Category: Environmental Concerns

• NEVER IGNORE A “LITTLE OLD LADY IN TENNIS SHOES”

  

  By P.C. Zick – @pczick.bsky.social “I’m just a little old lady in tennis shoes.” So said Margaret Hames when other more glowing titles followed her name. Environmentalist, conservationist, defender of wetlands, scrubs, and hammocks, and savior of public places in Brevard County, Florida, are more accurate descriptions of this “force of nature,” her daughter, Pat Baxter,…

  P. C. Zick

  July 29, 2025

  Books by P. C. Zick, environment, Environmental Concerns, Life in the United States, mindfulness, Ramblings of a Writer, Trails in the Sand, wildlife

  Brevard County, Enchanted Forest, Florida environment, Florida fiction, Manhattan Project, Margaret Hames Nature Center, native plants, Turkey Creek Sanctuary Preserve

• SMALL TOWNS ROCK – CEDAR KEY, FLORIDA

  

  When I moved to a small north Florida town in 1980, I loved the location in the middle of the state. We could drive to the Atlantic Ocean in less than two hours, or we could be sitting at a bar overlooking the Gulf of Mexico in less than ninety minutes. Harry Cruise, a Florida…

  P. C. Zick

  May 27, 2025

  Books by P. C. Zick, environment, Environmental Concerns, Life in the United States, Ramblings of a Writer, Small Town, wildlife

  Atlantic Ocean, Carl Hiassen, Cedar Key, Florida Fiction Series, Florida small towns, Gulf of Mexico, Harry Cruise, hurricanes, lumber, oysters, small towns, Sunshine State, Tortoise Stew, University of Florida

• CAN’T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE JUNK MAIL

  

  I no longer receive many personal items in the mail. I still send out cards and letters myself, despite knowing I’m in a slim majority. I send photos, fun pop-up cards, and feel-good notes of encouragement. Soon, I will be an anachronism. Recently, I had to buy stamps on a Sunday and couldn’t wait for…

  P. C. Zick

  May 20, 2025

  environment, Environmental Concerns, Life in the United States, Ramblings of a Writer

  environmental, fundraising, junk mail, mail, recycle, Sierra Club, snail mail, USPS, waste, World Wildlife Federation

• CELEBRATING EARTH DAY 2025

  

  Fifty-five years ago on April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day was celebrated. Maybe the word “celebration” doesn’t quite fit here because its inception came as the result of some horribly tragic events—an oil spill and the discovery by a woman scientist/writer of the harm done to wildlife and humans from pesticides. All those years…

  P. C. Zick

  April 22, 2025

  Books by P. C. Zick, environment, Environmental Concerns, Life in the United States, Trails in the Sand, wildlife

  Allegheny River, bald eagles, DDT, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Department of Environmental Protection, Earth Day, Earth Day 2025, Florida Environmental Novel, Florida fiction, oil spill, pesticides, Pittsburgh, Rachel Carson, Santa Barbara oil spill, Silent Spring, Trails in the Sand, wildlife

• TRAILS IN THE SAND CELEBRATES #FREE

  

  To start off Earth Day 2025 week, I’m offering my Florida Fiction novel, Trails in the Sand, for free downloads April 21-25. What does this novel have to do with Earth Day? Everything. Book Blurb: When environmental writer Caroline Carlisle sets off to report on endangered sea turtles during the Deepwater BP oil spill in…

  P. C. Zick

  April 20, 2025

  Books by P. C. Zick, environment, Environmental Concerns, interview, Life in the United States, Ramblings of a Writer, Trails in the Sand, wildlife

  BP oil spill, Cape Canaveral, Deepwater Horizon, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Earth Day, Florida beaches, Florida environment, Florida Environmental Novel, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Gulf of Mexico, oiled wildlife, sea turtle eggs, sea turtle nests, Trails in the Sand

• WILD FOR FLORIDA WILDLIFE

  

  “Why aren’t there any mosquitoes when I visit Florida?” I was once asked. “Where do you go in Florida?” I asked. “To Disney World, Sea World – all those theme parks around Orlando.” I wondered how to reply without bursting this man’s image of “natural” Florida that exists within the gates of “unnatural” worlds made…

  P. C. Zick

  April 15, 2025

  Environmental Concerns, Life in the United States, Ramblings of a Writer, Trails in the Sand, travel

  alligators, coyotes, Disney World, Florida environment, Florida Fiction Series, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida wildlife, natural Florida, Sunshine State, tourists in Florida, wetlands, wildlife

• FOR THE LOVE OF SEA TURTLES

  

  I’ve long had a love affair with sea turtles. It might have started when I learned the amazing life history of this species. It only grew after my experience first as a volunteer member of a sea turtle patrol on Matanzas Beach, Florida, twenty years ago. Then fifteen years ago, I was a part of…

  P. C. Zick

  April 1, 2025

  environment, Environmental Concerns, Life in the United States, mindfulness, Ramblings of a Writer, Trails in the Sand, wildlife

  Deepwater Horizon oil spill, endangered species, Florida beaches, Florida environment, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, hatchlings, life history sea turtles, loggerhead, saving sea turtles, sea turtle nests, sea turtles, Trails in the Sand