Pre-Conference Events
  Sunday, October 24, 2010

Preconference Tour Option #1  -- CANCELLED --
1:00pm – 5:00pm - Biophilia Center (limit 50 ppl)

Developed by local conservationist, M.C. Davis on his 48,000-acre conservation land named Nokuse Plantation, the 27,500 sq. ft. center will cater to students with curriculums that offer a better understanding of the environment. The Center will educate on the importance of biodiversity, ecosystems, and encourage conservation, preservation and restoration of our natural resources.

Additional features of the Center include an exhibit hall, multi-purpose classrooms, science labs, dioramas, and a 160-seat theater.

The exhibition hall sports live exhibits of bees, snakes and turtles, along with fabricated exhibitions such as a gopher tortoise burrow that students can crawl through.

Pine forest and wetland areas are displayed along with indigenous flora and fauna. Unlike museum collections, visitors can interact with the displays; and some produce cause-and-effect situations that show the impact man has on the environment. There is a piano-like keyboard children can step on to hear the sounds of fauna.
Activities also include examining aquatic insects and fish, studying different restoration methods, and monitoring amphibians and songbirds.

In addition, visitors to the Center will have an opportunity to learn about the natural environment both indoors and out with a .9-mile long boardwalk trail that crosses through a hardwood prairie swamp and around a beaver pond.

Advance registration is required by October 1, 2010. You may choose one (1) tour only. Please note that a tour may be cancelled due to low attendance so register early!

Preconference Tour Option #2

1:00pm – 5:00pm - Topsail State Park and Grayton Beach State Park (limit 50 ppl)
    Brooke Saari – Florida Sea Grant

Enjoy a guided tour of these scenic wonders of these two state parks.

Topsail Hill offers a wide variety of natural resources including 3.2 miles of secluded, white sand beaches with majestic dunes over 25 feet tall. See the rare coastal dune lakes. Lakes, pristine beaches, old-growth long leaf pines, sand pine scrub, and a variety of wetlands offer a bird-watching and hiking paradise.

Grayton Beach State Park is among the most popular in Florida, with massive dunes, winding trails, abundant wildlife, and shimmering Western Lake, one of many coastal dune lakes gracing Scenic Highway 30A along the Beaches of South Walton.

Advance registration is required by October 1, 2010. You may choose one (1) tour only. Please note that a tour may be cancelled due to low attendance so register early!

Optional Palm School

1:00pm – 5:00pm (limit 40 ppl)
   Monica Elliott – UF

This workshop will discuss palm morphology, physiological disorders, common nutritional deficiencies, common palm diseases, and proper management of palms in growing a landscape (fertilization and pruning).

Selection and identification of palm species will not be covered.