UF IFAS Natural Resources Diversity Initiative

Looking to donate some of your clothes and shoes or camping gear (tents, stoves, sleeping bags) that you don't use anymore? Looking for a new pair of field pants or a comfy new stylish shirt or wardrobe? Want to donate to shelters around Gainesville?

Join us February 21st in the Newins-Zeigler Breezeway from 12-4 for a clothing swap! All items are free! After 4 pm all clothes, shoes, and gear remaining will be donated to local shelters around Gainesville.

Clothes and other donation items you'd like to contribute to the swap can be dropped off in the copy/mailroom on the first floor of NWZ. We'll be taking donation items up until the 20th. Want to just donate new needed items for the shelters (such as blankets, socks, toys, etc.)? Feel free to drop those off as well with a note on top that says "for shelters"!

Looking to donate some of your clothes and shoes or camping gear (tents, stoves, sleeping bags) that you don't use anymore? Looking for a new pair of field pants or a comfy new stylish shirt or wardrobe? Want to donate to shelters around Gainesville? Join us February 21st in the Newins-Zeigler Breezeway from 12-4 for a clothing swap! All items are free! After 4 pm all clothes, shoes, and gear remaining will be donated to local shelters around Gainesville. Clothes and other donation items you'd like to contribute to the swap can be dropped off in the copy/mailroom on the first floor of NWZ. We'll be taking donation items up until the 20th. Want to just donate new needed items for the shelters (such as blankets, socks, toys, etc.)? Feel free to drop those off as well with a note on top that says "for shelters"! We'll be donating to Peaceful Paths as well as the Grace Marketplace here in Gainesville! Peaceful Paths is a certified domestic violence center that serves survivors of domestic violence in Alachua, Bradford, and Union counties. Peaceful Paths provides a wide range of services including emergency shelter, 24-hour helpline, victim advocacy, children’s programming, economic empowerment education and support, crisis counseling and support groups, community awareness and intervention, and violence prevention programs. We will also be donating camping gear, blankets, and other equipment to Grace Marketplace, an organization here in Gainesville that helps provide services, shelter, food, and advocacy for the homeless.

Have you followed us on Instagram? You can find us .

And while you’re at it, check out our spring speaker series!

https://www.instagram.com/p/C17UGUWrcTZ/?igsh=Y3FpOHBrOHJnZXcx

Hey NRDI Nerds! Our spring speaker series is stacked with some really awesome talks this semester. We're kicking things off with Dr. Hollis-Ann Stewart, DVM--a wildlife veterinarian who has worked on projects ranging from work in Africa to the Florida panther project! More deets on her talk to come! More information on each speaker will be available as their talk gets closer. All talks will be available via zoom and will start at 4:00 pm EST. All are welcome. Hope to see you there :)

Join us as we attempt to catalog the biodiversity at our community partner's site!

Do you want to help with community science at our park?

Join us alongside UF Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society and UF IFAS Natural Resources Diversity Initiative as we host a digital BioBlitz through iNaturalist. This means that we are attempting to catalog the biodiversity in the park! https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/bioblitz+guide

We are using iNaturalist, a website that helps experts identify species and catalog the many types of animals, plants, and more that live around the world! It is as simple as taking a picture of what you see around Little Orange Creek's park or preserve and uploading it to the website. If you can identify it, that's fantastic, but experts are online to help if not. For video tutorials, click here: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/video+tutorials

Finally, you can find our BioBlitz page live through the QR code on the flyer (use your phone's camera to scan), or through this link: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/little-orange-creek-bioblitz

The event will run online until November 15th - we hope you'll stop by the park and make some observations to help with this student-led effort!

I hope you all are ready for NRDI's next GBM TODAY!

We will be having a Q***r in Nature event out at NATL. This particular GBM will be longer than our normal ones going from 4:30-7:30!

Feel free to come and go as you please throughout the event.

We will start off in the entomology building Steinmetz Hall room 1031 for our guest speaker, Author Eliot Schrefer! Eliot is going to chat about his book Q***r Ducks as well as other works. At around 5:20-5:30 we'll head over to NATL (which is the Natural Area Teaching Lab right across the street).

Here will we will have a panel of graduate students and professionals who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community. They'll talk about their experiences both in the conservation field as well as academia, and how intersectionality and mental health play a huge role within this community.

Finally around 6:30 we'll wrap by taking small groups around NATL to look for various animals and just socialize and chat.

This is a good opportunity to celebrate who people are for everything they are. We all belong in nature and understanding some of the barriers that inhibit people from feeling safe in the outdoors and academia can help create better allies, stronger communities, and better solutions to breaking those barriers down. Hope to see you there!

Join us for our next GBM on Monday, October 10th at 4:45 PM in the NZH Breezeway! We will be joined by h**p powerhouses Priya Nanjappa and Amanda Hipps to discuss their journey and experiences in h**petology - this is a meeting you don’t want to miss!

Mark your calendars! NRDI will be tabling at this, and we will have a student-centered pride in nature event on campus as well - stay tuned!

Join ACT for the second annual Pride at Prairie Creek! An outdoor celebration of the LGBTQ+ community for family, friends, and allies to come together and enjoy a day at Prairie Creek Preserve.

Join us on a guided hike, watch live wildlife demonstrations, learn about the conservation and q***r inclusivity work being done in our community from the organizations themselves, shop local vendors, and enter a drawing of chance for some REI Pride goodies and more!

Featuring musical performances from Clay Dixon and the Picadillies and Patchwork, food from EIM Thai and Feliz Flavors, and drinks from First Magnitude Brewing Company and Opus Coffee!

Please bring blankets and seating to sit out and enjoy the musical performances.

Visit our website for more information:
https://www.alachuaconservationtrust.org/upcoming-events/pride2022


Pride Community Center REI Eim Thai
Opus Coffee Feliz Ice Cream
First Magnitude Brewing Company Patchwork Girls Clay Dixon and the Piccadillies

A great day of educating & the gators WIN at UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences TailGATOR yesterday!

Thanks to everyone to stopped by and learned about h**ps from our President, Lameace. 🐊

A special shout-out to UF Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society, we love our continued collaboration with all of you!

Presidents meeting presidents at the UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences TailGATOR event! Lameace and Maria are representing WEC today!
🐊

UF Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society
UF IFAS Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

Our officers (left to right) Alex, Lameace, and Charisse had a blast tabling for UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences’s Kickoff event!

We’ll be at the CALS TailGATOR event this Saturday! Be sure to stop by our table to say hi!

Thanks for everyone who made it to our first GBM! We had an incredible turnout and we are so excited for our upcoming semester!

Our next meeting will be September 26th at 4:45 PM online. Join us for a meeting with our outreach partners (Alachua Audubon, Gainesville Cultural Arts Coalition, and Creekside Environmental Ed for Kids) while they discuss their respective programs and how to get involved! We will also discuss dates for volunteering under NRDI with CAC and CrEEK. This is a great opportunity for newcomers to volunteer with one of our program leaders and gain experience without the pressure of leading an event! See flyer for details.

We also have a new GroupMe for more streamlined communication! Meetings and outreach events will be advertised here, as well as general chatting about cool opportunities, relevant events on campus, so on and so forth. Here's the link to join: https://app.groupme.com/join_group/89349851/CMapkADs.

Reminder: Join us tomorrow at 4:45 PM in the Newins-Ziegler Hall Breezeway for our first meeting of the semester, or see the flyer on how to log in for this hybrid event!