The WFSU Ecology Blog
  • Home
    • About
    • EcoAdventures
      • Kayak and Canoe Adventures
      • Hiking
      • Wildlife Watching
    • WFSU Public Media Home
  • Documentaries
    • EcoCitizen Show | Seasons in South Tallahassee
    • Red Wolf Family Celebrates First Year at the Tallahassee Museum
    • Roaming the Red Hills
    • Oyster Doctors
    • Testing the Ecology of Fear
    • EcoShakespeare
    • Stories from the Apalachicola
    • Classic WFSU Ecology Documentaries
  • Habitats
    • Estuaries
      • Oyster Reef
        • The Effects of Predators and Fear on Oyster Reefs
        • Apalachicola Oyster Research
        • Animal Species in a North Florida Intertidal Oyster Reef
        • Oyster Reef Ecology | On the Reef
      • Salt Marsh
        • In the Grass- Salt Marsh Biodiversity Study
        • Plants and Animals of a North Florida Salt Marsh
        • Salt Marsh Ecology | In the Grass
      • Seagrass Bed
        • Predatory Snails, and Prey, of the Bay Mouth Bar Seagrass Beds
      • In the Grass, On the Reef Glossary
    • Waterways Big and Small
      • Apalachicola Basin
        • Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines | Virtual Field Trip
        • The Age of Nature Screening & Discussion | The Future of the Apalachicola
        • Apalachicola RiverTrek | Kayaking, Camping, & Hiking the River Basin
        • Apalachicola River and Bay
    • Longleaf Pine & Fire Ecology
  • Backyard Habitat
    • Backyard Blog
      • The Backyard Bug Blog 2018
      • Backyard Blog January 2019
      • Backyard Blog February 2019
      • Backyard Blog March 2019
      • Backyard Blog May 2019
      • Backyard Blog April 2019
      • Backyard Blog June 2019
      • Backyard Blog July 2019
      • Backyard Blog August 2019
      • Backyard Blog September 2019
      • Backyard Blog October through December 2019
      • Backyard Blog January 2020
      • Backyard Blog February and March 2020
      • Backyard Blog April 2020
      • Backyard Blog May 2020
      • Backyard Blog June 2020
      • July and August 2020 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Blog September/ October 2020
      • Backyard Blog November/ December 2020
      • Backyard Ecology Blog | 2021
    • Backyard Flora and Fauna
      • Bees of North Florida and South Georgia
      • Woody Vines of North Florida
    • Florida Friendly Seasonal Planting Guide
    • Pollinator and Gardening Posts
    • Gardening Web Resources
Kayak and Canoe Adventures
Chipola River Paddling Trail | The Ovens and...
Kayaking Bald Point | Adventure on a Living...
Wacissa Springs Adventure | Kayaking a Wild Florida...
A Geologist’s View of the Apalachicola River |...
Upper Chipola River Kayak Adventure | Ghosts &...
Tate’s Hell & the Apalachicola River Delta |...
Kayak Scouting Mission on the Ochlockonee Water Trail
Merritt’s Mill Pond | Kayaking and Spring Caves
Kayaking the Apalachicola River with my Four-Year-Old Son
Canoeing the Aucilla: A Red Hills River Steeped...

The WFSU Ecology Blog

  • Home
    • About
    • EcoAdventures
      • Kayak and Canoe Adventures
      • Hiking
      • Wildlife Watching
    • WFSU Public Media Home
  • Documentaries
    • EcoCitizen Show | Seasons in South Tallahassee
    • Red Wolf Family Celebrates First Year at the Tallahassee Museum
    • Roaming the Red Hills
    • Oyster Doctors
    • Testing the Ecology of Fear
    • EcoShakespeare
    • Stories from the Apalachicola
    • Classic WFSU Ecology Documentaries
  • Habitats
    • Estuaries
      • Oyster Reef
        • The Effects of Predators and Fear on Oyster Reefs
        • Apalachicola Oyster Research
        • Animal Species in a North Florida Intertidal Oyster Reef
        • Oyster Reef Ecology | On the Reef
      • Salt Marsh
        • In the Grass- Salt Marsh Biodiversity Study
        • Plants and Animals of a North Florida Salt Marsh
        • Salt Marsh Ecology | In the Grass
      • Seagrass Bed
        • Predatory Snails, and Prey, of the Bay Mouth Bar Seagrass Beds
      • In the Grass, On the Reef Glossary
    • Waterways Big and Small
      • Apalachicola Basin
        • Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines | Virtual Field Trip
        • The Age of Nature Screening & Discussion | The Future of the Apalachicola
        • Apalachicola RiverTrek | Kayaking, Camping, & Hiking the River Basin
        • Apalachicola River and Bay
    • Longleaf Pine & Fire Ecology
  • Backyard Habitat
    • Backyard Blog
      • The Backyard Bug Blog 2018
      • Backyard Blog January 2019
      • Backyard Blog February 2019
      • Backyard Blog March 2019
      • Backyard Blog May 2019
      • Backyard Blog April 2019
      • Backyard Blog June 2019
      • Backyard Blog July 2019
      • Backyard Blog August 2019
      • Backyard Blog September 2019
      • Backyard Blog October through December 2019
      • Backyard Blog January 2020
      • Backyard Blog February and March 2020
      • Backyard Blog April 2020
      • Backyard Blog May 2020
      • Backyard Blog June 2020
      • July and August 2020 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Blog September/ October 2020
      • Backyard Blog November/ December 2020
      • Backyard Ecology Blog | 2021
    • Backyard Flora and Fauna
      • Bees of North Florida and South Georgia
      • Woody Vines of North Florida
    • Florida Friendly Seasonal Planting Guide
    • Pollinator and Gardening Posts
    • Gardening Web Resources
Ecology in FloridaLongleaf Pine & Fire Ecology

