20 minute read
Turtle Time
Turtle Time by Kelly Oden photos courtesy of Gulf World Institute
It’s turtle nesting season along the Florida Gulf Coast! From May 1 through the end of October, a variety sea turtle species find their way back to the shore upon which they too were hatched in an effort to bury their own eggs and propagate a new generation. While locals and visitors alike typically love and respect this unique phenomenon, there are a few nonprofit groups working hard to ensure these majestic and federally protected sea creatures get all the help they need to survive and thrive.
(SWTW) is a nonprofit organization that is permitted by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to perform nesting surveys during sea turtle nesting season and to respond to sick or injured stranded animals. SWTW performs nest excavations and collects samples. That data is then reported back to FFWCC.
As an area coordinator, Barbara Van Stavern coordinates a group of volunteers within her specific zone. These volunteers are trained to perform the surveys and walk the beaches looking for tracks, crawls and nests. That information is reported back to the area coordinator. The area coordinator coordinates the volunteers and all of the walks, which is a big job considering they have to cover every single day of nesting season, which starts May 1 and runs through the end of October.
Once a nest is located, the area coordinator goes to the site to verify which species made the crawl. “We can tell the species by looking at the characteristics of the crawl,” Van Stavern said. “We look to see if the turtle nested and if so, we block off the nest, since
they are protected animals we also protect their nesting habitat. We block it off with stakes and neon survey tape so that it can be seen from the beach. We also hang a sign that FFWCC provides to us that talks about the state and federal statutes that protect those animals and what to do if you see something wrong.”
Van Stavern describes a mother sea turtle's trek to nest as nothing short of amazing, saying, “If you’re quiet, you can hear her breathe. She takes these big, long, deep breaths. She is hauling her 300-pound body (which is usually floating in water) across the sand to dump her clutch of eggs. Think about how exhausting that must be.”
It's important to note that beachgoers should never interfere with nesting sea turtles–do not cross her path, stay quiet and turn off all lights, including flash photography. “Just take it in and watch it,” Van Stavern said. “Just respect them and let them do their thing.”
An equally incredible sight to behold is the hatching of the baby turtles. The tiny hatchlings follow the moonlight to get to sea. This
Sea Turtle 101
By Jennifer Sullivan
Sea turtle season is from May 1 to October 31 each year. Nesting typically goes until mid to late July, while hatching will continue until late fall. So, what can you do to help keep sea turtle nests safe while visiting and playing on the beach?
Play a safe distance from the
nest. Any toys that enter the nest area (Frisbees, footballs, sand toys) should be left in the nest. Only FWC permitted staff are allowed to safely remove any objects that fall into the marked area.
Please keep small children outside of the nest area.
Even though they are small, their footsteps could potential harm the nest.
Keep all pets on leashes.
Pets are attracted to nesting areas and if a pet damages or destroys a nest, the owner can be held responsible for disturbing the nest.
Only use red light emitting flashlights on or near the beach.
Knock down your sandcastles and fill in your
holes (this will aide in any future turtles coming ashore and with the hatchlings when they arrive).
Keep the beach clean.
Remove all your belongings when you leave the beach each day. Leave no trace.
If you see a sea turtle nesting on the beach in Rosemary Beach, please stay well back, don't touch or disturb it and immediately call SWTW at 850- 428-2090 or the Walton County Sheriff's office at 850-267-2000.
If you see injured or distressed wildlife, including sea turtles and dolphins, report them to our Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922).
must be done as quickly as possible because the hatchlings have a very limited amount of time to reach the safety and nutrition of the sargassum seaweed beds, which can be another 10 to 30 miles offshore. This is why beachgoers should leave no obstacles, holes or trash on the beach to distract or deter the hatchlings from reaching their destination.
