Clearwater native and environmental photojournalist Carlton Ward Jr. discussed his recent 100-day expedition through Florida to an audience at Harbor Hall on Sept. 12.
The 1,000-mile trip used social media to draw attention to restoring and protecting a natural path that runs from the bottom of the state north to Georgia state lines.
“My big hope is that people will take a little bit of ownership that that’s our Florida, and see how we’re connected to that,” Ward said.
The trek began in January of this year, in the sawgrass marshes of the everglades. Ward and his team hiked, paddled and biked through a wildlife corridor, which was sometimes butted by city sprawl and intersected by interstates.
The trip ended in Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia.
Through photography and video, Ward and his team worked toward producing a tangible way for Floridians to view wildlife they don’t often see or connect to. Photos from the expedition are on the Florida Wildlife Corridor website.
The trip was part of the Florida Wildlife Corridor project, which aims to connect and protect wildlife and watersheds through an ecologically functional corridor.
Ten years ago, Ward spent time in West Africa photographing hundreds of species as part of an internship with the Smithsonian Institution. He’d visit his home state sporadically.
With the state’s rural land loss due to suburban sprawl, Carlton began to use photography as a way to put a face to conservation—in the smarmy grin of a baby alligator or in the gaze of a 14th generation Florida cattle rancher.
Before the expedition earlier this year, Ward met up with bear biologist Joe Guthrie. Guthrie fits GPS collars on Florida black bears and tracks their travels.
One particular bear, a male named “M34,” strayed 500 linear miles from his home in Sebring in 2010.
The bear could roam as far north as Interstate 4, which walled-off any access to the northwest. Guthrie’s GPS track showed the bear’s attempts to find a way around the highway. Eventually, the bear turned around and headed back south.
Not all interstates are like this. On the expedition, Ward and his team walked under raised areas of Interstate 75. Raised interstates provide an underpass for the animals below. Ward saw paw prints and snakes, indicating the usefulness of the safe crosswalk underneath the roads.
The expedition, Ward said, was “more intense than you’d like from a camping trip.” Most evenings were spent uploading photo and video content online, and time was devoted to media interviews, radio reports and VIP guests coming along for a leg of the trip.
Cinematographer Elam Stoltzfus spent time documenting the journey, and the film he’s produced about the wildlife corridor is expected to air on PBS early next year.
The team tracked 13 miles a day through rain, mosquitos and mud. They pulled through sawgrass, waded neck-deep through water lettuce and inelegantly rode their bikes through sugar sand.
Ward showed the audience at Harbor Hall nearly 100 photos from his trip. It was his first public presentation of the expedition.
The audience oohed and aahed as Ward clicked through photos of cypress forests veiled by morning fog.
“This is Florida, and it’s not the Florida you see on postcards,” he said.
Photo by Thomas Boyd
