HARMONY'S NATURE & ANIMAL COMMITTEE

DID YOU KNOW that Harmony was designed to promote the peaceful coexistence of human and animal residents within the community while striking a balance between the preservation, use and enjoyment of Harmony's natural areas? Underlying these objectives are the values of fostering a respect for the land, the protection of wildlife and the sensible use and enjoyment of Harmony's abundant natural and manmade amenities by its residents.

Believe it or not, Harmony has its very own Nature and Animal Committee. This group of unpaid residents has been hard at work for years endeavoring to keep our environmentally intelligent community values alive here. Over the years we have held regular Conservation Café events. These include trail walks, boat tours on Buck Lake, golf cart tours of the Golf Preserve, garden tours, or bringing outside folks to educate us. We’ve hosted educational programs here in Harmony that are given by a wide variety of conservation- and community-oriented organizations and individuals. Among them are Amazing Animals,

Back to Nature Wildlife Refuge, Wild Florida, Gatorland, Florida

Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and Osceola Sheriff’s Canine Team, just to name a few. There have been programs offered by astronomers, bat keepers, beekeepers, cattle ranchers, venomous snake keepers (including milking venomous snakes!!), and more.

Other activities we put on include an annual photo contest (shout out to Cherry Young, for being the person who has managed this!), and this year’s just concluded in April. Another of our significant activities is maintaining the Harmony Trails. Once the modifications are complete on Billy’s Trail we will be publishing a new trail map on our website. We have also been working to re-establish resident access to Cat Lake (stay tuned!). We have even had a trap/neuter/spay program for feral cats in the community so they don’t become a widespread problem for residents and a danger to themselves. We maintain a website at https://www.harmonynac.com. And WE NEED HELP! We need your help, if you can give it. You don’t necessarily need particular skills, just a can-do attitude.

Due to insurance/liability issues, we cannot accept one-time volunteers for our efforts, but we welcome folks to join our committee and help as they can. You don’t need to attend our monthly meetings or help with everything, just one or two areas of our efforts would be most welcome. We are looking for help in just about all of our activities: scheduling and holding events for adults, families, and kids, managing our feral cat care, maintaining the trails, writing articles like this one, helping with our contests, and reaching out to residents about our activities.

This column is an example of HNAC efforts. I’ve been writing them monthly for around 8 years or so, to continue to educate and inform residents about the many issues that impact our little community’s environment, wildlife, our pets, our natural amenities, and more.

If you’d like to join the HNAC, we’d love to have you! Please visit the website at https://www.harmonynac.com to learn more about what we do and then click on the link under “Join the Nature and Animal Committee” to apply to become a member! n