Another important task performed by SWTW are the excavations of the nests post hatching. Van Stavern describes an excavation as a type of inventory. “At the end of the hatching period after a nest is hatched, we will perform an excavation and we inventory the success of that nest,” she explained. “We count how many eggs hatched, how many turtles that we think made it to the water and the dead hatchlings in the nest. Sometimes there's a whole egg that never hatched or eggs that were never fertilized. Sometimes we encounter live hatchlings in the bottom of those nests and we will hold those out and release them when it's dark. We then report all that nesting data back to FFWCC at the end of the year.”
Van Stavern estimates that SWTW saw 54 turtle nests last year within their roughly 23-mile permit district. So far this year, her team has responded to 10 or 11 turtle strandings, but expects those numbers to rise during nesting season due to the number of turtles in Gulf during this period.
While SWTW focus primarily on nesting, Gulf World Marine Institute (GWMI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of marine mammals and sea turtles in the Florida Panhandle. The only long-term marine mammal rehabilitation and the largest sea turtle rehabilitation facility in Northern Florida, GWMI offers both short and long term rehabilitative care to marine animals. In addition, GWMI’s
stranding team has come to the aid of thousands of sick or debilitated stranded marine animals.
Lauren Albrittain, GWMI’s Stranding Coordinator explains that the institute is in charge of responding to marine mammals and sea turtles that strand along the Florida Panhandle from South Walton to McCulloch County. The only Marine Mammal rehab facility in the Panhandle, GWMI typically responds to dolphin species in terms of marine mammals as well as sea turtles. While they are a marine mammal rehab facility, Lauren said that the majority of calls they respond to in terms of mammals involve deceased animals, most of which are dolphins.
For sea turtles, the institute typically rescues anywhere from 30 to 100 turtles locally. They also receive turtles from other areas such as colder areas where the turtles suffer from cold stunning. So far this year GWMI has rescued close to 40 locally stranded turtles as well as about 30 from the New England aquarium that were flown down at the end of November. They were able to start releasing those this year.
Once a stranded, sick or injured marine mammal or sea turtle is located, members of the GWMI team transport the animal back to their facility where they undergo a
veterinary assessment that includes things like blood work, weight and a general body check. “We can take radiographs to see if they've got anything going on internally and then we typically do what's called dry docking.,” Albrittain explained. “We tend to keep them out of water at least for the first night until we see how strong they are and then we can watch them go in the water the next day to swim test them. We closely monitor them. If they have severe problems, we can give them antibiotics or anti-fungals. Then they have to demonstrate that they are able to forage well, which is being able to find the food in their habitat and eat it. They should be gaining weight, especially if they were very thin at beginning. They need to be able to swim throughout their entire habitat, which for some of the turtles is a little bit difficult at the beginning especially if they have buoyancy control problems, or if they had to have a surgery for example that might have affected their flipper. We also have to get them off of all their medication. We can't release a sea turtle that is either still on antibiotics or just finished them. They have to be off of them for 30 days before we can release them.”
Once that's all done, GWMI veterinarians do a final check of blood work, weight and body. Other team members make sure that they're able to feed and swim properly. The turtles are then
re-measured and tagged. GWMI operates under a permit issued by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, so they have to communicate with them and get approval to release the animals back into their natural habitat. Once that is done, the team sends the rehabilitated turtles back out to sea.
Lauren has a few important tips for anyone who might come across a stranded animal. “When they see a stranded marine mammal or sea turtle, the biggest thing is to not push it back because these animals are not there by mistake. They are stranding because something is wrong. Unfortunately, when people push the animals back, they're not giving the trained veterinarian and stranding teams the chance to assess the animal further and to make the decision about how best to help them. The next thing is to call somebody. Even if you don't know the stranding response or rescue groups phone numbers in your area- on your cell phone, hit star or pound FWC, depending on your provider, and it takes you straight to the FWC Wildlife hotline. They have the numbers for all of the rescue groups. Also, make sure you're keeping the beaches clean because anything that ends up on the beach can potentially cause harm to an animal.” •
MAKING THE HOME + MATCH
The Premier Real Estate Agent for South Walton & Scenic 30A
A founding partner of The Premier Property Group, Keith Flippo is a consistent leader in sales of South Walton properties, ranking in the top 1% of the Emerald Coast Association of Realtors since 2009. Keith specializes in the marketing and sales of luxury properties along with developing new area projects via The Premier Development Group, founded in 2015. A resident of Rosemary Beach since 1999, Keith possesses an intimate knowledge of the communities along Scenic Highway 30A and is known for taking the time to “make the home match” with a customer’s individual needs and desires.
