Florida Coast

Miami is the largest of many booming urban areas along the east coast of Florida. Above, the group is heading into an excellent Cuban restaurant in Miami. Below, they are posing for a group photo on a protected beach just south of Jacksonville. Most of the coast between these places is highly developed with many homes and businesses on fragile and relatively unstable coastal landforms such as spits and barrier islands.

The group was able to appreciate both the appeal of this area for development and the hazards posed by hurricanes in this area. This conflict between protection of habitat and development is typical of the issues Florida faces. In this case, it would appear that nature can take care of herself, and our concern is for coastal dwellers in the event of a hurricane. In other cases, it is clear that human intervention will be needed to protect Florida's magnificent ecosystems.

That's all! (Then we went home and got stuck overnight in a blizzard in Ohio).