© 2024 WLRN
MIAMI | SOUTH FLORIDA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
In South Florida, where the Everglades meet the bays, environmental challenges abound. Sea level rise threatens homes and real estate. Invasive species imperil native plants and animals. Pesticides reduce the risk of mosquito-borne diseases, but at what cost? WLRN's award-winning environment reporting strives to capture the color and complexity of human interaction with one of the most biodiverse areas of the planet.

Florida Wildlife Corridor 'Mini-Trek' Begins Between Tampa and Orlando

Members of the Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition twice embarked on 1,000-mile treks across the state in the past seven years. Their mission: to bring attention to the need to protect corridors between preserved areas so wildlife can migrate through Florida.

On Monday, they're kicking off a week-long mission in an relatively urban area between Tampa and Orlando. They're paddling and hiking a narrow thread of green that survives between metropolitan Orlando and the Four Corners area of northeast Polk County.

They pushed back the beginning of the trip Sunday because of heavy rains. But before the rains came, expedition members held a kickoff for supporters at the Disney Wilderness Preserve, near the Polk-Osceola county line. 

To see WUSF's coverage of this and past Florida Wildlife Corridor Expeditions, click here.

There, team leader Mallory Lykes Dimmitt hopped on her paddleboard on Lake Russell,  and the heavens opened up.

Mallory Lykes Dimmitt on Lake Russell
Credit Steve Newborn / WUSF Public Media
/
WUSF Public Media
Mallory Lykes Dimmitt on Lake Russell

"We've had a great sendoff (for expedition supporters) here today at the Disney Wilderness Preserve," she said, as black clouds raced across the tops of the cypress trees lining the lake. "...The rain's starting now, just starting to fall right as we get going. So pretty appropos the minute we actually get on our boards, then the rain starts. It seems like a fitting sendoff for the wildlife corridor."

Expedition member and wildlife photographer Carlton Ward Jr. of Tampa said nearby Interstate 4 is becoming a dividing line between the wild systems at the headwaters of the Everglades and the rest of the state.

"If we look to our north, cookie-cutter subdivisions are squeezing their way down and radiating out from Orlando," he said from the Disney Preserve, south of Kissimmee. "If you look to our south, you have nothing but public lands and ranches and working farms all the way to Lake Okeechobee. It puts in context the opportunity and the threat."

https://youtu.be/ekxSzW81GUo

The expedition team wants to persuade traffic planners to put wildlife underpasses beneath I-4, which has been done for several other major highways, including Alligator Alley.

"It's going to be the anti-wildlife corridor if we don't put steps in place to protect it," Ward said. "Because Interstate 4 is quickly becoming a dividing line - especially between Orlando and Tampa that could cut the Everglades system off between the rest of our state and the rest of our country."

The advocates also want money from the state's Florida Forever land-buying program used to preserve these corridors before they're developed, and lost forever.

A 360 degree look at Lake Russell in the Disney Wilderness Preserve Sunday before the @FL_WildCorridor expedition embarked. #KeepFLWild #Heartland2Headwaters @WUSF - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

A 360 degree look at Lake Russell in the Disney Wilderness Preserve Sunday before the expedition embarked.

Bear biologist Joe Guthrie rejoined the expedition from his current post in Virginia. It was his tracking of a bear that migrated north from Highlands County and tried repeatedly without success to cross Interstate 4 that was the genesis for the first expedition in 2012. That trip went 1,000 miles from Flamingo, and the tip of the Everglades, north to the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.

Their second trip in 2015 started out near this current trek, in Osceola County, northwest across the Florida Panhandle to Pensacola and the Alabama state line.

 

Expedition member Joe Guthrie on Lake Russell
Credit Steve Newborn / WUSF Public Media
/
WUSF Public Media
Expedition member Joe Guthrie on Lake Russell

Copyright 2020 WUSF Public Media - WUSF 89.7. To see more, visit WUSF Public Media - WUSF 89.7.

Mallory Lykes Dimmitt paddles Lake Russell
Steve Newborn / WUSF Public Media
/
WUSF Public Media
Mallory Lykes Dimmitt paddles Lake Russell

Expedition member Joe Guthrie on Lake Russell
Steve Newborn / WUSF Public Media
/
WUSF Public Media
Expedition member Joe Guthrie on Lake Russell

Expedition member and photographer Carlton Ward Jr.
Steve Newborn / WUSF Public Media
/
WUSF Public Media
Expedition member and photographer Carlton Ward Jr.

Supporters gather at the Disney Wilderness Preserve
Steve Newborn / WUSF Public Media
/
WUSF Public Media
Supporters gather at the Disney Wilderness Preserve

Guests, sponsors and other VIPs took a mile-long hike to Lake Russell.
Mark Schreiner / WUSF Public Media
/
WUSF Public Media
Guests, sponsors and other VIPs took a mile-long hike to Lake Russell.

The group framed under a collapsed tree.
Mark Schreiner / WUSF Public Media
/
WUSF Public Media
The group framed under a collapsed tree.

Raccoon tracks on the shore of Lake Russell.
Mark Schreiner / WUSF Public Media
/
WUSF Public Media
Raccoon tracks on the shore of Lake Russell.

A cypress tree just off the shores of Lake Russell.
Mark Schreiner / WUSF Public Media
/
WUSF Public Media
A cypress tree just off the shores of Lake Russell.

A swallowtailed kite flies above the Disney Wilderness Preserve
Steve Newborn / WUSF Public Media
/
WUSF Public Media
A swallowtailed kite flies above the Disney Wilderness Preserve

Alligator remains along Lake Russell
/ WUSF Public Media
/
WUSF Public Media
Alligator remains along Lake Russell

Steve Newborn is WUSF's assistant news director as well as a reporter and producer at WUSF covering environmental issues and politics in the Tampa Bay area.
Mark Schreiner has been the producer and reporter for "University Beat" on WUSF 89.7 FM since 2001 and on WUSF TV from 2007-2017.
More On This Topic