Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge
ARTHUR R. MARSHALL LOXAHATCHEE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
SCHEDULED PROGRAMSLate May/June 2016
Guided Bird, Butterfly and Wildflower Walks
Every Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
Join our volunteer naturalist for an early morning nature walk and see how many birds and other critters you can spot. Learn about our migratory and year-round residents of the Refuge and their habitat. Your guide will discuss the marsh ecology, answer your questions and identify the birds, butterflies, plants, reptiles and anything else you might find along the way. Meet in the Marsh Trail parking lot.
Roving Naturalist on Cypress Swamp Boardwalk
Tuesday, May 24, 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
A volunteer naturalist will be strolling around the Cypress Swamp Boardwalk, answering questions and discussing flora and fauna of the swamp.
Tram Tours of the Marsh
Monday, May 30, June 6, June 13 & June 20, 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 26, June 9, June 23 & June 30, 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Take a Tram tour of the marsh with our volunteer naturalist, who will take you from the Visitor Center to the boat ramp to the LILA impoundments, then back through the C10 impoundment and the Marsh Trail, across to the Arthur R. Marshall kiosk and back to the Visitor Center. Your guide will talk about the Refuge, its birds and other wildlife, the ongoing research in the mini-Everglades impoundments of LILA, and answer all your questions in the comfort of your shaded electric tram.
Guided Canoe Trips
Every Saturday, 9:00 a.m. - 11:15 a.m.
Meet at the Lee Road Boat Ramp to enjoy a beautiful canoe tour through a portion of the Refuge interior. You may rent a canoe for $33 from Loxahatchee Canoeing or bring your own. (One canoe seats 2 to 3 people.)
RESERVATIONS REQUIRED. Call the Visitor Center at 561-734-8303.
Enjoy this 3-minute video made on the canoe trail:
Full Moon Guided Canoe Trips
Saturday, May 21, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Saturday, June 18, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Saturday, July 16, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Meet at the Lee Road Boat Ramp to enjoy a guided moonlight canoe tour through a portion of the Refuge interior. Wear a long-sleeved shirt and long pants and bring a flashlight and bug spray.
Canoe rental from Loxahatchee Canoeing is $33; you may not bring your own. (One canoe seats 2 to 3 people.)
RESERVATIONS REQUIRED - PLEASE CALL LOXAHATCHEE CANOEING at 561-733-0192.
*** Programs subject to change, for more information on any of the activities and programs, please call the Visitor Center at (561) 734-8303.
Events are listed on the Friends website at
2016 Photography Contest Awards
Thank you to all who entered our annual photography contest, to our distinguished judge Irene Hill, and especially to Cathy Patterson, Jay Paredes, Rick Schofield and the other volunteers whose hard work made this contest possible!
And the winners are:
Best in Show: Jeremy Raines - Hawk in Late Afternoon Light
Artistic: 1st - Meg Puente - Purple Passion; 2nd - Henry Cohen - Loxahatchee Landscape; 3rd - Lynne Mass - Canoes; Honorable Mention: Darin Roney - White Ibis Flock, Gwen Solomon - Bird Tree, MarilynneStrazzeri - Observation Tower
Avian: 1st - Kathleen Fosselman - Great Horned Owl; 2nd - Ruth Pannunzio - Prothonotary Warbler; 3rd - Jim LaRocco - Airborne (Great Egret); Honorable Mention: Jo Ann Ricchuiti - Hungry Great Blue Heron, Leslie Gelman - Heron at Sunset, Meg Puente - 'C' the Anhinga with Fish
Fauna: 1st - Joseph Dell - Dragonfly; 2nd - Ruth Pannunzio - Gator with Turtle; 3rd - Jo Ann Ricchuiti - Halloween Pennant Dragonfly Port; Honorable Mention: Darin Roney - Marsh Rabbit, Ruth Pannunzio - Otter, Meg Puente - Pink Moth and Caterpillar
Flora: 1st - Meg Puente - Spatterdock Trio; 2nd - Kathleen Fosselman - Vine Wrap; 3rd - Grace Clarke - Fern Springs to Life; Honorable Mention: Herbert Froehlich - Our Forest with Jewels of Green, Harvey Mendelson - White Flowers, Meg Puente - Beautiful Bromeliad;
Landscapes: 1st - Leslie Gelman - Beautiful Sunset; 2nd - Jim LaRocco - Days End; 3rd - Joseph Dell - Sunset; Honorable Mention: Bridget Lyons - Sunrise at Loxahatchee, Janet Robinson - Sunset, Leslie Gelman - Birds and Reflections at Twilight
Youth: 1st - Dion Sellitti - Grasshopper; 2nd - Dion Sellitti - Great Blue Heron; 3rd - Troy Trevino - Lake Sunset; Honorable Mention: Natalie O'Brien - Dew on a Fern, Noah Kersten - Pair of Ducks, Noah Kersten - Dragonfly
The winning photographs are on display in the Visitor Center auditorium. They are on sale for $25 framed or $5 unframed.
