Fee Free Days for federal public lands

To mark the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day and to celebrate the launch of the Obama Administration’s America’s Great Outdoors initiative, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced a schedule of free admission days to many of the lands managed by Interior.

All national parks, national wildlife refuges, and many areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management will offer free admission on June 5-6, August 14-15, September 25 (Public Lands Day), and November 11 (Veterans Day). These dates are in addition to the previously announced free admission at all 392 national parks April 17-25 as part of the celebration of National Park Week.

President Obama has made connecting Americans to the outdoors and our history a fundamental goal of the conservation initiative announced at Friday’s White House Conference on America’s Great Outdoors, said Salazar. The Interior Department was proud to host that conference and will be even prouder to host Americans who want to get outdoors to visit their public lands.

America?s public lands offer opportunities to engage in healthy, outdoor activities, whether for a few hours or a few days. More details about fee free days and activities are available for:

National parks at http://www.nps.gov/findapark/feefreeparks.htm

National wildlife refuges at http://www.fws.gov/refuges/

Bureau of Land Management areas at

http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/Recreation/BLM_Fee_Free_Days.html

What better way to celebrate this Earth Day than to make it easier for all Americans to experience the breathtaking landscapes, amazing creatures, and the stories that make up our shared heritage?, added Salazar. By getting outdoors, we remind ourselves of our blessings and of the responsibility we all have to pass these lands on to our children and our grandchildren.

Marc Minno speaks on butterflies at Native Plant meeting

A note from James Wheeler of the the Suncoast Native Plant Society:

The Suncoast Grapevine newsletter can be downloaded from http://suncoastnps.org/newsletters/2010/2010-04.pdf.

Highlights:

•Speaker: Marc Minno speaking on rare butterflies. He will have books for sale at the meeting.
•Conference Reminder: Register Now for this year's exciting 30th anniversary conference
•Hillsborough River field trip recap
•April field trip to Kanapaha Gardens and the Butterfly Rainforest (Gainesville). Early registration required.
•Plant of the month: Scutellaria integrifolia, rough skullcap

The meeting is this Wednesday evening at 7 pm at the county extension office in Seffner, and as always everyone's welcome. You can see more info on Marc on the first page of the newsletter, and directions to the extension office at the end. This is a rare chance to hear Marc locally.

Wicked Weeds VHS

From TBEP:
We have many VHS copies of “Wicked Weeds: A Homeowners’ Guide to Removing Invasive Plants” in our office. This is because people don’t have VHS players much anymore since we’ve all gone to DVDs. If any of you can use VHS copies, please let us know how many you want and we’ll get them to you. If you know anyone who might want any, let us know that too. Otherwise, we’ll probably dump them.

We also have DVDs of this video too, and can provide those to you as well.

“Wicked Weeds” was co-produced by Hillsborough Extension and the Tampa Bay Estuary Program. The 21-minute video identifies commonly found invasive trees, shrubs and vines in the Tampa Bay region, and demonstrates techniques that homeowners can use to remove them from their yards. Proper safety equipment, appropriate chemical usage and specific eradication techniques are covered.

Contact Nanette:
Nanette Holland O'Hara
Public Outreach Coordinator
Tampa Bay Estuary Program
100 8th Ave. S.E.
St. Petersburg , FL 33701
(727) 893-2765 phone
www.tbep.org

media release- Camp Bayou

Night Hike   Join us on Friday, April 30 from 8-9:30pm for a Night Hike which includes an activity that is a representation of the solar system followed by stargazing and s'mores. The hike will show how effective our night vision is so no flashlights allowed without red filters. Around the campfire, we will talk about the constellations and some of the ancient stories that are associated with them. This is an introduction to our solar system, part of the Solar System Ambassador program recently promoted at Camp Bayou. For more on the program, visit http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador/ . Night hike donation requested is $5 per person. Please RSVP to campbayou@yahoo.com or call 813-363-5438.   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. ### Photo: previous night hike ends around the campfire

Nature's Classroom Open House

NATURE’S CLASSROOM
OPEN HOUSE EVENT

WOODS, WATER AND WILDLIFE
April 24-25, 2010
Saturday, 10:00 – 5:00
Sunday, 10:00 – 5:00

FEATURING:

●NATURE ART DISPLAY ●ANIMAL EXPERIENCES ●FOODVENDORS

●LIVE MUSIC ●CHILDREN’S ●EXHIBITORS ACTIVITIES

$5.00 / CAR DONATION
Sorry, no busses or mini-busses

*No alcoholic beverages
*No pets
*Smoking in designated areas only

13100 Verges Road
Thonotosassa, FL 33592
(Just 1.5 miles East of I-75
off the Fletcher Ave. exit)
(813) 987-6969

Green Reading

From National Environmental Education Week:

Green Reading
Whether you're looking to incorporate environmental content into Language Arts lessons, working to improve students' reading skills across the curriculum or want to learn more about a particular environmental topic before presenting it to your students, EE Week's Green Reading Lists have something for you. These lists are recommended reading for educators and students on a wide variety of environmental topics.

Green Reading for Educators EE Week's list of suggested books for educators covers a wide variety of topics, from climate change to schoolyard gardening.
Green Reading for Students Our list of titles for students is organized by grade level, and each title is evaluated for its educational content and scientific accuracy.

EE Week is THIS week! Visit http://eeweek.org for more things to see and do!

Don't Fry Day- May 28

Don’t forget to Slip! Slop! Slap!® and Wrap! on Don’t Fry Day and every day! The EPA's Sunwise site has lots of info about being safe in the sun before Don’t Fry Day. Here are some additional suggestions:

Use sun safety activities during your school’s Field Day.
Remind students to bring sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses on field trip permission slips.
Send a letter home to parents reminding them to be SunWise.
Work with your parent teacher organization to raise money for a shade structure.
Display the UV Index on the school Web site using the UV Index widget.
Plant trees.
Participate in next year’s SunWise with SHADE Poster Contest.
Create a sun safety bulletin board.
Organize a shade team to conduct a shade audit of the school’s grounds.
Have students serve as peer educators and teach younger children to be SunWise.
Distribute free brochures and fact sheets from EPA at school sporting events.
Be creative and come up with your own idea to promote sun safety!
Tell your students about the UV Index Facebook app.

For more information on Don’t Fry Day, and to see all available Don’t Fry Day resources, please visit the National Council on Skin Cancer Prevention’s Web site at www.skincancerprevention.org.

Rancho Regattas 2010 Exhibition

Here's an interesting event about some of the area's eclectic fishing history- not too far away, in Manatee County:

Relive Florida’s Fishing Past at Rancho Regattas 2010

April 2010_Cortez, Florida – the series of Rancho Regattas 2010 events kicks off in Manatee County at the Florida Maritime Museum in Cortez with the opening of a travelling exhibit depicting the Cuban Fishing Ranchos through related images, historic maps, and artifacts Saturday, April 10th from 5-7pm. An evening presentation will commence at 6pm with guest speaker, Robert Edic author of Fisherfolk of Charlotte Harbor

Come out to DeSoto National Memorial in Bradenton on Sunday, April 18th from 11am-4pm for family-friendly activities, kayaking, living history, and a messabout. Learn more about these ranchos in association with the Cuban trade at the South Florida Museum also in Bradenton beginning at 6:30pm on Friday, April 30th.

Announcement from:
Cassandra Rae Harper
Outreach Coordinator
West Central Regional Center
Florida Public Archaeology Network
University of South Florida
Tampa, Fl 33620
phone: (813) 396-2328

Radio interview

I did an interview today at CBS radio Tampa Bay's "In Touch with Tampa Bay- Connecting to our Community". I talked about Camp Bayou and the Spring Open House. If interested, it will air on Sunday, 4/11, on the following stations at some time during the half hour noted below: WLLD, 94.1FM  6:30-7am WRBQ, 104.7FM  7-7:30am WQYK, 99.5FM  11:30-noon WSJT, 98.7FM  7:30-8am WQYK, 1010AM  6-6:30am Dolly

media release- Spring Open House at Camp Bayou

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. 11 am: Nature activities and crafts– get into the outdoors with a variety of nature-related projects including a few citizen science options. 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- It's a Jungle Out There: Imagined and Real Dangers Outdoors 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 event supports No Child Left Inside- http://www.nclicoalition.org/)  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. A flyer is ready for viewing/download at https://www.box.net/shared/6nbnoh4c8s . ### Photos available at  http://picasaweb.google.com/campbayou

on the trail...

Pawpaw in bloom
Mossy trail...
Lots of new growth and blooms, blooms, blooms! The weather is finally cooperating so take some time for a leisurely walk in the woods and check out all the signs of spring!