One with nature
SUN PHOTO BY BRENDA BARBOSA
Peace River Audubon Society volunteer Shannon McGinnis helps clean up Audubon-Pennington Nature Park in Port Charlotte. She's known locally as "The Garbage Granny."
SUN PHOTO BY BRENDA BARBOSA
Audubon-Pennington Park is named after longtime Punta Gorda resident Betty Pennington.
SUN PHOTO BY BRENDA BARBOSA
Audubon-Pennington Nature Park is a bird lover's paradise with more than 80 species of birds.
SUN PHOTO BY BRENDA BARBOSA
Shannon McGinnis of Port Charlotte, aka "The Garbage Granny" is one of the volunteers from the Peace River Audubon Society who empties the garbage bin each week at Audubon-Pennington Park in Port Charlotte. Volunteers helps keep the park clean.
SUN PHOTO BY BRENDA BARBOSA
Shannon McGinnis, "The Garbage Granny", is part of the volunteer team from the Peace River Audubon Society that does weekly clean ups at the Audubon-Pennington Nature Park in Port Charlotte.
SUN PHOTO BY BRENDA BARBOSA
A variety of Florida ecosystems can be seed at Audubon-Pennington Nature Park, including Pine Flatwoods.
SUN PHOTO BY BRENDA BARBOSA
Peace River Audubon Society Larry Linn cuts back overgrown branches on the main trail in Audubon-Pennington Nature Park in Port Charlotte. Linn has volunteered for weekly clean ups at the park for the last 12 years.
SUN PHOTO BY BRENDA BARBOSA
Audubon-Pennington Nature Park in Port Charlotte is a quiet oasis in an increasingly busy world.
PORT CHARLOTTE — It’s Wednesday morning at Audubon-Pennington Nature Park. As the sun makes its way upward, warm streaks of light poke through the branches of a live oak, revealing a lush bed of fern and flowering shrubs on the ground below. Soon it will be summer and the heat will be heavy. For now, though, the sweet smell of pine mingles in the crisp morning air.
Since 2008, the Parks Department has seen a substantial reduction both in resources and staff. In fiscal year 2007, for example, the county spent roughly $2.8 million just on park maintenance, according to Budget Director Gordon Burger. In fiscal year 2010, that figure was closer to $1.2 million, he said.
