Natural Areas Festival 2024

This festival (held at the Winding Waters Natural Area in Palm Beach) was a great experience for me and a very fun festival overall!

There were many booths run by organizations such as the Florida Trail Association, Palm Beach Environmental Resources Management, FWC, and Jonathon Dickinson State Park. The event also had stations for face painting, a 5k, guided hiking, kayaking, and yoga. There were also food trucks— açaí bowls and a hamburger & donut place!

I talked to over 200 people at the event, and I was very happy to get to spread information about the invasive species common to South Florida– I had samples of Melaleuca, Lygodium, Carrotwood, Earleaf acacia, snake plant, and air potato beetles eating an invasive air potato plant (the beetles especially were a hit)!

I was glad to hear many people say “I didn’t know that was invasive!” or “That’s all over my yard but I didn’t know it was invasive!” and take information pertaining to the species that are infesting their yard or that they have seen out in public or in natural areas.

Overall, it was a great event and I’m excited to hopefully hold a booth again there next year!

Here is the event flyer and some photos from the event: