Planting Trees this Florida Arbor Day? Get them in the ground right!
Pine tree saplings. Planting, growth. UF/IFAS Photo by Dawn McKinstry It is Florida Arbor Day and all across the state people will be picking up trees and planting them for the future. It is also the time of year where large reforestation efforts are underway to get...
Winter Wildlife Part 1
One of the programs I do with Florida Sea Grant is Restoring a Healthy Estuary. There are four focus areas within this program: improving water quality, restoring habitat, managing invasive species, and enhancing wildlife. For those who know me, they know...
Local Oysters Displaying “Green Gills”
And it’s a good thing! Green gill oysters are prized in the oyster community. In the Carolinas and Northern France, green gill oysters are a seasonal, cherished crop and a product of the saying “You are what you eat!” The phytoplankton, Haslea ostrearia, is the...
What Can We Do in 2024 to Improve Water Quality in Local Waterways
When I was hired with Florida Sea Grant, I developed an advisory committee who represented a variety of stakeholder interest in the Pensacola Bay area. I asked the committee to list their top three concerns or issues with the local marine environment so that I...
Poor Food Plot Performance – 3 Simple Solutions to Common Problems
For many of us in the Florida Panhandle, managing land for and hunting deer are two of the pastimes that we’ll spend the most time and money on each year. I greatly enjoy spending time in the woods and value the opportunity to fill the freezer with high-quality...
A Brief Explanation About Triploid Oysters
When you sit down and enjoy some fresh, farmed oysters during the summer, you might notice that the oyster is not watery but yet plump and full of meat, unlike the usual wild oysters. These farmed oysters are very special and are called “triploid oysters.” What makes...
We Did It; In 2023 Less Than 30% of the Fecal Bacteria Samples Collected in the Pensacola Bay Area Required a Health Advisory
Health advisories issued by the Department of Health (DOH) due to high levels of fecal bacteria have been a problem for some parts of the Pensacola Bay system for decades. Though most of the samples collected near our beaches rarely require them (usually between...
From Seed to Shuck – More Oyster 101
When you hear about oyster farming, you typically hear the word “seed” and how it is highly important to the future of the farm. While it might not be a typical seed that produces agricultural crops like corn, this seed is a living, breathing (albeit in the water)...
2023 Pensacola Bay Snake Watch Annual Report
I began this project in 2022 wanting to know which of the 40 species of snakes known to inhabit the Pensacola Bay area were encountered by people. I also wanted to know where they were encountering them and what time of year. This information would be used...
Cottonmouths of Our Barrier Islands
I am going to end 2023 with an article on a project I hope to conduct in 2024. It will focus on insular cottonmouths and will focus on the western panhandle, though those in the eastern panhandle might be interested and could help. For obvious reasons,...