Recently, Friends learned of an opportunity to apply for a $15,000 grant to improve access to recreational activities at the Refuges. National Wildlife Refuges, such as our Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys Refuges, are established primarily to conserve fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats. In conserving the wildlife and their needed habitat, the refuges also provide wildlife-centered recreational opportunities, such as hiking, cycling, bird-watching, butterfly-watching, photography, kayaking, hunting and fishing. We are brainstorming ideas for projects we might propose that would increase access to our wildlife-centered recreational activities without creating more work for the refuge staff. We need them to manage the habitat and wildlife, not our recreation. Any cool ideas? Email [email protected], or leave a comment.
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Hunting is a popular use of the Lower Suwannee Refuge. However, the area around the headquarters building, including the River Trail and the Tram Ridge Trail are never open to hunting, as noted with slash marks on the map. Archery Season on the Lower Suwannee Refuge is Saturday, September 17 to Sunday, October 16, 2022. Both archery and crossbow equipment are allowed. Hunters can take antlered or antler-less deer, wild hog, coyote, gray squirrel, rabbit, armadillo, opossum, and raccoon. Archery hunters can hunt all refuge lands open to hunting during any season. There are also archery-only areas that are open during all hunts with approved archery equipment only, as noted in green on the map. Hunting regulations are available on our Hunting page. To keep everyone informed, here is a list of this season's hunt days. Archery
Sept 17 to Oct 16, 2022 Muzzleloader Oct 22 to Oct 30, 2022 General Gun No. 1 Nov 5 to Nov 13, 2022 Thanksgiving- General Gun Family/Seniors/Disabled Veterans Nov 18 to Nov 20, 2022 General Gun No. 2 Nov 21 to Nov 27, 2022 Wild Hog Hunt Jan 28 to Feb 12, 2023 Small Game Jan 28 to Feb 12, 2023 Youth Spring Gobble Hunt Mar 11 and 12, 2023 Turkey, Spring Season Mar 18 to Apr 9, 2023
Across the country, many National Wildlife Refuges, National Parks, and other outdoor locations offer Junior Ranger programs. Friends of Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys NWRs is developing one for our Refuges.
The program is designed for kids who like to explore forests, wetlands, and grasslands. They receive an age-appropriate activity book and guide to the Refuges and earn a badge upon completion. It is a great way to show families why every public land is important to preserve. Some families plan their vacations around collecting Junior Ranger badges! Learn more on our Junior Ranger page. Friends has two new tee shirt designs. Both are unisex style and will be available in limited numbers at our booth at the Cedar Key Seafood Festival.
The hoodie is currently available in the online store and the short sleeved shirt will be soon. Our selection of earrings has also been expanded. Cedar Key Seafood Festival is October 15 and 16. Friends will have an information and merchandise booth. We are eager to have many, many visitors. Come and learn why the Lower Suwannee and Cedar Key National Wildlife Refuges are so valuable in preserving our quality of life, our economy, and the natural environment that draw us to this place. Learn about our hiking trails, our gravel bike trails, our kayaking trails. Learn what the Refuge does to build back thriving, sustainable forests, to help keep the water of River and the Gulf a good home for the plants and animals who live there and on whom we depend for recreation and livelihood. Buy our merchandise and help spread the word about our Refuges. To help staff the booth for a few hours, email [email protected]. To visit us, come to the city park. We will be along A Street, looking forward to meeting you and hoping to make you smile. Look for Friends ad in the September-October edition of Hidden Coast magazine.
