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We are delighted to welcome on board Tom Linley as the Foundation’s first Programs Director. Tom brings a wealth of knowledge and experience that is a great fit for this position.

Tom served 26 years with the Florida Park Service mostly in management positions first as Assistant Park Manager at Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park and Wekiwa Springs, then as Park Manager at St. Lucie Inlet and Homosassa Springs, and finally as Program Administrator in the Director’s Office. He served 9 years with Volunteer Florida as Chief of Staff, Director of Emergency Management and Volunteer Services. Tom is the principal of TomStar Services which provides information technology and web-based services, training, and association management services to small businesses and non-profit organizations.

Tom’s Florida State Park, volunteer management and non-profit experience will be an asset to the Foundation and to Citizens Support Organizations (CSOs.)  In his Program Director role, he will be responsible for managing and growing the Foundation’s programs: supporting CSOs, Learning in Florida’s Environment (LIFE), the Access for All Campaign, the Yellow Bus Program, and supporting the Foundation’s membership and communication efforts.

Tom retired from the State of Florida in 2016 and took some time off to travel and see the US and Canada with his wife, Stacie.  With some 40,000 miles traveled while visiting 37 states and 9 provinces Tom is ready to settle back down and get back to work.  We are excited to have him join the Florida State Park Foundation team in this important leadership role.

Florida State Parks Foundation is privileged to have an amazingly dynamic and energetic board to guide its activities. Over the next few months we will introduce you to the Foundation’s Directors and we start with our newest Board Member, Representative Kristin Jacobs.

Kristin is the Executive Director of Resiliency Florida. A well-recognized and highly-regarded voice in the field of resiliency, sustainable growth and climate change policy, Jacobs also serves as the State Representative in Florida’s 96th House District. For 16 years, Kristin served as Broward County Commissioner and was twice chosen to serve as Mayor.  During her tenure, she chaired several initiatives focused on sustainability. Kristin was the visionary leading the creation of the Southeast Florida Climate Change Compact uniting Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Monroe counties and 109 cities behind a unified mega-regional climate action plan. Now entering its 10th year, the Compact has become the national and international model of bi-partisan collaboration. She was also the sponsor of the Broward Leaders Water Academy which has served to educate five generations of elected officials on the importance of water resource issues –- including water supply, conservation, reuse, and alternative supplies and Everglades restoration.

In 2011, Kristin was selected to serve as Chair of the White House National Ocean Council’s Governance Coordinating Committee, which advised President Obama on local government perspectives on ocean policy.  2013 found Jacobs chosen among a select few to join President Obama at Georgetown University as he unveiled the nation’s first Climate Action Plan, and that same year President Obama appointed her to the Local and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience.  In 2014, she was the only elected official in the United States asked to speak at the White House unveiling of its third update of the National Climate Assessment, which featured her work in Southeast Florida.  Kristin has twice been invited to testify before Congress on the Clean Water Act and Climate Change issues.

After being elected to the Florida House of Representatives, Jacobs has continued her advocacy for building a more resilient and sustainable state and not only sponsored but passed significant changes to Florida law.  These changes include an extreme weather events law that established a new multi-agency cooperation and planning framework, the establishment of a conservation area that extends the National Marine Sanctuary of the Florida Keys from the Dry Tortugas to the St. Lucie Inlet, and helped create the new entity known as the Florida Resilient Coastlines Program within DEP.

Now in her sophomore term, Kristin serves as Democratic Ranking Member on both the Natural Resources and Public Lands Subcommittee and the Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee and was also appointed by the Speaker of the House to serve on his Select Committee on Hurricane Preparedness and Response following Hurricane Irma.

Florida’s award winning state parks are exceptional both because of their beauty and their diversity. They cover everything from magnificent beaches and sparkling springs to historical and archaeological sites and so much more.

Did you know that the park system also has lighthouses and one of the most impressive of these is at Cape Florida?

Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park is the home of a historic lighthouse built in 1825 and reconstructed in 1846. It is the oldest standing structure in Miami-Dade County. Guided tours of the lighthouse and lighthouse keeper's cottage are given twice daily, Thursdays through Mondays.

Now, thanks to the generosity of the Florida State Parks Foundation, Bachelor Foundation and Friends of Cape Florida, many more people will be able to enjoy the incredible views from the top of the lighthouse over Biscayne Bay.

Television cameras have been installed outside the watch room at the top of the lighthouse feeding live pictures of the views to two large flat screen monitors mounted at the bottom of the tower. Now visitors who can’t climb the lighthouse can also enjoy the views from the summit.

The Florida State Park Foundation is happy to announce that Tom Linley is joining our team as our new Program Director starting on June 1st.  Tom brings a wealth of knowledge and experience that is a great fit for this position.

Tom served 26 years with the Florida Park Service mostly in management positions first as Assistant Park Manager at Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park and Wekiwa Springs, then as Park Manager at St. Lucie Inlet and Homosassa Springs, and finally as Program Administrator in the Director’s Office. He served 9 years with Volunteer Florida as Chief of Staff, Director of Emergency Management and Volunteer Services. Tom is the principal of TomStar Services which provides information technology and web-based services, training, and association management services to small businesses and non-profit organizations.

Tom’s Florida State Park, volunteer management and non-profit experience will be an asset to the Foundation and to Citizen Support Organizations (CSOs.)  In his Program Director role, he will be responsible for managing and growing the Foundation’s programs: supporting CSOs, Learning in Florida’s Environment (LIFE), the Access for All Campaign, the Yellow Bus Program, and supporting the Foundation’s membership and communication efforts.

Tom retired from the State of Florida in 2016 and took some time off to travel and see the US and Canada with his wife, Stacie.  With some 40,000 miles traveled while visiting 37 states and 9 provinces Tom is ready to settle back down and get back to work. We are excited to have him join the Florida State Park Foundation team in this important leadership role.

The Learning in Florida’s Environment (LIFE) program continues to expand and enormous thanks are due to all those who are making this possible. In the next few weeks we hope to employ a fulltime Programs Director (see below) and this should give LIFE an additional stimulus.

When we took the LIFE program over three years ago, there were 7 participating state parks. At present, we have an awesome 34 parks offering the program or pledged to do so. That means tens of thousands of school children are learning about science and for many of them it is the first time they have ever been in a state park.

Our aim is where practical, to have every one of our state parks used by local schools as open air classrooms for curriculum-based science labs.

We are incredibly lucky to have Dale Allen as our first volunteer LIFE District Administrator in District 1 and we are actively looking for other folks to play a similar role in the other districts. Dale is a former science teacher and currently President of the Florida and Greenways Trails Foundation, the other statewide CSO group attached to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

The role of the District LIFE administrators is to provide the support and stimulus needed to keep the momentum going. This means working with the parks, CSO groups, volunteers, local schools and school superintendents to increase program participation and where possible, working with local companies willing to financially support the program. This can be either through purchase of equipment or assisting with transportation costs to get the children to and from the park.

If you are interested in being a District LIFE Administrator or know someone who might be a good candidate, please let us know.

Two recent LIFE programs that attracted considerable attention took place at Oscar Scherer State Park and Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park and deserve mentioning.

At Oscar Scherer, a group of Lamarque Elementary School fifth-graders, became wildlife biologists for a day and they could not have been more engaged. That was exactly what Katherine Clements, an educator with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension Sarasota County, hoped would happen when she put the program together. It was the first of three LIFE field trips the students will complete during the year.

The program is exciting because LIFE, originally designed for middle school grades, has now been extended to fifth-graders and is exposing them to real, hands-on scientific experiences. Clements hopes that some of these students will go on to become scientists, perhaps inspired by the lessons they learned at Oscar Scherer.

The other success involves Alan Miller, a ranger at Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park, who has long wanted to incorporate the LIFE program into the park’s activities.

“The challenge, however, was their immediate neighbor, the Energy Marine Center (EMC). All area schools include the EMC in their curriculum and did not have a cost effective reason for adding a similar program here”, said park manager Adam Belden. 

Alan, however, kept up his enthusiasm for the idea and started targeting home school groups either through social media or talking to parents with children exploring the park on a weekday.  His tenacity finally paid off with his first Home School LIFE interpretive and interactive program that hosted 29 students ages 3 to 16 as well 7 parents. “Today he exemplified what a Florida Park Service Ranger is and why the Florida Park Service is a three time gold medal winner,” said Adam. Hear, hear.

There are many ways you can get involved and support children’s education in Florida’s state parks. You can volunteer to assist with the LIFE program as a volunteer and you can support it financially by clicking on the LIFE button in the drop down menu on the donations page.

On a near perfect Saturday at the end of April, I attended a packed District-wide Citizen Support Organization (CSO) meeting at St. Andrews State Park in Panama City.

These meetings are incredibly important because they provide opportunities for park staff, CSOs and volunteers to learn and network from each other, and the sheer enthusiasm from all sides is inspiring and energizing.

The Florida State Parks Foundation (formerly Friends of Florida State Parks) has changed its focus in recent years. While the mission is, and always will be, to support and sustain and protect and preserve our magnificent state parks, how we do that has evolved.

We now include supporting and sustaining our CSO groups as one of our three key programs because this is vital to the success of our parks - and that is why these meeting are so important.

There are 83 CSO groups statewide and last year 14,400 volunteers contributed over 1,200,000 hours working in Florida’s award winning and nationally-acclaimed state parks. The work performed by these volunteers would have required an additional 666 full-time employees thus saving taxpayers almost $29 million.

CSOs assist parks in many ways. They fundraise, provide special events and visitor programs, and contribute to capital improvement projects that the Division of Recreation and Parks would not have had the financial ability or staffing to complete. They interact with members of the public and they can be found in the parks whatever the weather, doing whatever is necessary to enhance the visitor experience. That is why the Foundation is committed to doing everything it can to make the lives of our CSOs easier so that they can focus on their mission which is supporting the work of their individual parks.

Our volunteers, and the rangers they work alongside, are the public face of the parks but what they help achieve is often less appreciated and understood. The 175 state parks, greenways and trails have an overall direct economic impact of over $3 billion dollars on local economies throughout the state. Over $72 million was added last year to the state’s general revenue fund in the form of state sales taxes, and approximately 19,000 jobs were supported as the result of the state parks, greenways and trails operations.

These numbers are staggering and the only thing more staggering is the sheer beauty and diversity of the state parks that make this possible.

Your membership of the Foundation helps make this possible and for that we are forever grateful. Check out the website of your local state park and it will tell you if it has a CSO. It will also tell you about upcoming events, volunteer opportunities and other ways in which you can support it.

Thank you and continue to support our state parks and the people who work in them.

Thanks to the fundraising efforts of the Friends of Jonathan Dickinson State Park people with limited mobility can now get out on the park’s trails with family and friends.  And, that’s just what I did using their new Action Trackchair.

The Action Trackchair is an all-terrain power “wheelchair” that doesn’t have wheels!  It has tracks like a tank or bulldozer making it possible to go from pavement to dirt and gravel, mud, and even loose sand.  You can see the chair in use on Kitching Creek Trail here.

Johnathan Dickinson State Park is located in South Florida in Martin and Palm Beach Counties.  For more information go to the webpage at the link above or Johnathan Dickinson State Park.

A Special Deluxe Edition Real Florida Passport is now available to the thousands of park visitors who love to collect a commemorative stamp to remember their visits to our fabulous state parks.

With over 32 million visitors every year that is potentially a lot of passports and a lot of stamps but much more important, it is a lot of memories.

Many of us have a favorite park which we have visited repeatedly over the years – and we now cherish the memories of those visits as we camped with young children now grown or canoed a beautiful stretch of river or just enjoyed being surrounded by nature.

Noah Valenstein, Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection, recalls that one of his favorite park memories is of growing up in Gainesville and swimming with friends and family “in the sometimes delightfully warm, sometimes refreshingly cool (depending on the weather outside) spring at Gilchrist Blue Springs State Park”.

We all have our memories and every visit to a new state park will add to them.

The new Passport is your invitation to get out and explore more parks and experience the diversity and beauty they have to offer. Each park is different and has something special to offer the visitor – one of the reasons the Florida Park Service has won the National Gold Medal for Excellence a record three times.

The Passport is also a mine of information, listing all the parks you can visit to explore and enjoy before getting your stamp. Years from now, you will be able to thumb your well-worn passport and recall all the wonderful experiences you had as you collected your park stamps.

Purchase the Special Edition Deluxe Real Florida Passport online or at select Florida State Parks. Start your adventure by visiting any of the Stamp Collection locations listed in the passport to receive a stamp and start building those memories.

We would also love to hear from you about those memories. You can share your photos and stories with us – and others – by using the hashtag #EveryStampIsAStory . Go out, explore and enjoy, and support our wonderful state parks. 

The winners of the 2017 Volunteer Appreciation Awards have now all received their plaques and certificates at ceremonies around that state and the list of their achievements in support of Florida’s parks is truly amazing.

The awards, sponsored by Friends of Florida State Parks, recognize the very best in volunteerism and choosing the winners in each of the categories is no easy task.

There are 85 CSO groups and more than 14,400 volunteers supporting our award-winning parks and trails by donating more than 1.2 million hours of service annually. In addition, they organize thousands of events every year and raise millions of dollars for special projects and to support the work of park managers and their staff.

While the volunteer appreciation awards celebrate the best of the best, every single volunteer deserves recognition and our thanks for the tremendous job they do, day in and day out, to help make our state parks the very best in the nation.

Later this year, nominations will open for the 2018 awards. If you know of someone or a group of people that deserve recognition, please bring it to the attention of a park manager. We want to honor all those who have provided extraordinary service and thank them in a tangible way for their time and commitment.

Congratulations to all our winners and for all our volunteers who do such incredible work in all our state parks – THANK YOU!  To learn more about the award winners and their amazing achievements, please go to the Volunteer Appreciation webpage.

The 2017 Volunteer Appreciation Award winners are:

Director’s Special Volunteer Service Award

Jim Ellis, Hugh Taylor Birch State Park

Motorola Solutions Corporate Contributor of the Year

Dr. Von D. Mizell - Eula Johnson State Park

 

CSO Awards

Overall Citizen Support Organization of the Year

Friends of Fort Clinch

Citizen Support Organization (CSO) of the Year - Resource-based Recreation

Friends of Topsail Hill Preserve State Park  

Volunteer of the Year - Administration

Nancy Olson - Bahia Honda State Park

Volunteer of the Year – Park Maintenance

Bill Lewis, Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway

Volunteer of the Year – Park Maintenance

Jean Fletcher, Hontoon Island State Park

Volunteer of the Year – Resource Management

Susan Kolterman, Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park

Volunteer of the Year - Resource Management 

Robert ‘Bob’ Deyle, Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park

Volunteer of the Year – Visitor Service 

Karen Cloud, Dade Battlefield Historic State Park

Volunteer of the Year – Visitor Service 

Sam Carr, Dunns Creek State Park

Youth Volunteer of the Year - Maintenance

Matthew Thayer, Colt Creek State Park

Youth Volunteer of the Year – Visitor Service 

Makenzie Shaw, Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs State Park

 

Team and Event Awards

Team of 2 of the Year – Maintenance 

Darwin and JoAnne Matthews, Anastasia State Park and Ravine Gardens State Park

Team of 2 of the Year – Resource Management

Bob and Marteen Dillon, Bahia Honda State Park

Team of 2 of the Year – Visitor Service

Philip and Ann (Mickie) Anderson, Myakka River State Park

Team of 3+ of the Year – Maintenance

Freddie & Deb Morgan, Chris Graves and Mike Crane, Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park

Team of 3+ of the Year – Resource Management

Beach Cleanup Team, Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area at Flagler Beach

Team of 3+ of the Year – Protection

Bulkhead Reinforcement Team, Hontoon Island State Park

Special Cultural Event of the Year

Moon Over Maclay, Friends of Maclay Gardens Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park

Overall Special Event of the Year

Celebrate Cayo Costa, Friends of Cayo Costa Cayo Costa State Park

Team of 3+ of the Year – Visitor Service

Tom Adler, Earl Cross, Barry Blitvich, Shaun Suydam, Mike Anderson and Steve Lemonds, Myakka River State Park 

Special Event of the Year - Historical

CCC Festival, Highlands Hammock State Park 

Special Event of the Year – Resource Management

Get to Know Colt Creek, Friends of Colt Creek State Park

Special Event of the Year – Natural Resource Education

Earth Day Celebration, Dunns Creek State Park

Long-Term Project of the Year - Historical

CCC Statue #71, Friends of Ft. Clinch State Park 

Short-Term Project of the Year – Cultural 

Bird Peninsula Restoration, Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs State Park 

Short-Term Project of the Year – Resource-based Recreation

Manatee Pavilion, Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area at Flagler Beach

Special Event of the Year – Resource-based Recreation

Earth Day Bio Blitz, Friends of Oscar Scherer State Park Oscar Scherer State Park

 

20+ Years of Volunteer Service

Lynn Cherry, Camp Helen State Park - 21 Years of Volunteer Service

Arthur Nersadian, Fort Cooper State Park - 30 Years of Volunteer Service

Agnes Eslava, Rainbow Springs State Park - 24 Years of Volunteer Service

Amilcar Eslava, Rainbow Springs State Park - 26 Years of Volunteer Service

Shirley Kuntz, Rainbow Springs State Park - 21 Years of Volunteer Service

Mary Lou Amirault, Rainbow Springs State Park - 20 Years of Volunteer Service

Linda Brown, Rainbow Springs State Park - 22 Years of Volunteer Service

Bob Sprenzel, Rainbow Springs State Park - 24 Years of Volunteer Service

Cathy Moore, Little Manatee River State Park - 32 Years of Volunteer Service

Myra Coggesshall, Highlands Hammock State Park - 20 Years of Volunteer Service

Bob Sendry, Oscar Scherer State Park - 21 Years of Volunteer Service

Janet Heaton, John D. MacArthur Beach State Park - 25 Years of Volunteer Service

Carol Herzog, Savannas Preserve State Park - 21 Years of Volunteer Service

Henry Maursey, Savannas Preserve State Park - 20 Years of Volunteer Service

It is difficult to find a location in Florida that is removed from urban and suburban light pollution but, thankfully, great star gazing is still possible in two of Florida’s state parks.

In 2016, Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park was recognized as Florida's first Dark Sky Park by the International Dark Sky Association.

At this park, located just above Lake Okeechobee. star gazers have the chance to see stars, planets, and other celestial bodies in incomprehensible numbers and unforgettable brilliance.  Jupiter and Saturn are both clearly visible in the night sky. You may be able to witness the International Space Station making its orbit around Earth and rocket launches from the space centers on the east coast are also viewable. Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park offers the best viewing of the night sky in the region and has the credentials to prove it!

Located in Florida’s Panhandle, Dr. Julian G. Bruce St. George Island State Park is proud to say it has now also received the dark sky designation and invites everyone to come and enjoy the wonderful star gazing opportunities with the darkest skies for miles around.  The Gulf of Mexico provides 180 degrees of no light pollution and the closest metropolitan areas are over 70 miles away.  These conditions allow star gazers to see the Milky Way and some of the fainter constellations.

For star gazing information visit the park’s websites and look for  in the activities section.

Great star gazing – another reason to be grateful for our Florida State Parks!