Temple Terrace, Florida -- What began as a small, one-room collection of hand-me-down books has grown into one of the busiest public libraries in Hillsborough County, with more than 250,000 visitors annually.

The Temple Terrace Public Library is celebrating its 50th anniversary as part of National Library Week (April 8-14). The library will host an Anniversary Reception on Monday, April 9 with guest speakers, exhibits, refreshments, dignitaries, good friends and wonderful stories of years gone by.

Thonotosassa, FL -- The Southwest Florida Water Management District will be conducting “controlled, prescribed burns” during August and September on the District’s Flatwoods Park in Hillsborough County.

Approximately 200 acres of land will be burned in small, manageable units. The scheduled, managed burns are a part of routine maintenance of lands managed by the District.

Some entrances or trails at Flatwoods Park may be temporarily closed on weekdays during August and September to facilitate the safe execution of prescribed burns.

Crystal River, FL -- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced Tuesday, June 21 a proposal to expand federal protection areas for manatees in Citrus County by creating a manatee refuge including all of Kings Bay in Crystal River.

The manatee refuge would include all waters of Kings Bay, its tributaries and adjoining water bodies upstream of the confluence of Kings Bay and Crystal River.  In addition to the proposed rule, the Service is making available its related draft environmental assessment (EA) for comment.

The Service designated the first manatee sanctuaries in 1980. At that time, about 100 manatees were using the network of springs and the number of people viewing manatees was estimated at 30,000 to 40,000 per year.

Today, more than 550 manatees use Kings Bay and winter manatee viewing activities are estimated to exceed 100,000 people each winter. In recent years, manatees have also been observed using Kings Bay during the summer months.