Category: Misc

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Botanical Scrapbook

Before naturalists could easily hold a professional-grade camera in the palm of their hands, they would often preserve flowers and leaves in botanical scrapbooks. This practice requires patience, planning and sweat equity and serves a variety of interests, both scientific and sentimental. 

Whatever their purpose, the practice is less common these days, as we opt for a digital photograph and leave the flowers for the next nature seeker to enjoy.

On the off chance that you do not have a bookshelf full of botanical scrapbooks to peruse, I hope you enjoy reflecting on this fascinating hobby by flipping through a recently uncovered scrapbook found at our office.

These pages evoke hours spent walking through the pine flatwoods and marshy trails, gathering specimens to press and add to the collection, presumably in the comfort of home. The pages tell the story of the naturalist, finding joy achieving another seemingly small, but wholly significant goal, that of ticking-off another flower from their bucket list. Viewers may now admire the carefully clipped and photographed plants documented in this native and invasive plant collection. 

Although, rules and regulations today prohibit the collection of any plants within CREW, we do wish to honor the past. In fact, some botanical researchers still utilize this method for scholarly pursuits and I know that on occasion my son will secretly pick a flower as a gift. However, I am quick to use this as a teaching moment, letting him know that those plants are there for a reason. The bears eat the berries and the bees drink the flower’s nectar. More often than not these days, he asks for my phone to snap a picture, which I can then keep forever. 

Academics and toddlers aside, please do not pick the flowers on the CREW trails, take a picture and leave the plants for the pollinators! Although, if you’re really keen to start a scrapbook collection of your own, try growing some of the native plants you see at CREW in your own backyard, then pick and press away! 

We hope that you have enjoyed these pages digitized in honor of the plant’s beauty and also the collector’s personal investment, from what I am calling, the Blue Botanical Scrapbook. Enjoy this walk down memory lane and if you ever want to take a look through these archives in person, let me know, I’d be happy to un-shelf them for you!

One more thing. In case you’re wondering, we haven’t been able to track down who made these scrapbooks, so if you have any clues to the mystery, let us know! 

Further research

Excellent article written on this subject from the Florida Museum Herbarium and link to the preserved plant collection at University of Florida and University of South Florida.

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/herbarium-specimens-provide-snapshots-of-plants-past-data-for-future/

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/herbarium/

http://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/specimen.aspx

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Learn About the Burn: Prescribed Fire at the Cypress Dome Trail

The CREW Cypress Dome Trails are getting a Crew cut, like a Buzz cut, with a little left on top. Barbershop metaphors aside, the prescribed burn team uses know-how in the field that inspires confidence, which is exactly what you want when it comes to fire in the forest. 

Fire lines are dropped on both sides so fire meets fire in the middle and extinguishes itself. So cool, but not literally.

South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) started this most recent round of shredding and prescribed burns at the Cypress Dome Trails, just as summer temperatures start to rise. Their aim is to mimic historic fire conditions and emphasize growing or lightning season burns (April – August). Though weather conditions and smoke sensitive areas make the timing difficult, the burn crew always use sound judgement and experience on the day of the burn. 

Geo-cashers may need to check on this one.

The majority of natural plant communities rely on frequent fires to maintain their vegetative characteristics and biodiversity. Pine cones and Rain Lilies sprout new life and ground dwelling animals, like the gopher tortoise return to these areas in abundance after a fire. Wildfires no longer occur with historical frequency or extent and this has altered natural wildlife and plant community structure and function. 

Prescribed fire are important for wildlife and plants because: 

  • reduces the amount of vegetation
  • opens up space for the native plants to grow and the wildlife to hunt their prey
  • adds nutrients to the soil
  • prevents wildfires
Decked with the right gear from boots to helmet, Tiffany and all the burn staff keep a clear line of communication open, even while posing for photos.

