The Refuge has begun two habitat restoration projects that will also serve as prescribed fire safety and wildfire risk reduction efforts. The first project is a longleaf pine habitat restoration project covering 23 sites in Dixie County east of County Road 349. This restoration project is a site conversion from slash pine to longleaf pine. The longleaf pine once encompassed much of the Refuge before deforestation from logging and the eventual replacement with commercial forest trees such as loblolly and slash pine. The second project is to reduce roadside hazard fuel loads on 70 miles of LSNWR roads. Refuge roads serve as fire breaks for burn units, buffers for Wildland Urban Interfaces, and access for fire equipment while conducting controlled burns and wildfire suppression. The Assistant Forester from the regional office made a recent visit to the Refuge. He has visited a few times in the last 10 years, and commented that restoration efforts over the last 5-7 years are very noteworthy. He suggested the Refuge contract with someone to do vegetation diversity surveys as well as pollinator surveys to highlight the Refuge's restoration strategies.. He was encouraged by the extent and quality of the pollinator habitat and thought that monitoring would help demonstrate the success of the ongoing efforts. While forest health has been the primary goal of restoration efforts, the successes of rejunvenating pollinator habitat has been important to the overall ecological health of the Refuge and a joy to butterfly, bird, insect and wildlife enthusiasts.
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Friends of Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys NWRs will participate in the Alachua County Climate Fair on Friday, June 2 from 5pm to 8pm at Camp Cuscowilla in Gainesville. The address is 210 SE 134th Avenue, off of SR 441. The purpose of the Fair is to let residents know about the County's recent Climate Vulnerability Analysis. Many Friends members live in Gainesville and Alachua County. We hope to see them at the Fair, and it would be very helpful to have a few members help at the booth. If you might be able to volunteer, please leave a comment on this post or email friends@friendsofrefuges.org. At Friends booth, we will share stories with visitors about our Refuges and their role in protecting, maintaining, and enhancing habitats along the Lower Suwannee River and protecting the nesting shorebirds on the Cedar Keys. The Lower Suwannee NWR is a linchpin of the conservation lands along the entire Big Bend of Florida. These lands provide a buffer against hurricanes and storms, and protection from commercial and agriculture development that could make our region more vulnerable to climate impacts.
We will also have information about what visitors can do and see at the Refuges, and some Refuge-related merchandise available. A Summer Solstice Celebration will take place at Shell Mound on Saturday, June 24, 2023.
Friends of Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys will partner with the Florida Public Archaeology Network and the Florida Paddling Trails Association. The time and activities will be announced here soon. We expect to have guided archaeology walks on Shell Mound and guided archaeology-centered kayak paddles from Shell Mound. Participants will need to provide their own kayaks and equipment. See the post about the 2021 Summer Solstice Celebration here. Friends created a series of 12 paddling trails to provide paddlers with guides to seeing the Refuges from the water. Each guide provides a map and indicates places of ecological and environmental interest that the paddlers might want to note along the trail. The guides are available on this website to be download for free HERE. Seven of the guides are also now part the Paddle the Gulf website, which is supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Friends member Beth Dieveney, initiated contact between Friends and NOAA. Becky Allee, a senior scientist at NOAA made this happen. Thanks to both Beth and Becky!
On Thursday, May 4, 76 4th graders from Old Town poured off their two school buses into the parking lot at Shell Mound ready for adventure. Over the next several hours, they completed five Learning Stations at Shell Mound:
Six teachers and volunteers from the school, two bus drivers, four members of the Refuge staff, two archaeology graduate students, two Marine Animal Stranding and Rescue biologists, and 13 additional Friends' volunteers worked with the students to help them get to know the Refuge. Having endured hours of abundant no-seeums and having met all the requirements, the students were sworn in by Deputy Refuge Manager John Stark as Lower Suwannee Refuge Junior Rangers and given their badges by Refuge Forester Daniel Barrand, Refuge Engineering Equipment Operators Jason Coates and George Pelt, and the other volunteers. Providing the needed workbooks for this and another possible Junior Ranger Day in June was at the top of Friends Wish List in April. Thanks to Friends member John Douglass for fulfilling our big wish.
In early May, Friends Past President Debbie Meeks and Deputy Refuge Manager John Stark participated in the 2023 National Friends Workshop. It was held at the National Conservation Training Center in West Virginia. One representative from each Friends group around the country was invited, as well as one Refuge staff member from each. About 250 attended. There were 6-8 concurrent sessions to choose from in each 90 minute time block. Debbie's favorite was the Subtle Differences Between Friends and Volunteers, in which they were given tricky scenarios to work through, and she said her head was spinning after the first 10 minutes.
