A graduate class offered University of Florida students from the Law School, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences a first hand experience studying climate change in Cedar Key and on the Suwanee River. Below is a link to a 6-minute video about the class. It includes many lovely images of our refuges and region.

Two footbridges destined for the Natural Pine Forest trail off the Dixie Mainline were framed and the decking was pre-cut by Ranger Jason Coates, Bill Price, 9-year-old Tristan and Debbie Meeks in the shade at the Weeks compound. The bridges will be transported to the trail and set in place on a future work day, probably in May. If you would like to help please contact the Friends.

On Tuesday April 11, after months of trying to make it happen, several members from each of the Friends groups associated with the Refuges in the North Florida Refuge Complex met at St. Mark's.  Those attending were:

• Friends of St. Marks Wildlife Refuge: Mary Smallwood, President
  
• Friends of St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge: Lisa Johnston, President, Nancy Stuart, President Emeritus, Susan Cerulean, Vice President and President-elect
• Friends of the Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges: Russ Hall, President, Bill Dummitt, President-elect, Peg Hall, Communications Committee Chair

Sue led the meeting. The goal was to align and strengthen the advocacy efforts of our Friends groups on behalf of our Refuge Complex and our individual Refuges.
 
We each described our Refuges and what makes each of us get involved with our Friends organizations.
 
The introductions revealed commonalities and differences among the four Refuges. They also highlighted differences among the Friends groups, how they see their roles, and how they operate in supporting their Refuges.

St Marks:
The Friends is a 30-year old, large, well established, and sprawling organization, with many volunteers, about 500 Friends members, generous donors, and standing committees in such areas as development and advocacy. The Refuge serves a large visitor base and sees that as one of the Refuge’s significant contributions to the region. At least some of St. Marks volunteers are managed by Refuge staff.

St Vincent:
Because of its isolation, St. Vincent has few visitors, and the Friends group has a comparatively small member base of about 100, but is actively involved in political activism. Friends of St. Vincent recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of its founding. Both St. Marks and St. Vincent Friends groups have strong ties with Florida State University.

Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys:
Our Friends organization is 16 years old, with about 250 members. We want to increase support of our Refuges through volunteers and the kind of advocacy in which St. Vincent Friends is doing.

We discussed possible advocacy initiatives, especially trying to think of ways to prevent our Refuges from bearing the brunt of budget cuts.

• Reaching out to our members through social media
• Reaching out to local and state officials
• Directing advocacy to Senators and Representatives or the Secretary of the Interior
• Advocating for the Refuges through op./ed. writing for local papers
• Requesting members to make calls or visits to elected officials
• Joining groups preparing petitions
• Participating in fly-ins to congressional offices in Washington, D.C.  
• In response to a suggestion from the National Wildlife Refuge Association’s (NWRA) weekly Action Alert, possibly asking city and county commissioners to pass a resolution requesting that the Congress provide full funding for the refuges and other public lands to meet their statutory obligation to provide the local entities with payment in lieu of taxes. This effort was discussed as a possible way to document and build support for refuges in local political and community circles.
  

The final hour of the meeting was devoted to a conference call with Desiree Sorenson-Groves, Vice President for Government Affairs at NWRA.

• Andrew

Desiree asked if Andrew was with us, reminding us refuge manager is well recognized in refuge advocacy and representation circles.

• Chaos in D.C.

Desiree believes that the healthcare debate and the fact that the Republicans were unable to overturn Obamacare has fractured the Republican Party, shifting some power to the Democrats. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan must either work with the right-wing Freedom Caucus, thereby angering more moderate Republicans, or with the Democrats, thereby angering the Freedom Caucus.

• Neal Dunn

Desiree believes we are lucky in having Neal Dunn as our representative. He is a first-term Congressman in a swing, purple district. He is not in a safe seat. He needs us to give him documentation, narrative, and strategic positioning on issues that will resonate with voting constituencies on both sides. Few districts have a representative as poised to listen. She recommended that we meet with him while Congress is in recess and build a strong relationship with his local office staff.

• Refuge Visits

St. Vincent Friends already have brought Dunn’s local office staffers to their Refuge and opened the doors to building a relationship with them.  Sue, Nancy, and Lisa offered to help the rest of us meet with Dunn’s staff members. 

Friends of Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys also has a contact with Dunn’s office. It came about through a Dixie county commissioner who attended a recent presentation about a critical road on the Refuge. The presentation was arranged by Board Member Debbie Meeks and given by Jason Coates of the Lower Suwannee Refuge staff.

• Lobbying in D.C.

Desiree advised that working with the local office staffers and meeting with Dunn in the district, rather than in D.C., would likely be as effective, or even more effective than coming to D.C.

• Social Media

Desiree recommended having a Twitter account and using it to thank or express disapproval with our Senators and Representatives. Enthusiasm was not high for the idea.

• Secretary Zinke

Desiree met briefly with the Secretary Zinke, at a welcoming reception. He told her that he has no interest in turning public lands over to private interests or to the states. However, he will strongly consider turning management of them over to states.

