That Army Jr. ROTC unit up at the Gateway to the Ocala National Forest is at it again.
Some of the cadets have followed Lt. Col. Al Nevarez s lead and are honing their casting skills along with a bevy of other students as part of the Bulldogs Umatilla High School Bass Anglers Club.
They ve already been proving themselves quiet admirably in drill, tactics and the soldierly virtues being taught and modeled by Nevarez and the troopers senior enlisted mentor, Sgt. lst Class Jose Negron.
The fledgling bass team has competed in a pair of Major League Fishing (MLF) tournaments and held an intra-club tourney April 17. In that one, Anglers President Owen Vanzant and Taylor Jackson teamed up for first place honors on Lake Yale with a haul of five fish for over 11 pounds.
From Silver Springs to Juniper Springs, Marion County has numerous household names when it comes to nature preserves and recreation areas. You probably haven’t heard of Big Pine Preserve though yet.
That’s the new name of 541 acres that sit inside of, but are not a part of, the Ocala National Forest and border Lake Kerr. The North Florida Land Trust recently received approval from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to add Big Pine Preserve to the Florida Forever program, which protects conservation and recreation lands.
To be added to the program, areas must pass a vote by Florida Forever’s Acquisition and Restoration Council. The council considers whether the project will meet certain goals, such as increasing the protection of Florida’s biodiversity, protecting and restoring the functions of land and water systems and increasing natural resource-based public recreation.
An environment advocate, Jay Exum, makes a last minute plea for the state Legislature to increase the amount of money it will spend this year on preserving environmental land.
FWC programs teach youth about conservation, hunting and outdoor skills
Ocala Outdoor Adventure Camp
Kristi Johnson treasures the memories of her first summers as a preteen attending the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWC) Ocala Outdoor Adventure Camp. The pleasure of paddling a canoe. The connection to the outdoors during educational hikes in the Ocala National Forest. And the excitement of mentored learning experiences at the camp’s shooting range. However, nobody could have predicted those experiences would help chart the course for an amazing future! Kristi’s love of those early camp experiences coupled with camp staff recognizing her leadership skills led her to the Ocala camp’s counselor-in-training program and eventually an assistant camp director position. There she formed lifelong friendships with other like-minded young people and developed leadership and communications skills that serve her well today as the assistant director at the Univers