Dry Tortugas, Fortified With Sun and Esprit de Corps

For a temporary work assignment at Dry Tortugas National Park, I arrive the same way that most visitors do, via the morning Yankee Freedom ferry. After miles and miles of open turquoise water, Fort Jefferson appears out of nowhere on the horizon. Magnificent frigatebirds circle in the blue above as we approach the dock. “That is a hell of a lot of bricks,” I say as I ride inside the fort in a golf cart driven by a new colleague. The following day, I shed my disguise and join the park rangers on the dock, greeting the ferry on its daily arrival to Garden Key. 

 

 

It’s hard to drink enough water and electrolytes in the open sun of Dry Tortugas; your body always wants more. But where the heat is truly overwhelming is underwater...if you’re a coral. On the early morning of day four, I ride along with the Natural Resources team and a crew of visiting scientists on a quest to survey and preserve coral reefs (as climate change triggers coral bleaching). Wearing scuba gear and armed with waterproof clipboards, pencils, cameras, and sampling containers, the scientists dive. We call them back on board early as dark clouds move in and thunder rumbles. Next, we rendezvous with a couple of visitors in a tandem kayak. One of our rangers in a patrol boat has reached them first and easily persuaded them to accept a courtesy transport in the research boat. With the kayak occupying one side of the deck, people and scuba gear the other, we zoom towards Garden Key.

 

 

There is a strong sense of solidarity and camaraderie among the visitors and workers on Garden Key. When I follow the winding stairs to the topmost level of Fort Jefferson to watch the sunset, there are a scattering of campers and colleagues atop the fort and along the moat and dock below. We’re all in this together, whether we sleep in the campground outside the fort or the staff housing inside the fort. On the ferry ride back, I watch for the eponymous tortugas (turtles). Although evening is primetime, the search comes up empty—just open turquoise water.

  

 

 

Image #1 (video) and Images #2-8: NPS / Ross Wood Studlar
Narrative text and images #9-13: © Ross Wood Studlar

Deep Lake is the little trail that could

Deep Lake on the western edge of Big Cypress National Preserve is a much-needed Oasis in a Florida experiencing drought and potent muggy heat. There were multiple alligators a-swimmin’, including one that slowly edged its way closer and closer to my two cohorts and I; I suspect that someone fed this gator in the past. After lingering at the lake, Jade with her camera and I with my sketchbook, we took a wet walk in the cypress dome to the left. Jade asked about the water’s depth, and Michael, slogging ahead, said, “chin deep,” an exaggeration that made me burst out laughing. Putting one booted foot in front of the other in the water felt like just what the doctor ordered after the sweat had gushed down my back in the sunny clearing where we captured the lake. For some odd reason, mosquito intensity decreased on the wet walk, then ratcheted back up to levels that match your stereotypes about Florida swamps on the trail through the woods back to the firehouse where the trail starts.

Can you find the alligator in my sketch?

  

 

Photos 1, 3 and 7 by Jade Cave, photos 2 and 4 by Michael Chesal, all other pictures by RWS © to respective creators

Ross Meets the Indefatigable O.G. of Independent Journalism

Last Saturday evening, I journeyed to O Cinema South Beach for the documentary Steal This Story, Please! Afterwards, I got to be an awkward fanboy for the film’s star, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!—the O.G. of independent journalism. Real-life Amy, her trusty companion Zazu Goodpup, and filmmaker Tia Lessin joined us in the theater for a post-show Q and A, then I grabbed an early spot in line to meet the living legend. Operating the series of fan I-Phone and Android cameras was Amy’s frequent collaborator Denis Moynihan. I’ve been tuning in to Democracy Now! for 21 years, mostly digitally, although I used to catch the show on old fashioned FM radio when I was in Galveston, Texas. Steal This Story, Please! is a film the world needs right now. Go see it. stealthisstory.org democracynow.org

I'll be @ Miami Zine Fair this Saturday!

Come see me and my Comics from the Wood table at Miami Zine Fair on Saturday!  We’ll be @ Paradise Plaza Event Space, 155 NE 41st Street, Miami, FL (third floor).  4/4/26 12-5PM.  @miamizinefair #MiamiZineFair #MiamiZineFair2026

 

MZF flyer by MZF people, please share.

Cupid's Arrow

 

I posted these drawings on my IG and FB on February 14th with "I Was Made For Lovin' You" as the soundtrack, along with the following message: 

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY, WORLD! I made these drawings at a @rawfigspopup event at Vizcaya Farmers' Market with models @tionablanc and @franchi_bianchi. In other news, what is your favorite alternative to Meta? I’ve become reluctant to post any drawings, photos, or writings on IG or FB knowing that anything I post can (and probably will) be used to train AI. I would rather not help the vapid robot replacements for real artists and authors. What other sites do you use…Bluesky? Pinksky? Cara? something else?

Believe it or not, 2025 had some good news, too.

The high amount of trials and trauma in 2025 make it easy to overlook that positive things happened this year, too. Two big ones: 1) For the first time ever, humankind generated more electricity from solar panels than from burning coal. 2) The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reclassified the green sea turtle from an endangered species to a species of least concern, indicating that 40 years of conservation efforts are paying off. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Take Action: Sign the Save the Homestead petition

 

Happy Thanksgiving weekend!  Allow me to share this Save the Homestead petition. 

In the photo, that's me at age 20 (in the beanie) with my fellow Homesteaders in front of Cabin Bob, our strawbale community center.  Yes, I graduated from the Homestead at Denison University, an experiment in sustainable community living unique among American colleges and universities.  For almost 50 years, the Homestead has been a powerhouse of learning through living for the twelve residents and many other students and visitors, with building and gardening projects, community dinners, campfires, musical performances, and more. 

Denison University plans to close the Homestead on its 50th anniversary year, 2027.  The university administration made this decision behind closed doors, without consulting current students or alumni.  Notably, MANY current Denison students want to live at the Homestead, with especially high interest among the class of 2029 (current first year students).  I’ve been working with a team of alumni to save the Homestead.  With input from current Homies, we’ve almost finished our strategic plan, which presents a vision for keeping the Homestead as a residential community and revising the program to offer more consistent and coherent professional training for both resident and non-resident participants.

Independent of us, a friend of the Homestead started this petition to save the Homestead on change.org.  Please take a minute to sign it.  If we get 1,000 signatures, our chances of making a difference will increase.  Godspeed! 

Photo by Ameen Howrani