These hands once trembled with fear and uncertainty. Now, they’re holding on to brighter days.
C 850.543.5187 O 850.213.5000 E keith@theppg.net W KeithFlippo.com
*The coin you see is an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) token, given to those in alcohol or drug recovery. The tokens give AA members a physical reminder to take sobriety one day at a time.
We are a non-profit, faith-centered ministry offering food, addiction recovery services, housing, spiritual guidance and more to Escambia County’s most vulnerable and under-resourced residents.
The People Who Made Us a Town
By Sarah Murphy Robertson
New Urbanism is a definable collection of planning tenants and design elements. But, undoubtedly, it is the concept’s intangible outcome that sets it apart.By marrying the proximity of residential and public spaces, an abstract alchemy wondrously takes place.
As Rosemary Beach grew, one truth followed time and time again: it was our first homeowners, known as charter owners, who were the secret ingredient. An organic sense of community emerged as these families worked together to build a town.
The original layout of phase 1.
Summer Kitchen, May 2001.
ORIGIN STORIES
A dream of his father’s, Tom Brown always knew he wanted to own a beach house. He was very close to buying in North Carolina when a friend suggested he look at Rosemary Beach. The rest is, as they say, history. Brown has owned as many as 10 properties in our town. In fact it is his daughter, Ellen, who was featured in the ad campaigns that ran in Southern Living and other publications. These ads served as the siren song or beacon for many charter owners to “come build a town with us.” Ellen, now a student at Georgia Tech, still loves her time in Rosemary Beach and like many children of charter owners, feels at home when here.
When Rosanne Mills tells her family’s Rosemary Beach origin story, its starting place is earlier than one might expect. “I grew up in a traditional Dallas neighborhood I can only describe as idyllic” she said. With wide
sidewalks for bike riding and walkability to churches, shops and schools, this wonderful environment welcomed socializing with your neighbors. Eventually their family moved to the suburbs, and it never quite evoked the same fond feelings as their first one did.
It was only years later, after reading an article in Time Magazine about Seaside and the concept of New Urbanism, when Mills realized why that first home was so pivotal. “I talked my husband Rex into driving to the Florida panhandle to go check out Seaside.” It was summertime 1999, and Mills was instantly enchanted. Learning about Rosemary Beach lots, the couple went to take a look, and by the winter of that year, they had purchased one of their own.
In a similar way, Stan and Carol Joseph, were first wowed by their yearly visits to Seaside and when they bought their lot on Tuckers Lane in Rosemary, they were only one of two on the Northside. Over the years their family became a part of our tight knit community and their son Sean worked as a beach attendant for SeaOats for several summers.
Chris Webb remembers how he and his wife Jennifer learned of Rosemary Beach: “Andres Duany always said, ‘You covet what you see,’ and for years, I would travel east to my job in Inlet Beach and watch the sunrises in what became Rosemary Beach.” One day, they cut a road and put up a little sales trailer, so I stopped to look into getting a lot.”
Town Founder Patrick Bienvenue, and Town Architects Richard Gibbs and Elizabeth Guyton all worked with the Webbs to meet the architectural requirements so they could build in the allotted time frame. The simple house, only 800 square feet, would meet the
design requirements and get this young family putting down roots in Rosemary Beach.
Their daughter, Audrey, now 18, lit the tree at our very first Tree Lighting ceremony and later, when their family grew to include a son, Atticus, the family moved to a larger home on the Northside.
