By Jon Dain, NRLI Director

“Science describes accurately from outside; poetry

describes accurately from inside. Science explicates,

poetry implicates.” 

- Ursula K. Le Guin (quoted in the Marginalian)

In NRLI we work to get program Fellows out of their comfort zones. It is one of many strategies designed to help them – and by extension their organizations – become better prepared to manage and protect the natural resource base that all Floridians depend on. As well-described below by Fellows Jennifer Mitchell & Ashford Rosenberg in their article below, our January session exposed the group to different ways of seeing Florida and different ways of understanding the world. We were challenged by respected Miccosukee and Seminole thinkers, artists and activists, and a multi-generation Gladesman, to consider Big Cypress Preserve and Everglades restoration through a very different set of lenses. Not to discard our scientific knowledge about them, but to recognize that such knowledge, as Le Guin notes, is incomplete. The overall session experience was powerful and thought provoking, a unique learning moment for the entire group. We are particularly grateful to NRLI alum Rev. Houston Cypress for their guidance and support in helping to arrange the session and, as they once wrote, for “giving us the eyes to see and the ears to hear” over the three days we were there. 

Switching gears, powerful experiences of many different kinds are the backbone of the NRLI program. Which brings me to the fact that we are already working on experiences for next year’s class while energetically recruiting the group of Fellows who will be a part of that cohort. As we seek applications for class 23 (and beyond), we know that our best recruiters by far are alumni, Fellows, and friends of the NRLI program. In that light we are asking all of you to please reach out to those you know (or have met) who would benefit from being a NRLI Fellow, who would bring important experience and perspective to the program. Can you help? As always, applications can be found at: https://nrli.ifas.ufl.edu/.

To help get you started I jotted down a quick “Top 10 reasons to become a NRLI Fellow”. Feel free to add your own thoughts, tweaks and motivations.

Top 10 reasons to become a NRLI Fellow (in no particular order):

10.  Be part of a network of over 400 trained graduates from across NRM sectors – pull out your phone and find a trusted and useful professional contact to speak with (https://nrlialumni.org/).

9.      Work with an experienced Project Team – the NRLI Project Team has over 50 years combined experience in Natural Resources leadership development – and we are part of the University of Florida’s School of Forest, Fisheries and Geomatic Sciences and IFAS Extension. 

8.      Learn a LOT - Fellows work hard, but learn valuable and useful skills for managing conflict, engaging with the public, collaborating with other organizations/businesses, facilitating participatory decision-making, listening for needs and interests, framing issues, running productive meetings and much, much more. 

7.      Get to know – and know well - a group of truly interesting and diverse natural resource professionals - the current class (Class 22) has 24 experienced professionals from 22 different organizations who have a variety of backgrounds and differing areas of expertise. This is typical.

6.      Get to know Florida – we take eight engaging trips to different parts of the State. Thanks to our alumni network, you will see things/places you would not otherwise get to see/visit and meet/hear from people who you would not otherwise meet/hear from.

5.      Learn by doing - not by watching PowerPoints. NRLI is practical, experiential, and energizing.

4.      Eat pretty well – not our primary focus, but hey, it’s not a bad thing, right? Not sure if I should include this…

3.      Have time to reflect, think, learn – to discuss current ideas and challenges with fellow natural resource professionals - away from your desk/job/daily responsibilities

2.      Be in-the-know on a broad array of Florida natural resource issues - in ways that will be useful to you and your organization.

1.      Don’t take the Project Team’s word for it, ask a NRLI graduate, let them tell you why you should be a NRLI Fellow.

The Power of Framing

By Jennifer Mitchell & Ashford Rosenberg, NRLI Class 22 Fellows

Participating in NRLI has been incredibly powerful for our learning cohort. We knew that this course wouldn’t shy away from difficult issues. Each session we try to bring an impartial and academic mindset, and, as we learned through this session, impartiality is not always possible.

For this session, we visited Big Cypress National Preserve and the Miccosukee Indian Village to focus on Race, Reciprocity, and Reconciliation for Collaborative Management - not typically the perspective of our collective expertise in environmental conservation and restoration. Pairing the topic of Miccosukee and Seminole perspectives on past, present, and future opportunities for collaborative management across the greater Everglades with course material of Framing and Power provided NRLI Fellows with rapid-fire opportunities to observe the intricacies and application of these concepts.

Our introduction on how framing can alter one’s perspective came almost immediately on Day 1. A Ranger from the Preserve spoke about the importance of collaboration to create Big Cypress National Preserve in 1974 to protect the wild nature of the area in the face of a new jetport. The creation of this Preserve took a novel approach, allowing families with inholdings to maintain ownership to three acres of their property to maintain their connection to the land through hunting, fishing and other recreational opportunities. When our guest speaker, Rev. Houston Cypress, arrived later in the day to share history of the area from the Miccosukee perspective, they reframed the idea of Everglades conservation and the establishment of Big Cypress National Preserve. They reminded us that three acres may not have been anywhere close to a family’s original ownership. And that for the Seminole and Miccosukee, the creation of the Preserve and future restoration efforts have displaced them. As natural resource professionals, we get used to discussing conservation benefits vs. tradeoffs. But in the case of Houston and the Miccosukee, they’ve been asked define what “home” is, and what parts they can live without.

On the second day, we explored the Everglades and tree islands via airboat. Representatives from the Miccosukee Tribal Environmental Protection Agency and Fish and Wildlife joined us on the airboat for informal discussion on their current work. The Tribal EPA and Fish and Wildlife incorporate Miccosukee and Seminole traditional knowledge as part of the western scientific process, while trying to inform larger restoration projects within the Everglades. Seeing the tree islands with chickee huts and boardwalks provided an appreciation of the need for a deep connection to nature for survival.

Following our airboat ride, we went to the Miccosukee Indian Village where our afternoon panel consisted of representatives of the Miccosukee and Seminole tribes, a Gladesman, and others advocating on their behalf. Instead of a group panel, facilitators framed the time as an opportunity for intimate conversations with our panelists. Meeting in small groups provided space for engaging dialogue and panelists to ask questions of our NRLI fellows. Each small group was deeply impacted by their discussion.

A flute song of healing was shared by panelist Samuel Tommie upon the conclusion of our panel session. The power of the song that moved through the group had unexpected emotional impacts for some. It truly opened the space for vulnerability and healing. It was another example of how impartiality when learning about a topic, culture, or experience, can sometimes be impossible despite our best efforts. 

This session concluded with discussions of power dynamics and how to begin using situational power assessments to address power in our work. This session perfectly demonstrated the coalescence of each source of power and how it can be used to create opportunity for good, whether it be the personal power seen from Betty Osceola and Durante Blais-Billie, organizational power of the united efforts of the Miccosukee Tribe, or informational power used by incorporating indigenous knowledge into western science methodology. It also demonstrated how power can shape collaboration and drove home how that idea in and of itself is complicated.

Overall, this session left us with a great deal to think about, professionally, intellectually, and emotionally. We look forward to continuing to build on our experiences from each session, apply what we learn about how decision-making impacts those whose voices aren’t always heard, and improve in each of our respective professions to be aware of how framing and power can empower, or disenfranchise.

Tiffany Lane

Coastal Program Coordinator, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Tiffany considers herself a motivated, ethical, and creative scientista! Her passion for marine and aquatic ecosystems started when she spotted a sea turtle on her first scuba dive at age 12. She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Florida in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation and a Masters of Science from Texas Tech University where she researched waterfowl habitat selection on the Texas Coast. While working on her M.S. degree, she was selected as a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Directorate Fellow and led waterfowl banding efforts at Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) Complex in Northern California. That led to a full-time career with USFWS National Wildlife Refuge’s on the Texas Coast where she focused on regional efforts aimed at conserving coastal marsh. Tiffany has a diversity of experience working with endangered species such as whooping cranes and piping plovers and implementing land management techniques like prescribed burns. She is also an airboat instructor for the Department of Interior and will tell you her favorite airboat activity is herding hundreds of molting geese for capture and banding. In 2020, she was able to move back to her home state as the USFWS Coastal Program Coordinator serving the Tampa Bay and Big Bend regions by providing technical and financial assistance to partners conducting habitat enhancements for the benefit of federally listed species. Her favorite hobbies include kayaking, travelling, and scuba diving.   