The Refuge will hold its final Open House at Seahorse Key for 2022 on Saturday, October 8 from 9:00 to 3:00. Sunday, October 9 is the alternate date, in case of bad weather. Visitors can walk up to to the Light Station and cross over to the beach on the far side of the island. It is a beautiful, adventuresome experience. Open Houses are free once you arrive at the Refuge island. However, visitors must arrange their own transportation. Shuttles are provided for a fee by tour companies in Cedar Key, or visitors can arrive by private boat. Important Information Seahorse Key is an island almost 3 miles from Cedar Key. Access is only by boat. There are no amenities, such as food or water on the island. Rest room facilities are limited. Should there be a medical or other emergency requiring professional assistance or evacuation, response times could be lengthy. Please plan with this in mind. Friends is celebrating National Wildlife Refuges Week with an expert-guided Butterfly Walk in the Wild. The walk will be along Barnett Creek Road on the Lower Suwannee Refuge; there will be no "wild" bushwhacking involved, just strolling along the limestone road in the serenity of the woods and marsh. Friends member Barbara Woodmansee will help us spot and identify butterflies, which hopefully will be abundant in that area in early October. There is no fee for this event. We would appreciate your emailing us at [email protected] if you plan to come. If there is a large group for the walk we will have additional butterfly experts to help spot and identify these wonderful creatures. We will start to gather at 8:45 at the point where Barnett Creek Road intersects with the Nature Drive. At 9:00 Barbara will have an introductory talk. We will start walking at 9:15 and finish by 12:00. Park along the side of the road near where Barnett Creek Road intersects with the Nature Drive. See the map below. We will not cover a lot of distance, perhaps a mile out and then back. We will be walking very slowly, watching the sides of the road for our butterflies. It will be good to bring plenty of water, sunscreen, a hat, and bug spray. If you have a Butterflies of the Lower Suwannee guidebook, bring it along. We will have a few available to purchase that day, if you want, but you do not need one for the walk. Barbara will sign books, if you wish. It was her expertise as a butterfly expert and photographer that made the guide possible. As we have previously reported, the researchers at Avian Research and Conservation Institute had received no downloads from Suwannee's tracker and assumed that it had finally lost battery power, having maintained contact almost a year longer than the battery's expected life. Amazingly, Suwannee called home again! Researcher Gina Kent wrote to let us know that as of September 2, " He's near the border of Nicaragua and Costa Rica!" "So...what happened? We are still getting very little location data (lucky if it is one location a day), but it is likely that the cell towers near the Refuge changed and the software in his transmitter could not relay the daily locations. Once he got to Central America, there were cell towers compatible with his transmitter! All the stored data was uploaded! "Can't expect too much more from this old transmitter, but we'll celebrate these successes and his survival in each and every location. This is my favorite news of the week." We all share Gina's joy at hearing from Suwannee again and at the fact that, at least for the moment, Friends is helping track two Swallow-tailed Kites, Suwannee and Suwannee II. Gina also reported that, as of September 2, "Suwannee II is safe and still enjoying the bugs and forests of the Yucatan." See her location in the 8.24.2022 post. In related news, Suwannee II is now part of the St. Petersburg Audubon Society's Raptors on the Move project. The Swallow-tailed Kite they had been tracking is no longing sending data so they are including Suwannee II in their program. We are happy to be sharing our data.
As we did for Suwannee, our Friends group now is helping fund the tracker for Suwannee II, another Swallow-tailed Kite who nests on the Lower Suwannee Refuge in the spring and summer and migrates to Brazil in the winter. See an earlier blog post. When Suwannee II was captured and outfitted with the tracker, the researchers took one of the feathers for DNA analysis. Ta Dah! They learned that Suwannee II is a female. From data already downloaded by the tracker we know that on 5 July, she headed north to Georgia, spending time on the Altamaha and Savannah Rivers for 18 days until returning south on 23 July. She returned to the Suwannee River and visited areas around her nest site once again. She continued south on 31 July and after four more days and nights she took off from Cape Sable in the Everglades on 4 August to western Cuba. In the morning of 5 August, she flew off across the Gulf of Mexico to Puerto Morelos, Mexico. She stayed in Quintana Roo, Mexico ten more days until continuing south. Ken Meyer, the featured speaker at our 2020 Annual Meeting, and Gina Kent, his fellow researcher at Avian Research and Conservation Institute, will post updates on the Institute's blog and send us information to share here on Friends website.
