Nature

Nature Conservancy Preserves Land to Protect Diversity

Since 1951, The Nature Conservancy has been working in partnership with local communities, government agencies and private businesses to protect the natural landscapes that harbor the diversity of plant and animal life on Earth. Our mission is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. The Nature Conservancy works in all 50 United States and in more than 30 countries around the world.

Florida Friendly Landscaping

Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection has launched a great new site, called FloridaYards.org! Complete with Florida plant guide and an interactive flash Do-It-Yourself guide, the site is a nifty resource, and I recommend you go visit.

Spend a Day learning about Florida’s Sea Turtles

Ever wonder about your “Nocturnal Neighbors”? No, not those noisy neighbors next door that are always up until 2 AM. I mean the ones visiting our beaches at night as they have for longer than you can imagine. That’s right, sea turtles! The three species of sea turtle using Brevard’s beaches struggle with the burden of crawling from the surf and finding a suitable nesting location near the dune. Once they find a suitable sight they deposit a hundred golf ball sized eggs into a carefully crafted nest chamber. Leaving them to be incubated by the heat of the summer sun, the mother turtle will never see her babies again. The hatchlings emerging two months later have very little chance of survival with only one in a thousand expected to make it to adulthood.

Learning About Florida’s Sea Turtles

Ever wonder about your “Nocturnal Neighbors”? Spend a Day learning about Florida’s Sea Turtles! Learn how to join NESTS — Neighbors Ensuring Sea Turtle Survival! Take a Sea Turtle Lighting Course!

Helping Sea Turtles

For those of you dropping by Green Orlando on a monthly basis, sea turtles are a topic you’ve heard about before. From day one its publisher, Eric Needle, has been inspired by the story of sea turtles and the efforts citizens of this county have made to help protect these summer visitors.

Brevard County and each of the municipalities in the county have lighting ordinances established to reduce the effects of lights illuminating the beach, which disorients nesting females and the hatchlings emerging a couple of months later. It’s a concerted effort by citizens throughout the county, to do what we can to help these imperiled reptiles and it’s easy. Seeing a massive nesting sea turtle or a cute hatchling is usually enough to illicit an emotional response from most everyone and when we’re tied emotionally to these creatures we work towards protecting them.

Florida’s Green Budget

Florida’s new budget sets aside $2 billion for Everglades, beach restoration, land conservation and water improvement. Wow. Florida is an amazing place to be. The state of our environment is critical to so many industries. From tourism to agriculture, quality of life in the sunshine state remains a priority, and the new budget shows that Talahassee sees the connection.

Sea Turtle Ranger Program

This month, the turtle walk program at Sebastian Inlet State Park broke an all-time, nightly record. Recent participants of the Sebastian Inlet State Park “Turtle Walk” made history by witnessing the magic of a loggerhead turtle lay her eggs on the same night that a leatherback and green turtle beached themselves to lay their eggs. The nesting of the leatherback was a record breaking eighth nest of its kind within the park this year.

The Real Florida

So you’re in Central Florida for a conference, on vacation, or maybe you live here! But have you ever seen the real Florida? Many of us, residents included, have no idea how diverse, how immense and how beautiful the natural Florida outdoors are.

Spring is Here

Has this weather been amazing or what? Once again, spring is upon us. As I watch the weather around the nation it really makes me feel blessed to live here in Brevard County. This past winter has to be one of the most mild on record for Central Florida, but for most of the country it has been a season of extremes.

Beach Restoration Projects Underway

Construction began on beach restoration projects in Brevard and Martin counties following the devastating 2004 hurricane season. The two restoration projects will restore coastal habitat, recreational beachfront and protect upland homes and businesses.