First Newsletter and First Year Anniversary

It’s been just over one year since Conservation Pathways was founded and we are thrilled at how much we have accomplished: providing 12 students with over 550 contact hours, partnering with 13 organizations and agencies, and engaging the public through over a dozen outreach events. If you missed it on our social media, you can view our short Year 1 Celebration video on our Video Gallery webpage. We hope you find it inspiring!

One of our fun and rewarding collabs this year was with Apalachicola Riverkeeper. Our founder and Exec Director, Rebecca, has kayaked the length of the river twice as a RiverTrek paddler (this year will be number three!) and wanted to share her passion for the river with our interns. Our students were able to help with Apalachicola Riverkeeper’s slough restoration project and learn about the river from Riverkeeper Cameron Baxley. These sloughs are vital for moving water and nutrients from the main river channel into the floodplain, but they had been damned up by impacts from Army Corps of Engineer dredging activities. Our cypress planting efforts helped stabilize the shoreline that was exposed post-mechanical restoration. You can read more about our outing in Rebecca’s blog on Apalachicola Riverkeeper’s site.

Farewell to Summer Interns

It’s always a bittersweet time of year, sending off our summer interns while preparing to welcome our new cohort. We had a great crew this year, some of which are pictured above (we had 7 overall!). Some highlights include: participating in Tate’s Hell Wildlife Management Area and St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge Intern Swaps, partnering with WFSU on two outreach events, providing field trips to student organizations, helping with bluebird box surveys at Birdsong Nature Center, writing grants, hosting a professional development workshop, and celebrating our one year anniversary at Amicus Brewing with Two-Foot Level and Southern Oyster Company. We loved watching as virtual strangers developed bonds and became friends through our program!

Last week we onboarded six FSU and FAMU interns as well as two Leon High School externs. We already have a lot on the schedule including Intern Swaps, a field trip to the FSU Marine Lab, more work with Birdsong Nature Center, partnering with Apalachicola Riverkeeper, collaborating with FSU’s Department of Communication and Department of Earth Ocean and Atmospheric Science, participating in the Tallahassee Science Festival, and attending the Gopher Tortoise Council meeting. The above picture is from our first outing - a hike we took to learn about our native longleaf pine and ephemeral wetland ecosystems.

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