Connecting You to Nature is published by SCCF, a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) founded in 1967 on Sanibel Island, Florida. Through stories about how we fulfill our mission to protect and care for Southwest Florida’s coastal ecosystems, we hope to deepen your understanding of how our land, water, and wildlife depend on our stewardship.
James Evans, CEO Barbara Linstrom, Editor Doug Cook, Design
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Audrey Albrecht, Denise Blough, Jack Brzoza, Matt DePaolis, Jenny Evans, Chris Lechowicz, Eric Milbrandt, Ph.D., Kealy Pfau, Shannon Rivard
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
Shane Antalick, David Meardon, Milissa Sprecher
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Native Landscapes & Garden Center at Bailey Homestead Preserve 1300 Periwinkle Way (239) 472-1932
Sanibel Sea School 455 Periwinkle Way info@sanibelseaschool.org (239) 472-8585
Main Office (239) 472-2329
SCCF Sea Turtle Hotline (978) 728-3663
Shorebird Inquiries shorebirds@sccf.org
www.sccf.org | info@sccf.org
P.O. Box 839, Sanibel, FL 33957
Resiliency in Action
Resilience is a word that has become a deep and profound clarion call for our island community. Following Ian and through Milton, the need to resiliently safeguard and reinvent how we live amidst the changing nature of our barrier islands has grown paramount.
In these pages you will read of the many ways SCCF is rising to meet the demands of climate change and other man-made challenges. Please note that there is a throughline connecting all of them — Financial Resilience.
We need your ongoing financial support to continue our mission-driven work in the evolving circumstances we now face. Please join us on this journey with your philanthropic investment in that work before June 30.
This magazine’s contents are well worth reading. Once you do, we hope you will be inspired to donate online or use the enclosed envelope to make your tax-deductible gift to support SCCF.
Please contact Development Director Cheryl Giattini at 239-822-6121 or cgiattini@sccf.org with any questions you may have about being a partner in SCCF’s path forward. Thank you in advance for your consideration of this sincere request.
Thank you!
Please become a member or renew your membership by using the enclosed envelope or donating at www.sccf.org
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Welcome to the Winter 2025 edition of Connecting You to Nature! We are excited to bring you exciting stories of our work focused on the ongoing recovery of our community and the natural systems that we depend on.
The cornerstone of a strong and thriving community is the ability to adapt to, and overcome, unforeseen challenges.
“Our barrier island communities are well-positioned to become a national model for coastal resiliency.”
James Evans, CEO
Southwest Florida has faced many challenges over the past few years, including Hurricanes Ian, Helene, and Milton, but we continue to get back up, put our heads down, and drive forward to rebuild the places where we have raised our families, started our businesses, caught our first fish, and cherished golden sunsets along the Gulf of Mexico.
I hope that you are inspired by the resiliency of our wildlife and native plant communities as they adapt to a changing environment and climate. They are seeking equilibrium in an evolving environment. We are seeing this in real time as water levels change and ecosystems shift, as freshwater marshes transition to salt marsh. We are observing sea turtles and shorebirds acclimate to significant storms and exhibit nesting behavior that will ensure their survival.
It is our responsibility to pass on to the next generation what we have been taught, our experiences, and our love for our community and natural systems in hopes that it will make the lives of our children and their children’s lives more fulfilling. Baba Dioum, a Senegalese poet and environmentalist, observed: “In the end, we will only conserve what we love; we only love what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught.” This idea captures the reason why our barrier island communities have been successful and why we continue to work diligently to preserve and protect our paradise.
Our experiential education programs at the Sanibel Sea School, SCCF, and Coastal Watch are designed to immerse students and volunteers in the natural world, in hopes that they will make an emotional connection to nature and share the same excitement that we do along with a sense of purpose and responsibility to protect it for future generations.
We have taken this same experiential learning approach and applied it to our Preserving Paradise Leadership Program. The program is designed to immerse local business leaders in our natural ecosystems to empower them with the knowledge, understanding, and passion to be advocates for clean water and our coastal ecosystems. We thank our partners at the SanCap Chamber, Captains for Clean Water, and The Everglades Foundation for making our inaugural program a smashing success.
Our barrier island communities are well-positioned to become a national model for coastal resiliency. We possess the experience and scientific and educational tools that allow us to rebuild smartly to adapt to future storm events and changing climate, and we can share that information with other communities and generations to come. It is not just an opportunity but our responsibility to plan for our future and for those who will follow.
