‘Strand to Slough Expedition’ offers rare opportunity
A statewide foundation is seeking applicants with a desire for connection to local lands, wildlife and waterways to take on a seven-day expedition around Lee County and surrounding areas.
The Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation is searching for three to four participants for its upcoming trek, titled “Strand to Slough Expedition: Exploring the Critical Connections of Southwest Florida.” Applications are being accepted until July 26 for the adventure that takes place Nov. 15-22, which will also have a documentary crew capturing the experience.
According to the foundation, the expedition will explore the Florida Wildlife Corridor from the coastal wetlands to cattle country, starting in Picayune Strand State Forest and traveling north through the Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and Okaloacoochee Slough and ending near the Caloosahatchee River. The core of the trek, which runs through Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee counties, will involve a multi-day journey of hiking, biking and paddling through private and public lands vital to conserving Corridor connectivity. The expedition will feature family heritage, community and spiritual connections to the land, and local engagement with the corridor. The trek will also highlight agricultural lands critical to maintaining corridor connections.
Collaborative Conservation Manager for Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation and Strand to Slough expedition planner Alex Freeze said the habitat and ecosystem types that are to be explored on the journey are quite unique.
“There’s so much incredible biodiversity that our documentary film will really focus on. The strands and the sloughs and the swamps in between, and how that biodiversity is so important to Florida, and the larger landscape keeping it connected,” she said. “It’s a human story, as well as a wildlife and wildlands story.”
Trekkers will be taken though public and private lands, taking in wildlife and nature to its fullest extent. Participants will be guided along by experts, such as Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation Chief Executive Officer Mallory Dimmitt, ecologist and Archbold Biological Station Predator-Prey Program Director Joe Guthrie and Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation founder Carlton Ward Jr., who is a National Geographic explorer and photographer.
“They will sporadically meet up with our regional expeditioners to give them a really in-depth look at what it’s like to trek in the corridor, share their experiences and expertise with them, but we’ll also meet with excellent and dedicated conservation patterns on multiple levels,” Freeze said.
Trekkers will also meet with various private landowners to get their insight on various realms related to ecology.
“The expertise will span everything from deep wildlife biology, ecology, natural history backgrounds, to people who have been stewards of their lands for many years and have seen the changes and are very wise to the vision of keeping the corridor connected, protected, and restored moving forward and what that’s going to take,” she said.
So, who are the ideal applicants?
“One of the things we’ve done very intentionally as an organization for our past few expeditions is to really intentionally highlight people connected to the local corridor areas,” Freeze said. “This time around, we want to highlight and allow a really great experience for people with deep connections, either to the natural history or cultural heritage, of Southwest Florida.”
There are four different categories into which a to-be-selected applicant could fall.
– Multigenerational: A Floridian with longstanding ties to Southwest Florida, whether that be through family heritage in land ownership, stewardship or deeply rooted community ties going back multiple generations.
– New Floridian: Someone who has recently moved to Florida (in the past five years), who is interested in learning more about and connecting to the natural and cultural resources and heritage of the land, water, wildlife and people of Southwest Florida.
– Livelihood Corridor Connection: A Floridian whose livelihood/occupation is directly connected to the corridor. Examples include people working in the agricultural sector, ecotourism, aquaculture, sportsman guides, environmental educators or community leaders. The occupations could be active or the person can be retired.
– Spiritual Practice: A Floridian whose spirituality is connected to the significance of caring for the land. This connection can come from any background of spirituality — there is no one religion, practice or spiritual journey being sought, rather the authentic ability to share a personal sense of connection to the lands, waterways and wildlife of Southwest Florida.
All transportation needs, housing requirements and food will be provided to participants during the expedition. All dietary requirements and restrictions will be documented and honored upon request. There will be no cost to the trekkers who are selected.
The foundation produces award-winning documentary films featuring those who undertake expeditions to explore at-risk connections in the corridor and the need for protection of the local lands and waterways.
“We use high-quality storytelling to connect people to the Florida Wildlife Corridor, and the celebrations and challenges that happen around protecting the lands, waters and wildlife of the corridor,” Freeze said.
For this trek, the documentary will highlight “Corridor-connected communities” and the vision for connectivity across the landscape and how the lands connect to the health and wellbeing of Southwest Floridians.
“Keeping these lands open and connected as part of the Florida Wildlife Corridor brings so much value to the economy of Southwest Florida,” she said. “That’s a huge thing that we want to highlight in this documentary — that livelihood connection that we really want represented in our trekkers. The economy and the ecology of Southwest Florida are inextricably connected.”
This is the seventh expedition of its kind, the first in this region of the corridor, organized by the foundation, the first having taken place in 2012.
“What we’re doing now is really highlighting ‘hot-spots’ and critical areas that have yet to receive permanent conservation status within the Florida Wildlife Corridor geography,” Freeze said.
The Florida Wildlife Corridor encompasses nearly 18 million acres — 11 million acres are already protected and 7 million acres of remaining irreplaceable gaps that do not have conservation protections. Foundation officials state development throughout Florida is rapidly increasing, with an average of 1,000 people moving to the Sunshine State each day. There are 900,000 acres of unprotected, high-priority vulnerable areas left in the corridor — 500,000 of those acres are projected to be lost by 2030.
“Southwest Florida has some of the highest development pressures in the entire state. It’s a really ideal place for people to move,” she said of why the Southwest Florida region was picked now. “We are not an organization that is anti-development, we just want to develop smart and figure out how communities can be built while maintaining corridor connection.We have a vision for being able to speak to and provide resources to people to develop Corridor compatible communities.
“The Southwest Florida area has some of the most fragile connections left in the corridor, with some of the greatest development pressures,” Freeze added. “So we felt like it was important for us to turn our lenses to this region, and bring attention to and highlight the amazing people who are doing incredible work in this area.”
Do not fret if you are interested and are not selected, as Freeze said many aspects of the trek can be explored on one’s own.
“No matter if you get picked to be an expeditioner or not, everybody in the Southwest Florida region can do parts of this expedition,” she said. “We are traveling through some beautiful public lands in this region. You can go and do exactly what we’re going to do through some of these incredible spaces.”
Applicants must be at least 18 years old and a resident of Lee, Collier, Glades or Hendry (proof of residency will be required). Trekkers will be chosen based on the quality of their answers in their application, their video introduction and their availability during the expedition and film rollout timeline. Upon completing the selection process for the trekkers, the Corridor Foundation will notify the chosen applicants and all other applicants not selected by the end of August. All questions regarding the application must be submitted no later than July 19.
For more information or to apply, visit FloridaWildlifeCorridor.org/strand-to-slough-expedition.
To reach CJ HADDAD / cjhaddad@breezenewspapers.com, please email