Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Presidents Welcome
Greetings NRLI Alumni! As your new NRLI Alumni president, I first want to thank our past president, Deborah Burr for her dedication and service to the NRLI Alumni Association. She deserves a lot of credit for helping to build the Alumni Association to what it is today, and I have some very big shoes to fill. She is still an active member of the Associations Board of Directors and has been a big help to me, as I take over as the new president. Thanks Deborah! Fall is here and that means we have another NRLI class underway. I hope you will get a chance to participate in one of the remaining sessions of Class X. As always, the NRLI team put together a great schedule. I highly recommend that you check out a session if it is in your neck of the woods. It is always great to have alumni participate, meet current class members, and catch up with the project team and other alumni. Also, if you havent already done so, you can also stay in touch with other alumni by becoming a friend on NRLIs Facebook page. Hopefully by now you have heard about the Alumni Associations efforts to raise funds for scholarships for future NRLI fellows. As alumni, there are several ways to contribute. Im proud to announce that the first NRLI Alumni Class Challenge, which is a friendly Class vs. Class competition running through the end of November is underway (see page 4 for details). Of course, donations are always welcomed outside the competition as well!! With the majority of our alums able to participate because of scholarships and insightful generosity from employers, we feel that because of your association with NRLI, we are first asking you, our alumni, for financial assistance. We suggest a donation of $25, $50, or whatever feels right. This year, we had one alumni sponsor a partial scholarship with $2000! (If you or your company would like information on underwriting a Fellow, please contact Bruce Delaney at delaneyb@ufl.edu or (352) 846-1511.) In our role as the NRLI Alumni Association, we are continuously working toward furthering our mission of fostering effective leadership and professional development, and enhancing the future of NRLI. Many of the benefits from the NRLI experience can be unexpected and have helped many careers in various ways from networking to job opportunities. On behalf of the NRLI Alumni Association Board of Directors, thank you for your support! Enjoy the eNewsletter!! Bryan Fluech (Class VIII), NRLI Alumni Association President
Volume 2, Issue 2
Fall 2010
Inside this issue: Meet your FNRLI Board of Directors In Memoriam Class Challenge Welcome Class X NRLI Milestones Winters Native Plant Nursery KEA Facilitates Panel Discussion on Transport Stakeholders and Southwest Florida Waterways 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 8
Trends Analysis for Parks, 8 Recreation and Culture Public Opinion on Florida's Water Quality Restoring IFAS site in Sanford The Water Choices Membership Dues 9 10 11 12
The Alumni Association Mission is to: foster effective leadership and professional development provide networking opportunities enhance the NRLI program, and promote its long-term viability.
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Teresa Watkins, Vice President (Class VII) is an environmental landscaping consultant, and a horticultural specialist with the St. Johns River Water Management District's Florida Water Star program. Dianne Hughes, Treasurer (Class VIII) is an Environmental Consultant for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Since 1999, she has been working on the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and other South Florida restoration issues.
Tom Ostertag, Annual Meeting Coordinator (Class IX) works for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Deborah Burr, Past President (Class IV) works for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission as the Gopher Tortoise Management Plan Coordinator. She is responsible for implementing the Gopher Tortoise Management Plan to restore and maintain viable populations of gopher tortoises throughout their range in Florida.
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IN MEMORIAM
FNRLI Loses a Remarkable Alumnus, Bob Tietz, Class VI,
Burl Long, FNRLI Emeritus Director
It did not take long to come under the influence of Bob Tietz, Class Vl alum and former member of FNRLI Board of Directors who lost his battle with cancer this summer. Bob was the county biologist for Pasco County and leaves a lasting legacy for his work in environmental lands acquisitions and many other contributions to Pasco Countys environment. For those who knew Bob, we could never forget his charm, wit, the sparkle in his eye and his genuine love for people and nature. Bob epitomized everything that NRLI is about. He was a consummate conservationist who fought to save a part of nature in the face of development. No session of NRLI passed without the entire group being impressed with Bobs infectious laughter and stories, his knowledge and his wisdom which he joyfully shared. He made us all better and always happier for being around him. The family has maintained a website, http.bobtietz.com, which contains a marvelous collection of images, stories and memories of Bobs life. I urge you to take a look at this, which includes some memories from other NRLIs. In addition to his love of nature and family, Bob was a sailor and talented musician who loved to entertain and share with his friends. At NRLI sessions Bob always played his 12 string guitar and entertained us. Several years ago Bob wrote a song called Fanfare Florida. We adopted it as our NRLI theme song. If you do nothing else, please click onto this at the website. For those in Class VI it will bring pleasant memories and for those who did not know Bob, it will inspire you and tell you why Bob was so in tune with and supportive of NRLI. Pasco Wildlife is establishing a memorial to Bob and the FNRLI Alumni Association has made a contribution to it.
