JANUARY 2021
Dear Friends,

Happy New Year!! So much has changed in our world since I wrote this letter last year. We zoom, team, and facetime, we don’t hug as much, and bumping fists and elbows have become the expected greeting. But the places that we love are still there, and we need them more than ever. National Parks were created when the nation felt stress from war and the Great Depression; these places of peace can help us get through the pandemic. Take a ride, take a walk or ride a bike to your local park or green space, and I promise it will make for a better day. It is relaxing and relieves stress to take a walk on the beach. It helps our bodies to breathe fresh air and see our neighbors from a distance doing the same. Here’s to 2021!
See you at the beach!
Laura Henning
Free Entrance Days in the National Parks
2021 MEMBERSHIP
This 2021, we hope to accomplish even more towards our stewardship of America's National Parks. The “Friends” urge support of Canaveral Seashore National Park, as your Park, and discover its recreation, conservation, and historic preservation programs in your own backyard.

By continuing your membership, or giving a gift membership to your friends or family, helps to assure that our future generations can enjoy this unique, historic recreational area.
Our Membership Levels:

Individual: $20
Family: $30
Silver: $40
Gold: $50
Platinum: $100
You can renew your membership by downloading the form below or by renewing online on our website:
Great news for Veterans and Gold Star Families! 
To honor the sacrifices of Gold Star families and U.S. military veterans, the Department of the Interior is offering free access to more than 2,000 federal recreation areas including national parks, wildlife refuges, forests and other federal lands. 

This action was initiated by U.S. Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt as a Secretary's Order on October 28, 2020.
The program is intended to thank them for their support of our country and to encourage them to explore recreational opportunities on their public lands and waters. All the details about the program can be found below:
MDC’s 2021 Winter Birding Tours
Begin in January
MDC’s Winter Birding Tours give guests opportunities to learn more about these species from naturalists and local Audubon chapter members. The tours also offer avid birders transportation to Disappearing Island onboard MDC’s Discovery boat.

The Discovery boat will leave from the North Causeway dock in New Smyrna Beach at 9am to Disappearing Island, where guests will disembark at Disappearing Island at Ponce Inlet and walk the shoreline to explore and view such species as red knots, black skimmers and a variety of plovers and sandpipers only seen in this area during the winter months. This three-hour trip will give guests time to explore on their own or with small groups of experienced birders.

Thursday morning tours:
(Maximum 20 passengers & masks are expected)
January 14; February 11; March 11; April 15
Cost for 3 hour tour: $40 adults; $37 seniors (62+) & students; $22 children under 12.

To make reservations, call the Marine Discovery Center at 386-428-4828
DID YOU KNOW?
ABOUT NATIONAL PARKS?
DID YOU KNOW:
Every fourth-grader around the country can get a free one-year national parks pass for the student and their family under a program started by then-President Barack Obama in 2015.
The U.S. National Park Service was founded in 1916, but the country’s first national park predates it — Yellowstone National Park debuted in 1872 when President Ulysses S. Grant signed it into law. In the years since, America has amassed a total of 62 national parks, from the northern reaches of Alaska to the waters of the Florida Keys.

Over the years, a number of different “last names” were given to other areas added to the National Park System. Perhaps the biggest change came in the 1930s with the addition of large numbers of historic areas. Some of these areas were called National Historic Park, National Battlefield or National Historical Site. Many of these will be familiar to you, as they include the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty and Valley Forge. Today there are over 20 different titles that can be given to individual areas, including National Seashore, National Lakeshore and National Recreation Area. Cape Cod is unique in that it could have been given a natural, historic or recreation title. Today there are 423 national park sites, including our very own Canaveral national Seashore.

SHOWN BELOW:
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
is the nation's most popular national park.
REPORT VIOLATIONS
If you suspect a fish, wildlife, boating, or environmental law violation, report it to the FWC's Wildlife Alert Reward Program: 888-404-FWCC (3922).
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