WATER-WIND-FIRE
Resiliency in the Big Bend and Apalachee Bay
A Public Conference sponsored by Aucilla Research Institute
A Public Conference sponsored by Aucilla Research Institute
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Water-Wind-Fire Conference Speakers
Andy Hemmings, ARI
Andy Hemmings, ARI
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Thoughts on Florida’s Terminal Pleistocene Flora at Early Archaeological Sites An inordinately high percentage of the plant remains recovered at several north Florida Paleoindian sites are edible or usable by humans. Though direct usage of specific species is very limited (typically charred pieces in hearths), the abundantly useful plants found in meaningful archaeological contexts strongly suggest that not only were these species readily available to the Earliest Floridians, but were very likely being used by them as well. Particularly rich data from Page/Ladson, Wakulla Springs, Vero, and Sloth Hole are augmented with information from additional sites. |
C. Andrew Hemmings received Anthropology degrees from the University of Arizona (BA 1991) and the University of Florida (MA 1999, PhD 2004), followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Texas. Dr. Hemmings’s primary research interests focus on the Terminal Pleistocene landscape and the biotic communities present when people first arrived in the New World, their material culture, technology, and subsistence activities. Current research largely bookends the span of Floridian history with Paleoindian and Latest Prehistoric/Historic archaeological topics, generating considerable amounts of new information on the Big Bend and Newnansville in Alachua County, the theme of his next book.
Dr. Rochelle Marrinan
Dr. Rochelle Marrinan
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Cultural and Religious Adaptation in the Missions of Northwest Florida
The Apalachees of Northwest Florida faced substan"ve cultural challenges as the mission system was extended into their homelands. Although the arrival of missioners was not made by force of arms, many of the cultural prac"ces commonplace in Apalachee society faced accommoda"on to economic, legal, and religious precepts. This presenta"on considers what archaeological and archival research tells us about the changes in Apalachee lifeways between 1633 and 1704 when the area was abandoned and the Apalachees became refugees, displaced people, or enslaved. |
Dr. Rochelle Marrinan is an associate professor, and the former chair, of the Department of Anthropology at Florida State University. She received a PhD from the University of Florida in 1975 and has had a distinguished career as an educator and researcher in the field of archaeology. Her primary areas of interest are North American and Caribbean archaeology; Spanish missions in Florida; material culture; and zooarchaeology and faunal analysis relating to prehistoric foodways. Between 1984 and 2002, she directed field schools for students that focused on mission research. In 2013, Marrinan received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southeastern Archaeological Conference, awarded for excellence in the study of the archaeology of the Southeastern United States.
John Ladson, ARI
John Ladson, ARI
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The Origin and Life Ways of the Aucilla and Wacissa Rivermen: Circa 1900 - 1940
From the wild and isolated Aucilla and Wacissa river basins circa 1900-1940, and their abundant natural resources, I trace social and economic forces impacting the region. What were the migration and survival strategies of intrepid, pioneering characters in this beautiful, but periodically hostile area? These strategies include hunting, fishing, free-ranging livestock, logging, illegal whiskey trade, and other activities. Anecdotes of colorful individuals and their families illustrate how the rich and bountiful assets of this riverine environment supported their livelihood and independent lifestyle. |
John Ladson
The Georgia native received degrees from Emory University and Georgia State University. He, his wife Susan, his daughters, and grandchildren live in Vidalia, GA, along with 4 dogs, a very old, very large tomcat. A renaissance man, Mr. Ladson had a diverse business career and loves fishing, wing shooting, Llewelyn setters, wildlife management, archaeology, and history. He co-authored Stories of the Aucilla” and “The Wacissa Slave Canal”
The Georgia native received degrees from Emory University and Georgia State University. He, his wife Susan, his daughters, and grandchildren live in Vidalia, GA, along with 4 dogs, a very old, very large tomcat. A renaissance man, Mr. Ladson had a diverse business career and loves fishing, wing shooting, Llewelyn setters, wildlife management, archaeology, and history. He co-authored Stories of the Aucilla” and “The Wacissa Slave Canal”
Ryan Truchelut (Weather Tiger)
Ryan Truchelut (Weather Tiger)
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Fast Time, Slow Time: Understanding North Florida’s Weather and Climate on Daily to Decadal Scales
The weather and climate of North Florida are a mix of continental, subtropical, and tropical influences. But how do these disparate air masses interact, and are major Panhandle weather events able to be skillfully forecast? This presentation analyzes the predictability and cyclicality of hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, flooding, and winter storms in Florida’s Eastern Panhandle. The role of major climate modes like the El Niño-Southern Oscillation is assessed, along with contributions from regional patterns such as the North Atlantic Oscillation and more localized factors, including Gulf sea surface temperatures. Finally, trends in North Florida weather are discussed in an anthropogenic forcing context. |
Ryan Truchelut is the co-founder and Chief Meteorologist of WeatherTiger, a Tallahassee agricultural meteorology, expert witness, and hurricane forecasting company. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in Geosciences and earned his PhD. in Meteorology in 2015 from Florida State University. His research on tropical cyclone risk, seasonal forecasting, and predictive analytics has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals. He is best known locally as the writer of WeatherTiger’s Hurricane Watch, a bestselling, top 500 Substack newsletter, and for his appearances in the Tallahassee Democrat and USA Today-owned papers across Florida.
