Last month, we held Session 2 of the sixth (6th!) cohort of NRLI's Effectively Engaging DEP Stakeholders program. Although the participants in the photo below are laughing and having fun in the fishbowl (iykyk), we cram a lot of material and a lot of learning into the sessions. The DEP participants are rock stars and soak it all up in the four short sessions we have together - we are continuously impressed by their desire to learn. Later this month we are off to Cedar Key for Session 3 - always a favorite!

The deadline for NRLI Class 23 applications is only one month away!

Please continue to spread the word and encourage anyone who you think would be a good fit for NRLI to send in their application materials ASAP.

As always, if you are interested in helping plan and/or attending any of the sessions, please let us know!

Application details & the Class 23 schedule are available on our website.

Application deadline is April 17th.

It's hard to believe that the Fellows of Class 22 (!!!) will soon be NRLI alumni, and we are over-the-moon excited that, after three years of covid precautions, we are finally able to invite alumni to the graduation banquet again!

If you would like to attend the graduation banquet (it's a Saturday this year - that's not a typo), please RSVP by April 7th. We can't wait to see you there!

Not just a bunch of WUI! Group dynamics amid fire and the wildland-urban interface

By Brooke Langston & Vincent Encomio, NRLI Class 22 Fellows

Greetings NRLIites! Class 22 has started to find NRLI principles popping up all over the place, and we’re learning they often come in bundles. Last month in Titusville we discussed our graduation speaker and the Burl Long award, we dove deep into group dynamics, group decision-making, empathic listening, and integrative negotiation, and even experienced the groan zone. Afterward, several of us reflected on the process, and how different and more difficult it would have been for us several months earlier. These skills are proving helpful and effective already.

The practicum process is heating up, and we are seeing these same principles coming to play as we work through our process agendas and lay out our projects in general. We are planning for group dynamics, working to set up effective panels, and hoping to navigate the circle of conflict to have the most productive discussions we can.

Florida has a whole network of land managers using prescribed fire to manage lands together across boundaries, creating healthier safer habitats. We appreciated learning about how managers (and NRLI alums!) at the Hal Scott Regional Preserve are working to save the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. It was fun and educational to see tangible good work around a listed species, and how a management practice like prescribed fire is used to benefit a little bird.

For many of us, this was the first time being on the ground seeing prescribed fire being implemented. It’s hard to understand the complications of planning and using fire with more development and therefore more wildland-urban interface (WUI) without this level of interaction. We appreciated the boots-on-the-ground learning. Most of us cannot claim we are now experts, but we did stay at a Holiday Inn!

Something that we are still thinking about from Titusville is the dichotomy between Firewise yards adjacent to natural areas, versus creating wildlife-friendly yards. From a burn boss perspective, we see how unvegetated yards adjacent to a fire line make burning easier, but what about our industry’s work on creating habitat in neighborhoods? We were pleased to hear panel member Betty say that both can be achieved, and her group is working on it.

Many of us are now looking at the weather differently: hmmmmm, light winds, moderate humidity…I wonder if today is a good day to burn?

For session 6 the stars aligned against us - we fell apart at the seams: 1 no-show, 1 late arrival, 3 left early for illness. Something in the air? NRLI virus? The rock shrimp? Whatever plagued us in Titusville, here’s to fair winds, following seas, and lots of good health leading to Live Oak. 

Michael Chase

Program Administrator, Clean Water State Revolving Fund, Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Mike is the Program Administrator for Florida’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund program (CWSRF). As the CWSRF program administrator, he oversees the management of the priority list and projects, ensuring the program meets federal requirements, managing staff and personnel issues, advising the Director on any project or program problems, and managing day to day operations within the program. 

His goal with the CWSRF is to safeguard natural resources by overseeing activities that protect and improve water quality and aquatic resources in the state of Florida. Doing this requires that that he work with communities, local governments, and other funding agencies to build the infrastructure needed to accomplish these goals. 



Mike and his wife are both 6th generation Florida natives who grew up in Tallahassee.  He spends many days on the waters of the Gulf of Mexico fishing for trout and redfish out of St Marks, enjoying the benefits of an area that is still a somewhat undisturbed Florida natural environment. He also enjoys golfing, Florida State athletics and vegetable gardening in the backyard.   