All Land Stewardship field staff, which we affectionately call the burn crew, have completed the state certified burn course to ensure fire safety and burning efficiency. If you would like to learn more about the CREW management plan you can read about it here:

https://www.sfwmd.gov/sites/default/files/documents/gmp_crew_2011-2021.pdf

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Hiking at CREW: A comparison of Second graders and college-aged students.

Purely by chance a series of college hikes, and second grade field trips, overlapped in the same week, giving this observer a first-hand look at some of the timeless similarities and funny differences between these two age groups.

  • Second Grade Field Trips
  • FGCU Colloquium Hike

The bus dismount goes about the same for both groups. Some faces clearly display their inner thoughts, that they actually have no idea they were going for a hike in the middle of a 60,000 acre watershed. Quickly though they are reassured by the guide that they are in good hands and that staff know the way back to the bus. As the students all breath in the fresh air, they generally relax and enjoy the introduction.

As the hike meanders through the diverse yet intertwined ecosystems, personalities start to emerge. This is where it gets interesting.

College students ask questions and make observations that are quite cerebral in nature, where as the second grader is more hands-on and scientific in their approach:

  • Most second graders want to pick up and touch everything. They get muddy, and when they’re hot, jump in a puddle or pour water on their heads. 
  • Whereas most college students wouldn’t volunteer pick up an insect or touch soil samples, even if it was directly handed to them.

The talented teachers and experienced CREW Trust staff teach the perspective groups about a range of topics from observational details about wildlife and plant species to the benefits of prescribed burns, water quality in Florida aquifers, and what exactly is a Cypress Dome. 

  • The second grader often asks authentic, unprovoked, and funny rhetorical questions about the immediate world around them.
  • A college student tends to represent a broader knowledge and asks worldly and provocative questions, leading to some interesting discussions with classmates.
Stephanie Bravo holds a wild blueberry, while expertly warning the students to never eat what you find on the trail.

Guide says: Guess who likes eating these berries?

Students: BEARS!!

Concerned student asks: What do I do if I see a bear?

Guide responds: Well, first of all you probably won’t. But if you do know you’re lucky. Then look big and walk away slowly. You can wait until it leaves and continue your hike. Oh, and hike with a parent or friend.

Florida summer is particularly hot and buggy, but staff points out it’s also the time of year we see water-loving flowers in abundance and say goodbye the youngest Swallow-tailed Kites migrating to South America. The point of all this is to see these things first hand, to push personal boundaries and make a connection with the wild spaces around us. 

  • Second graders will apply their experience in the classroom and start to connect the bigger picture of watersheds and wildlife habitats to conservation projects.
  • College students may give back, volunteer, or spread the word to friends.

Getting back on the bus, regardless of the age group, students walk away with an awareness of the land and the role they can choose to play through conservation.

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CREW Trust welcomes Allison Vincent

The CREW Land & Water Trust is pleased to announce the addition of Allison Vincent as the new Communications Director.

Previously, Allison was the Communications Director for Super Science & Amazing Art, an educational entertainment company in SWFL. She has a B.A. in anthropology with a focus in archaeology from the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida.

“We are very excited to work with Allison,” said Brenda Brooks, Executive Director for CREW Land & Water Trust. “She and her family have been connected to the CREW Project for several years and are often seen hiking the trails. We know her passion for conservation and education will be an asset in this position.”

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CREW and You, part 5 and 6: WHY and HOW

This is part 5 and 6 of our six-part series on the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of the CREW Trust.

The trestle bridge at Bird Rookery Swamp

In our previous posts, we’ve talked about the 60,000-acre Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed (CREW) and the role of the CREW Land & Water Trust.

Our nonprofit is dedicated to the preservation and stewardship of the water resources and natural communities in and around CREW.

We do this through assisting with funding and land acquisition and through environmental education.

At the heart of our WHY is this: we care passionately about the water, the land, and the flora and fauna within the watershed.

We care.

Part of protecting anything, from land to water to animals, is getting people to care. We know that, when someone is out on the trails and learns about how a drop of water moves through the watershed and is filtered by the 5,000-acre sawgrass marsh and helps fill our aquifer, we are helping them care about where their water comes from.

