Friends of the Carlton Reserve 1800 Mabry Carlton Parkway Venice, FL 34292

The Carlton Reserve Is Closed

due to Hurricane Ian

Sarasota County Requests Your Help

Please excuse our mess while we work to make Carlton Reserve safe for everyone. We are working with FEMA contractors and County staff to clean up the trails and parking lot areas. For safety reasons public presence during this process delays reopening:

The FEMA contractors are unable to continue work if the public is in the area.

Please refrain from entering the Reserve until it is safe and cleared by Land Management.

Use this link to check which parks and preserves are open or closed, updated regularly:

SCGOV.net/parks or Parks status report

photos by Land Manager Meghan Meyer

Sarasota County Government

Save the date! Sarasota County will host the Water Quality Virtual Update 2022 on Monday, Dec. 5, from 3-5 p.m. Registration for this free online event is now available at bit.ly/VirtualUpdate2022. #SRQCountyWaterQuality

ABC7: Mike Modrick interviews Joyce Adams and Sherm Stratton

in the Carlton Reserve

Click here

Friends of the Carlton Summer of 2022 Update

Dear Members/Donors/Volunteers,

Thank you for your continued support of the Friends of Carlton Reserve (FCR)!

For those who gave during the Giving Challenge, we apologize for the delay; we just received the results. 15 contributors added $1924.58 to our account! Since the first of the year, we have 6 new members and 7 new volunteers. Thank you all for your support and stewardship of this priceless resource.

Use of Donations

In the meantime, FCR has been able to provide financial support to the Carlton Reserve for multiple projects/programs, including:

1. Refurbish the visitors cabin bulletin board and 2 kiosks.

2. Ordering and laminating assorted educational posters,

3. Providing refrigerated drinking water for cabin visitors.

4. Purchasing paint and supplies for parking lot car-stops, gates, signs, safety borders around the picnic pavilion and restroom ramp.

5. Keeping supplied with state of the art technology, memory cards, and security boxes, the remote camera program to monitor wildlife.

6. Providing ongoing supplies for the Save Our Endangered Bromeliad program.

7. Purchasing “You Are Here” signs and posts for deployment at remote trail intersections.

Enabling Volunteer Tasks in 2022

All of these projects were facilitated by dedicated, hardworking volunteers.

The Carlton Reserve has come back to life after more than 2 years of park closures due to COVID, wildfire, seasonal flooding, law enforcement manhunt, and facilities repairs. Enabled by your financial support, despite setbacks—loss of storage sheds, tools and an all terrain vehicle— volunteers have been able to assist staff and recreational users of the Carlton Reserve in many ways:

1. Maintain three websites (FaceBook, YouTube and www.carltonreserve.org) for information on flora, fauna, trail conditions, map downloads, etc.

2. Help maintain trails and campground areas by trimming vegetation, cleaning or replacing markers and signs and repairing hog damage.

3. Greet and provide Reserve information to over 800 cabin visitors in the first few months of 2022.

4. Reporting and assisting law enforcement in locating diseased feral hogs.

5. Provide information to assist law enforcement in deterring illegal camping, poaching, littering, and other abuses of the wild and scenic Myakka river.

6. Monitor potable water supply and self-composting restroom and report malfunctions to staff.

7. Locate and GPS trail hazards and invasive plants for treatment or removal by staff.

8. Assist at FireFest with informational table, hay wagon narration, count of attendees, parking, set up and take down of exhibitors displays.

9. Greet and assist campers with information and maps.

10. Locate, direct and/or escort lost hikers back to parking.

11. Provide information to emergency personnel to assist injured visitor.

12. Map and report condition of benches and picnic tables so staff can replace, repair, retire, and/or pressure wash as needed.

13. Monitor cabin conditions so that staff can arrange for contract services: A/C duct replacement, bat exclusion devices, pest control, re-chinking, painting of window frames and wood preservation.

14. Report to staff gate, sign, and lock damage to deter unauthorized access.

15. Sweep, vacuum displays cases, clean glass surfaces in visitors cabin.

16. Maintain bromeliad cages and relocate vulnerable endangered plants.

17. Retrieve digital media, relocate, maintain camera traps and share selected photos of Carlton Reserve fauna with the public.

18. Document, archive, and share events, wildlife activity and wildflowers on social media (FaceBook and YouTube) and the Friends website.

Gallery of Recent Friends and Volunteer Projects above

Use arrows to expand

A Day In the Life of a Slough

Carlton Reserve Monday, April 11, 2022

Two of our long time officers, Jim Courtright, president, and Russ Johnson, secretary/treasurer

are stepping into retirement.

Here are two video tributes to their two decades of service to the Carlton Reserve and Friends of the Carlton:

JIM: https://youtu.be/uuqIM37HbPk

Russ: https://youtu.be/RxRXAD288ps

    It's all good:

    9 months after the Memorial Day wildfire set by lightning, wildflowers are springing up within sight of the cabin:

Spring in the Carlton Reserve

Swallow Tail Kites Return and Wildflowers Blooming Today

Photos by Art Smith

Despite closures due to COVID, wildfire, flooding, and a month-long manhunt, the Carlton Reserve's priceless serenity is a sanctuary, reminding us of nature's ability to renew itself and us.

