There are rumors that the Largo Nature Preserve and Bonner Park in Largo, Florida are closing. Also, the county’s new Eagle Lake Park is ready but can’t open due to budget constraints. It appears that the Pinellas County officials have not managed their money well, and the county’s few green spaces may suffer as a result.
Hence, some local residents have formed the “Save Largo and Clearwater’s Nature Parks” group. You can reach them at Facebook, which isn’t the best place to organize a rally, but it will have to do for now.
Largo Nature Preserve on Nature-Preserves.com
Posted by Timm on June 17, 2009 under
Ideas
Get out and visit the lands and waters you help protect! You can use the Nature Conservancy’s Preserve Map, powered by Google Maps, to find a preserve near you. Or check out the Nature Preserve Directory at Nature-Preserves.com.
This is one of many ideas on how to help save our planet at Change.org. As citizens of our world, we face a daunting array of social and environmental problems ranging from health care and education to global warming and economic inequality. For each of these issues, whether local or global in scope, there are millions of people who care passionately about working for change but lack the information and opportunities necessary to translate their interest into effective action. Change.org aims to address this need by serving as the central platform informing and empowering movements for social change around the most important issues of our time.
A New Jersey nature preserve will be renamed in memory of conservationist Michael Huber on Saturday. Guests will gather for a 9 a.m. hike through the preserve, followed by a dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Huber, a Middletown resident who died in January at 82, was a longtime board of trustees member of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation. He will be honored by the foundation as it renames a 1,227-acre preserve — formerly known as the Four Mile Spring Preserve — the Michael Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve.
Besides donating acreage in his native Monmouth County for parkland, Huber helped preserve the 9,400-acre Franklin Parker Preserve in Woodland, named for his brother-in-law and fellow conservation trailblazer.
Michael Huber Preserve on Nature-Preserves.com
Preserve Website
Original Story
Starting Sunday, the new 374-acre Newell and Ann Meyer Nature Preserve in Eagle, Wisconsin will be open daily from sunrise to sunset, offering groomed hiking trails and scenic views of rolling hills and clean waterways. The preserve, located on Highway 67, was a gift from the Meyers of $12.5 million in land and assets. It is the largest donation ever given to the Nature Conservancy in Wisconsin. Admission is free, and parking is available.
In 2006, Newell and Ann Meyer donated the land to The Nature Conservancy through their estate. The Meyers’ dream was to create a nature sanctuary, an oasis of quiet beauty amidst the hustle and bustle of southeast Wisconsin. Lifelong Milwaukee residents, the Meyers bought the first 80 acres in 1976 as a summer retreat. After they retired, they purchased additional properties nearby with the goal of amassing enough land to create a large nature sanctuary.
The Newell and Ann Meyer Nature Preserve is located within the Mukwonago River Watershed project area, adjacent to the southern unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest, and is located about three miles northwest of the Conservancy’s Lulu Lake and Crooked Creek preserves.
Newell and Ann Meyer at Nature-Preserves.com
Preserve Website
Original Story
The new 466-acre Turkey Creek Nature Preserve in Pinson, Alabama is now open to the public. The preserve was dedicated on May 9 in a ceremony at the preserve’s new interpretive center. The event was hosted by the Southern Environmental Center (SEC) at Birmingham Southern College, the group responsible for day-to-day management of the preserve.
Turkey Creek, a tributary of the Locust Fork, is one of the most biologically diverse habitats in North Central Alabama. The waters of the creek are home to three endangered species of fish, the Rush Darter, Vermilion Darter and Watercress Darter. In addition to its ecological importance, the preserve contains numerous important cultural and historic sites, including the home and mill of David Hamby, a pioneer in the mining of coal in Alabama in the decades prior to the Civil War.
Turkey Creek at Nature-Preserves.com
Original Story
The Nature Conservancy has donated its 960-acre Hogback Preserve to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The Hogback Preserve is located in the Lower Kickapoo River Valley in Crawford County. Public access for outdoor recreation will continue.
“The Nature Conservancy is pleased to donate this beautiful and ecologically significant property to the state,” said Steve Richter, the Conservancy’s director of conservation for southwestern Wisconsin. “The DNR will do a great job of managing this land for the benefit of people and nature.”
