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While our Sentinels project begins advocating for wildlife corridors nationally, our Paths to Protection work is expanding from the Florida Wildlife Corridor into the Gulf of Mexico through an exciting collaboration with the National Geographic Society and renowned ocean explorer, Dr. Sylvia Earle. Our purpose is to help the world reimagine the Gulf as much more than an industrial sea, but rather a global biodiversity hotspot worth saving. Policy goals include supporting new sanctuaries to protect seagrasses, deep-water corals and migration corridors, and strengthening the case for terrestrial habitat protections upstream throughout the Gulf.
Under the direction of Katie Bryden, Wildpath is making a new feature length documentary with Sylvia Earle’s lifelong love of the Gulf at its heart. We began full production this summer, starting with Sylvia scuba diving and gathering seagrasses for her collection at the Smithsonian in places she hadn’t seen in fifty years. There is another expedition in December as we build into an exciting production schedule throughout the year ahead.
While supporting the film, I am leading a new photography project to celebrate what Sylvia calls the Wilderness Coast – the stretch or relatively undeveloped Gulf coastline between Tampa and Tallahassee. This is where two of my life’s passions meet – the Florida Wildlife Corridor and Gulf of Mexico. There are 200 miles of protected coastline sheltering the largest contiguous seagrass beds in the Gulf, sustained in relatively high health because rivers like the Suwannee, Steinhatchee and Withlacoochee are still delivering clean water through land in the Florida Wildlife Corridor that remains undeveloped. But land protections along the coast are limited to a relatively narrow band while most of the lands upstream are still lacking protection. Without more conservation, the fragile beauty of the entire region is at risk.
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