FGCU invites public to Estero Bay Watershed Symposium
Florida Gulf Coast University College of Arts and Sciences invites the public to the “Estero Bay Watershed Public Symposium,” 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday, Sept. 28 in the Student Union Ballroom to inform the public on issues and activities occurring in the Estero Bay watershed related to hydrology, water quality and habitat protection.
The health of Estero Bay and its watershed will be the focus of a two-day event beginning Sunday, Sept. 27. The public is welcome to participate in a variety of informative, fun and free guided tours to various locations.
Topics presented at the symposium include land use and transportation, water quality, fish surveys and aquatic exotics, FGCU projects and outreach in the watershed, and climate change. Amy Bennett Williams, editor of Tropicalia, a publication of the Fort Myers News-Press, will share her observations during lunch.
Following the conference, a fund-raising dinner from 7 to 9 p.m., features author and journalist Craig Pittman, whose recent books, Paving Paradise: Florida’s Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss, highlights many environmental issues of concern in Southwest Florida. Proceeds from the dinner will fund conservation land acquisition in the Estero Bay watershed.
Sponsors of the two-day event are Florida Gulf Coast University, the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program, the Responsible Growth and Management Coalition, the Estero Bay Agency on Bay Management, the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, and the FGCU student clubs the Progressive Student Alliance and Environment Club.
To register for the free event visit itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/ndemers/EsteroWatershedSymp09/index.htm.
For further information, contact FGCU Associate Professor of Biology and Interdisciplinary Studies Nora Demers at (239) 590-7211.