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Florida Wildlife Corridor Campaign leaders on the senate floor before the signing of the Florida Wildlife Corridor Day 2025 Resolution. Left to right: Jason Lauritsen (FWCF), Marly Fuller (FWCF), Mallory Dimmitt (FWCF), Carlton Ward Jr. (Wildpath), Traci Deen (Conservation Florida)

This April we celebrated Florida Wildlife Corridor Day at the State Capitol. Senator Jason Brodeur presented a resolution affirming the importance of the Florida Wildlife Corridor, a network of connected lands that can be attributed to significantly improving the state’s environmental, cultural, economic, and tourism value. We aspire to protect more than 18 million acres of connected public and private land, comprising approximately 1/3 of the state, to safeguard wildlife populations and conserve resource lands. So far, 10 million acres have been protected, but in order to acquire the remaining 8 million acres of opportunity areas, we must collaborate with members of our community, including landowners, researchers, and state policymakers.

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Additionally, many of our partners also attended the event, sharing information about their respective organizations and current conservation projects with visitors to the Capitol’s rotunda.

The Florida Wildlife Corridor Campaign’s co-founder, Dr. Tom Hoctor, was in attendance with his colleagues at the UF Center for Landscape Conservation Planning (CLCP). The CLCP focuses on conservation planning, land protection, education, and green infrastructure to drive their mission towards sustainably uniting design, planning, and wildlife conservation. They had a beautiful painting displayed, featuring a critical pinch point, and a scene showing a healthy coexistence of humans, wildlife, and infrastructure alike. This is part of a current project with murals and story maps representing each of the critical linkages. The team also announced a new connectivity planning viewer that they’re working on, known as Eco-Con, which will help to make conservation data as accessible as possible. Eager to learn more? This program will be launching in June at our Corridor Connect Summit.

We couldn’t possibly celebrate Florida Wildlife Corridor Day, without our partners at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Florida Forever Program. Florida Forever is a vital part of protecting the Corridor, as they specialize in land acquisition addressing various state conservation goals, like preserving working landscapes, protecting water resources, conserving ecological greenways and biodiversity, and even funding conservation easements to secure high-priority lands. The program is celebrating 25 years since the passing of the Florida Forever Act, and since then, they have protected over 1 million acres, an essential step in safeguarding all that makes Florida Florida.

Similarly, Tall Timbers is a research station and land conservancy filling in land gaps. They have conserved 161,000 acres of resource lands, as well as acreage crucial to native flora and fauna through conservation easements. The organization also prioritizes the stewardship of natural lands, through their regional quail program and the responsible use of prescribed fire.

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Prescribed fire plays a huge role in maintaining healthy ecosystems for native wildlife. Visitors to the Capitol could learn all about the process from Archbold Biological Station educator, Dustin Angell, who was dressed for the part, complete with a hard hat and a flame-resistant jacket. Archbold is a field-station with the goal of building and sharing scientific knowledge about Florida’s life, lands, and waters. Data collected by the researchers at Archbold is used to guide decisions made by policymakers, land managers, conservationists, and more, both in Florida and beyond.

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The hottest booth at the event was Live Wildly, who were handing out their “mild to wild” hot sauces to anyone who signed their pledge to protect wild Florida. The pledge, which is printed on every bottle, declares all participating consumers “a guardian of Florida’s wild soul”, and $1 will be donated for every signature. If you’re interested in the cause, you can grab your own hot sauce at the Florida Wing Factory from 5/18-5/31. Live Wildly works with partners to facilitate conservation by finding creative ways—such as wildlife-inspired hot sauce—to encourage residents to get outside and experience Florida’s beauty firsthand, hopefully inspiring a desire to protect it.

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Photo by Erich Martin/ The Nature Conservancy

The most conspicuous attendee in the rotunda was an eastern indigo snake at the shared booth between the Orianne Center for Indigo Conservation (OCIC) and The Nature Conservancy. The eastern indigo snake is an apex predator and keystone species that regulates wildlife populations, including venomous snakes in the area. Historically, the species could be found throughout the entire state, but they have unfortunately become extirpated from the Florida panhandle. OCIC addresses this issue by breeding offspring, raising them, and then releasing them into areas where they are considered extirpated. In fact, this past  week, 43 indigo snakes were released at The Nature Conservancy’s Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve. Including this release, the program has now reintroduced a total of 210 eastern indigo snakes to this region.

The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission is a wildlife management and land acquisition organization primarily focused on the land that makes up the Corridor. Their Landowner Assistance Program helps guide operations to benefit Florida’s wildlife through sustainable practices, such as burning, vegetation enhancement, restoration, pollinator and wildlife habitat improvement, nest box construction, and more. The goal is to conserve the natural environment, while also maintaining productive land for agricultural and recreational use, allowing Florida residents and native biodiversity to live in harmony.

If you’ve ever wondered how you could visit the Corridor, you may want to pay a visit to the Florida Trail. The Florida Trail and the Florida Wildlife Corridor have a lot of overlap, providing visitors with the opportunity to get out and explore the Corridor, stretching all the way from Gulf Islands National Seashore in the panhandle to Big Cypress National Preserve in South Florida, and a whole lot of land in between. Not only do the Corridor and the Florida Trail have a geographical overlap, but we also have similar goals of closing irreplaceable gaps. You see, the Florida Trail is a continuous path connecting ecosystems spanning all throughout the state, comparable to the function of the Corridor, connecting wide-ranging wildlife habitats.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection had a table focused on outdoor recreation, trail towns, and greenways. Trails and greenways offer numerous environmental benefits, such as natural space for native plant and animal life, linking fragmented ecosystems, and supporting the protection of resource lands that can improve both air and water quality. Not to mention, these outdoor spaces can act as a hands-on classroom, with educational signage and experiential learning.

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Our friends at Wildpath, established by Corridor co-founder Carlton Ward Jr., also aim to educate. They use the art of storytelling to raise awareness of pressing conservation issues, and inspire their audience to take action, whether it be big or small. The Emmy-award-winning documentary Path of the Panther (available on Disney+ and Hulu) tells the story of the endangered Florida panther—once abundant across the state, and now dwindling as a result of rapid development changing the Florida landscape. They were also promoting The Little Brown Bird film, featuring the Florida grasshopper sparrow and a team of biologists working together in an effort to save the birds from the persistent threat of habitat loss.

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Finally, Conservation Florida is a statewide land conservancy with a primary focus on connecting and protecting the Florida Wildlife Corridor. Currently, the urgency to protect Florida’s irreplaceable undeveloped land is at an all-time high, and Conservation Florida assists landowners through the land protection process by developing conservation strategies, exploring sources for funding, and even acquiring land and conservation easements.

We thank all of these partners for celebrating Florida Wildlife Corridor Day with us and joining us in this mission to connect and safeguard Florida’s remaining wild lands, which is crucial to preserving our state’s identity and heritage.

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Jessica Zanca | Storytelling Intern

Jessica is a graduate from The University of Tampa, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, with a curriculum focused on animal behavior. She grew up in Connecticut, but visited Florida on vacation as a child, and it was here that she became captivated by the natural world. Since then, she has been passionate about wildlife conservation and hopes to inspire others to care for our planet and the animals we share it with through both her storytelling and photography. Jessica has photographed everything from Florida’s egrets to cheetahs in Zimbabwe, and is thrilled to use this opportunity as a chance to connect others to the natural Florida that stole her heart years ago.