Shelly Johnson

State Specialized Agent in Natural Resources, UF/IFAS Extension and the Department of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation

Shelly Johnson is faculty at the University of Florida in IFAS Extension and the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. She is the State Specialized Agent in natural resources and provides leadership for statewide extension efforts as director of the Natural Areas Training Academy, leader of the Florida Youth Naturalist Program, and several smaller programs including EmpowerU, FireScaping, and Nature Knowledge.

Her expertise is in ecology of vertebrate terrestrial wildlife. She has a decade of experience conducted wildlife rescue, research, and field work with a wide variety of species, ecosystems, organizations, and locales. Her formal education has focused on wildlife ecology and conservation in forest systems, with a BS from the University of Idaho, MS from Northern Arizona University, and PhD from the University of Florida.



Shelly’s most recent research focuses on evaluation of ecosystem services and social value of native wildlife in Florida forest. Of all the animals she’s worked with, bats are her favorite; she serves on the board of directors of the Florida Bat Working Group, and frequently consults on bat exclusion and conservation projects.

Growing up in northern Idaho, Shelly spent most of her time adventuring in the outdoors. Now, she enjoys walking in the woods with her dog Winnie, paddling in the Florida springs, visiting the ocean, fostering kittens, camping with friends in the desert, and traveling the world to see new ecosystems, animals, and cultures.

Amanda Kahn

Lead Environmental Project Manager, Ecosystem Restoration Project Planning, South Florida Water Management District

Amanda has been enjoying work in the wonders of Florida’s estuaries and coastal waters since attending University of Tampa. Her research took her from Jupiter to the Keys studying seagrass responses to changes in the environment. After graduating (M.S 2004, PhD 2008 UNC Wilmington) she worked in environmental chemistry labs, conducted monitoring along the Lower Cape Fear River, conducted surf-zone phytoplankton work, taught Zumba and Cycle classes, and was a lecture professor at UNF and UNCW. While working at UNCW she was fortunate to be able to take students to Cuba for a course in tropical marine ecology and participate in testing new instrumentation in Puerto Rico for assessing coral physiology underwater.

In 2016, she started work at the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) in the Applied Sciences Bureau leading a seagrass monitoring program, crunching data, and providing information to decision makers on general estuarine ecology for the region. In 2021 she took the opportunity to become a Lead Environmental Project Manager in the Everglades Restoration Bureau working on the (huge!) Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) projects. She facilitates communicates among scientists and CERP Project Managers, across agencies, with a focus on conducting the best science to inform CERP restoration projects. She enjoys working across so many disciplines with such talented project teams that include experts in many facets of ecology, biology, biogeochemistry, endangered species, hydrology, modeling, engineering, land management, permitting, project management and more.

On the weekend she can likely be found walking along the beach collecting shells and shark teeth and on holiday she enjoys exploring the magnificent state and national parks and preserves in Florida.

Eliana Bardi Senior Planner, Alachua County Environmental Protection Department

Liza Bradford Director of Finance, Florida Farm Bureau Federation 

Michael Chase Program Administrator, Florida Department of Environmental Protection 

Emily Ducker Water Supply Office Chief, Suwannee River Water Management District

Vincent Encomio Florida Sea Grant Agent, UF/IFAS Extension 

Stephen Fulford Environmental Manager, Florida Dept. of Agriculture & Consumer Services

Erika Henderson President, Tangelo Farms

Shelly Johnson State Specialized Agent, UF/IFAS Extension 

Amanda Kahn Lead Environmental Project Manager, South FL Water Management District 

Tiffany Lane Wildlife Biologist & Coastal Program Coordinator, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 

Brooke Langston Supervisor, Sarasota County Parks & Natural Resources 

Jennifer Mitchell Environmental Scientist IV, St. Johns River Water Management District

Daniel Nelson Biologist IV, Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission

Joni Petry Environmental Administrator, Florida Department of Environmental Protection 

Matthew Posner Executive Director, Pensacola & Perdido Bays Estuary Program

Mark Rachal Florida Coastal Islands Sanctuaries Manager, Audubon Florida

India Riedel Finance Director, City of Okeechobee 

Daniel Roberts Environmental Specialist III, Peace River Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority 

Ashford Rosenberg Policy Director, Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders' Alliance

Linda Sapp Extension Agent, College of Ag & Food Sciences, Florida A&M University

Brian Seymour Archaeologist, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Jared Smith Smith & Johns, Inc. 

Tommy Van Trees Captain Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission

Jay Vogel Operations & Environmental Services Manager, Natural Resource Planning Services, Inc.