Ralph Clark, PE
Ralph Clark, PE
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Impact of Hurricanes Idalia, Debby and Helene on the Big Bend Coast of Florida
Florida’s Big Bend coast experienced an unprecedented three hurricane landfalls between August 2023 and September 2024. Hurricanes Idalia, Debby, and Helene made landfall in Taylor County with severe impacts extending south through Dixie and Levy Counties. When Category 3 Hurricane Idalia came ashore in 2023 with maximum sustained winds of nearly 125 mph, it devastated several small Gulf-front communities with strong winds and high storm tides estimated between 7 and 12 feet. In 2024, Category 1 Hurricane Debby’s impact was substantially less, with storm tides ranging from 2 to 6 feet. Category 4 Hurricane Helene followed, bringing catastrophic impacts with storm tides ranging from 10 to 15 feet. |
Ralph Clark has dedicated 52 years to preserving Florida’s beaches and coast. He developed Florida’s initial coastal building standard, now embedded in the Florida Building Code, and wrote the guidance book on the design and construction of ocean fishing piers. In 1989, Clark developed the first listing of Florida’s critically eroding beaches, updating it annually. The Critically Eroded Beaches report is posted on DEP’s Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection website. Through the years, Clark has investigated the impact of 111 major storm events, including 57 hurricanes. Currently, Clark is developing inlet management plans for nearly 70 coastal inlets around Florida, adopting target sand bypassing strategies to mitigate the erosion of adjacent beaches.
Morgan Varner, Tall Timbers
Morgan Varner,
Tall Timbers Offense and Defense |
How Florida Plants Live with Fire Florida's uplands are one of the most fire-prone landscapes on the planet. These ecosystems, burned frequently by humans and lightning for millennia, harbor a tremendous diversity of plants with often elaborate fire adaptations. This talk will review the evidence for past and contemporary fire in north Florida ecosystems. Traditional studies depicted plants as objects that can either endure, evade, or avoid fire's lethal heat. This talk will explore these aspects, focusing on how plants are subjects that modify their environment and manipulate fire in Floridian landscapes. |
Morgan Varner is Director of Research & Senior Scientist at Tall Timbers, where for the last 6 years he has focused on understanding how fire and plants coexist. He has published over 150 papers and book chapters on fire ecology, prescribed fire, and fire science across North America and has testified in the US Senate. He was a Team Leader and senior scientist with the USDA Forest Service's Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Lab in Seattle and a professor for 12 years in California, Mississippi, and Virginia. He earned his PhD from the University of Florida.
Tony Murray, Big Bend Coastal Conservancy
Tony Murray,
Big Bend Coastal Conservancy |
It’s Ancient and Alive
Florida’s Big Bend Coast is a landscape of exceptional global value, where deep human history, ecological richness, and sustainable economic potential intersect. This region holds some of the earliest and most continuous evidence of human habitation in the southeastern United States, with archaeological records extending back over 14,000 years. Equally remarkable is the ecological integrity of the Big Bend. As one of the most pristine coastal ecosystems in North America, it encompasses vast seagrass beds, estuaries, springs, and old-growth forests that serve as critical habitat for countless species, including threatened and endemic flora and fauna. This natural environment has both shaped and preserved the cultural record, creating an intertwined heritage of land, water, and people that is both ancient and alive. |
Tony Murray is an environmental scientist and conservation strategist. For more than 30 years, his cross-sector experience spanned federal, state, municipal, private, and non-profit projects. A FSU graduate, he led DEP hazardous waste site assessments and contamination investigations across Florida’s diverse ecosystems. For 12 years, the City of Tallahassee employed his expertise as an environmental compliance scientist, and he had a key role in federal disaster recovery efforts in the US Virgin Islands and Florida following Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Murray is the founder director of the Big Bend Coastal Conservancy (BBC).
