Copy of Adventure in Fort Cooper State Park!

What will we be doing?

Join us for a guided walk in Fort Cooper State Park to explore wild plants of Florida to learn which ones are edible & how they grow in their natural habitat so we can find the right spaces in our food forests for them. These plants are adapted to harsh Florida climate and nutrient poor sand. We will dive into how patterns in nature reveal the ecological functions of these plants and how they work to build Florida sand into fertile soil. Autumn is peak wild-flower season in Florida and peak season for native fruits! We will discuss everything from trees, shrubs, herbs & even some aquatic plants!

Who is guiding the walk?

Steven is a Native Plant Steward who has been studying and working with plants for the last decade. He is a Flo-grown Florida native who has lived in Central Florida for his whole life and, like many of us, has watched development sweep through the state claiming so many of the natural areas that make Florida the place we know & love. His work is aimed at protecting those areas which are still intact, rehabilitating the areas which have been damaged & repurposing unused space to regrow natural areas. He insists that we can do this in a way which is not only good for the environment, but can feed people too.

He has always viewed plants as people & spent much of his childhood with his grandmother in her small garden food forest. After spending time immersed in the Ocala National Forest, he rekindled his love for plants & his connection with his indigenous ancestry which sparked his journey into foraging, ethnobotany, agroforestry, permaculture & natural navigation.

His weekends are spent in his garden food forest where he explores indigenous methods of agriculture, helping his friends with their food forests in the local permaculture community & volunteering with a variety of environmental organizations. His vacations are spent exploring Old Growth Forests & after work he looks forward to getting lost in our local forests. He has begun exploring the primitive & survival arts such as weaving, knot tying & macrame, among other earthskills such as basketry, flint-knapping, & primitive claywork in the hopes of one day becoming a reservoire for ancestral skills & a way back to relationship with nature for his community.

Some of his environmental work includes being a member of the Florida Native Plant Society, being the Citrus County Coordinator for the Old Growth Forest Network, and volunteering for native tree plantings, habitat restorations and clean ups throughout Central Florida.

At the end of the hike you may feel free to offer a donation if you feel like you got something out of the event & you would like to contribute to Steven's projects & his startup, TAH Plants.

Suggested $10 donation.

Host or Publisher TAH Plants