Debbie reconnected with Friends leaders from other refuges whom she had met at the smaller and more select Friends Academy last summer. She and John made new acquaintances who will be excellent networking partners for us in the future. People agree to join the board of directors of Friends for reasons such as their love of the outdoors, their appreciation of the importance of the Refuges to the way of life in our area, the importance of Refuges in preserving and conserving wild life and wild places for current and future generations, and because it is a cool group of folks who enjoy working together. Even though Friends is a small nonprofit organization compared to big guys such as The American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, or the YMCA, our board members have a lot of rather heady responsibilities, Since Friends elected several new board members at the Annual Meeting, and to assure all the board remember the roles and goals, a Board Orientation happened in April. The discussion included these topics. If you want to hear more about any of them, leave us a comment.
Founding and history:
Friends' member Del Bottcher related the following account and beautiful photos of his recent trip on the Lower Suwannee Refuge.
“Upper Dan May Creek is a fun but tricky navigation through the marsh channels from the McCormick Creek launch. Better have GPS, bug spray, and check the tides. Passed a manatee on way. Can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning." - Del Bottcher Check out more about McCormick Creek here. On the morning of May 4, about 75 4th graders will arrive at Shell Mound by school bus for a Junior Ranger adventure. With the help of Refuge staff, teachers, and Friends' volunteers, they will complete their workbooks, be sworn in, and receive their Junior Ranger badges. Help! Friends needs volunteers who will be stationed at key places along the Dennis Creek Trail where they will receive groups of kids as they move from station to station and work through the pages relevant to each spot. It will be an all-morning-long commitment. It is our first group Junior Ranger exercise. We want to assure that each child succeeds. Please, can you help??
Email friends@friendsofrefuges.org to volunteer and be part of this adventure. Update: A Friends member from Ohio just gifted the 200 workbooks. Thank you John Douglass! At the top of Friends' Wish List this month is $600 to purchase 200 additional copies of the Junior Ranger workbook. Two school groups and a summer kids' program have asked about completing the program. That would be about 150 books we would want to provide.
When we have classes who want to become Junior Rangers, we would like to be able to give the workbooks to them. Several individual kids from around the country have completed the workbooks after downloading them from our website. One family in Texas has three kids who work as a team to complete workbooks from various refuges. Two of the kids are disabled and they do the pages together so all can help each other and get badges. Some of their pages, which they photographed and sent to us, are below. We will mail their badges and ask for a photo to show later. To help, email friends@frienddsofrefuges.org or visit or Wish List page. In an effort to reach more people in different locations, Friends volunteers have been moving around in March and April.
RIver Trail: Pete Tirrell, Heather Evans, and Bill Dummit reported that 20 visitors came and they chatted with 14. One visitor was head of the Department of Conservation for the state of Pennsylvania. She was impressed with the refuge. She and her brother now own the last two blue Cedar Key NWR hats. Never fear, they're reordered! Shell Mound: Debbie Meeks and Jeri Treat talked with the 33 people who visited. Cedar Key Chamber Welcome Center: Peg Hall, Linda Kimball, and Jeri Treat have been spending several Saturdays and Sundays engaging the many visitors. Seahorse Key Open Houses: Two open houses were held in March. First one had 98 visitors, and second one 97! Thanks to Friends' members Jeri Treat, Heather Evans, Pete Tirrell, Debbie Meeks, Chuck Adams, and Ron Kamzelski for volunteering. We need more volunteers to help with these worthwhile and enjoyable activities. Interested? Send an email to friends@friendsofrefuges.org. However, if you did miss Barbara Woodmansee's talk on March 30th at the Cedar Key Library, not to worry. The entire talk is available on this YouTube video link. Enjoy!
Friends members and Refuge Resident Volunteers Robin and Rick Gallup are completing their stay for this season. One example of the work they do around the Refuge is these sturdy front and back steps at Vista's main house. Many of you will remember the old stairs and appreciate this safety upgrade.
Friends Spring Butterfly Walk, led by Barbara Woodmansee, was well attended by both butterflies and visitors. The walk followed the picturesque Barnett Creek road in the Lower Suwannee Refuge, as shown in the photos above by Friends board member Jeri Treat. Below are some photos taken by Friends board member Pete Tirrell.
Friends booth at the Old Florida Celebration of the Arts is an opportunity to introduce many visitors to our Refuges and share information about their history, purposes, and value to the community, and places of interest. When visitors also buy our merchandise, the revenues support all of our outreach programs. We want to give a big thank you for all the people who made this Arts Festival a success, both for meeting people and for our revenue stream. It was a lovely couple of days at the festival!
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