Bruce J. MacFadden, PhD - - KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Bruce J. MacFadden, PhD Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Florida
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Florida Pre-History for Everyone Basic scientific research, such as advances in Florida prehistory, contributes to a foundational knowledge base. These discoveries are most impactful when they are communicated not just to scientific audiences, but also to the public at large—“Everyone” in the title above. Particularly with projects that use government funds, it is expected that scientists communicate their research effectively to society. In so doing, scientists explain why the public should care about them. Primarily within the context of Florida prehistory, including archeology and paleontology, examples will be presented that highlight educational activities (so-called “Broader Impacts”) for the public. These include: (1) Florida Museums, (2) the Aucilla Research Institute’s outreach to rural Florida, and (3) UF’s Scientist in Every Florida School initiative. These examples will focus on K-12 education, as well as related museum and lifelong learning experiences. We will reflect on both the scientific discoveries and their benefits to society.
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Professor MacFadden is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus and the founding director of the UF Thompson Earth Systems Institute. As a curator at the Museum of Florida Natural History in Gainesville, he specializes in vertebrate paleontology, focusing on fossil mammals. He has been the President of both the Paleontological Society and the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Jennifer Rogers, Tall Timbers Research
Jennifer Rogers,
Tall Timbers Research |
Monitoring Remotely
Remote sensing can be used to monitor plant communities and support conservation. New hyperspectral satellites capture photos with hundreds of narrow color bands, offering even more detail than traditional imaging. In this study, we explored applying a transformation to maximize this added information to emphasize subtle differences. Using imagery from an Italian satellite (PRISMA) we classified land cover in the North American Coastal Plain. Our final model achieved on average 76% accuracy when predicting known locations. Notably, it could distinguish subtle differences between native longleaf pine savannas (upland, sandhill, and flatwoods) highlighting its potential for identifying diverse and endemic ecosystems. |
Jenny Rogers is a Remote Sensing and Geospatial Technology Analyst with Tall Timbers, a research station and land conservancy in Tallahassee, FL. Her main projects over the last two and a half years with the organization have been mapping southeastern plant communities using next-generation satellite data and developing strategic tools to prioritize the protection of conservation land. Through her work, she aims to contribute meaningfully to conservation efforts by leveraging her passion for satellite data and problem-solving to protect and preserve fire-dependent ecosystems.
Brendan Fenerty, University of Arizona
Brendan Fenerty, University of Arizona
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Make No Bones About It: Pyritization Contributes to the Discoloration of ‘Stained’ Fossil Bones in the Aucilla River, Northwest Florida
Fossilized Pleistocene vertebrate remains from the Aucilla River, a renowned paleontological and archaeological locality in the Big Bend of Florida, are often distinguished by a dark discoloration or ‘stain.’ Explanations include (1) the absorption of plant-derived tannins from the water and (2) the precipitation of a mineral coating. To test for a mineral coating, we examined a discolored fossil Bison bone using Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy. X-ray peaks produced by nodules observed on and within the specimen are typical of the mineral pyrite. Pyritization while buried in a submerged, anoxic environment could contribute to the discoloration in conjunction with the absorption of tannins upon erosion and exposure to flowing water. |
Brendan Fenerty is a geoscientist with a PhD (2025) from the University of Arizona, where his research in Sonora, Mexico, involved reconstructing Late Pleistocene–Holocene paleoclimate dynamics using alluvial fan soilgeomorphic relationships and paleo-lake and wetland sedimentary successions. Brendan has contributed to geoarchaeological investigations of Late Pleistocene and early Holocene (‘Paleoindian’) archaeological sites throughout North America, including submerged sites in the Aucilla River. Brendan is currently employed as a geologist in the mineral exploration industry.