Bret Azzarelli and husband Trevor Price visited Seaside for nearly a decade before learning in late 1996 about the new DPZ planned community of Rosemary Beach. For two years they checked in with realtor Jeff Ellis while dreaming of owning a home here. “In the summer of 1998 I saw a mailer showing the parkside properties north of 30A were for sale,” he recalls. I saw some of the lot prices and thought, “Maybe we could swing this?” While devouring
Chris and Audrey Webb have some fun in their outdoor shower.
the Rosemary Beach Code and excitedly making plans, the couple eventually selected a lot, closed in March of 1999, and their home was complete by the Summer of 2ooo.
Like many, Jay and Polly Schaudies saw that ad in the back of a Southern Living magazine and decided to visit the town while on a family vacation in Sandestin. While Jay and Polly toured Rosemary, Jeff Ellis let their three kids (then aged 9,11, and 13) borrow bikes. A few weeks later, they were landowners, and by Christmas 1999 their main house was built. “Almost everyone back then started with a carriage house, but with our family of five, we didn’t, and in hindsight, we were lucky because construction prices went up soon afterwards,” Jay noted.
HAVE A BITE
Summer Kitchen’s James Dillon plays a part in nearly every charter owner's story. From our earliest days, he kept the town’s construction crews fueled up, but he also fed many potential charter owners’ hungry kids!
Carol Joseph recalls visiting Dillon on the day they were there deciding on their lot. “I caught him just as he was leaving and asked if he had anything, just a sandwich even, I could feed my kids,” she recalls. Of course Dillon graciously obliged while also excitedly divulging:
“Sure thing, I was only
The Schaudies’ home under construction.
closing early today because I am getting married tomorrow!” That was July of 1999, and happily ever after, he and Miriam married the next day.
SMALL TOWN LIFE
Carol Joseph clearly remembers first encountering the small town mentality of Rosemary. “My mother and I had gone to Summer Kitchen for dinner, and after a leisurely meal and a bottle of wine, we were the last guests to leave.” That night, Joseph hadn’t bothered with a purse, and she went to pay with the single credit card stowed in her back pocket. Well the credit card was new and hadn’t been activated yet. Showing the true spirit of a small town, Summer Kitchen’s owner Miriam Dillon came out and told them not to worry a bit, just come back tomorrow to pay.
LEAPS OF FAITH
For many charter owners, it was a stretch or leap of faith to buy a lot and decide to build here. Many dipped into savings and took out loans to build the houses that created this town. “Future phases were still just a mound of sand and scrub oak,” Bret Azzarelli mused.
You’d think these charter owners might become wistful when sharing memories, but resoundingly they express a sense of pride. They remark how charming and beautiful the town has grown to become. Even now, when Main Street is in full tilt, these owners experience a sense of community and closeness between their neighbors and the town’s merchants.
Jennifer Webb and a visiting friend outside their Rosemary Beach home.
EYES ON THE SAME PRIZE
Rosemary Beach charter owners are a diverse group of people all drawn to a lifestyle for similar reasons. Their closeness was sparked, in part, by bonds built in those formative early years. Each echoes the same turn of phrase: “We met as neighbors and became lifelong friends.” Polly Schaudies reflected on the fun of meeting friends while catching the sunset views from the boardwalks.
Azzarelli aptly explained, “Very quickly we realized the people drawn to Rosemary Beach in those early years all possessed an energy to create something where nothing previously existed.”
It wasn’t just going to be a subdivision, it was realizing a dream collectively. “These values and virtues of our town are still important to us to this day,” Jay Schaudies further explained.
25 years later, there’s no arguing this still rings true. Through navigating the often complicated building process and later establishing a property owners board, this talented group of Rosemary Beach’s first landowners built themselves a town.
Unparalleled, Rosemary Beach is linked together by footpaths, walkways, and boardwalks but notably: it’s the people and their shared experience that celebrates the true spirit of New Urbanism itself.
In our Fall issue we will continue this Silver Anniversary series by talking to charter merchants. These visionaries will share how their businesses ebbed and flowed with the growth of the town.
A Rosemary Beach Timeline
1995
Leucadia National
Corporation considers a tract of land south of State Hwy. 30-A and engages DPZ Design founded by Andres Duany, FAIA and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, FAIA, as the town planner.
