The Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition

The Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition: Everglades to Okefenokee was a 1,000 mile expedition over a 100-day period launched on January 17, 2012 to increase public awareness and generate support for the Florida Wildlife Corridor project. Bear biologist Joe Guthrie, conservationist Mallory Lykes Dimmitt, filmmaker Elam Stoltzfus and photojournalist Carlton Ward Jr. trekked from Everglades National Park toward Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southern Georgia. The trio traversed the wildlife habitats, watersheds, working farms and ranches, that comprise the Florida Wildlife Corridor opportunity area. They traveled on foot, mountain bike, standup paddleboard, kayak, horseback, and occasionally swimming.

Ward Jr. projected that there would be 300 miles of paddling, about 500 miles of hiking, and some mountain biking and horseback riding over the course of the exploration.[1]

The team documented the corridor through photography, video streams, radio reports, daily updates on social media and digital networks, and a host of activities for reporters, landowners, conservationists, politicians and other guests. [1] The Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition was intended to bring awareness and political action to ensure that the corridor is protected. The documentary film 'Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition: Everglades to Okefenokee' by Elam Stoltzfus captures segments of the trip and stop along the way with naturalist, landowners, and tribes.

Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition Founders

The Florida Wildlife Corridor was founded by Tom Hoctor, Director of the Center for Landscape and Conservation Planning at the University of Florida and Carlton Ward Jr, Conservation Photographer and founder of the Legacy Institute for Nature & Culture (LINC). Their vision and collaboration was inspired by the bear research of David Maehr and the commitment of his students, Wade Ulrey and Joe Guthrie, to continue his legacy.

The project was inspired partly by Lawton Chiles, a former U.S. lawmaker from Florida who promoted his 1970 Senate bid by hiking 1,003 miles from Pensacola to Key West. The Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition says it is only borrowing his method, not his political motivation as they address the fragmentation of natural landscapes and watersheds in central Florida.[2]

Documentary Film

Filmmaker, producer and director Elam Stoltzfus made a documentary film about the trip. He also made a documentary film about Clyde Butcher (Living Waters: Aquatic Preserves of Florida). Butcher appears in the Florida Wildlife Corridor Exhibition discussing photography with Carlton Ward Jr., the trip's photographer.

The 2012 Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition goals

The Florida Wildlife Corridor project is a collaborative vision to connect remaining natural lands, waters, working farms and ranches from the Everglades to Georgia, protecting a functional ecological corridor for the health of people, wildlife and watersheds. By presenting Floridians with a look into their own backyards, the team hopes to increase awareness of the concerning issue and ultimately accomplish the following goals:[3]

  • Protect and restore habitat and migration corridors essential for the survival of Florida's diverse wildlife, including wide-ranging panthers, black bears and other native species
  • Restore water flow to the Everglades and sustain water supply to southern Florida
  • Continue to safeguard the St. Johns River and water supply for central and north Florida
  • Sustain the food production, economies and cultural legacies of working ranches and farms within the corridor
  • Bolster local economies through increased opportunities such as hunting, fishing, birdwatching and other forms of eco-tourism
  • Give wildlife and plants room to adapt to a changing climate and sea level rise

The 2012 Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition Route

The Florida Wildlife Corridor launched January 17, 2012 from Flamingo in Everglades National Park and ended on Earth Day - April 22, 2012 - at Stephen C. Foster State Park in Georgia. During the 100-day journey the team traversed the Everglades ecosystem starting in Big Cypress Swamp, over to the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA), back to the Okaloacoochee Slough, across the Caloosahatchee River, over to Babcock Ranch, and west along Fisheating Creek toward Lake Okeechobee. From Lake Okeechobee, the heart of the Greater Everglades system, the Expedition traveled up the Kissimmee River with excursions toward the Lake Wales Ridge, up the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes, east around Orlando, and into Ocala National Forest. Once in the existing Ocala to Osceola corridor, the trip continued north in Georgia and into the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. [4]

The 2015 Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition Goals

The vision for the second Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition is to connect natural lands and waters throughout the northwest region of Florida, from the Green Swamp to the panhandle. Despite extensive fragmentation of the landscape in recent decades, a statewide network of connected natural areas is still possible. Keeping in the spirit of the first expedition, this expedition hopes to build on the previous expedition by accomplishing the following:

  • Raise awareness about connectivity between natural and rural landscapes
  • Restoring spring and river flows, sustaining the supply of freshwater to the Gulf of Mexico.
  • Restoring longleaf pine forests while conserving farms and working lands and the communities they support.
  • Identify and promote the relationships between the coastal wetlands and the dunes that protect us, the working farms and ranches that feed us, the forests that clean our air, and the combined habitat these lands provide for Florida's diverse wildlife, including manatees and sea turtles
  • Continue to increase public awareness for the Corridor idea through a broad-reaching media campaign
  • Providing the room to roam to allow wildlife to adapt to a changing climate.

The 2015 Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition Landmarks

Major Landmarks for the Glades to Gulf Expedition include (among many others):

References
  1. "Team Begins 100-Day Trek In Fla. Wildlife Corridor Expedition", CBS, Miami, 17 January 2012. Retrieved on 03 April 2012.
  2. McLendon, Russell and Mother Nature Network " Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition Highlights Need For Conservation Efforts", The Huffington Post 27 January 2012. Retrieved on 03 April 2012.
  3. Ward, Lauren "Follow Carlton Ward’s 1,000-Mile Trek Through Florida", National Geographic 30 January 2012. Retrieved on 03 April 2012.
  4. "Florida Wildlife Corridor", Legacy Institute for Nature and Culture. Retrieved on 03 April 2012.
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