Steve Cofone, UR- Boy scout to submariner to Environmentalist/ What a great life!

At 6 years old, I made the newspaper with this sunflower started in a dixie cup

 Hi-I'm Steve and I will say I am very excited to be here. As a child I always wanted to be a forest ranger, and at 52 I am pursuing that dream(or a close facsimile) with one semester left the anticipation is great.
I am from RI, have always been involved in boy scouts as a young person and went all the way through. I joined the US Navy at 19 and spent a little over 9 years as a submariner, going to sea the whole time I was in. I have been all over the world to include The north pole, the equator(swam in the ocean at 0 degrees) panama canal, and many places I still can't discuss. After the Navy my love for gardening and plants led to me becoming a Virginia Certified Horticulturist. In Florida I have managed several different companies, very large down to some small ones, to include my own for about 6 years.

My first run on a sub, leaving Holy Loch, scotland

When I decided to go to school to fulfill my dream, I signed on with Americorp, I volunteered for 1700 hours in a period of 11 months under a program called Project A.N.T., we surveyed, recorded and terminated non-native exotic species in our 174 state parks. With Americorp I was able to become certified Wildland Firefighter LV1, and became certified Prescribed burn crew. That was an exciting opportunity that I truly love. This led to a position as a park ranger at our state parks, I have served on several different state parks with very different missions.I was on a formal garden/post "new deal" park, I have been on a park where I preformed sea turtle patrol every morning,counting the eggs, moving the nest and recording the data. I am now at a historical state park and my job is more of a curator in a museum teaching guests history of Florida which is a great opportunity in its own right.

The largest prescribed burn I was on, a total of  945 acres

I have a second job at Petco, as an animal lover this is also an excellent position for me,  to share my knowledge of pet food and small animal care it is a delight.
I look forward to this class, I heard about this class my 1st semester and have been very excited to attend it since then. Which seems like 3 very long years ago.
I look forward to learning with all of you and hope you are as excited as I am.

Thanks for reading this-Steve Cofone