The Trailblazer

Long before us, the flora and fauna of the land mass we now call Florida experienced frequent fire. Hot, dry weather combined with lightning strikes created ecosystems over time that adapted to these fires, with plants and animals coming to expect it and modifying their life cycles to not just tolerate fire but to thrive with it. Indigenous people saw these cycles of fire and growth and harnessed the power of fire to help clear land, hunt, and cultivate the plants they used most. Today, people still use the power of fire to shape natural communities and to protect our own through what we call “prescribed fire.” Hillsborough County Conservation and Environmental Lands Management (CELM) has been utilizing fire for decades. Prescribed fire, also known as prescribed burning, is a safe and economical technique used by land managers worldwide. This time-honored practice is used to restore and maintain fire-dependent ecosystems and to enhance forest health. Fire improves habitat quality by...

  Florida's Hidden Labyrinths Florida's landscape is often overlooked for its apparent lack of topographical interest. This conception may cause visitors and residents alike to overlook geological features worth visiting; locations such as our Sacred Hills of Hillsborough County's Edward Medard Conservation Park, Polk County's Iron Mountain at Bok Tower Gardens, or Devil's Den Spring in Levy County are all worth the trip. But, broadly speaking, the state of Florida is flat. However, it is anything but static. Florida's recent emergence as a land mass has resulted in the development of truly unique habitats, the conditions of which put huge demands on pioneering species to adapt. A gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) peering out from its burrow entrance. Photo by Geoff Gallice, April 27, 2011. CC BY 2.0. Technology has only recently revealed the extent to which our keystone species, the gopher tortoise ( Gopherus polyphemus ), transforms some of our most ex...

Since 2016 this festival has been a can’t-miss event! The Florida Birding & Nature Festival aims to promote appreciation and conservation of Florida’s birds, its wildlife and their habitats through responsible nature-based tourism and public awareness. This year the festival will be held from October 17 through October 20 at the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission (FWC) Suncoast Youth Conservation Center at 6650 Dickman Rd, Apollo Beach, FL. Field trips and hikes will be held nearby at Cockroach Bay, Lower Green Swamp, Blackwater Creek, and Fred and Ida Shultz Nature Preserves as well as Upper Tampa Bay Conservation Park and many other wild locations throughout Hillsborough, Polk, Pinellas, Manatee, and Sarasota counties! The festival is timed just right to coincide with the peak migration of more than 180 species of birds and features expert-led field and boating trips to the best wildlife sites in West Central Florida. The festival will also offer two days of live ...

Summer comes to Hillsborough County, bringing with it a host of implications for our gardens and natural areas. Although we astrologically associate the beginning of summer with the summer solstice, which falls on June 20th, the practical succession of seasons varies from year to year. The National Weather Service provides an excellent overview for South Florida. Drought-tolerant Atlantic St. John's-wort ( Hypericum tenuifolium ) is blooming in Bell Creek Nature Preserve, despite the dry weather. Photo by James Robe. For the purposes of this article, the author defines the Florida summer as when daily minimum average temperatures remain in the mid-70s°F, maximum averages in the high 80s°F, and frequent, daily rainfall occurs. Using weather records from Miami International Airport spanning from 1956 to 1997, they demonstrate that the climate we typically associate with summer begins in Miami by May 21st. Persistent drought conditions can make gardening difficult. Blue Porterweed ( S...

  Have you seen it on the news? Bears in Hillsborough County! Over Memorial Day Weekend, a bear was active around some neighborhoods in Hillsborough County, leaving some residents amazed, maybe a little fearful, and picking up their garbage cans in the morning. A Florida black bear in a tree. Photo courtesy of FWC, 2013 Even though they may not hibernate quite like they do in colder climates, spring and early summer is still when Florida black bears become a lot more active. Younger bears may wander far from their normal habitats to find new food sources, and female bears may be teaching new cubs how to forage.  While bears may meander into our neighborhoods, they still don’t want to have human interactions and we don’t want to incentivize them to stay around. How can we make sure we stay safe, and the bears do too? By being good neighbors to nature! Bear vs Garbage Can Photo by Tim Donovan, 2017. Courtesy FWC. Don’t leave a lunch for Yogi. If there are reports of ...

Apis mellifera.  Photo by Steven Smethurst. Part 1: The Big Bee Confabulation Most people would consider themselves at least passingly familiar with the Bee. Alongside rabbits, elephants, whales, and wolves, bees have an unmistakable silhouette. They possess uncanny abilities, such as organizing into hives, producing honey, and even communicating the locations of flowers via the "waggle dance." Equipped with stingers, just the sight and sound of one can send certain people running for cover, and poetically, they die shortly after using this weapon. The Bee fits comfortably in the pantheon of charismatic animals that define our children's books and science education, and consequently, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who couldn't draw one: yellow and black, maybe with some stripes, and small, buzzing wings hovering over a flower or hive. An except of "The Flower of Nature" including three illustrations of a domesticated Dutch bee species, probably th...