A Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden Event
Weekend With Dr.Pimm
1:00 pm
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World
Renowned Conservationist, Dr. Stuart Pimm
to give talk
this weekend in Key West
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Dr. Stuart Pimm will be the keynote speaker at a
reception this Sunday at 1pm at the Key West Tropical
Forest and Garden.. He will discuss the importance of
Key West as a global hotspot. Stuart is a world renown
conservationist and Doris Duke Chair of Conservation
Ecology at the Nicholas School of Environment and Earth
Sciences and Professor Extraordinaire at the University
of Pretoria, South Africa. He is author of several books
and sits on the board of National Geographic.
Last December, three local high school honor students participated in a rare learning opportunity to work side by side for one week with graduate students Under the direction of Dr. Stuart Pimm, Rachel Greiner, Alison Leamard and Elena Tuya teamed up with Stuart’s graduate students : Sarah Weingarden, Reiko Iitsuka, Shiho Yamamoto, Wes Brooks and Betsy Reardon at the Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden to do several research projects. Their weeklong experience resulted in the research and development new posters on the skipper butterflies, indigenous plants and trees, a new butterfly tour and a new educational film for the Key West Tropical Forest and garden’s visitor center. During this research week, the students discovered the rare Cuban fig- eating bat, dubbed “Stinky Phil “. It turns out that this was the first sighting never in the United States. The “Stinky Phil” discovery has made national scientific news. The weeklong program was offered free of charge to the students. “The Society has been so fortunate to have this great partnership with Duke University’s Nicholas School. This free program has been made possible through a matching grant. Our community of businesses helped us to match the grant by housing, feeding and entertaining the students. We hope every parent, teacher and high school student will attend this reception. We want to expand this program for our local students and give them a chance to see how higher level of learning can be fun and rewarding” replied Carolann Sharkey, President and volunteer of the Society. “Our volunteers and staff were on hand daily to make sure the students received quality treatment and supervision. I want to thank the teachers, parents and these 3 outstanding students for making it happen.” I hope our parents and school system will look upon this program as a rich one and get behind it for this December.” The 2005 program will be discussed at the reception. Light refreshments will be served. Students will be on hand to answer questions and discuss their experience. There will also be special exhibit of Michele Wisniewski’s outstanding nature photography.
The only tropical forest and garden in the continental
United States sits tucked away on College Road, Stock Island
behind Bayshore Manor. In less than 48 months, the forest
and garden has seen over a million dollars in renovations
that now boast hundreds of new plantings, a courtyard,
waterfall, ADA accessible boardwalk system, 3 self guided
tours and a 1.5 acre butterfly habitat with over 25 species.
The forest and garden is also a haven for neo-tropical bird
sightings. The Society has worked diligently to double its
size through a grant from Florida Communities Trust, the
City and the County The garden has expanded hours for the
month of April, open daily from 730am to 530 pm daily.
Coffee and donuts will be served during “early birder” hours
For more info, call 296-1504. |
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