Frequently Asked Questions

We are busy year-round! The team at Joe Budd Youth Conservation Center do everything from hosting field trips and workshops at JBYCC’s campus to visiting schools and classrooms with conservation education. Check out all of our current services below:

FIELD TRIPS

Field trips specially-designed to fit your classroom's needs! JBYCC's campus is open to school groups Monday-Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. For more information, visit: Field Trips

IN-SCHOOL PROGRAMS

Have an environmental educator come to your school! JBYCC staff are thrilled to present their in-school programming, featuring curricula correlated to Florida Science Standards and STEAM. Our schedule is flexible, accommodating a single class or several throughout a school day.

While the programs are designed to be hosted outdoors, they can be modified for indoor presentation in cases of bad weather. All we need is an outdoor pavilion or open field. All programs are free and will provide the necessary supplies. For more information and to see the specific programs offered, check out our flyer.

FAMILY PROGRAMS

JBYCC offers unique single family experiences, hosting one family per weekday for a variety of outdoor experiences including fishing, hiking, pond studies, bird watching, archery, and wildlife discovery. This uniquely-structured family programing is available September through December, from 10AM-2PM. For more information, visit: Family Programs

KNEE-HIGH NATURALIST

A new adventure program for 3-5 year olds and their grownups! Let us guide you and your little one through Project Wild’s award-winning Growing Up Wild curriculum, designed to build on children’s natural sense of wonder about nature. At this exciting new weekday program, we extend an invitation for families to explore wildlife. Through a wide range of experiences and activities, we’ll help your child develop a positive first impressions about the natural world and build into lifelong social and academic skills. Check out our Knee-High Naturalist flyer for more information.

SURVIVAL WORKSHOPS

CONSERVATION EDUCATION

The goal of the Joe Budd Youth Conservation Center Network education program is to complement and enhance classroom learning, educating all visitors on conservation stewardship and encouraging a lifelong delight in nature.

Long-term goals for student learning include the following:

• To develop an understanding of and respect for the natural environment.
• To gain an understanding of a diversity of our natural world.
• To develop a feeling of responsibility and accountability for human environmental impacts on the natural environment.
• Students desire to return to Joe Budd Youth Conservation Center as a camper.

A man named Joseph Budd owned the Budd Cigar Company as well as many other plots of land in and around Quincy, Florida. The Budd Cigar Company company grew tobacco, rolled cigars, and had 800 employees. The two main cigars he produced were the Lord Clinton Cigars and the Florida Queen Cigars. At one time, Mr. Budd was was the second wealthiest individual in all of the Florida Panhandle. He purchased the land that Joe Budd Youth Conservation Center now sits on in the 1930s from the St. Joe Paper Company. He also leased an additional 20,000 acres around his property.

The property was his favorite place in the world, and he took refuge in the sport of hunting and fishing in his man-made pond. He enjoyed fly fishing in the pond and would boast that the waters were so clear that you could see the fish as it was reeled in. The pond was built on the property when the spring was discovered and dug out to a great depth for the enjoyment of the guests of Joe Budd. Mr. Budd picked out the timber personally for the log cabin that is built on the property. Red clay mortar fills each crack to secure the two-story cabin and the large fireplace provided warmth for the hunters and guests. Mr. Budd even purchased bucks from Wisconsin to enhance the deer population, which became very large and had impressive antlers like their Wisconsin cousins. Mr. Budd also raised and released large grackles of turkeys on the property to increase the population, making the Joe Budd Wildlife Management Area (the area around JBYCC) plentiful for hunters.