MICHAEL MCGOFF, NATURALIST

Note: This is an article I wrote while in my last year as an undergrad at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. It was written for a journalism class (my BA is in Mass Communications/Journalism; class of 2009).

MICHAEL MCGOFF, NATURALIST

By Robin Shwedo

©: Robin Shwedo, 2009

It is one of those rare Florida days when the temperature and humidity are perfect. A slight breeze rustles the leaves of the nearby trees. Just past the final turn in the long driveway to Sawgrass Lake Park, the park’s Anderson Environmental Educational Center comes into view. The airy openness of the building is deceiving: this is a classroom. But this is not any old boring class: this one is fun. The fun stems from several directions: the interesting subject matter, the outdoors, and the teacher.

Naturalist Michael McGoff is passionate about the subject he taught for years: preserving the Florida environment. “I’ve always had an interest in the outdoors,” the recently-retired McGoff told me while at the center. “Since I was a little kid, I either wanted to be a park ranger or a cowboy. Cowboy positions weren’t opening, so it came to be a park naturalist,” he adds, a smile creeping onto his face.

The Tampa Bay native (“I grew up near MacDill Air Force Base”) decided early on that he wanted to work outdoors. He checked several Florida colleges while still in high school and discovered that Lake City Community College in Lake City offered several associates’ degrees that would allow him to follow his dreams. He enrolled in the park ranger program, ready to follow the call of the great outdoors. But he soon discovered that being a park ranger had more to do with logging and lumbering so he switched majors to park management, which would allow him to be more in touch with nature. The irony is that he no longer sees himself as a park manager but as a naturalist.

According to Random House Dictionary, a naturalist is “a person who studies oris an expert in natural history, especially a zoologist or botanist,” while Online Etymology Dictionary defines it as a “student of plants and animals.” Both definitions fit McGoff perfectly. His eyes light up when discussing the plant and animal life around him.

I first met Michael McGoff in the Anderson Environmental Educational Center at Sawgrass Lake Park. The building’s large entrance looks like a breezeway, open at both ends. In reality, it takes the visitor into a large room where live animals are displayed: there are native snakes in large enclosures, slithering up large branches, turtles swimming in a large aquarium filled with native plants. In the far corner of this room is an office; it was here I found Mr. McGoff.

He offered to give me a tour of his office, which housed cabinets and shelves with all manor of interesting finds. The first cabinet he opened was filled with black plastic boxes, white cards on the front to indicate the contents of each container. “These are the aquatic invertebrates,” McGoff said, pointing to the boxes. “When we do a pond-study with the students, usually fourth-graders, they go out and catch stuff with nets and we identify it.” His eyes crinkled as he spoke about the experience. It was easy to imagine the excitement the students must feel, learning through hands-on experience, rather than simply reading about animals.

Another cabinet was filled with jars of vertebrate specimens, many dating back to 1979 when the county was first developing the park. There were various types of fish, several leopard frogs, sea turtle eggs and snakes. “This is rather old-school,” he said, pointing out several of the specimens. “I doubt we would use the same methods (of recording specimens) today. The idea of keeping a dead animal in formaldehyde is passé.” He much prefers digital cameras to keep a record of what is found.

The next stop was an impressive shell collection, held on large sliding trays. Most of these were found at Fort DeSoto, while the rest were brought in from other Pinellas County beaches. There was even a horseshoe crab and a sea urchin test in the collection. (A test is the sea urchin’s exoskeleton and usually all that remains after a sea urchin has died.) “I think they’re very interesting,” McGoff said, pointing to these last two items. A lot of the park’s publication materials are also kept in the shell cabinet, which is somewhat air-tight and filled with moth balls.

Heading for a group of large drawers, McGoff’s voice became animated. “This is one of the fun drawers!” he exclaimed, pulling open a deep drawer to reveal an alligator skull. “This is fun as a hands-on exhibit, taking it to schools.” I was impressed; imagine the oohs and ahhs a group of fourth-graders would make over seeing and touching the skull.

McGoff opened another drawer and pulled out a large bag. He admitted that it wasn’t nearly as exciting as the alligator skull. Is that…? “Yes, this is dirt,” he responded, both of us laughing. “But different types of soils are associated with different kinds of plant communities and different elevations, so it’s important for us to know this.”

There was another drawer with fossilized shells, many from extinct specimens, as well as pottery shards and stone tools. “Archeology is another important part of Sawgrass Lake Park’s educational program,” he said. The park once had an archeologist on staff.

Above the drawers sat several stuffed animals, including an otter and a large owl. As the otter stood sentinel, the owl seemed to stare fiercely at us, challenging us not to cause any more extinctions. We headed to the educational center’s main room or lobby, the owl’s stare following us out the door.

Along one wall were aerial photographs and maps of the park. McGoff pointed to a hand-drawn map from 1845. It showed the lake, labeled as Sawgrass Pond; the map shows it connected to the salt water. “There was a tidal influence and with that salt water influence, most of what was growing in this natural basin was sawgrass, a very salt-tolerant species,” McGoff stated.

A second map, from 1952, showed canals. “These canals have been developed, some as early as the 1920s,” he went on. These canals drain much of the surrounding area into a natural basin. “There’s also a spill-way that tends to separate the fresh water from the salt water. Now we have drainage that allowed relatively dry, moist land open to the sun and that’s when a maple forest grew up here,” he continued, indicating land just west of Sawgrass Lake.