The Conservancy acquired the seven tracts that make up the Hogback Preserve from 1997 to 1999 at a total cost of almost $1.2 million. To purchase the land, the Conservancy received about $260,000 in Knowles-Nelson Stewardship grants and raised an additional $920,000 in private donations.
The DNR already owns and manages land in the river valley both north and south of the land it received from the Conservancy. The state agency’s Bell Center Wildlife Area and its Wauzeka Wildlife Area are open to the public for outdoor recreation including canoeing, hiking, fishing, hunting and birding.
The Hogback Preserve is named after a narrow steep-sided ridge that rises several hundred feet above the surrounding landscape. The preserve includes prairie remnants and oak woodlands as well as rare native plants and wildlife including the state-endangered regal fritillary butterfly.
The Kickapoo River Valley is identified by the DNR as a “Legacy Place” because it is considered to be one of Wisconsin’s most important areas for both conservation and recreation.
Hogback on Nature-Preserves.com
Hogback Website
Original Story
This information was provided by the Land Trust Alliance:
Last Thursday, Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) introduced the Rural Heritage Conservation Act, S. 812, a Senate bill to make permanent the enhanced tax deduction for conservation easement donations.
Senators Baucus and Grassley are the Chairman and Ranking Member, respectively, of the Senate Committee on Finance, which handles all tax legislation. Having these leaders as champions gives this bill a big leg up from the start, but additional Senate co-sponsors are always helpful. Click here for advice and facts you can use when asking your Senators to become co-sponsors of S. 812.
This new bill is similar to house bill H.R. 1831, which has an amazing 93 representatives as original co-sponsors.
A Dozen Ways to Say Thank You
Thanking your elected officials when they do something right is an important step towards building a long-term relationship you can call on time and again. If your Senators and Representatives are among the sponsors of these two important bills, please find a way to say thank you today!
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Largo Central Park Nature Preserve in Florida is a 31-acre nature park virtually surrounded by water. The park is home to hundreds of wildlife species for viewing. Over 130 species of birds, otters, red fox, American alligator, marsh rabbits, wild turkey, and bats all feed or live within the park. A 5-mile kayak/canoe route begins at the park and ends at Park Boulevard. Catch and release fishing is allowed at the park. Over 40 interpretive displays educate visitors on the wildlife at the park.
Al Criswell of Largo took this photo of a very camera-friendly Moorhen, which are sometimes called marsh hens and are medium-sized water birds. These birds are omnivores, eating plants, small animals and eggs. They are aggressively territorial during the breeding season, but are otherwise often found in sizeable flocks on the shallow vegetated lakes they prefer.
Largo Central Park on Nature-Preserves.com
Largo Central Park Website
More bird photos
President Obama signed legislation today designating 2 million additional acres of public wilderness areas. The federal “wilderness” designation provides the highest level of government protection from logging, mining and other forms of commercial use and development.
“This legislation guarantees that we will not take our forests, rivers, oceans … monuments, and wilderness areas for granted, but rather we will set them aside and guard their sanctity for everyone to share,” Obama said at a White House signing ceremony. “That’s something all Americans can support.”
The 2009 Omnibus Public Land Management Act is a compilation of over 160 separate legislative proposals that extend across nine states. It establishes 10 new National Heritage sites, creates 21 new wilderness areas, expands 19 existing wilderness areas in 10 national forests, and grows several national park boundaries. One of the largest newly protected wilderness areas is 380,000 acres in the eastern Sierra Nevada and San Gabriel Mountains in California.
President Obama’s Speech
Following is President Obama’s speech, as provided by the White House:
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On April 18, the Ohio Historical Society and the Cedar Bog Association will dedicate a new education center. The building will include a modern classroom, restrooms, office space, sales area and exhibit space. The entire design has been planned, not as a destination in itself, but as a compliment to the prime attraction — the various wetland habitats of Cedar Bog and their interesting flora and fauna.
Cedar Bog is one of the highest quality nature preserves in Ohio, with one of the state’s greatest concentrations of rare and endangered species.
The kickoff April 18, the weekend before Earth Day, will begin with a bird walk at 9 a.m. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. all are welcome to attend a dedication and open house with tours, displays, an art show featuring area nature artists and refreshments. The event is free.
Click for more information or call 800-860-0147
Cedar Bog on Nature-Preserves.com
Cedar Bog Website
