The Lake Sarasota Community Blog

Lots of things for folks of all ages - nature walks, talks, gardens, wildlife, bicycling, hikes, and classes on botany, history, and landscaping. Find out all about the activities for February in our parks - click here for the February Friends of Sarasota County Parks (FOSCP) News .

IF you're wondering what to do today... Celebrate Adult and Family Literacy Month at Oscar Scherer State Park Make reading second nature and celebrate Adult and Family Literacy Month at Oscar Scherer State Park, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.   on Saturday, Sept. 11.   Fun, free, family activities and free admission by showing a library card or library book or by donating a gently used book.  For more information click here.     By the way, this and more info comes to emails in the form of a very nicely designed weekly newsletter entitled Community Connections from the County - you can subscribe for free: Greetings!   Welcome to Sarasota County Community Connections eNewsletter. We hope that you will tell family, friends and neighbors about this great new free service provided by Sarasota County. Contact us if you have questions, ideas for featured articles, or feedback on the new system at e-mail   pubcom@scgov.net .  

We are pleased to offer our nature events for the month of September. Please read each press release below for the date, time, location, directions and registration information. Thank you volunteer guides and staff! Stay safe and stay cool! ON-LINE REGISTRATION  - Go to  www.scgov.net . Click Calendar of Events on the left. Click the 'All Events' drop down, choose 'Nature Walks' and click 'go'. Scan the calendar for the event and date of your choice and click. Towards the bottom of each nature walk event is information with either a bolded area to click for on-line registration, supplying your name, email and phone number or a contact person and phone number to call for registration.  (Please note: Your registration information will not be shared and will be used only for contact purposes for the event of inclement weather or walk cancelation only.) Please, remember to respect our fellow participants, animals, lands and air space.  To further enhance the experie...

Check out Paddle Sarasota, a clickable map that leads to more detailed maps of 12 kayak and canoe trails, along with detailed information about nearby sites and points of interest along each one. == The county's calendar has drop-down lists so you can find events by type. E.g., for nature walks, under the "All Events" tab just click on Nature Walks, click "Go" and here's the list for August. If you're looking for a wide array of recreational activities, click the tab to Parks and Rec, click "Go," and you get more than you can possible get to. == To check out the scene at Siesta Beach from home, click on the Siesta Beach Cam. == All the above and more - links to dog parks, park acquisitions, therapeutic recreation etc. etc. can be found on the county's Parks and Rec site .

Interested in parks and recreation in Sarasota County? Check out and bookmark Discover Natural Sarasota County - a superb site full of rich information on the embarrassment of riches in Sarasota.

The BMX track built by some neighborhood boys over the summer has been flattened. It was on Jarvis St. next to the home of one of the boys, and had been getting lots of use by some 15 or more BMXers. A recent picture of how it looked (click to enlarge): Here's how it looks today: Demetra McBride, a forester with the county, had explained in an email (click here for full text) why the county looked on the track in an unfavorable light. However, to the best of our knowledge, notification of the county's intention to raze the track this week was not communicated to members of the Lake Sarasota Community Group. Ms. McBride did say in an addendum to her email: I spoke with Mrs. ___ about inviting her son Michael to be a "neighborhood spokesperson" when we open the community conversation on this project. From his work, it appears that he is motivated, organized and a good youth ambassador. As this potential project is intended to serve that demographic, we feel it is impo...