According to McGoff, a person might still find rows of citrus trees just north and east of the lake; these were planted by the O’Berry family, early citrus pioneers in Pinel-las County, who planted groves in the park.

“SWIFTMUD purchased the land for flood control,” McGoff continued. In 1979, SWIFTMUD got together with Pinellas County Park Department with the idea that if the land was going to be used for flood control, it could also be used as a Pinellas County park. “While the land is still mainly used as flood control, it is also used now for educational and recreational opportunities.”

Next on the tour is the aquarium located in the middle of the lobby. “It is a central attraction here,” McGoff stated. Several people were peering into its water at the plants and animals, backing up his statement. “Many of the animals here were found in area canals.” There were peninsula cooters, a type of turtle native to Florida, with dis-tinctive yellow stripes on its head and legs; soft-shelled turtles; several large-mouth bass. But not all the animals that make their way here from canals are native to Florida. “We have a walking catfish, which is native to Southeast Asia.”

The last two exhibits we looked at were several snakes in terrariums, sunning themselves on the grass or slithering up tree limbs, and native Indian artifacts. He also talked about one of his biggest gripes: garbage. “If someone brings sodas in six-pack rings or decides to fish using poles and fishing lines and then leave them, birds, turtles and other wildlife can get caught and not be able to get away. Even if they do get away, the rings and filaments can prevent them from eating. I guess what I’m trying to say is that garbage kills.”

The phone rang; it was for Mr. McGoff. He smiled, took the call, and waved as I headed off to wander through the park with a new appreciation for the local environment. Several hours later, as I was leaving, I found Mr. McGoff to report several areas where I had spotted some garbage. Most of it was beyond reach from the boardwalk.

“It’s amazing,” he sighed. “It seems that garbage is everywhere, even here.” He made note of where I’d spotted the garbage and said he’d have some of the park’s volunteers retrieve it by boat. He thanked me before heading back to his office, where he planned to finish paperwork before calling it a day.

After 37 years of working for the Pinellas County Parks’ Department, he has more than called it a day. As of October 1, 2009, Michael McGoff is officially retired. Many people might choose to kick back and relax, maybe playing a little golf or catching the latest soap operas. Not Michael McGoff. It took several weeks of trying to finally reach him.

While the first two or three calls to various Parks And Recreation numbers weren’t helpful in reaching Michael, they were revealing of his personality and his love of the environment.

“What a fantastic guy! He’s why I went to work for the parks’ department!” one woman told me. “He retired and I don’t have his number. Let me give you another number. They might be able to reach him…”

Finally, a lady named Jean (“Just Jean, please.”) at the Parks And Recreation’s main office told me she had a contact number for him. “Let me give it a try. Call you right back.” Half an hour later, she called me. “He wasn’t home, but that’s not surprising. I finally left a message on his voice mail.”

Thanking her, I hung up. Two days later, when my phone rang, an unfamiliar number on the caller ID, I answered. “Hi, Mike McGoff here,” he said to my hello? “I understand you’ve been trying to reach me.”

When asked what he’d been up to, now that he was retired, he answered without hesitation. “I’ve been doing a little traveling around the state. So far, I’ve visited half a dozen State Parks in the Florida panhandle, maybe a few more. Of course, it’s only been six weeks since I’ve retired,” he laughed. Did he plan to visit more parks? “Definitely. I want to try visiting all the State parks in Florida. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for quite a while.”

What was the most enjoyable part of teaching students and adults about parks and the environment, I wondered. “What would really make my day would be is someone said they were here in the fourth grade and were back with their family. Just being able to see people I’d taught come back with their family and say that they were working to help the environment in one form or another was really great.”

Several weeks ago, I spoke with Jason C.... The 35-year-old grew up in Pinellas County and had gone to several public schools in the area. He remembered going to Sawgrass Lake Park on a fourth grade field trip. “There was a man there — I think his last name was McGoff — and he was really excited about the environment.” It was the first time that Jason realized that a person could actually make a living teaching about the environment and making a difference. “I decided then that I wanted to do something to help the environment when I grew up.”

He now lives in Knoxville, Tennessee and is committed to environmental issues. He recently started helping out with the United Mountain Defense, a volunteer group “dedicated to protecting Tennessee’s environment and communities and halting the destructive practices of mountaintop removal.”* “I’ve been busy trying to teach others about the environment and why thinking and acting environmentally so important.” He credited his fourth grade field trip with helping him realize that this was something he’d love to do.

When I relayed this to Mike McGoff, he sounded happy. “I’ve always wanted to impart the love of the outdoors to those I’ve come in contact with.”

Soon it was time to say our good-byes.

So, the next time you’re at a Florida state park, if the tall man next to you begins telling you that that tree is a Bald Cypress and that if you want to see the worlds largest stand, you should check out the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, and, by the way, he’s proud that you’re teaching your children not to litter, listen; you just may be in the presence of a Naturalist, environmental teacher and hero.



* Quote about the United Mountain Defense group is from UMD’s website and may be found at http://www.unitedmountaindefense.org/volunteer.html.

Note: This was written in late 2009/early 2010.

Also, check this out for a short video.