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This incredible, unique habitat that we
have here of mangroves and dunes the perfect site for sea
turtles.
Birds.
Manatees.
Right next to six million people.
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The most visited preserve that the Nature Conservancy
has in the entire US.
But we still have a beautiful habitat.
And you can really immediately get a sense
that it's unlike any other place you've visited.
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This is a really unique preserve and frankly,
probably unlike any of our other preserves in Florida.
It's tucked away in this highly developed urban area
with this amazing rare habitat that
has been developed and decimated elsewhere in Florida.
It really is an oasis.
We've got coastal strand and coastal scrub,
which are in Florida, imperiled ecosystems.
We also have coastal mangrove forests and swamps, beach dune
habitat along the ocean shoreline,
and we've got tropical maritime hammocks
that have big ancient subtropical trees growing
in them.
Each winter, we get about two pairs of osprey that will nest.
We get wonderful butterfly diversity.
We also get an enormous amount of songbirds.
It's also a very important sea turtle nesting beach.
We actually have loggerhead turtles, green sea turtles,
and leatherback turtles nesting here.
We have a dark beach here at Blowing Rock Preserve.
We're not developed, and lighting
is a problem for sea turtles that are nesting.
So we found that they predominantly
come to our site and nest on our preserved beach area.
OK.
All right.
Blowing Rocks Preserve does have a unique sea turtle rescue
program really run by volunteers and by our staff.
We patrol the beach every morning,
and we just look for turtles that
might be wedged between the ledges and other things.
They want to save any turtle that comes on shore.
It's only a few a year, but everyone counts.
Good job.
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If you would have come to this place hundreds of years ago,
you would have come to a pristine coastal barrier
island.
The biologists for the Nature Conservancy, back in the 1980s,
recognized there was a need to restore those natural systems
back to what they originally were.
We underwent a 20-year massive habitat restoration
where we removed thousands of invasive species
from the preserve and replanted native plants back in place.
That was thanks to the efforts of thousands of volunteers.
So not only were we restoring the landscape,
we were engaging the community in learning
about why these habitats are important and steps
that they can take at home.
There's tons of sea turtle nesting throughout February.
The community was a big participant in this.
They've been a part of the preserve ever since.
We offer lecture series and opportunities for schools
to come out and do some research and see the wildlife.
And then we hope, of course, that the more educated they
are about these issues, the more that
will influence their own actions.
And their support for our work.
There are no islands.
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Sea level rise and coastal resilience
are huge issues for us here in Florida.
Part of what the Nature Conservancy is trying to do
is educate people on the role that natural habitats can
play in helping our communities be more resilient, things
like mangroves and dunes.
So this is a perfect place to bring people and talk
about the role that that plays in protecting our communities.
It's an area that is experiencing issues
with sea level rise currently and forecasted
to be even worse in the future.
We have a high population area right next to us,
so we also have opportunities to look
at how we can use our coastal habitats
and environments to really mitigate
some of the effects of sea level rise and climate change
that we're starting to experience.
If we hadn't protected this place, this place where we have
Anastasia limestone, with one of a kind vegetation,
with threatened and endangered species, would be condos
or would be houses, those sea turtles
that nest here would be looking for another place to nest.
There's just been tremendous successes.
Not to say we're going to stop here.
We intend to continue to build and have more successes here
in the future.
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