All of the photos can be viewed on our website at:
Clicking the above link takes you to smugmug, a photo display facility that lets you search for just the photos you are looking for. From any smugmug page you can type "alligator", for example, in the Search field and find all the alligator photos. If you don't find any on the first try (you might be in the middle of gallery full of landscapes), return to the home page and repeat the search you just did amongst a wider set of photos. You can also search on photographer name or other attribute. While viewing any photo you can initiate a different kind of search by clicking on one of the keywords associated with it. The keyword search will create a custom-made gallery right on the spot with all of the photos that matched that keyword!
Nature Store Volunteers Needed!
The Friends are looking for volunteers to work in the Friends nature store in the Visitor Center - please contact Judy Colvard at .
Sierra Club Loxahatchee Group: Palm Beach County's Natural Areas
Saturday, May 21, 9:45 a.m. - 12:00 noon (meeting begins at 10:30 a.m. following 9:45 a.m. breakfast)
Speaker: Samantha Corr, Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management
Location: Refuge Visitor Center auditorium, with breakfast served on the pavilion behind the Visitor Center
The monthly meeting of the Sierra Club Loxahatchee Group will feature Samantha Corr of the Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management team presenting a program on the many natural areas that they have developed. Samantha will present an overview on new outreach programs for the natural areas the county restores and manages, as well as current restoration efforts in the county's waterways.
The meeting is free and open to the public. Entrance to the Refuge is also free to all meeting attendees.
Audubon Society of the Everglades: Scrub Jay Update
Tuesday, June 7, 7:00 p.m.
Speaker: Rob Rossmanith, Park Biologist, Jonathan Dickinson State Park
Location: FAU Pine Jog Environmental Education Center, 6301 W. Summit Blvd, West Palm Beach, Rooms 101 and 102
The Florida Scrub Jay is the only species of bird found only in Florida. The monthly meeting of the Audubon Society of the Everglades will feature Rob Rossmanith, a park biologist at Jonathan Dickinson State Park, speaking about this rare and threatened bird. The Scrub Jay lives in areas that are high and dry and open, with low thickets of scrub oaks that provide the acorns the jay depends on for survival. These scrub oak habitats are maintained by fire. Unfortunately, this unique habitat is disappearing due to development and human population growth. Rob's work at the park spans a wide range of organisms and ecosystems that rely on controlled burns as a management and conservation tool.
The meeting is free and open to the public. Refreshments at 6:30 p.m. For more information visit: or contact Paton White at or 561-818-7574.
Help Palm Beach County School Kids Discover the Everglades!
The Refuge is one of 186 federal sites selected to receive a field trip grant from the National Park Foundation. The funding will be used to bring Palm Beach County school children out to the Refuge on field trips. This grant, part of the Foundation's Open OutDoors for Kids program, supports the federal Every Kid in a Park initiative, which seeks to connect youth and their families to public lands like our National Parks and Wildlife Refuges. That first visit can inspire a lifelong connection to special places such as these, and for many of these kids, that field trip is their first visit. In the words of Refuge Ranger Joseph Whelan, "South Florida has some of the largest and most diverse school systems in the country and happens to border the largest, most iconic wetland ecosystem in the United States. It would be a disservice for kids to go through their entire school career and never be introduced to the Everglades, especially when it is right in their backyard."
Many teachers in Palm Beach County plan class field experiences but have to cancel due to a limited field trips budget and bus availability. Especially as the school year progresses, it becomes even harder to get kids out of the classroom. With this $9,000 grant, the Refuge will be able to provide funding for 45 buses - that means field trips for 1,350 4th-graders who would not otherwise have had the opportunity.
The Friends are actively pursuing additional grant funding to make these trips possible for more school kids. You, too, can help. You can make a donation at $20 = 3 students; $200 = 1 bus of 30 students. Specify "field trips" and we will make sure your contribution in its entirety is used for just that purpose.
News from the National Wildlife Refuge System
Find out what's happening in the National Wildlife Refuge System with the latest from the Friends NewsWire, including a short item about Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell's vision for the future of conservation:
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. To see the press release or view the speech given by Secretary Jewell to the National Geographic Society during National Park Week:
To read the transcript of the speech, intermixed with some gorgeous photos of our public lands:
medium.com/@Interior/the-next-100-years-of-american-conservation-397c42b8f1f2#.ipk0ow2s1
During her speech, the Secretary called for a "course correction" for conservation that includes inspiring all Americans from all backgrounds to connect with public lands; implementing smart, landscape-level planning to support healthy ecosystems and sustainable development; and greater investments in national parks and public lands to prepare for the next century of conservation.
She also announced that the federal government will undertake a first-of-its-kind study to analyze the impact outdoor recreation has on the nation's economy. The study will present detailed and defensible data on the importance of outdoor recreation as a distinct component of the economy that can help inform decision making and management of public lands and waters.