I want to express my deepest gratitude to our dedicated staff, volunteers, partners, and all the members of the SCCF Family. Your passion and commitment are the driving force behind our success. Together, we will continue to make a lasting difference in preserving and protecting our precious coastal ecosystems for generations to come.
Thank you for your continued support and trust in our mission.
With sincere gratitude,
James Evans Chief Executive Officer
Adapting Habitats
The Role of Natural Systems
Dynamic island flora and fauna fluctuate
Barrier islands like Sanibel are ever-changing, both in shape and habitat types over time. Formed by waves and tidal actions parallel to the coast, these land masses consisting of sand and shell absorb a lot of the energy from storms, which protects the mainland coastline.
The outer islands of Pine Island Sound — Sanibel, Captiva, North Captiva, and Cayo Costa — are the first line of defense from storms coming across the Gulf of Mexico. Large tropical storms either remove or place sand along the borders of these islands. On occasion, storms will completely split one island into two, either temporarily or permanently. North Captiva, for example, was bisected from Captiva during a major hurricane in the 1920s.
To survive, flora and fauna that inhabit these islands must tolerate changes in habitat from time to time due to severe storms that cause either major wind damage and/or storm surge. On Sanibel during the past 5,000 years, several wildlife species have likely established and been lost from storms or other environmental changes. Some of them likely recolonized multiple times throughout the island’s history.
The loss of some species of plants and animals can be attributed to the absence of natural wildfires, which are quickly extinguished, and limited prescribed burning. However, a more forested habitat also has contributed to an increase in other species.
Severe tropical storms can change the water quality of internal water bodies and alter specific habitats that were once
stable. This is the case on Sanibel, where most of the internal water bodies that were basically “freshwater” measuring 2-5 practical salinity units (PSU) are now experiencing high salinities — as high as 28 PSU in some areas — with pure sea water being 34 PSU. Wildlife species such as aquatic freshwater turtles, amphibians,
American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis), and gamefish that have built populations over the last half century due to the increased holding of freshwater from manmade lakes and the Sanibel Slough weir system have been reduced in many areas.
Nearly two years after Hurricane Ian, many of the shallow and temporary wetlands seemed to mostly recover as salinities were close to normal and wildlife began using them again. Unfortunately, these areas returned to highly brackish after the storm surge from Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
The succession of hardwood and shrubby trees into most of the island’s open canopy areas over the last 70 years was slowed by the three hurricane flooding events of the last two years. More than 100 acres of trees such as buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus), strangler fig (Ficus aurea), and
Sanibel — internal water bodies that were basically “freshwater” are now higher in salinity
gumbo limbo (Bursera simaruba) died due to saltwater inundation after Ian in 2022.
Many of these trees did not succumb in the immediate aftermath; it took a year or more for them to die. Following the storm surges from Helene and Milton in 2024, it should be expected that more trees that were struggling will follow this trend. These areas are being planted with more salt-
tolerant plants and grasses that recover more quickly after being submerged with saltwater. Several plants, including less desirable plants such as exotic, invasive plants, were spread across the island from seeds dispersed by surge. Changing plant communities in habitats will change the variety of wildlife species that use these areas.
SCCF is documenting and treating new infestations of undesirable
plants in critical habitats being maintained for rare species. Because Sanibel is an island where there is minimal wildlife recruitment from the mainland, we must ensure that our extant species have the habitat they need to sustain their island populations.
— Chris Lechowicz Wildlife & Habitat Management Director
The Evolving States of Terrestrial & Aquatic Wildlife
Terrestrial wildlife has had its share of challenges over the last two years with three significant storm surge events. Hurricane Ian was the most significant because its floodwaters inundated all the island’s freshwater bodies with sea water, converting these interior water bodies to highly brackish states.
This had significant negative effects on both land-based and aquatic wildlife. Freshwater gamefish species were lost, as well as significant numbers of aquatic turtles and amphibians. Although these species persisted, their densities and ranges on the island were altered. American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) began overland travel in search of fresher water and prey as densities of fish, frogs, turtles, and aquatic snakes were lost.
After two years, many of the shallow water bodies and temporary wetlands returned to a low salinity state. Heavy rainfall during the 2024 summer wet season accelerated this process.
Frogs once again began to breed and deposit eggs in these shallow wetlands, and freshwater live-bearing fish such as mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) and sailfin mollies (Poecilia latipinna) were able to disperse to connected swales.
