Spring Open House 2010

Spring Open House

Saturday, April 17, 2010
8am-2pm

Schedule of Activities:
8am: Great American Cleanup begins– register at Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful
9 am: Trail games begin– Butterfly Blingo, Scavenger Hunt, Geocaching, Letterboxing and more...
10 am: Wetland Walk-n-Wade – Take a walk through the wetlands to the river to see what critters we can net. Your feet WILL get wet!
11 am: Nature activities and crafts– get into the outdoors with a variety of nature-related projects including a variety of citizen science excursions.
Noon: Spring Member BBQ– Free for current members or become a member for as little as $10. Pulled pork and hot dogs provided by Camp Bayou. Please bring a side dish or dessert to share (optional).
1 pm: Nature Presentation- TBA

On-going throughout the day:
- Fossil Museum open
- Fossil pit dig (for small fee)
- Nature Center open
- 3 trails through varied habitats
- Canoe launch open
- Native People’s Camp
- Native plants for sale
- Cart tours every half hour beginning at 9:30 am.

All the activities are family-friendly. This is an NCLI (No Child Left Inside- http://www.nclicoalition.org/) event and is part of National Environmental Education Week (http://www.eeweek.org/), as well as an opportunity to Get Outdoors Florida!(http://getoutdoorsflorida.org/).

Camp Bayou is nether a campground nor a summer camp. It was an RV park before the County's ELAP program purchased the land but it is now open for day use only, open to the general public. Through volunteers, donations, membership and grants, the RCDF offers pre-scheduled programs to schools, youth groups, adult groups and families plus it's open from Thursday- Saturday from 9am-2pm for passive recreational pursuits such as wildlife watching, nature photography and trail walks. General admission is still FREE.

The Camp Bayou Outdoor Learning Center is a public- private partnership between the non-profit Ruskin Community Development Foundation, Inc. (RCDF) and Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation and Conservation. Camp Bayou is located 3 miles south of SR674 at the end of 24th St SE in Ruskin. More information is on the web at http://www.campbayou.org/ or call 813-641-8545.