Name: Central Florida Chapter General Meeting - September 18th 2025
Start: 2025-09-18T18:30:00-04:00
End: 2025-09-18T20:30:00-04:00
Location: Leu Gardens

### 🧭 **NEXT: Central Florida Chapter General Meeting – September 18**

📍 **Leu Gardens – Magnolia Room**
🕡 **6:30 PM – Social Time \| 7:00 PM – Presentation Begins**
Bring a snack to share and join us for an evening of community, conservation, and storytelling at our monthly chapter meeting.

***

### 🌊 **Featured Speaker: Doug Alderson**

**New Dawn on the Kissimmee River**
Between 1960 and 1971, the Kissimmee River was straightened and channeled by the Army Corps of Engineers in an effort to control flooding. The result? A significant loss of wildlife and habitat, and a boom in development that threatened native species even further.
But the story didn’t end there.
In **New Dawn on the Kissimmee River**, author and paddler **Doug Alderson** shares his 2007 expedition down the Kissimmee chain of lakes and the newly restored river. Along the way, he and his team witnessed the quiet return of wildlife, from soaring birds to sunbathing gators, in what has become the **world’s most successful river restoration project**—and a guiding light for Everglades restoration.
Doug will take us through the ecological and historical significance of this incredible transformation and the ongoing fight to protect Florida’s waterways.

***

### 📖 **About the Author**

Doug Alderson is the former associate editor of *Florida Wildlife* magazine and retired as the Florida Paddling Trails Coordinator for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. He’s written numerous books celebrating Florida’s natural and cultural heritage, inspiring readers to reconnect with the wild places that make our state so unique.

***

### 🌿 **Half-Back Raffle – Win Some Cash!**

🎟️ Tickets: **$1 each or 6 for $5**
💰 Winner takes home **half the pot**, with the other half supporting our chapter’s work.

***

📅 **Thursday, September 18, 2025**
🕡 **6:30 PM – 8:00 PM**
📍 **Leu Gardens – Magnolia Room**
1920 N Forest Ave, Orlando, FL 32803
Don’t miss this inspiring evening celebrating the resilience of Florida’s landscapes—and the people who fight to protect them.
**We can’t wait to see you there!** 🥾📚🌾

Chelsey Maureen Stevens

Florida Trail Association - Central Florida Chapter

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Central Florida Chapter General Meeting - September 18th 2025

Leu Gardens

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Florida Trail Association - Central Florida Chapter

Central Florida Chapter General Meeting - September 18th 2025

Florida Trail Association - Central Florida Chapter

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