When a student learns about the palmetto berries and the bears that feed on them, they have an understanding of why we protect both the berry and the bear and how they (including the human) are all connected in our ecosystem.

Because we know that, when someone cares, they then ask HOW. How can they be part of protecting and preserving water? How can they work towards making sure that our future generations have clean water to drink?

How can they help protect endangered species like the Florida Panther?

game camera image by Tom Mortenson

All of us here at CREW Land & Water Trust – from staff to interns to volunteers and Trustees – we are all part of this nonprofit because at some time, we learned, then cared, then felt called to do something.

And if you have attended a program and learned about the watershed, or wandered the trails and watched a swallow-tailed kite soar overhead, you probably care, too. You are part of our why, and you can be part of our how.

Become a member. Our members help support our environmental education programs, not just through their membership dues, but also through attending our programs as paid participants.

Volunteer. Our volunteers do everything, from trail maintenance and exotic plant removal to assisting with field trips and leading guided walks. We simply could not educate the over 49,000 people who visited the CREW Trails or participated in a CREW Trust program last year without our volunteers.

The reality is, no one person started the CREW Project, and no one person founded the CREW Land & Water Trust. It took a few people caring a lot to start the process of acquiring and preserving land within the 60,000-acre border. Their WHY led to their HOW and it’s up to us to continue and carry the passion they had 30 years ago into the years to come.

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CREW and You, part 4: WHERE

Map of CREW

This is part 4 of a 6-part series on the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of the CREW Land & Water Trust.

Map of CREW
The CREW Project

It’s pretty often that we get a phone call at our office and someone says, “Where are you located?” or “Where is the trail?”

So let’s cover that today.

WHERE, exactly, is the CREW Land & Water Trust located?

At a field station. A super, top-secret field station, with radiactive sandhill cranes that guard the entrance. (Just kidding about all of that except for the field station part.)

The CREW Trust shares an office with two of our partners in the CREW Project – South Florida Water Management District and Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission. Because this is a shared office, and we have no trails (really, none – it’s very boring), we use our address for mail only. If you do look us up on Google maps based on our mailing address, we appear to be somewhere in the middle of some strange fields off of Corkscrew Road.

Basically, where WE are isn’t as important as where the CREW Project is.

The CREW Project is a 60,000-acre watershed that spans Lee and Collier Counties. There are four trail systems that are open to the public for various recreation opportunities.

The CREW Trail Systems: A – CREW Marsh Trails; B – Cypress Dome Trails; C – Bird Rookery Swamp; and now a trail has opened in Flint Pen Strand.

The CREW Marsh Trails (4600 CR 850 (Corkscrew Road), Immokalee, FL 34142 ) were the first trails to open within the CREW Project and feature 5.5 miles of looped trails. The trails are located in Collier County and meander through pine flatwoods, sawgrass marsh, oak hammock and popash slough ecosystems.

CREW Marsh Trails MapDownload

The Cypress Dome Trails & Caracara Prairie Preserve (3980 CR 850 (Corkscrew Road), Immokalee, FL 34142) are located in Collier County near the Lee County border. The Cypress Dome Trails offer 6 miles of looped trails and connect to the Caracara Prairier Preserve, which is owned and managed by Conservation Collier.

Cypress Dome Trails & Caracara Prairie Preserve MapDownload

Bird Rookery Swamp Trail (1295 Shady Hollow Boulevard, Naples, FL 34120) is an approximately 12 mile trail located in Collier County. The trail features a shell path, short boardwalk and grassy tram – a remnant of its logging history.

Bird Rookery Swamp Trail MapDownload

The first trail in Flint Pen Strand opened in November 2018 and more are in development. The 1.5-mile red trail offers views of the Kehl Canal along with sections of seasonal marsh and hydric pine.

Flint Pen Strand Trail MapDownload
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CREW and You, part 3: WHEN

This is part 3 of a 6-part series on the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of the CREW Land & Water Trust.

