The WFSU Ecology Blog
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        • Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines | Virtual Field Trip
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Kayak and Canoe Adventures
RiverTrek 2021: Five Days on the Apalachicola River
Lower Lake Lafayette: Kayak Tallahassee’s Hidden Swamp
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

The WFSU Ecology Blog

  • Home
    • About
    • EcoAdventures
      • Kayak and Canoe Adventures
      • Hiking
      • Wildlife Watching
    • Observations From the Field
      • White Pelicans Visit Dr. Charles L. Evans Pond in Tallahassee
      • An April Walk at Ochlockonee River WMA
      • Nesting Raptors at Honeymoon Island State Park
    • WFSU Public Media Home
  • Documentaries
    • In Their Words: Black Legacy Communities in North Florida
    • 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
      • Aucilla/ Wacissa Watershed
      • Apalachicola Basin
        • Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines | Virtual Field Trip
        • The Age of Nature Screening & Discussion | The Future of the Apalachicola
        • Apalachicola River and Bay
        • Apalachicola RiverTrek | Kayaking, Camping, & Hiking the River Basin
    • Longleaf Pine & Fire Ecology
  • Backyard Habitat
    • Backyard Blog
      • My Year in Bugs: the 2022 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Ecology Blog | 2021
      • Backyard Blog November/ December 2020
      • Backyard Blog September/ October 2020
      • July and August 2020 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Blog June 2020
      • Backyard Blog May 2020
      • Backyard Blog April 2020
      • Backyard Blog February and March 2020
      • Backyard Blog January 2020
      • Backyard Blog October through December 2019
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      • Backyard Blog July 2019
      • Backyard Blog June 2019
      • Backyard Blog May 2019
      • Backyard Blog April 2019
      • Backyard Blog March 2019
      • Backyard Blog February 2019
      • Backyard Blog January 2019
      • The Backyard Bug Blog 2018
    • Backyard Flora and Fauna
      • Bees of North Florida and South Georgia
      • The Seasonality of Bees (and Bee Plants) in North Florida
      • Woody Vines of North Florida
      • Flies of North Florida are More Diverse than You’d Think
      • The Case for Weeds, Our Unsung Florida Native Plants
      • Devil’s Walkingstick: Your New Favorite Thorny Pollinator Plant?
      • Florida Native Milkweed | Tips for Growing Your Monarch Friendly Garden
      • Mistletoe | A Parasite for the Holidays (But Maybe We Like it Anyway?)
    • Florida Friendly Seasonal Planting Guide
    • Pollinator and Gardening Posts
    • Gardening Web Resources

Classic WFSU Ecology Documentaries

by Rob Diaz de Villegas January 5, 2018
Classic WFSU Ecology Documentaries

In 2017, we began uploading WFSU programs from the 1970s and 80s to Youtube.  This included a few programs on local ecology, giving us a look at many of the natural spaces we cover today as they were years ago.  Watching these, you’ll see some of the same issues we still cover now, such as the Apalachicola water wars.  You’ll see at least one person we spent time with in 2017- local herpetologist Dr. Bruce Means.

We’ll continue to add documentaries to this page as our staff uploads them.

Subscribe to the WFSU Ecology Blog to receive more videos and articles about our local, natural areas.

Apalachicola River and Bay

Watermarks (1978)

The Apalachicola River is many things to the people of our area.  It’s a biodiversity hotspot.  It’s feeds the Apalachicola Bay estuary, which is the economic bedrock of Franklin County.  Its water fills tupelo swamps, making Wewahitchka the tupelo honey capital of the world.  And it provides a wealth of recreational opportunities- kayaking, fishing, or hiking some of the steepest bluffs and ravines in Florida.

But it’s also a river in trouble.  We’ve covered the good and the bad in this blog since 2012, when we first kayaked the river on RiverTrek.  WFSU, though, has a much deeper history covering the conflict between Florida and Georgia, and the Army Corps of Engineers, over the water that flows into the Apalachicola from the north.

