By Joe Murphy
Valentine’s season is here. I confess: I love wild Florida. I could explain why by offering simple reasons such as sunshine, clear waters, charismatic wildlife and the peace that nature brings to the troubled human spirit. All those things ring deeply true.
Wild Florida, however, deserves more. True love – true deep and abiding love, welling up from the depths of one’s soul – calls for deeper introspection.
To me, wild Florida is the heart and soul of nature in our state – a place devoid of fences, houses, roads and the trappings of humanity. It lies just beyond the paved road’s end. It is all the watery, sandy, swampy, leafy and verdant places that all manner of wild species call home.
I love wild Florida because so many intricate systems full of endless details and small parts, when woven together, form a mosaic of life that is astounding. Sierra Club founder John Muir observed that, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.”
Nothing exists in isolation. Living creatures, living things and wild places exist in interconnection. Sometimes, we can’t understand this until it is too late and we have disrupted something ancient and timeless.
In south Florida, land managers, ornithologists, volunteers and support staff are engaged in the noble effort to pull the Cape Sable seaside sparrow back from the brink of extinction. Through their field work and captive breeding programs, they are showing the very embodiment of love for wild Florida.
They seek to right a wrong that humanity’s hubris created. They seek to hitch together again everything in the universe, in the spirit of John Muir, one species at a time.
I love that wild Florida allows us to embrace our sense of wonder and discernment, true gifts of human consciousness, to try to make sense of a natural world that is steeped in complexity and mystery. Sometimes as we age, we lose our sense of awe and wonder. Wild Florida can rekindle it.
Neil deGrasse Tyson, famed astrophysicist, has argued that all children are born scientists. I taught elementary school science, and his words ring true.
“How” and “why” are common and beautiful questions. My students would often ask, “How do birds, so small and fragile, travel so far when they migrate, even over huge bodies of water?”
Wild Florida nurtures and nourishes in us the opportunity to continue the journey of discovery into adulthood and share it with our children and grandchildren. Life without mystery, without wonder or without exploration is not truly life.
Consider how sea turtles navigate the vast oceans. Female sea turtles, after an open ocean journey of almost 30 years, essentially return to the same beach where they hatched, to lay their eggs.
Scientists theorize that turtles use natal homing and navigate through the Earth’s magnetic fields. The endless cycles of evolution that occur through geological time and the geographic instinct, encoded into each turtle and unbroken over timeless generations, almost defies belief.
I love wild Florida because of the beauty and natural magic in all species, from the most endangered to the most common. We tend to assign value to the species that are most rare. A good day watching wildlife or birding is defined by the most elusive or eclectic observation. Yet the common is just as valuable.
Wild Florida reminds me of this. What is considered a “common species” is sometimes in a state of uncertainty. In observance of that reality, wild Florida reminds me to value what is in front of me and not assume it is permanent.
Species like skunks, horseshoe crabs and otters are far less common in my experience than they were in my youth. Value what we have and always be vigilant in its conservation. This is a lesson shared with us by our natural world. I love that wild Florida is a lifelong teacher.
Wild Florida is richly deserving of our love in this season of valentines. We live in a state full of such wonder, such splendor and such biodiversity that it breathtaking that we could squander it – simply breathtaking.
Love is not just admiration, it is action. It is vigilant protection of what is loved. Our love language for wild Florida must be conservation. Our love must be grounded in preservation – love that demonstrates our deep and full commitment to wild Florida.
Joe Murphy is a native and lifelong Floridian who lives in Brooksville, along the southern Nature Coast of Florida. He and his wife Becky are celebrating their 25th anniversary on Valentine’s Day 2026. You can follow Joe on Instagram @naturecoastjoe. Banner photo: Hands in the shape of a heart against a forest background (iStock image).
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