CREW Marsh Trails observation tower, overlooking the 5,000-acre sawgrass marsh

This year the CREW Land & Water Trust is celebrating it’s 30th anniversary. The “when” of our story started 30 years ago and we’ve been working hard ever since to preserve the water, land and wildlife within the 60,000-acre CREW Project.

We are proud of our history and our role in the CREW Project and encourage you to read about it in full on our HISTORY page.

It’s pretty difficult to condense all of our history into one infograph, especially considering the many names that have written this history. From founder Joel Kuperburg and our first executive director, Ellen Lindblad, to our longest-serving volunteer, Dr. David Cooper, our history includes volunteers, members, friends, land managers, biologists, students, professors, residents and visitors. We are thankful for everyone who has had a hand in the success of our nonprofit and look forward to working with you all in the years to come to preserve our watershed and its most important natural resource – water.

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Our season review: a letter from the Executive Director

Flint Pen Strand – photo by Klaus Harvey

As our weather turns warmer and rainy season is on the horizon, I find myself reflecting on this past season.

This year the CREW Trust celebrates its 30th anniversary. So much has been accomplished in that time frame, with much more yet to be completed. Of the 60,000-acres within the borders of the watershed, almost 55,000-acres within the Corkscrew Regoinal Ecosystem Watershed (CREW) have been acquired. We continue to pursue our mission of preserving and protecting water, our most valuable natural resource, through working with our partners, specifically Lee County’s Conservation 20/20 program and Collier County’s Conservation Collier.

Education is a key component of ensuring that generations today and those that follow will connect with the land and the wildlife within the CREW Project borders and understand the value of the watershed. We are thankful for the visitors, residents, schools and CREW Trust members who participated in this season’s programs and visited the four trail systems.

This season saw the opening of the fourth and final CREW Project trail system – Flint Pen Strand. Our volunteers have worked for several years to create and mark the first two trails and continue to work on additional trails. Our Board of Trustees have been key players in this process through their work behind the scenes to assist the CREW Trust and our partners in making this exceptional area open to the public.

I have spent time over the last few weeks exploring the yellow loop in Flint Pen Strand. As I stood amidst the dwarf cypress and blooming bladderwort north of Kehl Canal, I thought of my dear friend Jim Goodwin and the hours he put into making Flint Pen Strand a reality. There is no other place in CREW like it, and I’m thankful to our volunteers, members, Board of Trustees and friends who have helped open this fourth trail system so we can all share in the beauty of the watershed.

Summer is our time to plan for next season, and I look forward to seeing you on the trails and thank you for continuing to support the CREW Trust and share in the remarkable beauty that is the CREW Project.

Brenda Brooks

Executive Director

CREW Land & Water Trust

CREW Trust Executive Director Brenda Brooks
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CREW and You, part 2: WHAT

This is part 2 of a 6-part series on the Who, What, When, Where, Why and Hows of CREW and the CREW Trust.

CREW Marsh Trails observation tower, overlooking the 5,000-acre sawgrass marsh

In our last blog post, we established WHO we are (CREW Trust), and WHO is involved in the CREW Project. Today, let’s explore the whats – WHAT is CREW, and WHAT does the CREW Trust do?

CREW

CREW stands for Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed, a 60,000-acre watershed that spans Lee and Collier counties.

The land is preserved for our most important natural resource: water.

What does the watershed do?

During rainy season, if you followed one drop of rain water, it would fall in the northern part of the watershed – the CREW Marsh Trails. From there, it would move slowly over the land and into seasonal marshes or through the 5,000-acre sawgrass marsh that is the heart of the CREW Project.

The sawgrass helps filter the water, which then continues to slowly move either west towards Flint Pen Strand and into the Kehl Canal (then the Imperial River and finally Gulf of Mexico) or south to Bird Rookery Swamp and into the Cocohatchee River and then the Gulf of Mexico.

