The DuPuis Management Area is a 21,875-acre multi-use natural area located in northwestern Palm Beach and southwestern Martin counties. The property is interspersed with numerous ponds, wet prairies, cypress domes, pine flatwoods and remnant Everglades marsh. The area provides miles of hiking and horseback trails, an equestrian center, graded vehicle roads, backpack and group campsites and seasonal hunting. DuPuis is far from urban areas, and its dark night sky lends itself to excellent stargazing.
Kim Elliot, the Education and Training Coordinator for CES/FAU located at Dupuis, along with Loisa Kerwin, Assitant Director for CES/FAU gave a short presentation on the history, ecology and activities that are available at Dupuis. They highlighted the research done on the Red Cocaded Wooddpecker by The Florida Freshwater Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) scientist, Valerie Sparling. You can read about that here.
They treated us to a SWAMP BUGGY RIDE so we could get a close up view of the different habitats on the property. Here are a few shots of us preparing for the journey.
If you have never experienced a swamp buggy, don't worry I took video!
Dupuis is a great resource for so many acitivities. Here are a few more pics of the day. We got out and walked throught the cypress swamp. You can see the water line on the trunks of the trees. There is also a close up of the Florida Apple snail.
To end our tour we stopped at the public campground area. There are remnants of history there with the old hunting camp owned by John G. and Susan H. DuPuis, Jr. If you are up for an adventrue this is a great place to start.
Thanks for the post Diane!
ReplyDeleteGreat day in the woods!
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