Mark Emery | Wild Florida Photographer and Narrator

by Rob Diaz de Villegas February 10, 2020
by Rob Diaz de Villegas February 10, 2020 0 comment
Click to subscribe to the WFSU Ecology Blog

Nature: Wild Florida airs on WFSU-TV on Wednesday, February 12 at 8 pm, 7 central. 

I call Mark Emery to start our interview, and it takes me a second to get the phone recording equipment working. “I’m sitting here looking at two manatees,” he says, “and have this beautiful scene right in front of me. So it’s all good.”

Mark Emery is a filmmaker whose work has taken him from Botswana to Alaska.  His latest project, however, had him working closer to home.  Emery narrated the latest episode of PBS Nature, Wild Florida, which covers the diverse ecosystems of the Sunshine state.  He also served as one of the documentary’s photographers, filming alligators in the very river along which he grew up.

Many Floridians will recognize their nearby wild places in this documentary. It’s got a little bit of everything, from key deer in the south up to longleaf forests by the Apalachicola River. No nature film about Florida would be complete without some time spent in the Everglades, and Wild Florida follows both native alligators and the exotic invasive species that have been decimating wildlife there. If, like me, you’re fascinated by swallow tailed kites, there’s a scene you’ll love.

And then there’s the Silver River, right in Emery’s own backyard. Here, Mark Emery received a one of a kind start to a career in nature photography.

Manatee in the Silver River.  Courtesy PBS Nature.
Manatee in the Silver River. Courtesy PBS Nature.

Starting Out at Silver Springs

“Where I worked, it was at Silver Springs,” says Emery.  “And back then, Ross Allen was the hero then.  He was on Johnny Carson and Jack Parr, and he just got all of us interested in wildlife.”  Ross Allen was a famed herpetologist.  He founded the Reptile Institute, which he ran at Silver Springs for forty-six years.

“I ended up working there, milking snakes and wrestling alligators five times a day.  And two or three of the other people working there were good still photographers, and published and all that.  Learning techniques from them and watching them.”

Mark Emery with an alligator. Photo courtesy Mark Emery.

One of his mentors at Silver Springs was Jordan Klein, a pioneer in underwater photography. Klein invented some of the first underwater camera housings, and worked for decades on high profile movies and television shows. In 1968, he won an Oscar for his work on the James Bond film, Thunderball.

Emery himself went on to a career as a cinematographer, working with National Geographic, Discovery, and Nature.  With Wild Florida, he has a rare opportunity to showcase his home state to a national audience- the whole state, with its many diverse ecosystems.  

“it’s a national treasure just as great as any of the large parks out west.  You have a tremendous diversity here that, I can’t think of another place in the country that has it.  You’re tropical and subtropical.  So you have place that have animals that you just don’t live anywhere else in the world.  And trees that don’t live anywhere else in the world, like Torreya State Park has the Torreya tree.”

Silver Springs is outside of the WFSU viewing area, but we did cover underwater archeology there in 2017.

Filming Fire Ecology in North Florida

One section of Wild Florida takes place not far from Torreya State Park, in The Nature Conservancy’s Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve.  Here, they tracked gopher tortoises and indigo snakes in longleaf habitat, and discussed fire ecology with The Nature Conservancy’s David Printiss.

“All of the inhabitants of the longleaf pine forest – every plant and animal – are not only adapted to frequent fire, they depend on it.” Says Printiss, Conservation Manager for The Natue Conservancy in North Florida.  “The entire ecosystem is most productive – more tortoises, quail and deer – when the woods burn every 2-3 years.”

Gopher tortoise at the Nature Conservancy's Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve.  Photo courtesy PBS Nature.
Gopher tortoise at the Nature Conservancy’s Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve. Photo courtesy PBS Nature.

