Great project once again with the North Port High School! The students there are our future! Learning about our environment is a big deal! Many thanks to everyone that was involved!

The following is from the Sun newspaper, article and photos
by Daniel Finton reporter
​
NORTH PORT — Six North Port High School students were awarded for their environmental posters submitted in the fourth-annual North Port Friends of Wildlife Poster Contest.
Members of the Friends of Wildlife, school faculty, a college professor and North Port Natural Resource Department staff divvied out gift cards from local businesses like Dick's Sporting Goods and Starbucks to the winners on Monday.
Nikita Salimov won first place; while Jasmine Khailo and Mya Bright took second places prizes; and Kasiya Tatchin, Ashley Bastardo and Pascha Sikar were awarded third place prizes.
According to Friends of Wildlife, volunteers, about 125 posters were submitted and judged by a panel that included:
Stefan Kalev, North Port's natural resources manager
Shanell Bosch, A North Port environmental planner
Aaron Zimmermann, a North Port environmental specialist
Jennifer Krajcir, Suncoast Ecological Services, Friends of Wildlife member
Gregg Mason, anatomy and physiology professor at Florida
SouthWestern State University, Friends of Wildlife member
Chair Edie Driest, Friends of Wildlife member
James Noonan, a teacher at NPHS, acquired the prizes for the winners.
AICE Environmental Management students in NPHS teacher Ann Lane Hawk's class were challenged with examining the impacts of local development on native habitats, and were tasked with suggesting ways to mitigate those impacts.
First place prize winner Salimov, for one, drew up a poster after stumbling upon a parcel while helping his father with construction. He said sees first-hand how things are in terms of development.
The parcel he chose is planned to be developed into low-density, residential homes. Those homes, according to his poster, can be built while preserving parts of habitats and native plants.
Salimov actually planned out a habitat improvement plan for the parcel. Said plan involved removing Brazilian peppers, which are an invasive species, adding native plants like slash pine and native grass, adding bird houses, gardens and tortoise zones to support local wildlife and preserving green corridors.
Khailo, another student who placed second, also focused on a residential parcel.
Her poster was praised by Kalev for being interactive. He said the Natural Resources Division, which is still less than two years old, could perhaps use such a method when engaging with the public in the future.
Upon Khailo's poster were paper flaps featuring wildlife and plants that had more information underneath when one lifted them. Her poster offered solutions to benefit species from gopher tortoises to native plants.
Kalev, praising all the posters, said it was hard to nail down the best six to be awarded, and it was also difficult to select a winner from the best of the best.
He then spoke to the importance of preserving the local environment and congratulated students for their efforts.
Hawk, the teacher of the students who participated, said the project was a good way for her students to better understand the nature right in their back yards.
“We wanted to bring awareness to how we, as humans, disrupt and manipulate the environment around us," Hawk said. “Students were able to visualize a change in their own town and contribute personally to the betterment of the environment where they live."

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