WELCOME to a new season of monthly lectures!
Our season officially kicks off with our potluck picnic at Crandon Park, Key Biscayne, on Sunday Sept 10th followed by this, the first of eight (8) exciting lectures during our monthly Chapter meetings.
First up is our dear colleague and a friend of the Big Cypress Nat’l Preserve and dare I say, our Big Cypress Chapter, Lisa Andrews and her ‘Introduction to the Big Cypress Nat’l Preserve’….why it’s called such, how it gets its water, how it almost wasn’t, and why we should want to preserve it!!
Ranger Lisa graduated from Indiana University in 1984 with a degree in Outdoor Recreation/Environmental Education and a concentration in biological sciences. Originally from Southern Indiana, she has spent most of her life living in Naples, Florida. She has been a park ranger for the National Park Service since 1993 and at Big Cypress National Preserve since 1998 where she is the Outreach/Education Coordinator.
She has developed and manages the preserve’s curriculum-based environmental education program, S.W.A.M.P., for all 6th grade science students of the Collier County public school system reaching nearly 3,000 6th graders each year. She also manages the interpretative outreach program, supervising staff and providing special events, training sessions and interpretive programs for a variety of organized special interest groups of all ages.
She also spearheads the Clyde Butcher Swamp Experience which happens annually on the third weekend of October. It’s an incredible two-day event graciously sponsored by the Clyde Butcher Art Gallery which invites the general public to do a most courageous thing – to set foot in the Big Cypress swamp which, contrary to its description as a swamp, is as clear as tap water!. Make sure you follow us for more info. as it becomes available!!
