For over 10,000 years and hundreds of generations, the indigenous peoples lived in and moved across Florida. In the mid-1800’s European settlers moved into central Florida and just west of the Peace River established a small community that came to be known as Homeland. My great- great grandparents were some of those early settlers. In the years that followed, phosphate ore was discovered in large quantities near the surface, and phosphate mining companies acquired and strip-mined thousands of acres. By the 1960’s virtually all the land surrounding Homeland had been mined. This activity made our small community an island surrounded by mined-out land and lakes, much of which has remained untouched for decades. Over time the scars of the strip mining have been surrendered back to nature, creating a wilderness. Today the fringes of the Homeland community are an intersection between human activity and this renewed, natural world. I have been privileged to observe and photograph the wildlife and the landscape along that part of the intersection that is my backyard.