological modelers and outreach specialists conducting long-term, applied research and monitoring focused on crocodilians, invasive reptiles, threatened and endangered species, climate change and the human dimension. The American Crocodile is an environmental indicator of the Everglades health. The thousands of invasive Burmese Pythons are a great threat to mammal biodiversity. The Croc Docs introduced the group to the research and even explained the python capture technique.

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Day Three

Finally, we had to head north with a stop at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center. This is the rehabilitation facility for the sea turtle hatchlings that need a nutritional boost before their release, as well as, a home for injured sea turtle. We were able to see the numerous marine fishes in large aquariums and wander through the tropical hammocks of South Florida coastal uplands. Through this Natural Resource Pre-Tour, these nine agents were able to experience the many species of Florida, understand the challenges of the human-nature interactions and gain an insight into Extension’s role to educate our stakeholders on the “Solutions For Your Life” here in Florida.