Category: Trails

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Small Game Season Opens December 6th at CREW

 

Raccoon (photo by George Luther)
Raccoon (photo by George Luther)

Small Game Hunting Season at CREW opens December 7th and runs through January 4th, 2014 at the CREW Cypress Dome Trails, Caracara Prairie Preserve, and in portions of the Flint Pen Strand unit of CREW. Specific Small Game season regulations for CREW are listed below. Complete regs can be accessed at the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission website.

The Cypress Dome Trails will remain open to other users – hikers, bikers, geocachers, campers and horseback riders – during hunting seasons. Trail hikers are encouraged to wear bright colors (hunter orange) when hiking during hunting seasons. No hunting is allowed at the CREW Marsh Trails or at the Bird Rookery Swamp Trails.

Small Game Season:December 6 through January 3.

Permit, Stamp and License Requirements – Hunting license, management area permit, migratory bird permit (if hunting migratory birds), and state waterfowl permit and federal duck stamp (if hunting waterfowl).

Legal to Hunt – Gray squirrel, quail, rabbit, raccoon, opossum, armadillo, beaver, coyote, skunk, nutria and migratory birds in season.

Regulations Unique to Small Game Season-
Hunting with bird dogs and retrievers is allowed.
Hunting with centerfire and rimfire rifles is prohibited.

The CREW lands are open to a variety of public recreational use activities. One of the most historical and storied recreational uses of CREW is hunting. Hunting is an important wildlife management tool and provides many sportsmen and sportswomen a way to enjoy the outdoors and put food on their tables. The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission has designated CREW as a Wildlife & Environmental Area (WEA) and regulates the hunting rules and seasons on CREW lands. FWC law enforcement officers patrol CREW lands all year long.

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Dec. 13th Geocaching Day offers free tickets to CREW Concert

Saturday, December 13, 2014 will be a geocaching day with a twist at the CREW Bird Rookery Swamp Trails near Naples. Ten tokens will be hidden in ten of the 35+ caches on the preserve. Find a token and return it to the CREW Geocache Day leaders for a $15 general admission ticket to the 2015 CREW Concert on March 21st, 2015. Limit – 1 ticket per person.

Come out to the CREW Bird Rookery Swamp for this special CREW Concert Cache Day and enjoy one of the most wild and scenic landscapes in south Florida. The event starts at 9 AM with an introduction to the CREW followed by JunglePete’s famous geocacher icebreaker and instructions on how to use GPS units (if necessary). There are 35+ caches, plus new ones to be discovered. Bring plenty of food and water and wear appropriate hiking attire.

Required equipment is a GPS unit or a smartphone with the geocaching app. The event details and cache coordinates are available on the geocaching.com website at http://coord.info/GC5G33K. You can register there or on Eventbrite.

The March 21st CREW Concert and Silent Eco-Auction, featuring the Sarah Hadeka Band and The Juice, is the CREW Trust’s largest annual fundraising event.

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Mosquitoes of the Marsh: A CREW Strolling Science Seminar- December 5th

Join Neil Wilkinson – FGCU instructor and current President of the Florida Mosquito Control Association – for our second strolling science seminar of the season, Mosquitoes of the Marsh: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly – on Friday, December 5th, 9 AM to noon at the CREW Marsh Trails. Registration is required. Register on our Eventbrite page here.

This seminar is about one of Florida’s most famous living creatures – mosquitoes. Learn the life histories of fresh floodwater and natural container species of mosquitoes common to southwest Florida. You will be surprised by the fascinating diversity of species and behaviors. We will begin with samples of adult and larval mosquitoes and learn about their life histories then hike into the preserve to check  for adult mosquitoes caught in traps set the night before. We will use aquatic dip nets to survey for mosquito predators in ditches and depressions and be on the lookout for other amazing wildlife that the CREW marsh protects.

Enhanced knowledge at the species level is the basis for a greater understanding of the whole watershed system. We will have ample time to discuss issues related to controlling mosquitoes, types of control, and consider the impact of NextGen mosquito control products. Mosquito control, like watershed management is a classic environmental science case study. Humans impact the environment, often in harmful ways and as awareness and science progresses new options arise for ameliorating our actions.

Neil Wilkinson

Neil Wilkinson, is an instructor in the Department of Marine and Ecological Sciences at Florida Gulf Coast University. Wilkinson is currently the president of the Florida Mosquito Control Association. He is an environmental educator with extensive classroom and field teaching experience at the elementary, middle, high, and university levels. He spends half of his time teaching a science outreach program to classes in the local school district. He acts as a liaison between FGCU, the Lee County School District’s Environmental Education Program, and the Lee County Mosquito Control District facilitating interagency cooperative and collaborative efforts among students, faculty, and staff.

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12/6 Car Wash to Raise Funds for Bird Rookery Viewing Platform

Eagle Scout candidate Steven Rapp is on a mission. He’s planning to build a viewing platform with handicap accessibility at the Bird Rookery Swamp parking area. His project, called A View for All, includes a flat platform that extends over the pond near the parking lot, providing easy access from the handicap parking spaces onto the platform for visitors with disabilities to be able to get close and view the birds and other wildlife that frequent Bird Rookery.

As an eagle scout candidate, Steven must prepare the design, get all the appropriate permits, recruit volunteers to do the labor, and raise funds for materials for the project.

Part of his fundraising strategy includes a Car Wash scheduled for Saturday, December 6th, 2014 from 8 AM to noon at G’s General Store at the corner of Oil Well Road and Immokalee Road in Naples. The requested donation/cost is $5.00 per car wash.

So, come on out and support this great project and help Steven create “A View for All” at Bird Rookery Swamp!

A View for All Rapp
Description of and rationale for the project by Steven Rapp
A View for All Rapp 1
Platform design

A View for All Rapp 2

 

 

 

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Wild File Q&A: If raccoons are out in the daytime, are they dangerous?

Q: If raccoons are out in the daytime, are they dangerous?

Racccon climbing a tree
Raccoons are destructive little creatures whose only saving grace is that they can be cute. They are wild animals and should be treated as such. Photo and caption by Dick Brewer.

 

A: Raccoons are often seen during the day, causing some people to ask, “I thought raccoons here only active at night and the only ones out in the day were rabid. Is it safe here?”

Raccoons are wild animals, and like all wild animals, from small snakes to big bears, they  should be regarded with caution and treated with respect. But they are not inherently dangerous. It’s all about predator avoidance.

Raccoons, like all animals, want to survive. They want to get food rather than to be food, so they must minimize the chances of being killed by predators while foraging.

In the more peopled areas, raccoons tend to be more active at night because that’s when they encounter fewer predators and obstacles to getting food such as people, cars, big dogs, and more.

In Florida’s wild areas, their most dangerous predators — alligators, panthers, and bobcats — are most active and most efficient at night. In those habitats, the best chance for a raccoon to survive is to hunt during the day.

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New: Self-Guided Tour for the Cypress Dome Trails

Today November 6th 2014 a group of wonderful Florida Gulf Coast Students (FGCU) helped CREW Trust staff install number markers for the first self-guided tour for the Cypress Dome Trails. The FGCU students are currently taking Colloquium with Brenda Thomas (our wildflower expert). Their Service-learning project was to work with CREW Staff to upgrade and clean-up our hiking trails. We had a beautiful morning walking the 6 mile trail completing the yellow, green, and white loop.

Students posing for a picture in the swamp

The Cypress Dome Trails opened in 2008 and since then we have added benches, bird houses, short cuts, and now a numbered self-guided tour. The self-guided tour brochure was also created by a group of FGCU students for their Civic-engagement class. You do not have to do the numbers in order, just have fun reading the descriptions and observe.

Students Putting up a Trail Sign

Now visitors can download the self-guided tour map and brochure by scanning a QR code at the trail head or visiting this link before you hit the trails. Enjoy and discover the Cypress Dome Trails at your own pace.

*Give it a try and tell us what you think by commenting below.

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Parents: Help Your Kids Get Their “Vitamin N”

3rd grader journaling at marsh

Vitamin N is another term for Nature. Time in nature can help reduce attention deficit, increase academic performance, and boost physical and mental health.

Richard Louv, author of the bestseller Last Child in the Woods, labeled the condition caused by Vitamin N deficiency when he wrote his seminal book. “The term Nature Deficit Disorder actually started out tongue-in-cheek, but it soon became apparent that the term—which is not a medical condition—finally put a face on the profound alienation that has occurred between children and nature over the last 30 years,” says Louv, co-founder and chairman emeritus of the Children & Nature Network. (source: Are Your Kids ‘Vitamin N’ Deficient? accessed at http://parade.condenast.com/222813/juliebawdendavis/are-your-kids-vitamin-n-deficient/)

CREW invites families with children ages 3 to 12 to come out to the CREW Marsh Trails on Saturday, November 1st for a morning walk. The walk includes simple activities that engage the senses and curiosity of children and help dispel fears of the outdoors.

Pre-registration is required and is open until October 28th, so register today at http://crewvitaminnwalk.eventbrite.com

 

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CREW Guided Walks Begin in November

Bird Rookery Swamp TrailIt’s been a long, hot summer, but the cool fronts are moving through and the rains are getting scarce, and that means it’s time for us to crank up our regular Guided Walks at the CREW Trails. Starting in November – and running through April – regular guided walks will be held at the CREW Marsh Trails (led by Dr. David Cooper) and at Bird Rookery Swamp (led by George Luther, Bob Melin,  Chrissy Podos, and Jack Shine). This year, we’re adding a third “regular” walk at the CREW Cypress Dome Trails (led by Dick Brewer). Guided walks include some history of CREW and interpretation of the natural world found at each site.

Each trail is unique and each walk leader has his/her own special talents and stories to share. Come on out for one or all three. These CREW walks are free, but pre-registration is highly recommended since they often fill up, and registered participants get first dibs on space.

CREW Marsh Trail Walks with Dr. David Cooper
1st and 3rd Tuesdays and 2nd Saturdays (November – April)
9:00 AM – noon
Get more info and register here: http://2015crewmarshwalks.eventbrite.com
Bird Rookery Swamp Trail Walks
with George Luther & Bob Melin
Wednesdays (9 – 11:30 AM) – November through April
1st Sundays (1:30 – 4 PM) – November through April
4th Saturdays (9 – 11:30 AM) – November through August
with Chrissy Podos
1st and 4th Thursdays (9 – 11:30 AM) – February and March
with Jack Shine
2nd and 3rd Thursdays (9 – 11:30 AM) – February and March
Get more info and register here for all BRS walks: https://crewbrs2015.eventbrite.com
CREW Cypress Dome Trail Walks with Dick Brewer
3rd Fridays (November – March)
9:00 AM – noon
Get more info and register here: http://2015crewcdtwalks.eventbrite.com
CREW Marsh boardwalk
CREW Marsh boardwalk

Happy Trails – see you out there!

 

 

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Video: Airboat Ride Through the CREW Marsh

Ever wonder what that 5,000-acre marsh that you can see from the overlook at the CREW Marsh trails looks like out in the middle? Take this virtual ride on an airboat through the Corkscrew Marsh, the headwaters to the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed (CREW) and you will see.

This is where much of southwest Florida’s drinking water gets stored and cleaned by nature within the watershed and where wading birds nest, limpkins and snail kites forage, and alligators raise their young. Notice the patchwork of sawgrass, open water with water lilies, tree islands, and big beautiful sky! The CREW project team (land managers, biologists) recorded this ride in August of 2014. Video by Tiffany and Dan Thornhill.