Big Lagoon State Park has it all. It’s uncommon for so many different ecosystems to exist within one 955-acre park, but as I looked at the map upon arrival, my fingertip traced the Intracoastal Waterway, Grand Lagoon, multiple ponds, salt marshes and upland pine flatwoods. With five miles of trails, there is a lot to…
Author: Erika Zambello
Erika Zambello is a writer, birder, and photographer living and working along the Emerald Coast of Florida. She has a master’s degree in environmental management, where she specialized in ecosystem science and conservation. Her love of the outdoors was inspired by a childhood in Maine, where she returned for her National Geographic Young Explorer grant. In addition to Maine, she has lived in New York, France, Washington, DC, and North Carolina. Erika believes in the power of communicating conservation and exploration, which was the inspiration for One World, Two Feet.
Florida State Parks – Big Talbot Island
The scene was dramatic. My friends and I had descended down a steep bluff to a narrow beach facing Nassau Sound. Across the water was Amelia Island State Park; behind us tall live oak and cedar trees towered over both saw palmettos and, farther below, sand. On the beach lay the bleached trunks and branches…
Birding Maine – Birding My Neighborhood
Though I have birded across Maine and across the United States, there’s something special about birding in my very own neighborhood. I grew up in the town of Cumberland, and am lucky that my parents still live there. Behind our house is a large tract of unbroken forest, dominated by the deep green of hemlock…