This week NCAP participated in the International Coastal Cleanup event held at Linda Peterson Park by the IFAS/Sea grant office on the coast of Hernando County. NCAP staff, and some staff from BBSAP, launched out of the Bayport boat ramp on the airboat to retrieve hurricane debris in the areas further away from where event volunteers on kayaks could reach.
Silver Springs State Park, Wekiwa Springs State Park, and Oklawaha River Aquatic Preserve hosted “Girl Scouts Love State Parks”. On the morning of September 13, 100 Girl Scouts of all ages arrived at Silver Springs State Park excited and curious. They rotated through several stations where they learned about the aquatic food web with live animals to touch, prescribed burning, and what lives in the different habitats within the state parks.
Through the Pensacola and Perdido Bay Estuary Program’s Collaborative Science to Assess Restoration Success (C-STARS) project, our team has been investigating the relationship between living shorelines and seagrasses. At one site, Project GreenShores (PGS), a large-scale living shoreline site in downtown Pensacola, 2 different species of seagrasses (Halodule wrightii and Ruppia maritima) have been confirmed, but not mapped.
Lake Jackson AP supports a diversity of wildlife, including extensive bat populations and nesting wood ducks. Prior to three years ago, however, we didn’t know what kinds of bats lived and foraged here and there were a lot fewer resident wood ducks. To continue surveying and managing the diverse wildlife at the AP, staff went out this week to deploy acoustic detectors as part of the NABat program in collaboration with FWC.
On Friday, Sept. 19, 2025, Central Florida Aquatic Preserve (CFAP) helped facilitate a water conservation outreach event for Latino Heritage Week at Wekiva Island. CFAP hosted a group of high school students from Alianza Americas. The students participated in an Eco Paddle to Wekiva Springs State Park. Then, they learned how to measure water quality with CFAP’s datasonde.
Maurizio also visited The Florida Aquarium’s Coral Conservation & Research Center in Apollo Beach, FL where the DEP CPR Program has made significant investments. Although the Aquarium team was hard at work on coral spawning, they took the time to show Maurizio around their facilities, in which they are propagating and rearing thousands of priority corals for reef restoration.
The Garden Club of Verona Walk (a very large Naples community) recently visited the Rookery Bay Environmental Learning Center, where they were welcomed by Verona Walk resident and longtime Rookery Bay volunteer Jeanne. A dedicated member of the Reserve’s volunteer team, Jeanne has contributed more than 2,000 hours of service. She has led countless groups through the center and helped visitors of all ages connect with the coastal environment.
This month Rosie Joy, a very cute BARK Ranger, came to the IRLAP office to pick up her swag! She enjoys traveling the country collecting BARK Ranger tags. To date, IRLAP has recruited 57 new Rangers to help spread the word: Bag your pet’s waste, Always leash your pet, Respect wildlife and Know where you can go.
This month was the first time that third graders from Franklin County Schools created vertical oyster gardens (VOGs) as part of their annual field trip that focuses on oysters as a keystone species in our bay. These oyster gardens were created with the help of Oyster Corps and their representatives.
The new “fall” instead of “spring” cleaning trend sweeping the nation has caught on at Rookery Bay this month. The Environmental Learning Center is closed while staff undertake many maintenance and cleaning projects. This includes organizing closets of outreach materials, buffing floors, power washing, weeding, steam cleaning and dusting the 20 ft. tall mangrove.