Work on Second Span of Tamiami Bridge Begins!
On Earth Day, April 22, state and federal officials kicked off work to remove part of the Tamiami Trail and begin building a second bridge. The Tamiami Trail has dammed water going into Everglades National Park for nearly 90 years. At 2.6 miles, the bridge will be more than twice the length of the first bridge completed in 2013. Another three miles of bridging are also planned. Bridging the Trail is a key piece in fixing the Everglades and will also help deliver fresh water to ailing Florida Bay.
More Water Pumped into Everglades National Park to Lower Risk to Dike & Wildlife
An unusually wet dry season fed by an El Niño system produced record rain, raising water levels in Lake Okeechobee to dangerous levels that threatened the aging Herbert Hoover Dike. To reduce risks of flooding that could wreak devastation as far east of the lake as Wellington, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been draining lake water to the east coast through the St. Lucie Rvier and the west coast through the Caloosahatchee River since January, despite the harm the polluted freshwater causes to the estuaries and coastal fishing grounds near Stuart and Fort Myers.
Water conservation areas to the south also flooded, threatening the high ground that deer, wading birds, panthers and other animals need to survive, and prompting the state to ask the Corps to begin pumping massive amounts of water under the new Tamiami Bridge.
While "send the water south" has been the rallying cry directed at lawmakers across the state as the only long-term solution to Everglades restoration, in the short-term the influx of water during what normally should have been the dry season has greatly reduced the wading bird nesting that usually would be occuring at this time of year.
A bill approved by the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last month could send nearly $1 billion to Everglades restoration projects that would help "send the water south." Senator Jim Inhofe, the chairman of the committee, approved the bill at the urging of Florida's senators. Senator Inhofe was the only senator to vote against the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) when it passed the Senate in 2000. The bill will still need to be approved by the full U.S. Senate and paired with similar legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives before it could be signed into law, but with support from Everglades restoration's biggest critic in the Senate, the chances of passage are considered good.
On the House side, U.S. Representative Tom Rooney commends ranchers, farmers and state and local governments for working together to reduce the phosphorus in the agricultural runoff into the lake and for sharing the cost burden with the federal government, even when the federal government has not lived up to its funding commitments under CERP. Rep. Rooney points to the ban on earmarks, which he supported, as preventing the House Appropriations Committee, of which he is a member, from increasing the budgets for specific projects like dike repair and Everglades restoration.
Florida Governor Rick Scott, Senator Bill Nelson, Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay and other local leaders have also urged the Army Corps of Engineers to speed progress on repair of the dike.
While these officials criticize the U.S. Army Corps of Engineeers for delayed projects and delayed decision-making, Colonel Jason Kirk, commander of the Corps' Jacksonville District, emphasizes the strength of the federal-state partnership in the implementation of CERP, calling it an unparalleled ecosystem restoration effort, and pointing out that the Corps and the state of Florida have each invested over a billion dollars to date in this effort.
Meanwhile, the Corps has reduced the harmful discharges from the lake as the unseasonal rains have receded.
weatherplus.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2016/04/28/corps-further-reduces-lake-okeechobee-discharges
weatherplus.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2016/04/21/harmful-lake-okeechobee-water-flows-to-be-reduced
Development Coming to Western Palm Beach County
Minto Communities plans to start construction soon on Westlake, the development formerly known as Minto West. The Palm Beach County Commission has given approval for 4,500 homes and 2.1 million square feet of office and retail space on 3,800 acres of the former Callery-Judge citrus grove.
Last month the GL Homes proposal for 3,900 homes and 350,000 square feet of commercial space on the nearly 5,000-acre Indian Trails Grove won its first critical vote before the Palm Beach County Commission.
This month the Palm Beach Gardens City Council decided to move the city's growth management line to allow 3,250 homes and more than 2 million square feet of commercial development at the 4,760-acre Avenir, formerly known as the Vavrus Ranch.
Here's one article on the three massive developments slated for western Palm Beach County:
Avenir:
npbc.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2016/05/05/avenir-development-gets-go-ahead-from-palm-beach-gardens-officials
Indian Trails Grove:
Minto/Westlake:
A Palm Beach County Circuit Court judge dismissed a lawsuit last month, ruling that the county did not violate its comprehensive plan in approving the Westlake development project in The Acreage, just north of Lion Country Safari.
Thanks to a 2012 state law, forming a city at Westlake would require the support of just three of the five registered voters listed as living within the Seminole Improvement District - created decades ago by Callery-Judge to handle water supply for the property. The law allows a special improvement district to convert to a city. Incorporation as a city would allow developers to set their own development rules and potentially build more homes than the county would allow. The law was passed at the urging of the owners of Callery-Judge Grove. The idea was to create leverage and avoid the Palm Beach County Commission imposing building conditions and costs on the landowners. Now the new owners stand to benefit. Last month Minto Communities announced the start of an incorporation movement for the property.
Agricultural Reserve: