EPC Clean Air Fair 2024
2024-05-02 11:30 - 13:30 (America/New_York) | FL
Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission is holding its Clean Air Fair at Poe Plaza in Downtown Tampa. The fair includes community exhibits, prize drawings and complimentary refreshments. Tampa Audubon will have a booth at the fair.
For details, go to https://www.epchc.org/divisions/air/clean-air-fair

World Oceans Day Celebration
2024-06-08 10:00 - 14:00 | RumFish Beach Resort, 6000 Gulf Boulevard, St. Pete Beach, FL, 33706, United States
Join Keep Pinellas Beautiful and Tradewinds Island Resort as we celebrate World Oceans Day on June 8th! Come meet and greet with local organizations working hard to protect our oceans, and learn how YOU can help!
Vendors will include:

Blacktop Surf Shop
Clearwater Marine Aquarium
Covanta
Department of Environmental Protection
Eckerd – Remora
Florida Native Plant Society – Pinellas Chapter
Friends of Pinellas Master Naturalists
KPBYAC
Marine Exploration Center
Minorities in Shark Science
Ocean Conservancy
Oceana
Pinellas County Public Works / Environmental Management
Pinellas County Solid Waste Facility
Roots and Shoots
Sans Market
Sea Turtle Trackers
Seaside Seabird Sanctuary
Sharks4Kids
St. Pete Urban Forestry
St. Petersburg College, STEM Center
Suncoast compost
Sustainable Urban Agriculture Coalition (SUAC)
Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuges
Tampa Bay Watch
Tampa Bay Waterkeeper
Tradewinds
Trash Caulin
Trash Turtles
USF College of Marine Science
USF programs about sustainability/Eco-Hospitality Program
USFSP Environmental Club

Autumn Harvest Festival
2024-10-12 10:00 - 15:00 | Pinellas Pioneer Settlement, 3130 31st Street South, St. Petersburg, FL, 33712, United States
Join us for the 18th Annual Autumn Harvest Festival at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, where fall fun meets nature’s beauty. This year’s event will include an array of activities for the whole family, including games, food trucks, crafts, and hayrides!
– Saturday, October 12
– 10 AM – 3 PM
– Pinellas Pioneer Settlement, 3010 31st Street S.
ALL ages welcome.
Cost: $5 | Free entry for attendees 3 years of age or under.
Entry fee includes all activities. Merchandise and food sold separately.
For additional information, call 727-893-7326 or visit: boydhillpreserve.com

Florida Birding & Nature Festival
2024-10-17 - 2024-10-20 | FL
Early birds catch the worms — and the discounts!
We’ll be highlighting the trips that sold out first last year in a series of emails, but the entire schedule is online at https://www.floridabirdingandnaturefestival.org/schedule.html so you can take advantage of the early-bird pricing through July.
Pre-festival bus trip Join four of the state’s best birders — Dave Goodwin, Jim Eager, Bob Snow and Cole Frederick — on a day-long excursion to Saddle Creek Park and Circle B Bar Reserve, where you can expect to see dozens of species, (Visit https://www.floridabirdingandnaturefestival.org/schedule.html) for the full list.) This is definitely an early-bird excursion, with the bus boarding at 7 a.m. to take advantage of a full day of birding.
Coffeepot Bayou Bird Island Audubon’s Jeff Liechy takes the helm of Tampa Bay Watch’s Discovery Eco-Tour Boat for an evening trip and a close-up view of colonial waterbirds. (They won’t be nesting so we won’t disturb them.)
Outback Key and Lower Terra Ceia Bay Eric Plage and Holley Short will lead this boat trip to two of the region’s prime birding spots. An ephemeral barrier island, Outback Key isn’t easily accessible so the birds are extraordinarily comfortable with visitors. The Pinellas National Wildlife Refuge is a roosting site for Magnificent Frigatebirds.
Fort De Soto by land David Goodwin and Jim Eager are back again with trips for advanced birders on Saturday and Sunday morning. Fort De Soto is a 1,136-acre park covering five connected islands that is a haven for migrating neo-tropicals as well as diverse shorebirds.
Lower Green Swamp by wagon Once a working cattle ranch, the 12,800-acre preserve is being restored by Hillsborough County. You’ll get a behind-the-scenes view because the staff working on the restoration will lead the trip. You’ll cross grasslands, open wooded areas, pine forests and a large wetland area, so you’ll see an amazing diversity of birds, from Bald Eagles to Bachman Sparrows.
Check out https://www.floridabirdingandnaturefestival.org/schedule.html and grab those spots while you still can!
Seminars & Free Nature Expo!
While field trips get the most attention, we have an incredible lineup of presentations planned along with a free Nature Expo featuring local organizations and naturalists. You can attend as many seminars as you like for the cost of registering for one day — and they’ll all be on Zoom if you can’t make it to Apollo Beach or if you’re out on a field trip and then available afterward or if you’re out on a field trip.
Check out these highlights:

A worm’s eye view of Tampa Bay, what sediment invertebrates can tell us about the health of our bay. Dave Karlen and the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County have been studying these largely invisible creatures for 30 years.
Conserving Florida Scrub Jays. Once phosphate mining is complete, Mosaic reclaims land and then manages it with fire to provide optimum habitat for the endemic species.
Marc Minno literally wrote the books on Florida butterflies. Join him for this presentation and then a field trip through the Fred and Idah Schultz Preserve where diverse habitats make it THE place for a wide variety of butterflies.
Dan Huber at the University of Tampa is an expert on the biomechanics of sharks and how understanding their mechanical functions contribute to their position as an apex predator for millions of years.

Keynote speakers you won’t want to miss!
To be published in September, Audubon’s Birds of Florida is the latest from Clay Henderson, former president of Audubon Florida. Henderson followed Audubon’s footsteps and paddled in his wake to look for birds in the same places. His previous book, Forces of Nature, celebrates the people and organizations who made Florida a leader in state-funded conservation and land management.

Participants in last year’s birding festival logged a total of 145 species of birds, ranging from Wild Turkeys to Magnificant Frigatebirds. It’s not likely that one person saw all of them in the four days of the festival, but our schedule during peak migration season means that we’ll see birds that we otherwise would miss. Our expert field trip leaders will be scouting their locations in advance to make sure you get to see the most birds possible.
Click here for the full list.

Fall-o-ween
2024-10-26 15:00 - 20:00 | Moccasin Lake Environmental Education Center, 2750 Park Trail Lane, Clearwater, FL, United States
Halloween and Fall fun at Moccasin Lake Nature Park.
There will be food, music, a costume contest, arts & crafts, Halloween karaoke and more!

Holiday Lights in the Gardens 2024
2024-11-29 17:30 - 21:30 | Florida Botanical Gardens, 12520 Ulmerton Road, Largo, FL, 33778, United States
This winter fundraiser runs from Friday, November 29th, 2024-Saturday, January 4, 2025 from 5:30-9:30 PM nightly.
There is a suggested donation of $10 per person, with kids 12 and under free.
The Florida Botanical Gardens will sparkle with 1 million, twinkling, LED lights in a multitude of colors. Vibrant laser lights and lighted figures round out our display to wow guests of all ages. The opening of our new Majeed Discovery Garden will take this already awesome event to the next level. You won’t want to miss it! Interested in being a sponsor? See the information below.
Kids Activities
There will be free kids activities in the Majeed Discovery Garden every Sunday and Thursday evening throughout the month of December.
Participate in this community event while enjoying the twinkling lights. Learn more about volunteering here: www.flbgfoundation.org/volunteer.
