April 13, 2025
By Michele Miller
What’s What New Port Richey
It had been a while, so it was like coming home in a way that brings you back in time. Back to the days when my own kids were in their formative school years and experiencing the best local field trip ever. Back to the days when I was a local reporter writing about one of the county’s “hidden jewels,” – the Pasco Schools Energy and Marine Center – which this year, it turns out, is celebrating a 50th anniversary.
It was always one of my favorite places to visit and write about. Especially when you wanted to get out of the office and some of the best Florida has to offer is just a stone’s throw away.
The Energy and Marine Center, nestled along the shore of the Salt Springs Run estuary in Port Richey, is where county students have been coming for decades to learn about how the mangroves, oyster beds, the marsh and the adjacent hammock play in the food chain as well as the impact the estuary has on the world and the environment. It is one of three Pasco County educational centers that offer environmental programs geared to different age groups. Others are at the education center at Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park in New Port Richey and at Crossbar Ranch in Spring Hill, where middle school students learn about the Florida Watershed. High school students also access the sites, often on field trips with environmental science classes.
It was the EMC that school officials chose to show off in 2000 when they brought the acclaimed primatologist and environmentalist, Jane Goodall, who was visiting students and teachers who had established a Roots & Shoots program at Hudson Middle School.
On Saturday, April 12, 2025, the center opened its gates to the public – newbies and return visitors alike came out to spend time engaging in a variety of hands-on educational experiences while learning more about the center and its history, including the damage wrought by Hurricane Helene and the clean-up that was pretty much completed by staff in 30 days record time as not to disappoint local students who were scheduled to visit.
For 50 years, the Pasco Schools Energy and Marine Center has been creating collective experiences and memories in the minds of fourth graders who attend the Marine Science Explorers Program.
This is the place where many experience doing science as scientists in the field for the very first time, said Stephanie Swaim. As an instructional assistant at the EMC, she helps guide students through a variety of lessons meant to help them understand the importance of the marshes and mangroves, and oyster beds in cleaning the estuary of the pollutants that spill in from the Cotee River.
“We see what eats at low tide. We see what comes in to eat at high tide. They learn about the natural filters and how they work so we don’t have pollutants in our estuary.”
For some, it’s a first-time adventure on the Gulf.
“Last week, we had students from East Zephyrhills here and even though they had a long bus ride, we gave them the whole-day experience,” Swaim said. “We have kids who come here who have never been to an estuary – never had their feet in the salt water before.”
Here, after completing preliminary book work at their home school, students learn how to use tweezers and magnifying glasses to discover tiny crabs and other creatures cradled in an oyster clutch. They slip on water shoes and venture into the mucky shoreline with large seining nets that must be turned just the right way to collect small fish that find protection amongst the mangroves and pilings in what is known as the “nursery of the gulf.” They examine collected plankton under a microscope. Learn and compare the freshwater and saltwater ecosystems that are fed by the Pithlachascotee River that travels for miles above and underground before draining into the Gulf.
Some have attended summer camps here. Others, such as Isabella Gonzalez and Nathan LeBlanc who were volunteering for the day, get a chance to come back as high schoolers to learn how to test the water, master kayaking skills, or take a boat ride out to Durney Key to snorkel and tend to a restoration project that is underway using plants grown in tanks at the EMC.
“Coming here is just a wonderful experience,” said Isabella Gonzalez, who was serving as a guide at the center’s outlook tower. “It’s amazing – all this nature surrounds us and it’s right here.”
The 50th anniversary celebration comes on the heels of a devastating hurricane season. The high water mark left from Helene that flooded the downstairs classroom measures 6 feet tall. The adjacent wooden walkway that traverses the mangroves, where students typically collect water samples for testing, was still blocked off to the public.
The lookout tower, which boasts a beautiful view of the estuary and the gulf, however, remained open to those willing to climb some stairs.
Below, volunteers demonstrated seining techniques and EMC Environmental Resource Teacher, Donna Hogue, directed visitors to volunteer-led activities and to the dock where visitors could line up for a brief boat ride.
“The volunteers are taking over the stations and doing magical things,” Hogue said on what turned out to be a glorious day weatherwise.
Kristi Theurer, an elementary teacher who has been bringing students to the center for field trips for over 30 years, was snapping photos for posterity. She would later announce that she was reunited with a student she brought to the center 32 years ago – no doubt among several who came back with their own kids because they wanted to share the memories that hadn’t left them.
Jean Knight, a retired teacher and instructor with the Marine Exporers Program and the Watershed Programs for middle schoolers, helped students identify creatures -egg sacks, shrimp, pin fish – that had been scooped up in seining nets and put into small tanks for the day.
“It brings back memories,” she said. “It’s a wonderful event. The community gets to see what goes on here. The kids get to bring their parents here to show them what they’ve learned.”
“I wish they would do this every year so more people would know about it.”
Story links –
- Environmental education teacher Jean Knight introduces one last class to her passion, Michele Miller, Tampa Bay Times, 2015
- Students dig into hands-on learning at the Energy and Marine Center, Michele Miller, Tampa Bay Times, 10/2020
- Pasco teacher hosting Jane Goodall’s summit, Michele Miller, Tampa Bay Times, 1999
Advertisement
Be the first to comment