“And the folks in your area are as advanced on it as anyone in the country,” Emery says of our area’s practitioners of prescribed fire. 

“Prescribed fire practitioners use many tools to get the job done.” says Printiss. “The choice of how to light the fire – drip torch, helicopter, drone – depends on numerous factors including weather, burn objectives and safety.”

Emery was impressed with the methods he witnessed during filming. “These guys were, as you’ll find out in the film, were ejecting little pellets out and going around to areas that had the trees that might have certain woodpeckers nesting in those trees.”

He’s referring to red cockaded woodpeckers, which nest in longleaf pine of at least 90 years of age. 

“They were literally able to, from a helicopter, place the fire where they wanted it.  And did a superb job of it.  So it was really one of the more interesting ways I’ve seen it done.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody do it that precisely before.”

Prescribed burn in the Apalachicola National Forest.  Photo courtesy PBS Nature.
Prescribed burn in the Apalachicola National Forest. Photo courtesy PBS Nature.

Up next for Mark Emery

In addition to Wild Florida, Emery has recently completed a passion project focused entirely on his beloved Silver Springs. Specifically, he’s telling the story of the springs through the glass bottom boat drivers at Silver Springs State Park. “The four that we picked out had collectively 200 years of experience on the river… they’ve spoken to over twelve million people in the last 56 years. Some of them have been here 63, 64 years.”

The film is called the Silver River Story. Right now, Emery is showing it at screenings, but he is working on getting it on television as well.

Mark Emery films a swimming rattlesnake.
Mark Emery films a swimming rattlesnake.
Click to subscribe to the WFSU Ecology Blog
Facebook Comments
Apalachicola Bluffs and RavinesPBS NatureSilver RiverWFSU News
0 comment
0
FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
Rob Diaz de Villegas

Rob Diaz de Villegas is a senior producer for WFSU-TV, covering outdoors and ecology. After years of producing the music program OutLoud, Rob found himself in a salt marsh with a camera, and found a new professional calling as well. That project, the National Science Foundation funded "In the Grass, On the Reef," spawned the award winning WFSU Ecology Blog. Now in its tenth year, the Ecology Blog recently wrapped its most ambitious endeavor, the EcoCitizen Project. Rob is married with two young sons, who make a pretty fantastic adventure squad.

previous post
Chipola River Paddling Trail | The Ovens and Maund Spring
next post
Sandhill Restoration Grows Longleaf Habitat in Torreya State Park

Related Posts

Video: Bradwell Bay Wilderness Hike- Night and Day

June 5, 2014

Fire, Sand, and Water in the Apalachicola Bluffs...

October 8, 2020

Sandhill Restoration Grows Longleaf Habitat in Torreya State...

February 12, 2020

In the (wire)grass

June 16, 2011

The Henslow’s Sparrow and the Ancient Longleaf Forest...

January 28, 2015

Banding the Bachman’s Sparrow | SciGirls Visit Tall...

September 4, 2014

Remote Footprints goes deep into the Bradwell Bay...

February 2, 2017

Peeking into Gopher Tortoise Burrows at Birdsong

March 31, 2016

Biodiversity in the Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines

November 5, 2020

Striped Newts and Ornate Chorus Frogs in the...

January 27, 2017

Search

Subscribe

Subscribe to receive more outdoor adventures, and an in depth look at our local forests and waterways by Email.

If you do not receive a verification e-mail, check your spam folder.

Category

2021 Backyard Blog update (We found a yellowjacket queen)

Eastern yellowjacket (Vespula maculifrons), possibly a queen

Eastern yellowjacket (Vespula maculifrons), possibly a queen

Twitter

Tweets by wfsuIGOR

iNaturalist

iNaturalist became a part of the WFSU Ecology Blog during the EcoCitizen Project in 2019.  Since then, we’ve used it to help identify the many plants and animals we see on our shoots.  And on the Backyard Blog, we show how it can be used to identify weeds and garden insects, to help figure out what’s beneficial or a possible pest.  Below is the iNaturalist profile belonging to WFSU Ecology producer Rob Diaz de Villegas.

iNaturalist.org

Thumb
View robdv’s observations »

Most Recent

  • The Case for Weeds, Our Unsung Florida Native Plants
  • Shorebirds in the Misty Morning | Surveying the St. Marks Refuge
  • New Red Wolf Breeding Pair at the Tallahassee Museum
  • Building Climate Resiliency in the Apalachicola Watershed
  • Biodiversity in the Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines

Archives

February 2020
M T W T F S S
« Dec   Mar »
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
242526272829  

WFSU Ecology YouTube

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Flickr
  • Youtube

@2017 - PenciDesign. All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by PenciDesign

test title

this is the info in my test popup.