Guests and staff at the Rookery Bay Environmental Learning Center were in for quite a surprise recently when a Florida black bear was seen (numerous times) wandering through the grounds! One day the bear even stopped to snack from a bird feeder outside the administrative office and literally tore it down before continuing his stroll around the building and back into the woods.

Two weeks ago, the Northwest Florida Aquatic Preserve (NWFLAP) team visited the St. Joseph Bay Buffer Preserve, ANERR and coordinated with regional staff to receive training and learn about local projects. The Buffer Preserve and Apalachicola are about 3.5 hours east of Pensacola.

DEP Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) and Florida Keys Aquatic Preserve (FKAP) teams completed semi-annual seagrass and hardbottom benthic surveys and Disturbance Response Monitoring (DRM) one month early! Both teams were prepared on all field days to make monitoring and sampling go smoothly. Everyone did a great job working hard this field season.

Each year, Buffer staff welcomes Dr. Tom Miller and his FSU research students for a weekend of learning. Dr. Miller is a professor of biological sciences who has been conducting research and taking a vegetation census in our area since 1999.