Conservation Collier

It’s National Mushroom Month 🍄‍🟫 As we continue to get more rain across your Conservation Collier preserves, pay attention to all of the mushrooms popping up! Fungi help break down dead plants and other organic material, returning nutrients to the soil and supporting healthy ecosystems. And what we see above ground is only a small part of the story - most of a fungus lives underground or within decaying material as a network of tiny threads called mycelium. 🦠

Mushrooms pictured:
Milk-white Toothed Polypore
Lepista tarda
Indigo Milkcap
Snow Fungus
Cinnabar Bracket
Pleated Pluteus
Goblet Waxcap
Golden Reishi

Join us for our annual viewing of native Southeastern Sunflowers at Pepper Ranch Preserve! 🌻 Registration opens on Monday, September 14th at 9 am. Conservation Collier is excited to offer you a sneak peek into the beauty of Pepper Ranch Preserve, which opens in November.

Sign up to visit on the following days: Oct 2nd-4th and Oct 9th – Oct 11th for daytime viewing (9am-2pm) and Oct 3rd and Oct 10th for sunset viewing (5:30pm-8pm). See the second photo for additional information about the event and registration.

✨ Register starting on 9/14! Scan the QR code on the poster or visit: https://pepperranchsunflowers.eventbrite.com

It’s National Wildlife Day! 🐾 Conservation Collier preserves provide habitat for all kinds of wildlife - from larger animals like Florida panthers, Florida black bears, and white-tailed deer to smaller residents like raccoons, birds, rabbits, snakes, gopher tortoises, squirrels, and so much more. These protected lands provide places for wildlife to forage, hunt, rest, shelter, and raise their young. 🌿

When you visit a preserve, you may be lucky enough to see or hear wildlife along the way. And if you don’t, look a little closer! You may find signs that animals have been there, like tracks in the mud, feathers, s**t, burrows, or feeding marks. Wildlife is all around us - you just have to know what to look for 👀

Photos 1 and 5 by FStop Foundation 📸

A couple weeks ago Conservation Collier and partners conducted a prescribed burn at Caracara Prairie Preserve and here are some views from the air! 🔥

Conservation Collier uses drones during prescribed burns to capture the before, during, and after of a burn. From the air, land managers can observe fire and smoke behavior, monitor the burn as it progresses, and watch for spot fires. The goals of this prescribed fire were to reduce accumulated fuels and improve habitat for wildlife, including White-tailed Deer, Sandhill Cranes, Florida Panthers, Wild Turkeys, and many other species.

Get out and explore Caracara Prairie Preserve to see how the landscape changes following the burn! We’ll also be sharing updates as the burned area fills in with fresh vegetation and wildlife activity. 🌱

Live near a Conservation Collier preserve you care about? 🌿 We’re always looking for volunteers who know and love their local preserve to help us keep it in great shape - and maybe even bring some cool new projects to life! Email [email protected] to get started as a volunteer!

See the map of Conservation Collier Preserves here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/d2b6d78bb9204c1185bb1f21abf122ae

Save the date for Conservation Collier’s Annual Sunflower Viewing at Pepper Ranch Preserve October 2nd-4th and Oct 9th-11th. More details are coming soon - be sure to follow our social media pages to be first in line for tickets! Tickets will be available on September 14th at 9am🌻👀

Experience the magic of Florida scrub during golden hour! Join us for a guided sunset hike at Railhead Scrub Preserve, where you’ll have the chance to see the annual blooms of Chapman’s blazing star (Liatris chapmanii), one of the beautiful wildflowers that makes this rare ecosystem so special 🌸

Led by a Conservation Collier land manager, this guided hike is a chance to explore one of Florida’s rarest ecosystems while learning about the plants, wildlife, and conservation efforts that help protect it. This preserve is not open to the public, so you don’t want to miss this!

There will be 4 different dates for the sunset hikes: Sep 18, Sep 19, Sep 25, Sep 26. Get free tickets using the QR code on the flyer, or visiting the link in our story🎟️