DeSotoMonica
Registered: January 2012
City/Town/Province: St Petersburg
Posts: 1
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Fort De Soto Park, located at the southern tip of Pinellas County, is home to dozens of endangered plants and animals, including Loggerhead and Green sea turtles, Gopher Tortoises, and birds such as the Bald Eagle and Roseate Spoonbill. The park boasts 1,136 acres with habitats including hammock, dune, estuarine, and coastal habitats which are home to thousands of species of plants and animals. The park also has a sanctuary with 70 acres of land devoted to the shorebirds which live on our beaches, the area is off-limits to people and pets. Our sanctuary is home to Black Skimmers, American Oystercatchers, and several species of terns and plovers. Fort De Soto is the “Jewel of the Pinellas County Park System,” successfully balancing human usage and preservation of the land for use by wildlife.
At the end of seventh grade, I joined the National Junior Honor Society and was required to perform 25 community service hours by the end of the following school year. I chose to perform my volunteer hours at Fort De Soto Park, a Pinellas County park which at the time had a full staff and little need for volunteers. I spent my time picking up trash in the coastal areas and nature trails around the park, appalled by the amount of garbage people routinely left behind. I finished my NJHS hours but continued to volunteer anyway, very displeased by the mess people left behind. Then the economy turned sour and the park started losing employees—both park rangers and maintenance staff. What was once a team of 48 maintenance workers with separate crews to perform every imaginable task turned into five employees struggling to do the bare minimum—cleaning the park’s 196 toilets and 21 restroom facilities. Our total team of 68 employees has dropped to a mere 19. Now the need for dedicated volunteers is overwhelming—that’s where I come in.
At the beginning of my freshman year of high school I joined a program called AVID-- Advancement Via Individual Determination. AVID required me to perform 25 hours of community service before I graduated high school—piece of cake! I continued volunteering at Fort De Soto, getting to know some of the park rangers and volunteers and working on new projects. At the end of freshman year I started working on my Bright Futures scholarship which required 75 hours of community service—Fort De Soto again. My school’s Bright Futures coordinator was surprised that I was going to voluntarily spend 75 hours in the hot Florida sun picking up stinky trash--wading through muck, high grass, and sandspurs to retrieve some of the nastiest things you could imagine. After Bright Futures I had gotten to know the park supervisor and chief ranger, both of whom were excited that I was going to stay at the park even after my required hours were completed. After about one year of volunteering simply because I wanted to, I once again needed volunteer hours for school, this time for the National Honor Society. Naturally, I chose Fort De Soto.
During the performance of these required community service hours I removed garbage from the estuarine, coastal, dune, and hammock habitats; planted native plant species such as spartina grass, sea oats, railroad vines and beach morning glory to help stabilize the dunes; and worked on removing Brazilian Pepper from the park. I worked independently and with organizations such as Tampa Bay Watch, the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, the Sierra Club, Nature’s Academy and Friends of Fort De Soto, Inc. to complete some of these projects. Each group has work days in the park each year to engage the public in conservation efforts. My favorite events are the invasive plant removals; Brazilian Pepper busts are a good way to have fun and do something beneficial for the environment. Pepper Busts involve venturing into the backwoods of the park with either a machete or loppers and first cutting the tree down to about two feet from the ground, then spraying the stump with Garlon, an industrial strength herbicide. Once chopped down, the remainder of the plant must be hauled out of the area and put aside to be burned, thus ensuring that the plant will not grow back. My friends and family have all been willing to help me with these projects, even through the sandspurs, sun burns, and irritation caused by the sap of the Brazilian pepper tree.
Through my volunteering, I got to see Loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings and have become hooked on helping sea turtles. I have witnessed the release of hundreds of hatchlings that would otherwise have never made it to the water’s edge. This year, the Park Supervisor put me on the sea turtle permit for the park, meaning I can legally help with nesting surveys, relocation of nests, and handling turtles—both living and dead, newly hatched and mature.
I am also the Youth Advisor and Secretary on the Board of the Friends of Fort De Soto, Inc., a non-profit organization benefitting the preservation, conservation, and promotion of Fort De Soto Park. I teamed up with employees from a local Wal-Mart store whose volunteer hours turn into money for non-profit organizations through a program called Volunteerism Always Pays. Through this program, the group of employees I have been working with has raised around $4,000 for the Friends of Fort De Soto, Inc.
I’ve learned many valuable lessons from my volunteering at Fort De Soto Park that I will be forever grateful for. I have met some amazing people along the way and made many new friends. I have learned the value of hard work and caring for the environment and have now volunteered over 1,000 hours with the Pinellas County Parks and Conservation Resources Department. Now I am a senior in high school and continue to volunteer at Fort De Soto, not because I have to, but because I can’t imagine not getting up every weekend to help my favorite people at my favorite park. Fort De Soto has become a huge part of my life and I don’t see it leaving any time soon. I am proud of all the work I have put into the park and am always thrilled to see the progress my family and I are making. My only expectations when I go to the park are to work hard and educate people about the difference they can make, anything else is an added bonus.
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