{"id":277585,"date":"2026-05-20T03:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T03:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/277585\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T03:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T03:38:10","slug":"ddws-reports-on-refuge-programming-and-more-sanibel-captiva-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/277585\/","title":{"rendered":"DDWS reports on refuge programming and more &#8211; SANIBEL-CAPTIVA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<br \/>\n                                                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.captivasanibel.com\/news\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#13;<br \/>\n                                &#13;<br \/>\n                    \/News                                                        &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n            <\/a>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n            &#13;<br \/>\n                        &#13;<\/p>\n<p>1 \/ 2<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"slide\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/REFUGE-DDWS-PROGRAMS-EVENTS.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>REFUGE\/DDWS<br \/>\nSpecial guest and seven-time Federal Duck Stamp Contest winner Jim Hautman will make an appearance at the J.N. \u201cDing\u201d Darling National Wildlife Refuge&#8217;s Art in the Wild on Oct. 20-22 on Sanibel.<\/p>\n<p>2 \/ 2<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"slide_tall\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/REFUGE-DDWS-PROGRAMS-EVENTS-1-473x840.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>REFUGE\/DDWS<br \/>\nCharacter reprisors for President Teddy Roosevelt and Jay Norwood \u201cDing\u201d Darling will be on hand on Oct. 21 to celebrate Darling&#8217;s 150th birthday.<\/p>\n<p>            <a class=\"prev next_prev_slide\" onclick=\"plusSlides(-1)\"><\/a><br \/>\n            <a class=\"next next_prev_slide\" onclick=\"plusSlides(1)\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>            [expand]<\/p>\n<p>        close<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cDing\u201d Darling Wildlife Society-Friends of the Refuge (DDWS) provided the following updates for the J.N. \u201cDing\u201d Darling National Wildlife Refuge, at 1 Wildlife Drive, Sanibel:<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Wildlife Drive admission is fee-free on Memorial Day, May 25. The Visitor &amp; Education Center and administrative offices will be closed.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 The Bailey Tract will fully reopen upon boardwalk construction completion by early June.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 The \u201cDing\u201d Darling Amateur Nature Photography Contest will open on July 15. Submissions will be due by Sept. 15.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Submissions for the \u201cDing\u201d Darling-Theodore Cross High School Photo Contest will be open from Oct. 1 through Jan. 15.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Art will meet nature at Art in the Wild on Oct. 20-22.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 The refuge will celebrate Jay Norwood \u201cDing\u201d Darling\u2019s 150th birthday on Oct. 21.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 The REVIVE! Trash-To-Fashion Couture Collection Show will be held on Nov. 4.<\/p>\n<p>            &#13;<br \/>\n                        &#13;<br \/>\n                        &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n            &#13;<br \/>\n            &#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; &#13; \/News &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; 1 \/ 2 REFUGE\/DDWS Special guest and seven-time&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-277585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}