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The NRLI Class Challenge is a unique opportunity for NRLI alumni to give back to a program that has provided each of us with so many valuable skills and learning experiences, so that other natural resource professionals may benefit from the program in the future. The Challenge is a Class versus Class competition where each of the nine NRLI classes competes against one another, to raise money for future NRLI fellow scholarships. Each class has always thought their class has been the best; heres your opportunity to prove it! Challenge Rules: The competition starts September 1st and ends November 30th, 2010. Alumni can donate money themselves or have sponsors (organizations and/or other individuals) donate money on behalf of their class as often as they would like. **All donations are tax deductable**
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Fellows prepare for a boat trip out to the waters of Cedar Key
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and Vice Chairman of the Countys Soil & Water Conservation District. The Florida Research Center conducts research on sustainable agriculture practices and bio-rational pesticides. Bob was a fellow in the Charter Class of NRLI, where he served as President from 1999 to 2002. He is also a graduate of the Florida Leadership Program for Agriculture & Natural Resources Alumni Association where he served as Treasurer 2000 to 2002.
Gregory Golgowski, Class III Appointed to Florida Greenways and Trails Council
Gregory Golgowski of NRLI class III has been appointed to a seat on the Florida Greenways and Trails Council by Governor Charlie Crist. The Council serves to advise the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on greenway and trail related issues, promote partnerships for developing Florida's greenways and trails system, recommend priorities for critical links in the system and provide funding recommendations for developing and managing the system. Greg is currently employed as Conservation Director for the Harmony Development Co.
communications@fnrli-alumni.org
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KEA Group Facilitates Multi-Disciplinary Panel Discussion on Logical Termini Evaluation in Georgia Bruce Hart, Class I
On April 30, 2010 at the 35th Annual National Association of Environmental Professionals Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, an interdisciplinary team comprised of representatives from the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) -- Georgia Division, Atlanta Regional Commission, and Kennedy Engineering & Associates Group (KEA Group) presented a panel discussion on FHWAs logical termini evaluation of road construction projects in Georgia. The FHWA logical termini regulations outline three general questions at 23 CFR 771.111(f) that are to be evaluated in transportation decision-making: is the project of sufficient length to address environmental matters on a broad scope?; does the project have independent utility?; and does the project restrict the consideration of alternatives for other reasonably foreseeable transportation improvements outside of the projects limits? The issue of logical termini fits into the transportation decision-making process in several places - establishing a projects Need and Purpose, implications to project traffic analysis, and potential consequences to project scope, schedule, and budget. On a broader scale, logical termini evaluations to individual transportation projects can impact regional and/or statewide transportation planning, budget allocations, and regional air quality conformity modeling. The initial notion of assembling this panel was conceived by KEA Group due to the number of projects that we have encountered which have extensive logical termini evaluations. Dale Youngkin, Bruce Hart, and Laura Dawood of KEA Group assembled the panelists, which consisted of Katy Allen, FHWA; Michael Murdoch, GDOT Office of Environmental Services; Matthew Fowler, GDOT Office of Planning; David Haynes, Atlanta Regional Commission; and Dale Youngkin, Kennedy Engineering & Associates Group, with Bruce Hart of Kennedy Engineering & Associates Group serving as moderator. Each panelist presented to the session audience their own personal and agency perspective to the issue. After the 1.5 hour panel presentation, numerous conclusions could be made about the current state of the logical termini process. One clear conclusion is that the logical termini issue is highly woven through the transportation decision-making process, from the initial identification of a project (and associated allocation of funding) to the implications that logical termini has within project-level National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation. The forum was an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas and provide an opportunity for dialog among all the participants.
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NRLI Alumni bring together Boating and Waterways Stakeholders for a Strategizing Session Betty Staugler, Class VI and Joy Hazell, Class IX
A team of Southwest Florida Sea Grant Agents which included NRLI alumni Betty Staugler (workshop chair), Bryan Fluech and Joy Hazell held a two day Southwest Florida Regional Boating and Waterways Workshop in Punta Gorda in September, 2010. The Regional Workshop examined innovative strategies to balance economic vitality with ecologically sound management practices along southwest Florida's waterways. The participants included a mix of managers, planners, policymakers, lawyers, and industry people from state, local and regional levels (both private and public sectors). The first day of the workshop consisted of presentations by local and state experts. The presentations were grouped by subject matters including comprehensive planning tools; funds, permits and legal considerations and dealing with derelict vessels. Each series of presentations was followed by a panel question and answer session that was moderated by a Florida Sea Grant Agent. The presentations were very informative and were followed by lively discussions that included inquiries about methods to make boating and waterways planning easier, more useful to stakeholders and quantifiable. The second day of the workshop was a session facilitated by Joy Hazell and designed to allow participants to conduct strategic planning for boating and waterways in Southwest Florida based on participants expertise and information gathered from the previous days presentations. The process for strategic planning was borrowed from NRLI Fellow Ed Wright (Class VI) and used by our own fearless NRLI project team leaders Bruce Delaney and Jon Dain in a session that was held in 2006 at the Statewide Boating and Waterways conference. issues with as few as two and as many as nine participants who were now the team for that issue group. The teams were then asked to strategize how the issues could be addressed and identify existing or potential networks to carry out the strategy. Finally the issue teams were asked to report back on their brainstorming session and the participants were invited to provide feedback. The workshop organizers are now in the process of compiling the issues, strategies and action networks to present back to the participants. Subsequent steps will be setting measurable goals and following up with networks to determine if those goals were met.
Developing and Applying a Trends Analysis Process for the Parks, Recreation & Cultural Affairs Department City of Gainesville,
Gary Paul, Class V
A couple of years ago, as part of my assignment working toward accreditation for our Parks, Recreation & Cultural Affairs Department (through the National Recreation & Parks Association), I was asked to describe our Trends Analysis Process. That could have been easy to do, since, in common with many agencies like ours, we have no such The exercises objectives were to: process. Nor could I find one to serve as a boilerplate. Prioritize waterways issues So, working with interns from the University, I began the process of Discuss strategies to address prioritized issues creating such a process for the City. Even though our accreditation activities have been put on temporary hold due to budget constraints, Form action networks the value of having such a process seems critical. Participants were presented a summary of the subject matters and key points from presentations and question After many false starts and looking at what trends analysis products we could locate, we identified the parameters we felt we should track, and answer sessions. Their next task was to write down on a large sticky note their most pressing boating how often we should track them, and what we should do with the data and waterways issue. The issues were stuck to the wall we collect. Among the tools we decided to use were Alachua County & City of Gainesville demographics; State of Florida demographics; City and read aloud to the group to ensure understanding, then came the fun part. Participants were instructed to of Gainesvilles Report of Norms, FINAL; Recreation use survey results; the Evaluation and Appraisal process for the Citys Comprehenstand up and group the issues how they saw fit. After much discussion and switching of issues, the participants sive Plan, as required by Florida Statutes; Florida Forever Benchmarks, were asked to stand by the group of issues they deemed a progress report prepared by the Florida Natural Areas Inventory for most important. This process led to nine groups of (continued on page 9)
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Ground Water continued from page 9 be needed to educate recent residents about Florida water resources. When asked about pollutants affecting surface and ground water quality, about one-half of the respondents know / suspect that the surface or ground water quality in their areas is affected by fertilizers (phosphorus and/or nitrogen) and pesticides (Figure 3). When asked about the three causes most responsible for pollution problems in the rivers and lakes in Florida, new suburban development, agriculture (crops), and stormwater runoff were mentioned most frequently (Figure 4). However, each of these categories was mentioned as a cause of pollution problems by less than half of the respondents. Survey respondents differed in their demographic characteristics from the Florida population as a whole: they were older, more educated, and more frequently male. This difference may have influenced the results of the survey. Specifically, we believe that the number of people who had no opinion on ground and surface water quality is higher than is indicated by the survey results.
Figure 4. Perceived pollution sources affecting rivers and lakes in Florida (percent of
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IFAS SITE continued from Page 10 A nearby Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) road widening project needed large quantities of dirt for surcharge and fill. Talks began with FDOT to provide 280,000 cubic yards of dirt from the excavated stormwater ponds to use as roadway fill. Once FDEP completed their final clean-up work and gave the green light for the project to move forward, agreements between Seminole County, FDOT and SJRWMD were finalized. In September 2007, the County entered into a 50 year lease for the property from the Trustees Internal Improvement Trust Fund of the State of Florida. The project proceeded through construction bidding in the summer of 2008 and the contract was awarded to Johnson Brothers Contactors for $2,875,264. As a partner, FDOTs share of the contract was $1,614,556. This allowed the project to continue with other costs shared by Seminole County and SJRWMD. Construction began in January 2009 and was completed in December 2009 with only minor change orders during the project. Over the past 10 years the collaboration between numerous agencies and hard work by the participants allowed the project to reach completion even though the project was complex. In the end, the project will remove over 27,000 pounds per year of stormwater pollutants entering into Lake Monroe. The reductions in pollutants will help with the pending Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) reductions that will be required in the Middle St. Johns River segment between Lake Harney and the Wekiva River.
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