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Top shaded hikes in Hillsborough County

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It's rainy season in Hillsborough County. That means slogging wet roads and  lots of mosquitoes on many of our Hillsborough County Nature Preserves.  However, don’t put away your boots and binoculars yet – check out this list of  dry and shady county hikes, and you won’t miss the spectacular wildflowers and wildlife! Top 7 Shady Hikes Alafia River Corridor Nature Preserve - North  9256 South County Rd. 39,  Plant City, 33567 Map The Alafia River Corridor Nature Preserve is a 4,070 acre preserve encompassing lands along the Alafia River east of the Bell Shoals Bridge, extending upstream along the North Prong into Polk County, and along the South Prong to Jameson Road.  The preserve contains many different habitat types and also includes areas that were formerly mined for phosphate. The site is home to some listed species including gopher tortoises, eastern indigo snake, American alligator as well as many others. Hike the red trail to take advantage of the sh...
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5 Tips for a Bug-Free Hike!

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We love hiking all summer long, but we also love not being  dive-bombed by nature's most irritating (and itchy) little creatures  along the trail. Here are 5 simple tips to help you avoid becoming a mosquito's lunch while you hike the trails of    Hillsborough County's Nature Preserves and Conservation Parks this summer.
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Announcing the NEW Hillsborough FL Nature Tours App!

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 Announcing the NEW Hillsborough FL Nature Tours App! At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Outreach team had an excellent idea to develop a set of audio tours that would help extend how we conduct passive recreation and outreach at our conservation parks and nature preserves. This idea quickly turned into a several month-long project in collaboration with many of our CELM staff members across the county to select sites and develop app language. To date, there are 14 audio tours available at some of our most popular sites including: Nature Preserves         Alafia River Corridor - South         Apollo Beach          Bahia Beach         Bell Creek         Blackwater Creek         Golden Aster         Lake Frances         Lower Green Swamp         Triple Creek Conservation Parks ...
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Rebirth of Cockroach Bay

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   As you ascend the mound path, slender red dragonflies buzz around tall stalks of muhly grass; the shell path underfoot is peppered with bright red and yellow blossoms of Gaillardia and Dune sunflowers, and you tread carefully to avoid crushing them. Upon reaching the summit, you see cabbage palms, winding ponds, and mangroves stretching out into the distance. Only the Tampa skyline, punctuating the horizon, serves as a reminder that you haven't traveled back through time. However, you are, in fact, standing in the heart of what was once a barren mining operation and fallow agricultural land, painstakingly transformed over decades into the  Cockroach Bay Nature Preserve through a collaborative restoration project. Downtown Tampa is visible on the horizon.   Situated in the sleepy southern town of Ruskin, Hillsborough County, Cockroach Bay has borne witness to some of the most significant cultural conflicts in American history and serves a vital existential purpose...
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The Ninth Annual Hiking Spree is Here!

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The cooler weather is approaching – are you ready to Emerge and Explore ? The ninth annual Hillsborough County Hiking Spree features new trails, new prizes, and new opportunities to get out and explore all that Hillsborough County has to offer. What is the Hiking Spree? The Hiking Spree is a collaborative effort between Hillsborough County’s Conservation and Environmental Lands Management and Parks and Recreation departments. It is meant to highlight our unique outdoor spaces throughout the county. It is one of the largest and longest running events Hillsborough County does annually. This five-month event encourages people to discover new places to hike, learn more about conservation, and be active outside. The hikes chosen for the Hiking Spree are at Neighborhood Parks, Conservation Parks, Nature Preserves, and at other sites in Hillsborough.  The wide variety of sites to is curated to give everyone a chance to complete the Hiking Spree and have a great time, regardless of age, sk...
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Magnificent Manatees

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Whether you’re kayaking, diving, or relaxing along the shoreline, seeing a manatee is always thrilling! A curious manatee U.S. Geological Survey, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons These gentle giants can always be found off the coast of Florida, but they come even closer in the winter. Between November and March, water temperatures in the Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico can drop below 60 degrees- a little too chilly for our tropical friends. During these colder months, manatees move in towards the coastline and swim up rivers in search of warmer water near springs and power plants. Florida’s manatees have a relatively stable population now, but that wasn’t always the case. The species, formally known as the West Indian manatee ( Trichechus manatus ), came close to extinction in the 1970s. Although at one point there were only a few hundred left, legal protections, habitat restoration, and public education campaigns have led to a huge surge in manatee populations. The species is no lon...
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Apollo Beach Nature Preserve re-opening September 9th

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Apollo Beach Nature Preserve:  More than a scenic view Apollo Beach Nature Preserve will reopen to the public on Wednesday, September 9th. The Preserve was closed for several months due to construction of our brand-new observation tower in the parking area. The observation tower is wheelchair accessible and provides 360° views of the Preserve. To the west, visitors will be able to see all the way across the bay to St. Petersburg. An extensive restoration consisting of 23 acres of uplands and 33 acres of wetland can be seen to the east, pictured below: Between 2003 and 2007, the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s SWIM program funded the following projects to restore the wetland and upland habitats: 2003: dune planting adjacent to the preserve. 2004: grading and planting of wetlands and upland islands which included grading and shaping a tidal marsh with upland buffer areas. 2006: upland buffer zone planted. 2007: removal of 200 Australian pines and Brazilian pepper trees...
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Adventure Awaits on the Hiking Spree

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Get ready - the Hillsborough County  Hiking Spree begins November 1st!  This year's Hiking Spree will feature new trails, new prizes, and new opportunities to get out and explore all that Hillsborough County has to offer. Choose from over 20 trails all over the county, from wild and wonderful Lower Green Swamp Nature Preserve in Plant City to Tampa Electric's beautiful Manatee Viewing Center in Apollo Beach. Hike eight or more trails and win a prize - this year's prizes feature an amazing Florida favorite, the Southern fox squirrel. Keep an eye on the official Hiking Spree web page for information and updates - the page will be updated with the trail list and other details at the beginning of the Hiking Spree! Thank you for joining us for another Hiking Spree. Let's make it the best one yet.  Happy Hiking!
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Pebble Park Coming Soon in Riverview

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The Conservation & Environmental Lands Management (CELM) Department is excited to announce a new park will be opening soon in the Riverview area. The property located at 9955 Riverview Drive in Riverview was acquired in August 2018 for $2 million from Mosaic. The intention of the acquisition was to turn the parcel of land into a passive park of just over 27 acres. The aptly named Pebble Park will have amenities including paved parking, about a quarter-mile of paved walking trail coupled with another quarter-mile of wooded natural surface hiking trail, 3-24'x34' pavilions and picnic tables, bathrooms and a boardwalk/overlook on the Alafia that is currently being engineered. CELM staff hope to open the park soon. Work is still underway to finish the Riverview Rd roundabout which must be completed prior to opening. The outlook is good, weather permitting of course. A big thank you to all the crew who dedicated time and effort to complete multiple projects in preparation for th...
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Your Backyard Nature Preserve

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Just last year, my partner and I were staring at a bare, sandy patch in our backyard. The earth had been graded high during construction, and grass stubbornly refused to grow there. The only thing holding back erosion was an increasingly expensive layer of pine straw. It's about time , I thought, to finally follow my own advice and plant some frogfruit. Frogfruit as seen from above. These specimens have their characteristic white and purple blooms. Photo by Jade Fortnash. I was first introduced to the plant Phyla nodiflora, better known as frogfruit, as a butterfly host plant. If you want Common Buckeye or White Peacock butterflies flitting around, tuck some frogfruit into your garden. However, the more I chatted with older gardeners, the more I heard a familiar refrain: "Oh, I used to play in meadows of that stuff as a kid! Haven't seen it in ages." These days, much of the arable land in Tampa Bay has been developed for agriculture or housing. Extraordinary quantitie...
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