In this issue
Calendar at a Glance
- May 17 Archaeology Day
- May 18 FPTA Kayak Event
The Friends Board of Directors Needs You!
Have time?
Two vacancies on our Board of Directors are currently open. We are seeking two members who would like to serve on the Board for the rest of this year.
While this Board of Directors has been very successful in accomplishing many of our previously set goals, we are now seeking input from our membership to help us set new goals for the remainder of this year.
The Board of Directors meets once a month on the second Wednesday of the month at 3:00 p.m. (It may be possible to change the meeting time if this conflicts with your schedule). You must be a current member of the Friends to serve.
Even if you are unable to serve on the Board, we would still like to hear any ideas and changes that you may suggest. We also are always looking for extra hands at special events.
If you want to learn more about serving as a Director or volunteering in some other capacity, please e-mail Ann Anderson at annanderson@gtcom.net and leave your name, phone number, and e-mail address .
We would appreciate any responses before our next Board meeting on Wednesday May 14.
Ann Anderson, President
Friends of St. Joseph Bay Preserves
Pass it on!
If you know someone who may be interested in receiving information about St. Joseph Bay Preserves, please forward this e-mail. For more information about The Preserves, please call (850)229-1787 or visit www.stjosephbaypreserves.org.
Membership Info
- Student: $10.00
- Senior: $10.00
- Individual: $15.00
- Family: $25.00
- Sponsor: $100.00 and $250.00
- Gold: $1000.00
- Corporate: $1000.00
Please make checks payable to: Friends of St. Joseph Bay Preserves, Inc., and mail to 3915 Hwy C-30, Port St. Joe, FL, 32456. Be sure to include your name, address, phone number, and e-mail
You may also use our membership form at our website.
|
Archaeology Day
Saturday May 17
10:00 a.m. till lunch
Dr. Nancy White
The Preserve has some exceptional archeological sites and you will have an opportunity to see some of them on May 17 with Dr. Nancy White, a professor at the University of South Florida. As a world expert in her field, Dr. White has conducted research on archeology of the Apalachicola River Basin for more than twenty years. Her archeology field schools have resulted in the Buffer Preserve being one of the best surveyed and inventoried state lands in Florida for historical and archeological sites.
The day begins at 10:00 a.m. EDT at the Preserves Center with a slideshow presentation about the Apalachicola Valley and St. Joe Bay archaeology. Some artifacts will be on display and, if time permits, there may be some spear throwing.
At 11:00 a.m. EDT, tour Richardson Hammock, a large, well preserved shell midden site representative of the Deptford, Swift Creek, Weeden Island, and Fort Walton cultural periods (ca. 500 B.C. to A.D. 1500). The site is known to contain human burials. The site is believed to be one of the largest and best preserved archaeological sites of its type in the northwest Florida Gulf coast region.
Participants will have to walk about ten minutes through dune sand to reach the site. Appropriate clothing is long pants (and possibly long sleeves if you are susceptible to poison ivy), hats, and sturdy walking shoes. It may be hot and buggy so wear sun protection and bring water and bug repellent.
Participants may bring a lunch if they wish to stay and eat with the group.
No reservations are required. For complete details, please call (850)229-1787.
Florida Paddling Trails Association
Kayak Event
BYOK (Bring Your Own Kayak)
Sunday May 18 2:00 p.m.
Roy Ogles, Doug Alderson, and Hank Brooks would like to invite the Friends of St. Joseph Bay Preserves to a paddle with the Florida Paddling Trails Association (FPTA) on Sunday, May 18, at St. Joseph Bay Preserves. Anyone interested in kayaking Florida's beautiful coast should plan to attend. BRING YOUR OWN KAYAKS!!
Kayakers MMB
Meet at 2:00 p.m. at the St. Joseph Buffer Preserves and begin a group paddle at 3:00 p.m. After an easy paddle of several hours, we will probably drop by a local restaurant for dinner.
The FPTA supports kayaking/paddling statewide and is focused on the Florida Circumnavigational Saltwater Paddling Trail. More information about the FPTA can be found at their website at
http://www.floridapaddlingtrails.com/.
Anyone interested in joining the FPTA should come to the kickoff to the 2008 FPTA kayak season since most of the FPTA board will be coming. This is your chance to meet the board, find out what is happening with the paddling trail and get your suggestions and questions heard.
If you have questions, please contact Roy Ogles at rogles@mchsi.com
A Message from the Manager
Bat Exclusion
We finally have the bats out of our buildings!
This April, The Friends of the St. Joseph Bay Preserves sponsored a bat removal project conducted by Cyndi and George Marks of the Florida Bat Conservancy. Please check out the wonderful work of the Florida Bat Conservancy at www.floridabats.org.
Bats have been living in the central and northern buildings at the St. Joseph Bay Preserves Center for many years. As their numbers increased, so has the smell and potential damage to the buildings. For many years we have wanted to get the bats out of the buildings and relocated to a more suitable bat house.
This April we were finally lucky enough to get Cyndi and George to come up from St. Petersburg to help us. Cyndi and George are well-known bat experts and conservationists that have written the excellent book "Bats of Florida."
Bat houses. MMB
The Marks identified at least five species within the Buffer Preserve by their sonar patterns: Brazilian free-tailed bat, Evening bat; Northern yellow bat; Eastern pipistrelle; and the Seminole or the Red bat (it is not always possible to identify bat sounds down to the exact species).
When they assessed our bat situation on April 1, they didn’t hear many bats and saw no mass exit from the building. This was a surprise since site host volunteers Max and Pat Purcell had seen hundreds of bats leaving the building just after sunset the previous week.
It turns out our bats were Brazilian Free-tailed Bats which are known to sometimes only seasonally inhabit a roost site. Many of our bats seem to come here in the late fall/winter and stay through March. Our “snowbirds” had just vacated the premises!
So, this was the ideal situation for the bat exclusion. Cyndi and George found all the tiny cracks where bats were entering the building and hung plastic netting that allows the bats to exit but not to reenter the building. It is very important to make sure every bat is out of a building before blocking the entrances. If bats are trapped in the building, they will die and, as well as being very bad for the bats, it is bad for the people and building to have dead rotting bats in the walls and floors.
On April 4, after three nights with the exclusion netting in place, Cyndi and George sealed the cracks and holes that the bats were using to enter the building.
Bats are great insect-eaters and a natural and fascinating part of our ecosystem. When our bats return this winter, they will not be able to enter our buildings, but we hope they will relocate to the bat houses near the bay that were put out for them last year (also sponsored by Friends). Cyndi and George also gave us another bat house that we are going to put up on the old fish cleaning shed.
It is so great to have finally have this project done! Our greatest thanks to all the Friends of St. Joseph Bay Preserves who sponsored this project and to Cyndi and George Marks who did such a great job (and contributed so much time and labor to us). THANK YOU!!
Jean Huffman, Preserves Manager
|
Friends of St. Joseph Bay Preserves