Sanibel seemed to be well on its way to recovery when two more hurricanes, Helene and Milton, created two significant storm surge events in two weeks that inundated these wetlands once again with saltwater.
Wildlife species that require freshwater bodies that were already reduced in number and starting to rebuild populations were set back again in September and October 2024. Any amphibian larva (tadpoles) in these inundated pools certainly perished as well as other species with low salt tolerance. Some species remain absent since Ian, such as: the Virginia opossum (Didelphis virgininiana), Florida brownsnake (Storeria victa), and four species of freshwater sunfish in the Centrarchidae family.
COASTAL WILDLIFE
Shorebird & Sea Turtle Nesting
Coastal wildlife has adapted strategies to compensate for hurricanes. An individual sea turtle may lay three to six nests per season, spread out along one or more beaches, laid around 10-14 days apart. Shorebird nesting season in Florida begins in February, which often means nesting and fledging occur before the peak of storm season.
Birds are sensitive to weather changes and can employ multiple strategies to avoid storms, including migrating around the storm or sheltering in place, increasing their chances of survival.
An analysis by SCCF’s sea turtle team shows that while storm frequency and intensity are increasing, their impacts on coastal wildlife do not seem to be increasing. Sea turtle nest hatch success is negatively impacted by nest washouts, but the percentage of nests washed out has not significantly increased over the past 29 years.
Effects on wildlife do not end once a storm has passed or hurricane season ends. Storminduced changes in habitat often prove to be beneficial as shorebirds prefer open, sandy beaches for nesting, and the gullies formed provide optimal foraging habitat for snowy plovers and their young.
But, anthropomorphic changes in beach habitat — human endeavors to renourish coastal erosion — can greatly influence coastal wildlife’s success.
Renourishment may alter the beach environment in a variety of ways. Sand placement on the beach and gully filling remove the habitat for invertebrate communities that shorebirds rely on for food.
Newly placed sand lacks shells, vegetation, and beach debris that are essential for shorebirds camouflaging their nests and young. Following the first islandwide renourishment of Sanibel in 2023-2024, nest counts were down and there were no fledglings for the first time since SCCF's shorebird monitoring program began in 2002.
The characteristics of the nonnative, replaced sand may influence temperature, moisture, and water content within a sea turtle’s nest — important variables for hatch
success and hatchling fitness. With hatch success on Captiva, which has been renourished seven times, generally lower than Sanibel’s, SCCF is researching whether ongoing renourishments are an influence.
Preliminary data investigating the effects suggest that there are significant differences between sand characteristics between the two islands pre- and postrenourishment that may be responsible for differences in their respective overall hatch success.
Research questions provoked by repeated hurricanes —
what have we learned?
The severity and frequency of hurricanes since Irma in 2017 has led to changes in the way that we prepare for storms and has also provided new research opportunities for understanding how global climate change and sea level rise are affecting the waters surrounding Sanibel and Captiva.
It might take 5-10 more years for them to fill the canopy but the mangroves’ protective value to the islands has not been destroyed.
There is a statistically significant increase in water temperatures at our shallow-water seagrass sites that correlates to decreases in seagrass densities.
Higher water temperatures and higher nutrient loads from Lake Okeechobee because of lake-lowering actions to prepare for tropical storms and hurricanes has led to a proliferation of filamentous, carpet-like macroalgae in the lower Caloosahatchee, Matlacha Pass, and the J. N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge. The SCCF Marine Lab is conducting a multi-year investigation of nitrogen levels in macroalgae and in the water as it relates to temperature and flows.
Since the 1990s, the water level has risen 8 inches at the Fort Myers National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s tide gauge and low-lying areas are more prone to flooding, especially those closest to the Gulf of Mexico, including barrier islands. In partnership with the City of Sanibel and the Refuge, we have expanded the number of water level sensors that report in real time across Sanibel.
Our groundwater monitoring and research has shown that groundwater levels have been trending higher since the 1970s from sea level rise. This has implications for water in developed areas and for the protection of the endangered Sanibel rice rat (Oryzomys palustris).
The mangroves in the Refuge have sustained large-scale losses of canopy cover because of hurricane wind fields. Recent field visits show that 90% of the sites visited had healthy seedlings and saplings that will eventually grow into mature trees. It might take 5-10 more years for them to fill the canopy but the mangroves’ protective value to the islands has not been destroyed.
