Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition

By foot, kayak and horseback, the expedition team journeyed north from Everglades National Park, through the Big Cypress National Preserve, up the Kissimmee River to the Lake Wales Ridge, through the Ocala National Forest, and, finally, to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southern Georgia.

When their journey was complete, conservation photographer Carlton Ward Jr., documentarian Elam Stoltzfus, conservationist Mallory Lykes Dimmitt and bear biologist Joe Guthrie had traveled 1,000 miles in 100 days.

The ambitious trek ― the Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition ― is the focus of a new exhibition at the Tampa Bay History Center, 801 Old Water St., Tampa.

Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition: The Photographs of Carlton Ward Jr. takes visitors on a virtual expedition from the Everglades to the Okefenokee. The exhibition features a collection of large-format images taken by Ward, along with maps, video footage, audio clips, news reports and equipment used by team members during the expedition.

The exhibit also looks at similar explorations undertaken by earlier explorers and naturalists William Bartram and Mark Catesby, both of whom traveled through Florida’s interior in the 1700s.

Ward is an eighth-generation Floridian whose photographs have appeared in such publications as Audubon, Smithsonian, Nature Conservancy and National Wildlife. His 2009 photo book, Florida Cowboys, won a silver medal in the Florida Book Awards, and Popular Photography Magazine featured him as one of three photographers working to save vanishing America.

Florida Wildlife Expedition: The Photographs of Carlton Ward Jr., is on exhibit through May 5, and is sponsored by The Mosaic Co., The Kimmins Family Foundation, WUSF Public Media and the Tampa Bay Times.