Dep Secretary Sole Starts Field Visits

This past week, Secretary Michael W. Sole began a series of visits to the various DEP programs and districts throughout the state. As a 16-year veteran with the Department, Secretary Sole is familiar with many of the Department’s programs and responsibilities.

”The best way to learn about the people and programs within our agency and how we touch the lives of our customers is to spend time in our six districts around the state and with the DEP teams that are in the field.”

The Department’s staff of about 3,600 employees comprises a broad network of knowledge about Florida’s natural resources. Protecting, restoring and conserving these valuable treasures is the mission they aspire to each day.

To kickoff his statewide tour, this week Secretary Sole joined 7th grade students from Alice B. Landrum Middle School who were attending the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve to learn about marine organisms found within the estuary.

No stranger to field work, Secretary Sole along with Reserve Manager Dr. Mike Shirley helped students collect and identify a variety of samples caught in seine and plankton nets in the waters close to shore. As students study the various specimens, they also learn how each species relates to the other and how they all have a role in the Reserve’s ecosystem.

While at the Reserve, Secretary Sole took the opportunity to announce an $85,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Gulf of Mexico program awarded to the Department’s Office of Environmental Education. The grant will offer a similar pilot project to students along Florida’s Gulf Coast as the programs offered to students at the Reserve.

Students are the next generation who will be called on to manage Florida’s precious resources. Through educational programs like those at the Reserve, the new Gulf pilot project and the statewide LIFE (Learning in Florida’s Environment) program, students are getting an early look into how and why protecting the environment is important.

Students that participate in the LIFE program are just getting into high school – just getting interested in the world around them. Through LIFE, these students are given a chance to learn outside the classroom. They travel to natural areas and through hands-on learning begin to conduct the same scientific studies that DEP’s scientists do as part of their daily jobs, like testing water quality, studying beach erosion and identifying marine organisms.

Before venturing out into the brackish estuary waters, Secretary Sole and students were introduced to Jerry, an ex-Marine and one of the Reserve’s most dedicated volunteers. Jerry led the group on a top rate tour of the Reserve’s new Education Center (something he has been doing at the Reserve since his retirement). Students gathered at the displays to learn about the many plant and animal species found in an and around the Reserve’s estuary.

Secretary Sole plans additional visits to several locations statewide through June.

See photos from the event.