Ben Tanner, Stetson University
Ben Tanner, Stetson University
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Organic Sediment Accumulation Within Spring Runs Associated with the St. Johns, Santa Fe, and Suwannee Rivers
Organic-rich sediments associated with 15 Florida springs and spring runs along the St. Johns, Santa Fe, and Suwannee rivers were probed, cored, and radiocarbon dated. Many of these spring runs have been accumulating sediments for thousands of years and may offer opportunities for archaeological study. Further detailed core work has been conducted at Wekiwa Spring, just downstream of the headspring vent, where ~3m of continuous, organic-rich sediment was collected. Multiproxy data from that core records the Pleistocene to Holocene transition and provides a record of changing sediment grain size, organic matter content, as well as carbon and nitrogen stable isotope composition. |
Ben Tanner is Professor of Environmental Science and Studies at Stetson University, DeLand. He earned a Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 2005. He graduated in 1999 with a degree in geology from FSU. Dr. Tanner continued into Quaternary and Climate studies (University of Maine), culminating in Earth and Planetary Sciences (University of Tennessee). He uses geology to understand how humans interact with the environment. Through studying wetlands, he applies geology to understand how such features respond to climate and environmental change. He also uses wetland deposits to explain past climate changes, including temperature, precipitation, and sea level changes. Florida's abundant wetland environments provide many research opportunities for his students.
Tyler MacMillan, Tall Timbers
Tyler MacMillan, Tall Timbers
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Offense and Defense: Conservation Easements in the Big Bend
Tall Timbers has been conserving lands in the Red Hills region for many years, mostly through donated conservation easements. In recent years, the box of available “tools” for securing conservation easements has expanded considerably. Since 2021, in partnership with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and other regional partners, Tall Timbers has also been implementing a Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) in the Aucilla and St. Marks/Wakulla River watersheds. This program is focused on encouraging exemplary land stewardship, with an emphasis on forest management practices such as prescribed burning, reforestation, invasive exotic plant management, and forest improvement. |
Tyler grew up in Tallahassee, completing B.S. and M.S. degrees at FSU, after which he was employed by the Northwest Florida Water Management District for 32 years, initially developing and implementing watershed plans and water quality improvement projects. In 2004 his responsibilities shifted to oversight of land management operations for the 212,000 acres of public conservation lands owned by the District. In 2021, Tyler started working at Tall Timbers in its Regional Conservation Partnership Program, which is focused on fostering exemplary land stewardship on private lands in the Aucilla and St. Marks River watersheds in south Georgia and north Florida.
Willet Boyer, ARI
Willet Boyer, ARI
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Living Near The “River Of Ivitachuco”: The Aucilla River As Boundary And Interaction Zone In The Early Contact And Colonial Periods
The Aucilla River forms a unique geological feature which, during the late precontact, early contact, and colonial eras, formed both a boundary between cultures to its east and west, as well as an interaction zone within which the Timucuan-speaking people of Asile and others to the east met and dealt with the Apalachee on the western side, particularly the people of the chiefdom of Ivitachuco. This paper will discuss how the unique properties of the Aucilla River shaped the lifeways of both the Native cultures and the impact of the Spanish after colonization of this area. |
Willet Boyer is an Associate Scholar with the Aucilla Research Institute and an educator in Jefferson County, Florida. He recently was recognized as the 2025-2026 Teacher of the Year. He received his PhD in historical archaeology from the University of Florida in 2010. His research focus is the late precontact, early contact, and colonial eras in Florida and the greater Southeast, as well as the 19th-century plantations and Black communities of this region.
James Dunbar, Chairman ARI
James Dunbar, Chairman ARI
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What Did 16th-century Spain Know About Florida’s Big Bend Coast?
In the early 1500s, Spanish privateers' junkets along the Florida coast involved raids aimed at supporting the slave trade. They preconditioned indigenous Floridians to mistrust and respond violently to the subsequent conquistador expeditions. While conquistadors sought riches, they faced attacks that led to their failures. By 1565, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, who established St. Augustine, was not there for wealth but to drive out the French and secure the seaway route off Florida to Spain. A crucial question that arises is what ship pilots and chart makers learned about the Big Bend coastline during the early days of exploration before 1565? |
Jim worked for the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research and participated in research projects at the Paleoindian Page-Ladson, Alexon Bison, and Ryan-Harley sites. He was awarded a National Geographic Society grant, as well as others, to investigate Wakulla Spring sites. He is the founder and board chairman of the Aucilla Research Institute, an organization dedicated to understanding past cultures that once inhabited these lands and to the earth sciences that enabled humans to thrive. He is the author of the book Paleoindian Societies of the Coastal Southeast. Recently, he has been involved in the study of early historical maps and their potential to enhance our understanding of historical documents of their time.
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The ARI website was funded in part by a grant from The Perkins Charitable Foundation. |
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