Perdido River Interpretive Canoe Trip

The Escambia County Agriculture and Coastal Sustainability agents sought to increase public awareness of the ecology and history of the Perdido River. The Perdido is an historic local river that serves as the natural border between Alabama and Florida. Two local canoe liveries and a new landing have improved access to the river, yet it is still rarely used by residents of the central and southern parts of the county, where the majority of the population resides. The adjacent county in Florida, Santa Rosa, bills itself as the "Canoe Capital of Florida" due to the popular Coldwater Creek and Blackwater River, yet the northern reaches of the Perdido are every bit as pristine and attractive as these and not considered a major ecotourism destination.

Our target audience consisted of Master Naturalists and Master Gardener volunteers, as we knew these people were interested in local habitats and would serve as a good test group. We advertised the program via emails and web postings, and expanded slightly beyond this group to attract the volunteers, their spouses, three county interns, a couple of environmental educators, and some of their friends (total of 22).

The agenda of the trip included three interpretive stops, lunch (provided by the agents), and a river cleanup along the route. A county engineering staffer started the trip with a discussion of watersheds, NPDES stormwater permitting, and the role the Perdido and similar rivers played in community development. After loading into the canoes and receiving brief instruction on paddling skills from the livery owner, we canoed about 20 minutes downriver to a pre-determined sandbar on the river. During lunch we listened to a presentation by Neil Jacobi, a local livestock/hay producer. Mr. Jacobi is a member of the Barrineau family, which founded the local community, Barrineau Park. He discussed area history, the timber and turpentine industry, and showed the group tools and led us on a short hike to show us physical remnants (left in the forest) from the past. About halfway down the river, we stopped and the Coastal Sustainability Agent pointed out native wetland plant and animal species and discussed deadhead logging in northwest Florida. We were also quite excited to see a bald eagle land in a tree just down from where we had stopped to talk. The entire trip lasted about 4 hours.

Feedback from the canoe trip has been extremely positive. While 80% of 11 survey respondents had canoed or kayaked before, 90% had never done so on the Perdido River. In addition, all of them stated they would canoe the Perdido again, and recommend it to a friend. When asked to list new things they'd learned on the trip, most mentioned the local history and timber industry. Others said that they learned more about the river's watershed, its tannic coloring, and role as the state and territorial border. Highlights of the trip for our audience included the scenery, the camaraderie, and the bald eagle sighting.

Environmental impacts included the removal of 7 large bags of trash from the river (estimated at 70% aluminum cans, 12% plastic, and 9% glass) and the improved ecological awareness among the group. Economic impacts can be measured at a gain of $320 for the livery, which was previously unknown to our group and will likely be used again by them. In addition, all of the participants gained health benefits from canoeing and spending time outdoors, including burning an average of 700 calories apiece. We believe this program will be easy to expand to other audiences and locations around the county to highlight some of our unique and undisturbed ecosystems. The model of "adult field trips" was very popular and 100% of our participants said they would join us for a guided trip again.

Files

Perdido River Map

GPS map of the portion our group canoed down the Perdido River. We showed this to the group before leaving.

Perdido Canoe Trip

Agriculture Agent, Libbie Johnson in green shirt, Coastal Sustainability Agent Carrie Stevenson in pink shirt, pulling intern in tube.

Group Photo, Perdido River

Photo of most of the participants of the canoe trip.

Stevenson resume

Resume of Carrie Stevenson