News & Updates

Tips for Providing Nutrition Education to Youth

BELLE GLADE, Fla. – According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Childhood Obesity Facts for Children and Adolescents (www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html), the following data has been gathered for individuals aged 2-19 years in 2017-2020: The prevalence of obesity was 19.7% and affected about 14.7 million children and adolescents. Obesity prevalence was 12.7% among 2- to…

Wildlife & Invasive Species Education™ (WISE) Species Profile: The Egyptian Goose

Common Name: Egyptian Goose Status: Non-native species Scientific Name: Alopochen aegyptiaca Occurrence: Year-round resident throughout Florida Egyptian goose patrolling the shoreline. Location: Brandon, Hillsborough County. Photo: Jim E. DavisIdentification: Egyptian Geese have dark, chestnut feathers on their back and a light beige chest. They also have rusty-orange and back tail feathers. Their head is whitish/beige and have a dark…

How to Eat More Fruits and Vegetables: Hacks Into Habits

Hacks to Habits What did the salad greens say to the hungry person? We will make your mouth and body happy if you “let-tuce”! Fruits and vegetables have a high nutrient density and fiber content and offer an abundance of health benefits, including enhancing gut microbiota and reducing the risk of multiple diseases. In addition,…

Are Our Bays Becoming Less Salty? 2022 Annual Salinity Report

Introduction Historically the average rainfall in the Pensacola Bay is around 60 inches per year.  However, over the past 10 years that has increased to slightly more than 75 inches per year (see Table 1).  The frequency of those levels over the past decade shows that most are between 60 – 80 inches but there…

Artificial Intelligence and One Health. Written by AI.

      The latest versions of AI can make you feel almost like you are chatting with a human. For the last blog post of this year, we decided to do something different and interesting for all of our readers. Witnessing all the hype that  ChatGPT  is having on social media, we decided to ask…

Protecting Citrus from Cold Weather

    Frozen satsuma citrus during January 2014 ice storm in NW Florida. Credit: Larry Williams In North Florida, it’s wise to select the more cold hardy citrus varieties. Kumquats and Satsuma mandarins are the most cold hardy of the edible citrus choices. In our area, it’s important to purchase citrus trees that are grafted onto…

Freeze Protection: What to Do?

For pets, do not leave your animals outside for a long period of time, even if they typically live outdoors. Treat your pets how you would like to be treated. If you are cold, they are cold. If you must leave pets outdoors, reinforce their shelter with straw or blankets. Plants: Cover what you can…

Mindfulness at the Holidays

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Well, it’s supposed to be anyway according to all the hoopla. In reality the holidays are stressful. We all feel stressed from time to time and that’s very normal. However; the holidays bring on a whole new set of stressors. There are meals to plan, budgets to…

Make Your Holidays Bright

The holidays can be a festive and beautiful time of year for many, but for others, it can be a very sad, nostalgic, and lonely time. The holiday season can bring about a range of different emotions. We are all different and experience our lives in our own unique way. Here are 10 tips…

Better with Butterflies: Them and Us

Welcome to our last butterfly blog of the year. This month I want to summarize all the things we have talked about in the last 11 blogs to encourage you to get involved in protecting these delicate creatures. Butterflies are as essential to our survival as we are to theirs. Many plants cannot produce without…

Grow a Little Olive Tree

One tree I meant to mention but forgot about in my previous post trying to convince everyone to consider alternative, non-pine Christmas trees is the humble olive. The one I bought three or four years ago is still going strong despite my shockingly poor husbandry. (Among other sins, I let two codominant trunks persist the…
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