First Charette (architectural brainstorming session) for the new urbanism design of Rosemary Beach.
The name "Rosemary Beach" is agreed upon because of the expanse of native rosemary bushes on the tract.
Rosemary Beach founded— the tract south of Hwy. 30-A purchased.
Patrick Bienvenue of Leucadia named project manager of Rosemary Beach and becomes president of Rosemary Beach Land Company.
Larry Davis engaged at the Realtor for Rosemary Beach.
Elizabeth Guyton
appointed as Rosemary Beach Town Architect.
First Plat of Rosemary Beach filed.
Coquina Pool completed.
1996
First lots sold.
Fifty-eight acre parcel
purchased on the north side of 30-A, creating the Park side of Rosemary Beach.
1997
Second Charette to envision the design of the Park side of Rosemary Beach.
Sea Oats Beach Service
begins on Rosemary Beach.
Tom Kramer and Mary
Zahner complete construction of their carriage house, becoming the first official residents of Rosemary Beach.
First annual meeting of the Rosemary Beach Property Owners Association.
1999
The Wright Cottage, designed by Eric Watson, is the recipient of
Southern Living's 1999
New Home Award.
HGTV Dream Home
opens as the first dwelling on the Park side of Rosemary Beach.
The Summer Kitchen
opens as the first Merchant of Rosemary Beach.
Rosemary Beach Town Hall constructed
Owners celebrate the
Millennium at a formal gala at the Rosemary Beach Town Hall
2000
Cabana Pool completed.
Rosemary Beach Town Post Office opens. Carolyn Flippo serves as first postmistress.
2001
St. Augustine Park
dedicated.
Butterfly Park and Keyhole
parks completed.
Phase X – the final phase of Rosemary Beach – opens for sale.
2002
Sky Pool opens as a year-round facility.
Barbados Pool completed
Lot sales threshold reached, triggering Turnover.
2003
An Owner-organized Rosemary Beach Property Owners Directory distributed to connect Owners.
Turnover Committee of Owners established.
Owners vote on first Rosemary Beach POA
elected Board of Directors.
Jim DelMauro elected Board President.
Turnover of assets and management from Rosemary Beach developer (Leucadia) to the Rosemary Beach Property Owners Association approved by Owners.
Jim Bagby selected as Town Manager.
2004
Hurricane Ivan buffets Rosemary Beach, destroying all walkovers and eroding beaches.
First Hometown Hero Award established to honor individuals who went above and beyond in securing Rosemary Beach in the face of Hurricane Ivan.
South Walton Montessori
Academy opens on land north of St. Augustine Park.
Inaugural Jim DelMauro
Rosemary Run 5K
2005
Chapel on the Beach
begins Sunday services in the Town Hall. Company (Leucadia) assigns its Founder's rights to Rosemary Beach Holdings, LLC.
2006
Rosemary Beach
Foundation established as the charitable and civic facet of Rosemary Beach.
First Girls Getaway Weekend established as a fundraiser of the Rosemary Beach Foundation.
2007
The Rosemary Beach
Merchants Association
is established.
First Summer Lemonade Stand established at Gigi's Fabulous Kids to benefit Alaqua Animal Refuge
Rosemary Thymes, the Rosemary Beach hometown newspaper, publishes its inaugural issue.
2008
RBPOA Offices dedicated.
2010
Rosemary Beach is a performance venue for the first 30a Songwriters Festival.
2011
Owners meet at the Town Hall to affirm Rosemary Beach POA Vision and Values and the strategic plan.
First Rosemary Beach Uncorked festival
Ohana Institute
opens its doors at the Mercado Building
2012
Apostles On-The-Beach
begins Sunday services in the Town Hall.
2013
Mike Huggins begins as Interim Town Manager
2014
David Bailey begins as Town Manager
2015
Owners' Center and
Pavilion dedicated.
2017
2018
2019
Town's telecommunication network upgraded to “fiber to the home.”
