Friends of Wakulla Springs State Park Annual Meeting March 8th 2026
The annual Friends membership meeting will be held on March 8th 2026. We'll begin at noon with a delicious light lunch prepared by the Lodge, followed by the program at 1:00 PM. This year's guest speaker is Tony Murray, presenting "Building A World Heritage Site: A Legacy Worth Preserving." Following the program, we will hold two special raffles courtesy of the Lodge: a one-night stay at the beautiful Lodge, and a separate $50 gift certificate for lunch or dinner. Members are then invited to take the annual riverboat ride, provided by the Park, which departs around 2:30 PM. We look forward to seeing you!
Tony Murray is a seasoned environmental scientist and conservation strategist with more than three decades of cross-sector experience spanning federal, state, municipal, private, and non-profit arenas. A Biology graduate from Florida State University, Tony began his career at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, where he spent over 15 years performing hazardous waste site assessments and contamination investigations across the state of Florida’s diverse ecosystems. He later served for 12 years as an Environmental Scientist with the City of Tallahassee, managing environmental compliance and risk mitigation across 26 departments—from electric generation and municipal water supply to wastewater, solid waste, transportation and sustainability. He then worked in federal disaster recovery efforts and was stationed for 6 months in the U.S. Virgin Islands following Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Always drawn to the water, in 2005 Tony obtained his U.S. Coast Guard 50-Ton Master Captain’s License. Via his extensive experiences on our waters - in 2010 - he recognized the need for an advocate and voice for the long-term conservation of our vulnerable Big Bend coastal ecosystems and founded the nonprofit Big Bend Coastal Conservancy (BBCC) to protect Florida’s Big Bend coastal areas for future generations. His work has included habitat restoration, artificial reef implementations and advocacy for critical conservation lands and waters in our Big Bend.
Now fully dedicated to long-term conservation efforts, Tony leads efforts to formally nominate Big Bend region as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. With its globally significant seagrass meadows, high biodiversity, rich cultural heritage and exceptional climate resilience, the Big Bend stands as a natural landscape of universal value worthy of international recognition and protection.