In 1978’s Watermarks, we see the river when it was still a shipping lane for barges.  The Army Corps is modifying the river to help barge traffic along, but these changes could endanger the oyster and tupelo industries.  We spend time with a beekeeper and an oystering family, people who make their living off of what the river provides them.  But we also talk to who see economic opportunity from barge traffic.

Florida Naturally: Apalachicola River (1984)


Here we get a tour of the upper river, from the Jim Woodruff dam on through the Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines area.  We’ve spent some time in the area over the last few years.  Most notably, geologist Harley Means took us millions of years into the past, looking at rocks and fossils at Alum Bluff and in Torreya State Park.  More recently, Dr. Bruce Means explored a steephead ravine with us in search of an animal whose ancestors were stranded in our area during the ice ages.

Rivers and Freshwater Animals

Florida’s Rivers (1989)

In this Suncoast Regional Emmy Award winner, we explore Florida’s relationship with its rivers.  As the state’s population continues to grow, how will development inland affect water quality, and the diversity of life that depends on it?  Nearly three decades later, Florida is still wrestling with the same issues.

Dragon’s of Paradise (1979)

This is a poetic look at the prehistoric beast we often canoe and kayak by on our rivers: the American alligator.  Filmed at the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Wakulla Springs, and Silver Springs.

Seepage Bogs/ Carnivorous Plants

Florida Naturally: Bogs (1984)

Dr. Bruce Means guides us through the low areas adjacent to stands of dry, fire dependent upland pine.  These bogs are both wet and dependent on fire themselves, and are home to some of the more intriguing plants found in our area.  This is where you’ll find carnivorous plants and orchids.

We’ve covered these types of areas over the last couple of years.  And, we spent a bit of time with Bruce Means in 2017.  One was in a seepage slope, where we went in search of a new salamander discovery of his.

The St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge

Florida Naturally: St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (1984)

We head into the marshes of the Refuge with ranger Red Gidden and Robin Will, to see what secrets lie within the grass.

The Red Hills

Tall Timbers: Into the Light (1987)

Here, we visit Tall Timbers Research Station (before there was a Land Conservancy), in this exploration of the benefits of prescribed fire, and how we live with it in an increasingly urbanized world.  We still collaborate with Tall Timbers fairly often, most notably on 2016’s Roaming the Red Hills, a ten part look at fire ecology, Red Hills waterways, and our rural lands.

Tallahassee

Florida Naturally: Tom Brown Park (1983)

Here, we take a walk through Tallahassee’s Tom Brown Park.  City parks can be important refuges for plants and animals, as our Sierra Club guide demonstrates.  In Summer of 2017, we revisited the park with the Hairstreak Chapter of the North American Butterfly Association.  The shows were shot 34 years apart, but we can see the same dynamic at work.  The park is full of native plants, which butterflies and other insects make use of.

A couple of decades after this aired, Lafayette Heritage Park opened adjacent to Tom Brown.  They are connected by the Cadillac Trail.  In 2013, we had a bike/ kayak adventure in Lafayette Heritage Park.

Tallahassee Naturally: Junior Museum (1983)

One good way to tell if someone is a longtime Tallahassee resident is to hear them refer to  the Tallahassee Museum as the Junior Museum.  That’s what it was called when we visited in 1983.  The Museum is well known for many things- the Tree to Tree Adventure, animal exhibits, and the homestead.  Here, however, we hike the nature trail and explore the hardwood forest and swamps around the Museum.

But its animal exhibits are a great glimpse into the ecology of our area as well.  Aside from the guest animal, these are all critters native to north Florida.  That includes an animal we’ve spent a lot of time with recently, the red wolf.  This animal is extinct in our area, but was once the top predator here.  The Museum is one of 40+ breeding sites working to get the red wolf back in the wild.

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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.

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View robdv’s observations »

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