Brooke Langston

Supervisor, Natural Areas & Trails Division, Sarasota County Parks & Natural Resources

Brooke grew up in Fort Myers and developed her deep and abiding love of all things aquatic and marine in the Caloosahatchee and Gulf of Mexico. She received a bachelor’s in Environmental Studies from the University of California Santa Barbara. Brooke served in the Peace Corps twice, first in St Kitts and 20 years later in Fiji. In between she worked for National Audubon in California for 17 years in environmental education and on coastal restoration.

As her parents entered their later years, Brooke decided it was time to make her way back to Florida and was happy to find a position with Sarasota County’s Natural Areas and Trails division, working with a team of 17 land managers to care for our 55,000 acres of natural areas and preserves. Brooke has served on the board of Sarasota Bay Watch, is a member of the Sarasota County sea turtle tagging team and the prescribed burn team. She spends many weekends on coastal cleanup dives and walking our trails seeking birds. 

Jennifer Mitchell

Environmental Scientist IV, St. Johns River Water Management District

The exploration and research of wetlands has always been of interest to Jennifer Mitchell. Whether she is knee deep in mud or neck deep in educating the public on how cool aerenchyma are, she is always engaged in protecting Floridan waterways. A graduate of Furman University (B.S. 2004), Mitchell learned of her love of questioning and research, but also developed an awareness of making other people care about our environment. She continued this trajectory by exploring connections between bottomland hardwood forests, salt marshes, and the Everglades at Auburn University (Ph.D. 2009).

Mitchell is an Environmental Scientist IV at the St. Johns River Water Management District. Her current work focuses on the ongoing restoration and water quality improvements that benefit Lake Apopka. Mitchell isn’t new to working in Government though, prior to working with SJRWMD, she worked with Alachua County Environmental Protection Department where she worked on water quality and social marketing techniques to encourage people to make better environmental choices.

When she is not working, she is usually hanging out with her family and their two Boston Terriers. She enjoys paddling, diving, and drinking Florida’s finest brewed, fermented, and dry hopped water.

Eliana Bardi Senior Planner, Alachua County Environmental Protection Department

Liza Bradford Director of Finance, Florida Farm Bureau Federation 

Michael Chase Program Administrator, Florida Department of Environmental Protection 

Emily Ducker Water Supply Program Manager, Suwannee River Water Management District

Vincent Encomio Florida Sea Grant Agent, UF/IFAS Extension 

Stephen Fulford Environmental Manager, Florida Dept. of Agriculture & Consumer Services

Erika Henderson President, Tangelo Farms

Shelly Johnson State Specialized Agent, UF/IFAS Extension 

Amanda Kahn Lead Environmental Project Manager, South FL Water Management District 

Tiffany Lane Wildlife Biologist & Coastal Program Coordinator, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 

Brooke Langston Supervisor, Sarasota County Parks & Natural Resources 

Jennifer Mitchell Environmental Scientist IV, St. Johns River Water Management District

Daniel Nelson Biologist IV, Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission

Joni Petry Environmental Administrator, Florida Department of Environmental Protection 

Matthew Posner Executive Director, Pensacola & Perdido Bays Estuary Program

Mark Rachal Florida Coastal Islands Sanctuaries Manager, Audubon Florida

India Riedel Finance Director, City of Okeechobee 

Daniel Roberts Environmental Specialist III, Peace River Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority 

Ashford Rosenberg Policy Director, Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders' Alliance

Linda Sapp Extension Agent, College of Ag & Food Sciences, Florida A&M University

Brian Seymour Archaeologist, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Jared Smith Smith & Johns, Inc. 

Tommy Van Trees Captain Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission

Jay Vogel Operations & Environmental Services Manager, Natural Resource Planning Services, Inc.