"Miami's newest 'secret' - Biscayne Nature Center" by Richard Yager Theodora Long is executive director of what may be Miami-Dade's best kept secret, the Biscayne Nature Center, but she would just as soon have it known otherwise.
"We've been here for two years now, we just want people to know about us," said Long, who goes by Theo. "our programs and attendance keep growing, but few in the community realize we really exist."
It's not easy directing a major attraction when largely dependent upon solicitations and government assistance, as Theo knows all too well. She has spent many of the past 12 years alternately going door to door to collect dollars, twisting arms of mover-pushers in the community and applying for matching local and state funds.
I've began visiting the Key as a Junior League volunteer in a "Living with Nature" committee and fell in love with the place," she said.
...Literally thousands of daily visitors to the Key who daily drive through Crandon Park are unaware of the scope and sheer tropical beauty of what the center and grounds offer, including three walking paths and a bikeway meandering through the exotic flora like beach peanut plants and Biscayne prickly ash, leading to a north beach area where low tides expose a fossilized rock reef, offering a view seen on only one other location in the world.
As part of the Bear Cut Preserve, the area has been designated as a National Environmental study area where Dade County teachers (correction) occupy a state-of-the-art laboratory, equipped to study the dynamics of eco-systems of sand barrier islands, their toptgraphy, plant growth habits and interaction with the forces of sun, wind and water.
...Eco Adventure Tours operated by the Miami-Dade Parks and Recreation Department, provides specialized observation programs that include low tide marine explorations, bird watching, canoeing, kayaking, snorkeling and bicycling with lectures, classes and workshops offered the year around.
Monthly programs on various sea-and-nature-related subjects are offered and those attending will see and accompany(correction) center naturalists wade into the sea grass beds and display whatever they may find with knowledgeable commentary.
"it's hard to believe we just celebrated our second anniversary in our new home but the Biscayne Nature Center is going to be around for a long time," said Long. "We want more people to visit, inquire about helping as a volunteer and involve themselves in the preservation of our natural beachside environment. While doing so, they can also learn from pioneer thinkers and activists in contemporary enviornmental education."
Excerpts from The Herald, Neighbors November 9, 2003
"Park expands knowledge, love of nature" by Kim Gold.
Named after an environmental legend, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Nature Center promotes programs and tours to inspire youngsters to protect the ecosystem. At the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Nature Center in Crandon Park, it's all about expansion.
Expanding knowledge. Expanding preservation. Expanding fun. The center itself is a model of expansion growing out of a portable parked at the north end of the beach in 1971. Today, it is two stories of gleaming concrete and steel- home to a school specializing in South Florida's ecosystems.
"The more people we educate about the environment, the more people will take theinitiative to do their part to protect it," said program manager Adam Steckley, summing up the mission.
The center is a nonprofit group that works along with the Miami-Dade school system and county parks department, trying to entice people into getting an ecosystem education.
It offers programs like "Seagrass Adventure," where children 5 and older-and adults-join a naturalist for a guided tour of the sea-grass beds just outside the center's door.
...The tour is also organized through the Miami-Dade schools, and kids have the chance to experience sea critters through a catch and release programs. ...Tours are also given along the beach and fossil reef. ...On the third Friday of every month, the Nature Center hosts a lecture series, and past speakers have included experts on dolphins, hurricanes and coral reefs, along with top nature photographers.
"I enjoy helping kids explore things they have never seen before," saod the center's executive director, Theodora Long. "If we don't preserve it, it won't be around much longer."
As seen in The New York Times, Travel, Sunday, January 12, 2003
In an an article titled "What's Doing, Miami, Beach And Beyond" we were thrilled to see a map noting the location of "Marjory Stoneman Douglas Nature Center" along with many of the other more well known tourist draws. Even though they left off "Biscayne," having our name in the Times shows that we are getting more well known. We are so proud of our Nature Center, and are working to spread the word.
Excerpts from "The Deep" by Roz Degraff - The Herald, Tropic Magazine"Want to see an octopus in a Coke bottle, a fish that blows itself up to four times its normal size, a squishy sea slug that emits an inky fluid to hide in? Forget Jacques Cousteau. Click off that TV. Put on swim trunks and some old tennis shoes and drive across the Rickenbacker Causeway ($1 toll) to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center...."
"When you get there, you'll find magnificent sand dunes and beaches, a neat hammock, thick beds of sea grass, leafy mangroves and a rare geological phenomenon - a reef of fossilized black mangrove roots more than 2,000 years old. The guides will take your $10, then brief you about the abundant sea life Just offshore, then lead you waist-deep into the warm, salty water to see for yourselves. You'll run a net through the thick seagrass - the ocean's nursery - and be stunned to see it emerge, full of tiny critters."
"Sea urchins, sea cucumbers, pipefish, spotted slugs, blowfish, spider crabs and tiny fish filled the nets the day I was there. I spotted a tiny octopus peeking out of a Coke bottle and when I reached for him, he squeezed back inside to hide. A porcupine puffer fish got offended at the attention and stayed bloated the whole time. The critters, of course, are not harmed. They are returned to the sea grass. After an hour and a half in the water, we still didn't want to leave. For $10, this is one of the best, cheapest deals in town. They also do birthday parties for groups of at least 15."
Crandon Park, 6767 Crandon Blvd., Key Biscayne, FL 33149
305-361-6767 • Fax 305-365-8434