• Presidential Budget Proposal

President Trump’s “Skinny Budget” (an outline without details) will be out in mid-May. She expects a 12% cut to Refuges for the rest of FY17, all of which will need to be taken between whenever it is put in place and the end of September. She expects the cut for FY18 to be larger. The prospects for the Refuge System in the President’s proposed FY18 budget will be dire.

The call ended with appreciation on both sides for the time to together.
 
The meeting ended quickly thereafter with participants expressing satisfaction at the outcome and hopes to have another get together in the relatively near future. All were grateful to Mary for hosting us.

Saturday, April 8 started cold . . . in the high 30s . . . and ended delightfully . . . in the mid 70s. The weather supported two refuge-related activities.

In the morning, Friends members joined members of the North American Butterfly Association for the annual survey of butterflies at the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge. Well, we DID have a productive day on Saturday!  On a perfectly sunny and clear all day, on a Refuge with plenty of great nectar, the team started seeing butterflies before it even warmed up.  The count totaled 33 species, including Southern Pearly Eye Satyr - a new one for the Nature Drive on the Levy County south side of the Refuge. That brings the total list of species to a whopping 87!!

If you click on the "Got Butterflies" banner above, it will take you to a primer of the butterflies with marvelous photos by Friends member and butterfly expert Barbara Woodmansee.

Last week, residents gathered for a meeting at the Suwannee Community Center in Suwannee with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Ranger, Jason Coates, who is the Engineering Equipment Operator for the Dixie Mainline road. Coates’ message was more of a warning and plea for help in stopping the rampant vandalism or the road may be closed in the future.

The Dixie Mainline is what remains of an old logging road that was used in the 1920’s to 1930’s. It became a private hunting access from 1940 – 1998, but was partially acquired and maintained by the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge (LSNWR) in 1979. In 1998, the road was open to the public and continues to be maintained by the LSNWR.

The LSNWR has acquired land from timber companies and private landowners for the past thirty years. Today, they have 53,000 acres and also manage 2,000 acres of land for other owners. The LSNWR property includes property that borders the Suwannee River and 30 miles of Gulf Coast marsh and islands.

The refuge opens up areas where citizens can enjoy hiking, biking, hunting, fishing, paddling, photography or just a drive to view the wildlife and landscape.
 
For those who use the Dixie Mainline on a regular basis, it is considered a lifeline between Suwannee and Horseshoe Beach. It’s the difference between traveling 57 miles from Suwannee to Horseshoe via CR 349, US 19 and CR 351 to taking the approximate 24-mile trip via the 8.4 miles of the Mainline.

Besides normal maintenance on the roads, the US Fish & Wildlife (USFW) rangers perform controlled burns, control invasive plants and bring the forest back to its natural state by planting native trees.

Ranger Coates is in charge of not only the 8.4 miles of the Dixie Mainline, but also an additional 185.6 miles of road within the refuge that he maintains. Dixie County has a total of 86 miles of roads, 57 gates and 49 culverts (five on the Mainline) to maintain. Levy County has 108 roads, 57 gates and 65 culverts. All of this takes a great amount of time and money.

The USFW allocates $60,000 per year for the upkeep and maintenance of the Dixie Mainline. That pays for equipment, supplies and labor. In addition to the allocation, an average of $25,000 - $35,000 is spent on repairs due to vandalism.  Last year the LSNWR paid out $34,360 of taxpayers’ money, just to clean up and repair damages from vandalism and littering!

The most recent vandalism event, where a gate that was locked was destroyed and a side-mounted mower was damaged, was the “straw that broke the camel’s back,” bringing Ranger Coates to set up the meeting to make folks aware of the issues that may one day lead to the road’s closure. It is just a matter of time before those in charge of funding are going to get tired of spending unnecessary money for the repair of items that have been vandalized.

Litter is another big problem on the Mainline. Last year, volunteers picked up a whopping 160 bags of trash, 4,491 aluminum cans and 12 tires. That was just off the main roadway.  During the first three months and three days of 2017, 177 bags of trash have been picked up!

Ranger Coates could not have praised the volunteers enough. Their good deeds over the past two years and three months have saved LSNWR money and manpower. Volunteers have donated 2,608 hours of labor at a cost of $31,296. If you would like to join the volunteers, please contact the Refuge office at (352) 493-0238 or you can join the Friends of the Refuge organization.

Safety is the number one priority for the refuge. Safety is why there are signs that are posted before entering the refuge. NO ATV’s, UTV’s or un-tagged or uninsured vehicles are allowed. Yet, drivers of these types of vehicles ignore the signs, travel around the gates or break them.

Upon occasion, the road has to be closed for maintenance, flooding, etc. The road is only closed due to safety reasons, yet there are those that ignore the warnings and enter anyway, again, by going around the gate or destroying it.

County Commissioner Mark Hatch was in attendance and thanked Ranger Coates for his dedication to the people of Dixie County. Hatch added that, “We need to help the ranger with the issues at hand. We must work together in protecting the road and lands around it.”