Nature

The St. Joe Company, Northwest Florida’s leading residential and commercial property developer, and The St. Joe Community Foundation have signed an agreement with The Humane Society of the United States, Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, and Freeport based Nokuse Plantation to support the relocation and rehabilitation of the Gopher Tortoise, one of Florida’s threatened species.
 

This past week my dad showed his latest film, The Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition: Everglades to Okefenokee, at the Martin Theatre in Historic Panama City.

My Coastal Dune Lake

Ancient crystle dunes
engulfed by a risen sea.
Ocean shrinks to gulf in time,
baring mounds of sugared quartz.

Rare pools of sparkling life are born
to milliniums of nurturing kisses
from a coddling saline surf.

Embracing tides wash life to benthic worlds
as needle rush nurseries feed
flora, fauna, future.

Flyoff vapors, cool and collected,
fall to stream across shore to sea,
barrow for the rapt organic cornucopia
of our ever renewing coastal plash.

Today’s blog features the crew at Live Oak Production Group contemplating on the coastal dune lakes and what they feel when they are out there. Attached is the fourth short video titled Jewels of 30A.
 

Joey Dickinson at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park.

Ad·vi·so·ry:  having or consisting in the power to make recommendations but not to take action enforcing them.

The Coastal Dune Lakes Advisory Board is comprised of residents and partners with Walton County, to ensure the protection, health and environmental integrity of the county’s globally rare and imperiled Coastal Dune Lakes and to provide sound recommendations to the Walton County Board of Commissioners.

The South Walton Community Council (SWCC) organizes volunteer efforts each year on July 5th to clean up beach debris from fireworks and Independence Day festivities.
 
It's fun and rewarding to gather with locals and visitors to keep our beaches pristine, and debris left on beaches after July 4th celebrations poses a hazard to wildlife, including endangered sea turtles and shorebirds. Come out to support the SWCC’s conservation efforts during the annual July 5th beach clean-up from 7-9am. 
 

A big thanks to all of our dedicated South Walton Turtle Watch volunteers for walking every inch of beach during nesting season to count nests, monitor hatchings, help turtles in danger, and keep an eye on our beaches - remember to give turtles and nests a wide berth, remove items from the beach at the end of the day, and fill in your holes! Thanks to Blue Mountain Beach resident and turtle watch volunteer Richard Fowlkes for sending us this great story and photos...
 

Nestled between the Gulf of Mexico and St. Andrews Bay, Shell Island reflects the push and pull of the delicate coastal ecosystem. White sand blankets the shoreline and gives way to tall pines, scrub bushes, and moss-draped oaks of St. Andrews State Park. A lone cabin sits high on stilts, clinging to life until the next hurricane. Life there is Florida as nature intended.

About two weeks ago, I was sitting in the office and preparing for the first blog I wrote on the coastal dune lakes, and I stumbled across the term “coastal lagoon” on the National Geographic website.

A lagoon is a shallow body of water protected from a larger body of water (usually the ocean) by sandbars, barrier islands, or coral reefs. Lagoons are often called estuaries, sounds, bays, or even lakes. (Emphasis added)