GAINESVILLE, Florida — The University of Florida has received a $5,000 grant from the Florida Sea Turtle Grants Program to conduct the first comprehensive, statewide study of Florida’s thousands of dedicated sea turtle volunteers.

The study is led by UF School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences (SFFGS) Doctoral Student Cyndi Stinson who is researching the human dimensions of natural resource conservation.

Thousands of volunteers across the state carry out sea turtle nesting duties, stranding response, transport, hatchling response, beach monitoring, rehabilitation facility assistance, and public education such as night walks. Yet their contribution has never been systematically measured, Stinson said. The project, titled “Strengthening Conservation Through Community,” sets out to change that by studying volunteers’ motivations; duties and commitment; conservation communication; and demographics.

The project supports Stinson’s dissertation research under SFFGS co-chairs Dr. Mysha Clarke and Dr. Wendy-Lin Bartels. More broadly, it anchors her dissertation on wildlife community engagement and aims to create one of the first foundational tools for measuring wildlife volunteer engagement, using Florida’s sea turtle volunteers as the model. Stinson is also a volunteer and serves as marine turtle permit holder for stranding and salvage and is the program director for the Sea Turtle Preservation Society in Brevard County.

For the first time, the study will put a dollar value on that commitment using volunteers’ reported hours and a conservative, Florida-anchored replacement-cost method. Using geospatial flow maps, it will visualize the reach of sea turtle conservation messaging from volunteers outward into their families and communities, producing the first tangible picture of the communication conservation footprint of Florida’s volunteer network.

Alongside this, the study examines why people volunteer for sea turtles and what keeps them engaged season after season. It builds on a 2002 survey by then UF Graduate Student Bianca Bradford and UF Professor Glenn Israel, Ph.D., of Florida sea turtle nesting duty volunteers, which makes it possible to see if the community has shifted over more than twenty years. Together, these findings will give conservation programs practical tools to recruit volunteers and support the ones they have. In addition, this research will establish the value of community conservation, laying the groundwork for increased volunteer program support for government agencies and non-profit organizations.

The project continues a long tradition of sea turtle research at UF. The nearby Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, one of the most important sea turtle nesting beaches in the world, is named for the late UF zoologist Archie Carr, whose work helped establish the modern field of sea turtle conservation and helped inspire the founding of the Sea Turtle Conservancy, which administers this grant today. Stinson is a member of the University of Florida’s Archie Carr Refuge sea turtle research group, which carries that legacy forward, and her doctoral committee includes Dr. Ray Carthy of the Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research, a longtime leader in Florida sea turtle research.

The Sea Turtle Grants Program awarded $581,000 in total grants this year to support research, conservation and education in Florida thanks to sales of the Florida sea turtle specialty license plate.

UF and Stinson’s project was selected through a competitive application process open to coastal county governments, educational institutions, and Florida-based nonprofit organizations working to protect sea turtles and conserve Florida habitats.

“Florida’s sea turtles are protected by thousands of volunteers, and we have never truly measured what they give,” said Stinson. “This project puts real numbers to their commitment and shows how their influence reaches into communities.”

The study also acknowledges the permitted volunteer framework established by the state of Florida and managed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Marine Turtle Protection Program, which has organized and authorized this volunteer workforce for decades.

Launched in 1996, the “Helping Sea Turtles Survive” specialty license plate raises money for two programs that benefit Florida sea turtles: the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Marine Turtle Protection Program and the Sea Turtle Grants Program, which returns funding for sea turtle conservation projects. The Sea Turtle Grants Program is administered by the Sea Turtle Conservancy and has funded research, education, and conservation work across Florida since 2001. Florida drivers can support both programs for an annual fee of $23 by purchasing the plate at any county tax collector’s office. Read more about the plates here.

To learn more about the Sea Turtle Grants Program and the “Helping Sea Turtles Survive” specialty license plate, visit www.helpingseaturtles.org.

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