The Florida Division of Historical Resources has selected Friends of the Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys NWRs to receive a grant to begin repairs on at least one historical building on the Vista property near Refuge headquarters. The State will provide $60,000 for the project and Friends agreed to match that with $15,000 raised elsewhere. Thus, the total amount for this part of the project is $75,000. That will not be enough to make the building fully functional, but it will move us much closer to being able to use the building for Friends and Refuge activities. This is the second grant Friends received from the State for Vista. The first, in 2019, was a planning grant of $50,000 that resulted in a Historic Structure Assessment Report evaluating the historical, cultural, and structural characteristics of the property, including many current and historic photos.
Scroll down to the description of Vista on the Places of Interest tab for additional background.
Scroll down in the post about the 2020 Annual Meeting and Walk to Vista for photos of Friends members visiting the site. Scroll thru the 2022 Annual Meeting post for photos of Sandra Roe Smith turning over a symbolic key to the property to Refuge Manager Andrew Gude.
Butterfly lovers, mark your calendars for October 10 when Barbara will lead a Butterfly Walk on the Refuge. Get ready to spend a wonderful morning walking in the wild, seeing butterflies with Barbara. Details to come.
Friends helped support the tracker worn by Suwannee, a Swallow-tailed Kite whose flights have been followed by the Avian Research and Conservation Institute (ARCI) for the past three years. When the battery in the tracker died, Friends was able to support a tracker for another bird, Suwannee II. Suwannee II hung around the Lower Suwannee Refuge in June after being outfitted with his transmitter. Now he has flown north to the Savannah River! What! Why north, we asked? ARCI Senior Researcher Gina Kent replied that Suwannee II is using a location where the Institute knows other kites have roosted in the past. She says it's quite common for birds from the south to move north for pre-migration preparations. A kite that nests on the FL Panther NWR came to St. Augustine. One from there, years ago, went all the way to the NC border. Another from West Palm Beach moved north to the St. Johns River. It is always exciting to see their pre-migration behavior, says Gina. We will post updates on Suwannee II as they're available.
Trails on the Lower Suwannee Refuge surround us with peace and quiet beauty when we need them. They give us chances to explore, observe and learn. They also remind us that insects still rule the wild. But, there are some barriers to using the trails, in addition to the insects. Lots of us find walking on uneven ground and under our own power for the length of most trails to be unrealistic. “On July 3, I met with Andrew Gude, Manager of Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge to demonstrate the EcoRover and evaluate trails that could be used in an adaptive trackchair program at the refuge. The meeting was prompted by Boyd Kimball, board member of Friends of the Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges https://www.friendsofrefuges.org/ and David Jones of SportsAbility Alliance https://www.fdoa.org/ .
“Two spectacular trails jump out right away. The River Trail takes us thru a beautiful cypress swamp, leading to a boardwalk that pops out on the Suwannee River. Really cool! The Dennis Creek Trail starts in the Shell Mound area and treks through estuaries north of Cedar Key, FL. Andrew Gude said, "The future possibilities are very exciting and proposed a trial event with the trackchairs in early December 2022. Bird Dog Boats has established excellent adaptive fishing from its own dock facility in Cedar Key, in operation with UF-IFAS. This trackchair program would operate about ½ hour from Cedar Key and be a very nice expansion to the adaptive recreation offered in the area.” The Friends of the Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys NWRs organization is delighted to be involved in this possibility and will work hard to make it happen.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service selected Friends president Debbie Meeks to be one of the 25 participants in the Friends Academy. Friends Academy is an advanced training program for board members of Friends organizations. Its goals are to provide a broad understanding of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and to enhance the effectiveness of the partnerships between Friends and their Refuges. Members of the boards of directors of the more than 250 Friends groups supporting the 567 refuges nationwide were invited to apply for the week-long training program which takes place at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, WV. It is a very nice venue. The organizers of the Academy are particularly eager to hear what Debbie has to share about our use of IT for membership databases and developing of our trail guides, butterfly guidebook, and digital brochures. Among other things, Debbie is eager to learn what others have to share about development of a Visitor Center. It should be a great week!
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Friends of the Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges
P. O. Box 532 Cedar Key, FL 32625 [email protected] We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. |
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