Grant: 23-008E
Project Title: Displays at the Barrier Island Center telling the interconnecting stories of Doc Ehrhart, his students, sea turtles and the Carr Refuge.
Project Manager: Nichole Perna
Organization: Brevard County Environmentally Endangered Lands Program (Florida Government)
Grant Amount: $5,800.00
Completion Date:
Summary: This project will create outside displays at Brevard County’s Barrier Island Center. Messaging in the displays will be crafted to build a constituency of informed support for Florida’s sea turtles and for the Carr Refuge. The displays will feature contributions of Llewellyn “Doc” Ehrhart (1942—2022), a UCF professor, vertebrate zoologist, sea turtle researcher, and prominent local conservationist. Doc’s recorded nest counts from detailed surveys described a hotspot for nesting loggerhead sea turtles in southern Brevard, and his research on the water described a little-known population of juvenile sea turtles in the Indian River Lagoon. In addition to diligent sea turtle research, Doc shared data and information with important decision makers. This conservation science and diplomacy guided and motivated the establishment of the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge. The displays will address how land managers knew where to establish a sea turtle refuge and what role influential sea turtle conservationists play in key actions to save sea turtles. This project comprises two outside displays. One panel would be added to three existing panels of the same size at the front of the Center’s entranceway and will feature the role of Doc and his students in the earliest Brevard sea turtle nesting surveys, and his connection to Archie Carr. A second display would be an exhibit featuring the net buoys and netting used by Doc Ehrhart and his students to capture and tag sea turtles in the Indian River Lagoon (Lagoon Turtle Exhibit).
Results: