Riverview Park offering brownbag programs

Riverview Park offering brownbag programs
By TONY JUDNICH
SEBASTIAN — Starting today, anyone living near the Indian River Lagoon and wanting to learn more about the waterway and other parts of the local natural environment might want to pack a lunch and head to Riverview Park.
That's where members of the nonprofit, Palm Bay-based Marine Resources Council of East Florida will kick off the Sebastian version of their brown bag lunch lecture program, which covers topics such as ecology, fishing, native plants, gardening and natural historyThe first lecture at Riverview Park will be given from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. today. Amber Shawl, a research associate with Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Fort Pierce, will discuss the queen conch, the second-most valuable fisheries species in the Caribbean. Despite conservation efforts, queen conch populations have been declining for the past 20 years, according to information from the council.
The first lecture at Riverview Park will be given from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. today. Amber Shawl, a research associate with Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Fort Pierce, will discuss the queen conch, the second-most valuable fisheries species in the Caribbean. Despite conservation efforts, queen conch populations have been declining for the past 20 years, according to information from the council.
Shawl also serves as the education and outreach director of the Conch Heritage Network, an organization founded at Harbor Branch in 2001 and dedicated to protecting the queen conch through education and outreach programs.
The Marine Resource Council's subsequent brown bag programs at Riverview Park will run from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the last Friday of the month: Oct. 27, Dec. 29, Jan. 26, Feb. 23 and March 30. A lecture will not be given on the last Friday in November, since that is the day after Thanksgiving.
The Oct. 27 program will feature Heather Stapleton, education coordinator from Wabasso's Environmental Learning Center. Stapleton will discuss stormwater runoff and how it affects lagoon species.
Jessica Carey, the Marine Resource Council's education coordinator, said the council is arranging speakers and lecture topics for the other lectures at the park. For many years, the council has given similar brown bag lectures at several other locations, including at noon each Friday at Fisherman's Landing Park, 5795 U.S. 1 in Grant, in South Brevard County.
Many Sebastian-area residents who regularly attended the lectures in Grant and some of the Tuesday lectures at the council-managed Lagoon House, 3275 U.S. 1, Palm Bay, requested the programs be offered in Sebastian, Carey said Thursday.
"It's a real relaxed atmosphere," she said of the brown bag lunches. "There is a short, 30-45-minute lecture and then a Q and A."
Previous speakers included officials from various universities, St. Johns River Water Management District and the Pelican Island Audubon Society, she said.
What: Brown bag lunch lectures, discussing the Indian River Lagoon and other environmental topics.
When: From 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the last Friday of the month, except November. The first lecture is today and the last will be on March 30.
Where: Riverview Park's gazebo, west of Indian River Drive and south of Sebastian Boulevard.
Who: Lectures will be given by environmental experts selected by the nonprofit, Palm Bay-based Marine Resources Council of East Florida.
Cost: Free to the public. Participants bring their own lunch.