The Trailblazer

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...

Are you stuck at home with kids who need some entertainment? Try one of these fun, natural crafts that you can make with items you have at home- no shopping trip required! Each craft can be made with only items that you probably have at home and in your backyard or neighborhood park. We've included work-around options in case you don't have some of these supplies and don't want to make a special trip to the store! If you do gather natural materials from a public area, remember to practice social distancing, even outdoors, with those who don't live in your household. Be mindful of nature and don't take too much of anything- and remember, if you're on a Hillsborough County Nature Preserve or at a county or state park, all plants and animals are protected and shouldn't be disturbed.  Pine Cone Bird Feeder Peanutbutter pine cone bird feeder, Bradley West, CC BY 2.0 Over 500 species of birds can be found in Florida. Some migrate here from the tropics or the north...

Enjoy these wildlife scavenger hunts that you can do on your own or with friends and family! Almost all of our Hillsborough County Nature Preserves are open again (except for Apollo Beach Nature Preserve, which remains closed to the public). It's time to get back outside and explore! These scavenger hunts are a great addition to your routine while hiking, bird watching, or simply enjoying the outdoors. Just remember to continue social distancing with those outside of your household and give other hikers plenty of space. Each of these printable wildlife scavenger hunt pages features species that you can find in nature preserves, but you may have to visit multiple preserves to complete each one, and some species are much harder to find than others. Just click on the link under each section to open that particular scavenger hunt, then either print the file out or download it and follow along on your phone as you hike. Find a preserve near you here - each preserve web page has a link ...

As you hike, you'll come to 6 numbered trail markers (shown on the map)- the first two in Stephen J. Wortham Park and the next four in Rhodine Scrub Preserve. At each trail marker,  stop and listen to (or read)  the short informational clip provided. You can download each file separately using the links provided OR download the entire audio file and pause it between trail markers. You can also download the text to read along instead of listening. Remember to  bring a trail map, water, bug spray, and a snack  with you and tell someone where you're going.  Happy hiking!  Trail Map and Text Links The parking lot for Rhodine Scrub is located in Stephen J. Wortham park; download the trail map to see where the park and preserve connect.  >>Rhodine Scrub Trail Map this is a geo-referenced trail map, meaning that if you download a mapping app like  Avenza  on your smartphone and open this PDF in the app, it will let you see your location on the...

Frogs are hard to find and catch, so we're surveying them by listening to their nocturnal calls! If you think of the night as a quiet, peaceful time, you probably haven’t done much night hiking. Hillsborough County’s Nature Preserves are absolutely chock full of exciting sounds after dark (you can find out yourself by signing up for one of our guided night hikes, which are advertised in the Trailblazer newsletter each month and on our Community Calendar. Guided hikes will resume after the Safer-at-Home Order is lifted, when the county administrator allows events to resume). Some of the sounds, like bat calls, are harder to hear, but crickets, cicadas, owls, and frogs are all easily detectable by the human ear, and can even be deafeningly loud in some places. It’s a good thing for the Environmental Lands Research Analysts Team (EL-RAT) that frog calls are so audible. EL-RAT is currently surveying frogs in nature preserves, and these small creatures are extremely difficult to find an...

Palmetto re-growing after a prescribed fire As we hike through the woods or walk through our neighborhoods, most of us don’t pay too much attention to the plants around us- they’re a nice part of the scenery, but we’re more likely to be looking for birds or deer than rare plants. If you’re hiking in a Hillsborough County ELAPP Nature Preserve , though, you may get the opportunity to spot some rare and beautiful native plants- all you have to do is look down! One of these beautiful but rarely seen plants is the native orchid Calopogon multiflorus , also known as the many-flowered grass pink. It’s one of 26 orchid species documented in Hillsborough County Nature Preserves. When it’s not flowering, this plant might be mistaken by a casual observer as a little clump of grass, but that all changes when it begins to bloom. The flower spikes can grow to be over a foot tall and are covered in bright pink, complex flowers with orange centers - a beautiful surprise for any hiker. Due to the loss...

Gopher tortoise peering out of its shell If you’ve ever been hiking on a Hillsborough County Nature Preserve, there’s a good chance you’ve seen a gopher tortoise munching some grass, sunning near the trail, or peering out of a burrow. The only tortoise native to the southeastern U.S., these slow-growing and long-lived reptiles are found in many dry upland areas of Hillsborough County. Gopher tortoises are a keystone species, meaning they have a disproportionately large effect on the ecosystem because hundreds of mammal, bird, reptile, and insect species find shelter in their burrows. Without these burrows to use as hiding spots, shade, and protection from fire, many sensitive and important species would not be able to survive. Sadly, development and suburban sprawl have fractured and degraded their upland habitat so much that gopher tortoises are now listed as a threatened species in Florida.  To keep our gopher tortoise populations healthy and thriving, it’s important for the Cons...