Meet Us Outside

Frog on a pine lily by Adam Strang Bass.

Reconnecting With the Wild Places We Love 

Meet us outside, soaking up the sunshine and beauty of wild Florida! Your support of Conservation Florida means that you’re connecting people with nature, providing nature-based education opportunities, and creating new advocates for wild Florida. From the tropical hammocks to the rolling sandhills to the palmetto prairie scrub, Florida is wildly beautiful - and we intend to keep her that way. We also intend to connect as many people as possible to that beauty, knowing that when we do, we are creating more voices for nature.

Conservation Florida believes one of Florida's most valuable assets is its wild spaces, where pines tower above swaths of palmettos. Where cypress knees emerge out of rich, tannin-stained waters and windswept coasts forged over centuries give way to rivers and lakes teeming with life. This is the Florida known to people who arrived here more than 10,000 years ago. 

 While only small pockets of old Florida have remained truly untouched over the years, the demand and urgency has grown to protect our state's irreplaceable wild and agricultural lands. Conservation Florida is ramping up its pace, now leading conservation projects on over 101,000 acres statewide. But where can you find wild Florida? Odds are it’s closer than you think. You may find pieces of Florida’s natural heritage—flocks of songbirds to tangles of ancient Spanish moss—right in your backyard. We invite you to meet us outside at one of our many, statewide events. 

Whether you're a seasoned naturalist or a first-time explorer, Conservation Florida Bioblitz events are designed for those who are eager to learn and explore outside. The events are engaging, offering participants guided expert-led hikes, hands-on activities, and a chance to explore Florida’s one-of-a-kind natural areas. 

Conservation Florida started expanding on the idea of offering Bioblitz events to promote a greater understanding and appreciation of Florida’s wild places. Four years and eight Bioblitzes later, that program has exponentially grown, reaching 121,090 observations, and recording 8,378 species, with the participation of nearly 10,500 Floridians. 

Part educational experience, part scientific endeavor, and fully rewarding, a Bioblitz is a celebration of wild Florida. Bring your phone, snap some shots, upload them to iNaturalist, and TA-DA! You're contributing localized data to science that could help protect threatened landscapes and species statewide.

Aside from our Bioblitz events, we've had tree plantings, Wild Walks, and more! We host Wild Walks throughout Florida, but there’s one property we love to host educational events at: our D Ranch Preserve. The 476-acre preserve is a hotspot for Florida wildlife, and supports a healthy population of threatened gopher tortoises, six-lined race runners, red-tailed hawks, and other famous Florida fauna. Located in an area of Volusia County under serious development pressure, this preserve protects rare ecosystems, provides habitat for Florida’s wildlife, builds on current conservation areas, and helps protect Florida’s freshwater. 

Since the conservation of the property, Conservation Florida has opened the preserve for several events and volunteer opportunities. We held a tree planting event planting over 100 longleaf pine. The community support was incredible, with volunteers from near and far gathering to get their hands dirty and make a difference. During the many events at our D Ranch Preserve, participants learned about native plants and wildlife, prescribed burns, habitat restoration, and what it takes to permanently protect wild Florida.

The heart of what we do is protecting land,  but land conservation is so much more than the number of acres saved. We want to show Floridians what makes the land we protect so important. Conservation Florida events are centered around offering a better understanding of the natural world around us and highlighting why it’s so important to protect. When we protect land, we protect the many things connected to it: clean drinking water, clean air, local agriculture, wildlife habitat, and scenic vistas for the benefit of the general public. 

Conservation Florida's nature-based education programming provides supporters a gateway to wild Florida. With educational programs to help our fellow Floridians connect to our state's special places, we are grounded in our genuine affinity for what makes Florida, Florida. Every acre we conserve, every habitat we restore, and every drop of water we safeguard is because we have people like YOU on our side. Come and meet us outside soon!

About Conservation Florida:

Conservation Florida is a statewide accredited land conservancy working to conserve Florida’s water, wildlife, wild places, and protect the Florida Wildlife Corridor. The organization’s conservation projects support Florida’s native plants and wildlife, fresh water, wildlife corridors, family farms and ranches, the economy, and nature-based recreation. Since its founding in 1999, Conservation Florida has prioritized strategic and evidence-based land protection and has saved over 30,000 acres of critical habitat.