Click on picture or here to view 4 minute video using trail cam captures.

Excellent video on Alligators

Sarasota County Play on FaceBook

filmed in the Carlton Reserve

https://fb.watch/7jDfm7ZjgG/

Amazing half hour video

captured by Jacob Klasinski documents not only the dynamic Carlton Reserve environment as it transitions from drought to flood, but also its rich biodiversity of wildlife and habitats: coyotes, owls, bobcats, alligators, herons, egrets, hogs, deer, otter, vultures, raccoons--even crayfish and fish! Click on video

    Resilience and Rejuvenation at The Carlton Reserve

    Photos by Jean-Louis Dumaine on reopening day, one month after Memorial Day fire.

"Queen of the Marsh"

new trail camera video

alligator and other wildlife from the Carlton Reserve

by Jacob Klasinski

More great trail camera video

from the Carlton Reserve and Big Slough

by Jacob Klasinski

Click on photo

New trail camera video footage

from Jacob Klasinski

Carlton Reserve Wildlife:

coyotes, deer, turkey, bobcat, feral hogs, etc.

Click here or on photo

The first blue flag irises and other early spring wildflowers

A photo gallery

by Jean-Louis Dumaine

"You are here" map kiosks (12) have been installed in the Carlton Reserve to assist trail users along 100 miles of trails crisscross 38 sq. miles.

12 UV resistant signs were designed by Debbie Blanco (retired 10/30/20), funded by Friends of the Carlton, printed by H&H Signs, and installed today by Russ Johnson and Art Smith.

Trail Camera Video

Friends of the Carlton Reserve

Trail camera team: Donna Day, Ernie Winn, Martin Siesta funded by Friends of the Carlton Reserve

Click on picture or here for video

Carlton Reserve Update

1. Volunteers in the Save Our Native Florida Bromeliads Program relocated a fourth cage in which to sequester select plants to protect them from an invasive Mexican weevil until they can produce seeds.

2. Ten wildlife monitoring trail cameras remain in service 24/7. Since 2001, over 14,000 images of animals have been entered into a database. Click here to view gallery

3. Sarasota, the name given to a swallow tail kite from the Carlton, was outfitted with a satellite tracking device and departed for Brazil in August and returned to the Reserve in March.

4. New YOU ARE HERE maps are being readied to assist bikers, hikers and riders. They will be located at key locations as soon as conditions permit placement.

5. Volunteers and Friends who contributed during the Patterson Giving Challenge earned the Friends of the Carlton an extra $675.

MacroPhotography Gallery

by Randy Stapleton

Who knew?

The lowly palmetto (serenoa repens) may be as much as 10,000 years old!

Click here to read Florida Native Plant Society "Palmettos" issue

See what's coming to a park near you soon. Preview of coming attractions:

Sarasota County Parks Master Plan (download)

PETS

T. Mabry Carlton, Jr. Memorial Reserve, protects Sarasota County's water supply and habitat for wildlife. It does not permit pets. Pets are permitted elsewhere on leash in 71 parklands and off leash in 5 others. Click Here for list.

E.O. Wilson explains why parks and nature are really good for your brain: Washington Post

So when the Washington Post asked Wilson what he thought about the mechanism by which these environments relax, rejuvenate and restore people. His answer was simple but pretty sweeping at the same time.

“Instinctively, without understanding what’s happening, they know that in certain wild environments, they have come home.”

Click here for latest additions to

The Florida Field Journal

by Darryl Saffer

Video of Leucistic (half white) Buck in Carlton Reserve.

Darryl Saffer video news:

The Evil Weevil part 3 now airing on the Education Channel, You Tube

Wildlife Photography: second in a web series on You Tube.

Notebook sketch of Oscar Scherer State Park: Florida Field Journal

"Not Long Ago," a FL Field Journal video is being screened Feb. 14, 2016 in Gainesville: Cinema Verde Environmental Film Festival: schedule

Darryl Saffer has given voice to one of our own-- Grandmother Oak located in the Carlton Reserve

CLICK HERE

Darryl Saffer video essay on MRSP

Not Long Ago

Dr. Mary Jelks on Myakka River State Park

oral history project Slideshow

Evil, The Weevil! part 2

Mexican invasive insect threatens bromeliads

see Darryl Saffer's latest FL Field Journal filmed in the Carlton Reserve

Starring Donna Day, Dr. Theresa Cooper and Mike Owen, click here

Photo by Darryl Saffer: Hummingbird Clearwing

You never know what's waiting for you in the forest. . .Check this out

Carlton Reserve featured in Harbor Style magazine: Seeking Serenity p. 78-88

(Excellent article overall but here are some corrections/clarifications)

Need a natural escape vacation? check out Florida's Coastal Dune Lakes

Teaching Cats To Dog Paddle? or Crossing the Caloosahatchee

We are a 501(C)3 community support organization whose mission is to support the parks and natural lands of Sarasota County, Florida.

With 24,565 acres on the state protected "wild and scenic" Myakka River, the Carlton Reserve has over 90 miles of trails and nearly 40 square miles for wilderness recreation: