Annual Members Meeting – Friends of Lovers Key
Louise Kowitch presented the mission, programs and vision of the Education Committee.
When people visit Lovers Key State Park, they fall in love with nature. Each year, more than three-quarters of a million visitors explore our park’s miles of shoreline and nature trails. Here they relax, take a break from the urban landscape and enjoy the serenity of quiet beaches and mangroves.
The mission of the Education Committee is to advance public understanding and appreciation of our coastal ecosystems and foster interest in environmental protection.
The Education Committee’s work supports the Park Service’s mission of ‘providing resource-based recreation while preserving, interpreting and restoring natural and cultural resources”.
With the opening of the Welcome and Discovery Center, LKSP is poised to become a regional hub for environmental education and stewardship.
The new Welcome and Discovery Center with its state-of-the-art facilities will allow us to offer exciting new programs that enhance and enrich visitors’ outdoor experiences. In anticipation of the Center’s opening, volunteers from FOLKS, park staff and community partners have laid the groundwork for new educational programs.
Our location offers several important advantages.
- We will be the only nature center in the region located directly on the beach. The four islands protect a variety of habitats, flora and fauna that showcase coastal Florida’s natural beauty. Visitors can marvel at the sight of a tortoise, manatee, skimmers or butterfly.
- Our visitors experience an emotional connection to nature through recreation. By tapping into that emotion, we can foster public appreciation for nature and for environmental protection.
- Our location also showcases the dynamics of barrier islands and exchanges between estuary and sea. Here one can observe and appreciate the intimate connection between land and aquatic life.
- Our programs fill a geographical gap between Sanibel and Naples. We will be the only major venue for forums on environmental topics within a short distance for people coming from the region around Estero Bay, including Bonita Springs, Estero and Fort Myers Beach
This year, FOLKS and park staff collaborated with community partners to create meaningful and engaging education and stewardship opportunities.
Our newest program is Trails for Tails (T4T); a collaboration among Service Learning students from FGCU, LKSP staff and volunteers from FOLKS. Undergraduates of all majors participate in beach clean-ups, invasive species eradication and trail maintenance while learning about the ecology of coastal Florida . The program has grown substantially in two years and now has a waiting list on account of its success and popularity.
In 2020, T4T branched out into new projects including updated signage for nature trails and promotion of a new Manatee adoption program. Students co-wrote grants with Deb Voorhees to fund a demonstration native plant garden and nursery. They have updated our social media and publicity with Shelley Sue Williams .
A second set of programs aim to enrich visitors’ outdoor experiences through lectures, panel discussions and special exhibits. Our first speaker series will be called “What You See on the Land, Lands in the Sea”. It features Jack E. Davis, Pulitzer Prize winning historian and author of “The Gulf, The Making of an American Sea”.
A third set of programs will promote the park as an exciting venue for outdoor education for all ages. We will be able to offer:
- Workshops for educators and other professional groups
- Field research for students and citizen scientists
- Summer camps featuring ecology and the arts
These programs will be cross disciplinary and multi-generational, aiming to bridge the gap between environmental experts and recreational enthusiasts.
Finally, we are developing a “passport program” to promote eco-tourism throughout Estero Bay. Passport programs are popular in other states because they are fun, rewarding and create a regional culture of learning and stewardship. Our vision is to inspire visitors to cherish and understand Southwest Florida’s coastal ecosystems and habitats. We seek to empower visitors to become effective stewards of our natural resources, and foster sustained public commitment to protect, preserve and restore our coastal habitats and waterways.
It is a privilege to live in Florida, and with that privilege comes the responsibility of environmental stewardship.