Canoe Shingle Creek, Where Natives Reign

The Shingle Creek Regional Park, offering a unique blend of nature and history, sits quietly hidden within an urban area near Orlando.  At close to 1,000 acres, the park has plenty of space to allow visitors to experience vivid encounters with a wild and vanishing Florida, and to take a look back a site where pioneer families lived and worked long ago.

The agricultural history of Kissimmee began here in the late 1800s, and the park is home to some restored work buildings dating from that time. As you canoe down Shingle creek, you can experience unique beauty that has changed little since those days. You may see river otters, yellow-bellied slider turtles, deer, and gopher tortoises. For birders, the list includes limpkin, swallowtail kites, hawks, osprey, bald eagles, (an active nest at the moment!), kestrel, owls, bluebirds and many more.

And native plants? Of course! Cypress trees, red maple, buttonbush, lizard's tail, and iris all await you at the water's edge. On an easy hike inland, you will see majestic live oaks, paw paw, blackberries, and leafless beaked orchids among many others. And all of these things will be enhanced by the bonus of having expert guides with you if you come with us on this Conference Field Trip, Thursday, May 19th. This is a fantastic chance to really get out in natural Florida in a convenient and timely way. You will have the expertise of  Jenny Welch and Bob Mindink as guides for the trip; they  know Shingle Creek very well and will be able to point out the best viewing spots, and help you with both plant and animal identification. The adventure starts from the park at 9:00 and runs till 12:30.

pioneer buildings at Shingle Creek
The trip costs $50 for FNPS members, $65 for non-members. The cost covers the rental of your canoe and your lunch, too. And if you're a non-member, why don't you go ahead and become one?  Basic membership only costs $35, and you would save $15 on the field trip right away! Join online at FNPS.org

You can just come on a field trip, or you can attend one or both of the conference programs that will be held on May 20 and 21 at the Sheraton Orlando North Hotel in Maitland. For a full list of the speakers, workshops, plant sale and social events, and to register online please go the the conference home page :


Lizard's tail-Saururus cernuus
Nesting Bald eagle
River otter
 
 Come out and be IN the real Florida! We make it easy!

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