As the Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources Department implemented social distancing requirements among staff, many of the Recreation Division staff whose normal duties include things like training the aquatic center life guards, maintaining tennis facilities, and front desk customer service found themselves stepping into new roles on the County’s natural areas. The Director of the Parks and Natural Resources Department, Charlie Hunsicker, challenged his team to keep each other safe as the number one priority, and keep people working on a backlog of projects at the Preserves that could be done safely. As Charlie put it, “Much like the Civilian Conservation Corps programs during the 1930s, we have plenty of opportunities for County employee field work in our preserves over the coming weeks as on site or workstation requirements for employees begin to diminish over a prolonged closing.” He instructed the Preserves staff, who can easily meet social distancing requirements working across the 30,000 acres of County Preserves, to bring appropriate tasks and projects forward and implement the work under CDC guidelines for COVID-19 with the Recreation Division team members. The Recreation Division stepped up and has been getting lots of important work done in the preserves to the benefit of Manatee County’s natural resources.