Weekend Plans? Get Out and Enjoy our Wetlands

It is American Wetlands Month - Enjoy some this weekend!

Plant ID & Nature Tour - DeSoto Memorial/Riverview Preserve

May 14, 2011

Stroll through DeSoto National Memorial and Riverview Pointe Preserve with a Master Gardener volunteer to learn more about Florida's native plants and inhabitants of a coastal habitat.  This program is suitable for all ages. 

This tour is FREE and will take place from 9:00 - 11:00am.  Call the Master Gardeners at (941) 722-4524 to register.

Plant ID & Nature Tour - Robinson Preserve

May 15, 2011

Stroll through Robinson Preserve's salt marshes with a Master Gardener volunteer to learn more about Florida's native plants and inhabitants of a coastal habitat.  This program is suitable for all ages. 

This tour is FREE and will take place from 9:00 - 11:00am.  Call the Master Gardeners at (941) 722-4524 to register.

May is American Wetlands Month

Emerson Point

Identify your watershed and find the wetlands in your neighborhood. Learn more about them and share what you learn with someone you know! Encourage neighbors, developers, and state and local governments to protect the functions and values of wetlands in your watershed.

Although wetlands are best known for being home to water lilies, turtles, frogs, snakes, alligators, and crocodiles, they also provide important habitat for waterfowl, fish, and mammals. Migrating birds use wetlands to rest and feed during their cross-continental journeys and as nesting sites when they are at home. As a result, wetland loss has a serious impact on these species. Habitat degradation since the 1970s has been a leading cause of species extinction.

Wetland functions include water quality improvement, floodwater storage, fish and wildlife habitat, aesthetics, and biological productivity. The value of a wetland is an estimate of the importance or worth of one or more of its functions to society. For example, a value can be determined by the revenue generated from the sale of fish that depend on the wetland, by the tourist dollars associated with the wetland, or by public support for protecting fish and wildlife.

Visit http://wetlandextension.ifas.ufl.edu/ or  http://water.epa.gov/type/wetlands/outreach/facts_contents.cfm for more info.

Explore some of Manatee County wetlands at 
http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/recreation/areas/edwardchance-gilley.html
http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/recreation/areas/terraceia.html
http://www.mymanatee.org/home/government/departments/natural-resources/resource-management/preserves.html.        

Snow Effects Downtown

The white fluff floating in the breeze as you drive on US 41 through downtown Bradenton belongs to the Silk Floss Tree Chorisia speciosa.

Silk Floss Flower

Silk Floss Tree seed in the floss

Trunk of the Silk Floss Tree

As you wait for the traffic light to turn green you can let your imagination take you to colder climates with snowy days.  Just don't stay away too long or car horns may bring you back to reality.