But we do not want all of that water to leave the watershed. The majority of that water needs to sit on the land, seep through the roots of the plants and the sandy soil, then through the limestone and into our aquifer.

We rely on our aquifer to provide us with all of the water we use in SWFL – from cooking and drinking to taking showers and flushing toilets. We do not have glacier melt or springs or reservoirs and rely solely on the aquifer. Large green spaces are need for aquifer recharging, and that is the main function of the Corkscrew Regional Ecocystem Watershed (CREW).

Because the land is preserved for water, it is also a home for wildlife, including some critical and endangered plant and animal species. The ecosystems include seasonal marshes, pine flatwoods, oak hammocks, popash sloughs, cypress domes, cypress swamps, hydric pine and more. Animals that can be found throughout CREW include Florida black bears, Florida panthers, coral snakes, alligators, grasshopper sparrows, roseate spoonbills, swallow-tailed kites, bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, bobcats, lubber grasshoppers, zebra longwing butterflies and so many more. Due to the many ecosystems within CREW and the variety of wildlife that live within the 60,000-acre border, the second function of CREW is as a home for Southwest Florida flora and fauna.

What does the CREW Trust do?

The CREW Land & Water Trust is a private, non-profit conservation organization dedicated to the preservation and stewardship of the water resources and natural communities in and around the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed (CREW).

We do this through assisting with funding and land acquisition within the 60,000-acre CREW project border.

As part of our commitment to the preservation and stewardship of CREW, we provide environmental education programs for students of all ages on the four CREW Project trails (CREW Marsh Trails, Cypress Dome Trails, Flint Pen Strand Trails and Bird Rookery Swamp Trails).

We believe that, if we teach people about the watershed and the wildlife within its borders, we can help make connections that will ensure that future generations will continue to care not just about preserving CREW but care about preserving more watersheds nationally and globally.

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CREW and YOU, part 1: WHO

This is part 1 of a 6-part series on the Who, What, When, Where, Why and Hows of CREW and the CREW Trust.

When we first meet people, whether it’s visitors, new members, new volunteers or residents, introducing ourselves (explaining who we are) can be confusing.

It’s not an easy answer.

For example, when you introduce yourself, you say “Hi, my name is Blankity Blank, and I’m a rockstar astrophysicist who enjoys entomology.”

(Also, if that is you, let’s be friends as soon as possible)

But when we, the CREW Trust meet someone knew, explaining who we are can take five minutes – and that’s the short version.

Most people check out within the first two sentences – once they realize we’re going to say a lot of really long words, some of which may be new, like “aquifer recharge” and, well, honestly even what CREW stands for trips people up.

So let’s break it down into WHO exactly we are, and how that relates to CREW.

CREW

The acronym stands for the Corkscrew Regional Ecosytem Watershed, which is a 60,000-acrew watershed that spans Lee and Collier counties in Southwest Florida.

(we will get into the WHAT of the watershed in our next post)

So, CREW is the name for the land. (super short version of the definition)

The CREW Project

We sometimes refer to the entire 60,000-acres as the CREW Project, because CREW involves multiple agencies.

Those agencies include the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), Conservation Collier, Conservation 20/20 and the CREW Land & Water Trust. Corkscrew Audubon Sanctuary is also within the borders of the CREW Project.

CREW Land & Water Trust (CREW Trust)

We, the CREW Land & Water Trust, are the non-profit agency attached to the CREW Project.

We help with funding and land acquisition and provide environmental education at the four trail systems within the CREW Project – the CREW Marsh Trails, Cypress Dome Trails, Bird Rookery Swamp and Flint Pen Strand.

The CREW Trust is often confused with CREW (as in, the names are used interchangeably) but we try to stress that we are part of the multi-agency project and NOT the land owners, land managers, biologists, law enforcement… we are helpers within the CREW Project.

We are ultimately tasked with helping each person we meet learn about WHAT CREW is (and what you can do at the trails), WHERE it is located (along with the trails), WHEN the project started and its timeline, WHY it’s important to protect the watershed, and HOW the public can help.