Audubon Teams with MIA on Environmental Pilot Program

Students and staff from Marco Island Academy set sail on a Conservation Leadership Program in the Ten Thousand Islands from the Caxambas boat ramp on Saturday morning. The students came away with a better understanding of their environment, and even had the chance to see a loggerhead turtle, lots of dolphins, egrets, skimmers and osprey on their tour, guided by members of the Audubon of the Western Everglades.

“We had an idea to educate students on Marco,” said Lori Beall of the Audubon, "but we didn’t want to do the elementary and middle school levels, we wanted to target the high school level and show them all of these beautiful resources and endangered species that are right in their backyard that they might not realize how important it is to protect and do conservation work right here on the island. We’re in our seventh year monitoring the burrowing owls on the island. We also started a large study with the gopher tortoises. We thought, why not share this with the kids. Because a lot of them are trying to decide what they want to do as far as going to college. Maybe they’ll want to be marine biologists or biologists. So, we got a grant and approached MIA principal, Melissa Scott, and told her what our vision was. We’re doing six or seven modules, educating them on the beaches, environment, the land. She was on board with it. This is a pilot program we’re on.”

MIA principal Melissa Scott was excited to expose her students to the Audubon program.

"I’m excited about this program,” Melissa Scott said, "because it brings hands-on experiences to the students and introduces them to individuals working in the careers they may pursue. I am thankful to the Audubon for choosing MIA to pilot the program, thankful to my amazing instructors for diving right in, and the students for engaging in every aspect of it. Always thankful"

“This was a pilot,” Beall said, "so we’ll look at what worked, what didn’t work. Fine tune it. Then we’ll launch it in other high schools in Collier County.”