The Open House will happen as scheduled on Friday October 13 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The "rain date" is Saturday October 14.

Visitors can climb to the Light Station and walk around the building. They cannot climb up to the light.

The trail to the beach, on the back side of the island, was destroyed by the hurricane. Refuge staff are working to build a new trail. It is unlikely that the new trail will be ready in time for the Open House.

Nevertheless, it is a lovely boat ride out to the island and a delightful way to spend a day on the Cedar Keys Refuge.  There will probably be only one more Open House this year, in December.

Visitors can arrive at the island in their personal boats or pay for a shuttle service from the dock in Cedar Key. The shuttle is a good way to help the tour operators in their hurricane recovery.

Hurricane Idalia, step aside. Cedar Key is holding its Seafood Festival despite you!

That means, Friends members have an opportunity to come out and help introduce all those Cedar Key visitors to our Refuges in their post-Idalia versions.

We look forward to meeting Cedar Key visitors and introducing people to the Refuges. See you in the Park at the Festival. Here is our schedule:

In 2022, Friends provided funding to help sponsor our second Swallow-tailed Kite as part of the research by the Avian Research and Conservation Institute. She has just download data about her migration path.

Dr. Gina Kent, Senior Research Conservationist at the Institute, sends word that Suwannee 22 stayed on the Lower Suwannee NWR for her entire pre-migration. She started south through Florida on 28 July. She left Florida from Cape Sable on 31 July, crossing the Florida Keys and skirted around Cuba to the Yucatan north of Cancun, which was about two days over water. She rested and fed in Quintana Roo for 8 days before continuing overland through Central America. She has moved quickly through South America and is already in the State of Rondonia, Brazil.

Larry Woodward, our former assistant refuge manager, and Travis Thomas, who served on the Friends board for several years and is a biologist with the Nature Coast Biological Station, both have speaking parts in this episode of the PBS series America Outdoors about the Suwannee river. Both did a fantastic job!

The Vista site was presented as a candidate for one of this year's UF  Landscape Architecture undergraduate student's Capstone projects. Students work on real-world problems over the entire senior year to complete their Capstone. We are excited about the learning opportunity the Vista site presents and look forward to advancing some of our visions for it in the process.

Links to past year's Capstone projects are available on the UF Landscape Architecture website.

After wishing for one for a couple of years and competing for grants to fund one, with help from the Refuges, Friends of Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys NWRs is getting a Mobile Outreach Trailer! We hope to have it in time for the Seafood Festival in Cedar Key on October 21 and 22. We are currently playing with graphic designs for the exterior. There is so much beauty on our Refuges that it is really hard to choose our graphics. Maybe one of these ---

The Mobile Outreach Trailer presents a new opportunity for Friends members to help. Drivers are needed to move the trailer between the Refuge storage area and places where Friends will welcome visitors. If your personal vehicle can't tow it but you have trailering skills and are willing to help, consider signing up for the online Defensive Driver Safety Course. After passing, and being accepted as an official Refuge volunteer, you will be allowed to borrow a Refuge truck.

Friends' board member and butterfly expert Barbara Woodmansee has been conducting surveys of butterflies on the Lower Suwannee NWR for years. During the first week of September, in the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia, she did 2 surveys covering both sides of the Suwannee River.

She reported that the south end of the Nature Drive looked like there was storm surge up fairly high, apparently as high as 4 feet. There was no way to know how long the highest water levels remained in place, but all the flowering plants were essentially fried. North of Pond 4 Rd as she and her survey colleagues moved away from the coast, there was some nectar, and by the time they got into the pine forest area near the north end of the Nature Drive there were tons of butterflies. They were delighted to see them since this is normally a peak time of year for Refuge butterflies. Sadly though, the road was being groomed while they were there, and it will be regraded which will eliminate even more nectar. Although that important road work is necessary to provide safe access to the Refuge for visitors, it is always sad to know it will temporarily lessen the nectar for the butterflies.

Her survey on the Dixie Mainline and Willie Lock Mainline during the same week was even more dismal for the butterflies and those of us who love to watch them. The storm surge had risen to at least 4 feet and basically every single flowering plant was destroyed.  She and her fellow survey participants saw a drowned pig, snakes, and a dead deer on one of the gate trails where she regularly walks  for the surveys. Almost the only butterflies they saw were just a few of the big fast-flyers that can cover a lot of territory in their search for nectar. It was a really discouraging survey day. September/October is the peak time for one of the very rare skippers they monitor and all of their host sedges appeared to be dead. Barbara fears the butterflies will be much less in evidence in their peak October time because there really isn't time for the plants to regrow this year.

We know nature is resilient, but it is sad to see the damage nevertheless.