2020 Year of the Turtle – the snapping turtles
There are a couple of things you learn when working with youth in turtle education. 1) ALL turtles are snapping turtles 2) Snapping turtles are dangerous I grew up in a sand hill area of Pensacola and we found box turtles all of the time. We had one as a...
Celebrate Florida Arbor Day
This week, we celebrate Florida’s Arbor Day. “What?” you may say—“Isn’t Arbor Day in the spring?” Well, yes and no. National Arbor Day is celebrated in the spring (April 24 this year), usually within a day or two of Earth Day. However, because of the wide range of...
Enhancing Your Winter Wildlife Plots with Hard Mast Trees
One of the keys to bagging a deer or mess of squirrels or just enjoying an afternoon viewing wildlife is to locate their preferred food source. In the Panhandle, this often means finding a natural stand of oaks or other mast producing trees. However, the concept of...
Embrace the Gulf 2020 – The Gulf Basin
Standing on one of our local beaches, the Gulf of Mexico appears to be a wide expanse of emerald green and cobalt blue waters. We can see the ripples of offshore waves, birds soaring over, and occasionally dolphins breaking the surface. But few of us know, or think,...
Embrace the Gulf 2020 – Introduction
It’s an amazing place really – the Gulf of Mexico. Covering over 598,000 square miles this almost a complete circle of water and home to some interesting geological features, amazing marine organisms, some of busiest ports in the United States, offshore mineral...
Camp Timpoochee Summer Marine Camps
Are you interested in learning about marine life, going fishing, or exploring the underwater world with a mask and snorkel? If so, this is the camp for you! This local education opportunity for budding marine scientists will be happening this summer at Camp Timpoochee...
2020 Year of the Turtle – Introduction
How cool, there is nothing wrong with other animals, but how cool for a year to be dedicated to turtles. And how fitting for the Florida panhandle. Based on the publication Biology and Conservation of Florida Turtles (2006), there are 38 taxa of turtles in our...
Bobwhites in Pine Savanna Workshop
‘Bobwhites in Pine Savanna’ Workshop Set For Jan. 30 in Marianna, Florida The National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI) and partners will host the Tri-State Bobwhite Symposium for professional land managers and landowners Thursday, January 30, 2020, in...
Feed the Birds
As the migratory birds stop off or stay in the Panhandle this winter, they need to find food, food and more food. There is a wide variety of migration activity in Florida beginning in the fall months of September, October, and November. From woodland song birds to...
Wild Turkey Biology and Habitat Management
The above picture of a strutting Eastern Wild Turkey is a sight that many hunters look forward to seeing every spring here in the panhandle of Florida. In order to manage wild turkeys and their habitat it is good to understand some basic facts about their biology....