Clyde Butcher holds fundraiser for Big Cypress National Preserve this weekend
Landscape photographer Clyde Butcher, and his wife, Niki, will host the third annual fall festival, this weekend at Butcher’s Big Cypress Gallery in the Big Cypress National Preserve in Ochopee.
The festival will take place on Saturday, Oct. 28 and Sunday, Oct. 29, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.
Open to the public, this event is free of charge. Reservations for the event are not required, but participants can get on the priority swamp walk list.
Ranger-led swamp walks will be $50 for adults and children walk free with 100 percent of the proceeds from the ranger-led swamp walks benefiting the Big Cypress National Preserve’s environmental education department. The donated funds will go towards S.W.A.M.P., the preserve’s curriculum-based environmental education program for sixth-grade students.
Guests will have a chance to explore the stunning landscape of the Big Cypress National Preserve on a ranger-led guided tour with marked trails, located behind the Big Cypress Gallery. Park rangers will have informational tents set up about the park for attendees to enhance their understanding of the preserve and hear about other phenomenal places to visit.
Visitors will also have the opportunity to participate in a rare and intimate meet-and-greet gathering with the husband-and-wife duo.
During his first public appearance since recovering from a stroke in May, Butcher will personalize his books, calendars and photographs. He will be sharing a large selection of his Florida photographs and his photographic adventure stories. Butcher will also be showing his Cuba exhibit with information panels about his expeditions.
The gallery is at 52388 Tamiami Trail | Ochopee | Highway 41 at mile marker 54.5
Clyde Butcher’s black and white photographs explore his personal relationship with the environment. For more than 40 years, Butcher’s photography has been preserving the untouched areas of the landscape on film. His images, ranging in size, are captured with an 8×10″, 11×14″ and 12×20″ view camera. The large-format camera allows him to express the elaborate detail and textures that distinguish the intricacy of the landscape.
Recent projects include work for Florida’s “Save Our Rivers” program, the South Florida Water Management District, the D.E.P., Divisions of State Lands, the Bureau of Submerged Lands and Preserves, Everglades National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Audubon Society, The Nature Conservancy, River Keepers and the Wilderness Society. Clyde has been honored by the state of Florida with the highest award that can be given a private citizen: the Artist Hall of Fame Award. He has also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the North American Nature Photography Association and honored with the Humanitarian of the Year for 2005 from International University. He was also given the Heartland Community Service Award from the state of Florida for educating the people of Florida about the beauty of their state. The Sierra Club has gifted him with the Ansel Adams Conservation Award, which is given to a photographer who shows excellence in photography and has contributed to the public awareness of the environment.
A large selection of Clyde’s photography can be seen at his Venice Gallery & Studio in Venice, Fla. and at his Big Cypress Gallery, which is located on 13 acres in the center of the Everglades in the Big Cypress National Preserve.
About Big Cypress National Preserve
Today, over one million people explore the Big Express National Preserve each year. The freshwaters of the Big Cypress Swamp, essential to the health of the neighboring Everglades, support the rich marine estuaries along Florida’s southwest coast. Protecting over 729,000 acres of this vast swamp, Big Cypress National Preserve contains a mixture of tropical and temperate plant communities that are home to a diversity of wildlife, including the elusive Florida panther.