Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve

This trip will be led by members of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Coastal and Aquatic Managed Areas (CAMA).

This group will take a tour of the Guana Tolomato Matanzas (GTMNERR) National Estuarine Research Reserve, one of three NERRs in Florida. Designated in 1999, the reserve, which operates through a special federal/state partnership housed within DEP, encompasses 60,000 acres of salt marsh, mangrove tidal wetlands, oyster bars, estuarine lagoons, and upland habitats. The first stop on the tour will be at the new 21,000 sq. ft. Environmental Education Center. This $6.2 million project includes interpretive exhibits, aquariums, classrooms, teaching and working laboratories, an auditorium and an outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Guana River Marsh Aquatic Preserve. Attendees will see an array of displays and hands-on exhibits designed to spark the imagination and create an understanding of the connectivity between land and sea.

After a tour of the Environmental Education Center, the group will split up and choose one of the following field sites to visit:

1. Walking Tour of Upland Habitats . attendees will tour upland communities managed by CAMA and the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. They will view several habitat restoration sites where recent controlled burns have been conducted, including freshwater marsh restoration and sites along A1A where mowing coastal strand vegetation has greatly reduced the hazard of burning adjacent to a residential area. The group will stop at several archeological sites and discuss the efforts underway to protect these sites from wave erosion. Recommended Attire: Outdoor clothes and appropriate footwear for walks along trails or forested portions of the property.
2. Beach Exploration Field Trip . This group will see one of the longest stretches of undisturbed natural beach front on Florida's east coast- Guana Beach. Bird watchers may see shorebirds, beach comb, examine sand under a microscope, and discuss beach movement via a beach profiling demonstration. They will hear about current Reserve beach and dune conservation projects. Recommended Attire: Outdoor clothes and appropriate footwear for walking in sand.

AT GTMNERR, believing that the preservation of Florida's resources begins with an understanding of the complexities between natural systems, and the effects people have on these systems, promotes the unique opportunity for long-term research, education and interpretation. And the System-wide Monitoring Program, which tracks short-term variability and long-term changes in estuarine waters helps to create an understanding of how human activities and natural events can change ecosystems. This monitoring program provides valuable long-term data on water quality and weather at frequent time intervals.