— Eric Milbrandt, Ph.D., Marine Lab Director
Preserving Paradise
NEW PROGRAM INVITES BUSINESS LEADERS TO ENLIST IN THE FIGHT FOR CLEAN WATER
Preserving Paradise is a new a leadership program designed to immerse business leaders in water quality science and policy. Led by SCCF, Captains for Clean Water, the Everglades Foundation, and the SanCap Chamber, the innovative program launched in August 2024 with a cohort of 23 eager-to-learn professionals.
Through December, the group spent hours in the classroom and in the field delving into water management and policy, marine and estuarine ecology, Everglades restoration, and the importance of protecting and restoring water quality in Southwest Florida to safeguard our communities, our economies, and our way of life.
Preserving Paradise participants emerged from the program equipped with the knowledge of how to be a positive driving force for Florida’s clean water-driven economy and its more resilient future.
PRESERVING PARADISE 2025 WILL LAUNCH THIS SUMMER!
Advocating for a Resilient Future
As barrier islands, Sanibel and Captiva are on the forefront of the changing climate. We must learn how to live with, adapt to, and attempt to mitigate stronger storms, rising seas, and a wetter and warmer atmosphere. Luckily, SCCF’s science-to-solutions approach uniquely positions us to lead our community in becoming a national model for resilience.
Like so many coastal communities across the planet, we are faced with increased pressures impacting our built and natural environments. However, unlike many of the communities that are most affected in the global south, we possess the resources to respond to the challenges.
IT STARTS WITH THE SCIENCE.
The work being done through our Marine Lab and field biologists, and with partner organizations, allows us to understand the pressures and tailor local solutions. By analyzing and sharing our leading-edge data with residents, business owners, and visitors, we become an informed community that is up to the task of tackling the issues facing our islands and working towards resilience in the future.
A focus on public policy is also essential. These islands exist in the manner that we know them today thanks, in large part, to forethought. The Sanibel Plan is an amazing document that serves as a shield against development pressures.
SCCF and the City of Sanibel have continually worked to understand and protect the
islands’ unique natural resources and educate successive generations. In 1975, SCCF led a community-wide effort to raise $100,000 to commission The Sanibel Report, which provided the scientific analysis of the island’s natural systems that served as the basis for the legendary land use plan.
Many natural constraints to development were identified including the threat of tropical storms and hurricanes, highly permeable soil, and the need to preserve critical mangroves and wetlands that made up 45% of the
island’s surface area.
The resulting protections outlined in The Sanibel Plan have been a massive success that’s supported wildlife, driven the tourism-based economy, and made Sanibel and Captiva highly sought-after locales to live, visit, and retire.
We are now 50 years past the incorporation of the City of Sanibel and we are faced with another opportunity to be as visionary.
Making our islands a national model of resilience will take individual actions to elevate and protect residences and businesses, as well as collective actions to enact nature-based solutions to protect important infrastructure. It requires creative thinking to adapt our power grid, transportation network, and emergency services to continue functioning in the face of frequent and more ferocious storms. It demands the desire to be the model of mitigation, knowing that we can and must set the standard that other communities can aspire to be.
Today, we have the opportunity to build on previous successes while charting a new course for resilience.
— Matt DePaolis, Environmental Policy Director
Community Seeks Resilient Solutions
SCCF is a proud partner of SanCap Resilience, a coalition of organizations and concerned community members. Since early 2023, SanCap Resilience has held six panels, published a comprehensive report of community sentiment about climate change and storm resilience, advocated for resilience-focused updates to The Sanibel Plan, compiled case studies of home elevation and other storm-adaption strategies, and launched a website with a host of resources on energy efficiency, sustainable building practices, storm preparedness, and more.
SanCap Resilience’s report revealed that out of 900 residents and business owners on the islands, 84% are either “concerned” or “very concerned” about climate change, and an overwhelming 95% would like to see Sanibel and Captiva become a model of a resilient coastal community through adaptation of critical infrastructure.
REPORT CAN BE ACCESSED HERE
Nurturing Nature Connectedness
In an ever-changing world where climate change, habitat loss, and biodiversity decline challenge our very survival, resilience has never been more relevant.
Resilience goes beyond recovering — it’s about transformation and adaptation. And the key lies in our relationship with nature.
This emotional connection to nature, known as nature connectedness, is the root of sustainable behaviors and environmental stewardship. People who feel connected to the natural world are more concerned about the environment’s well-being and more likely to engage in sustainable practices and support conservation efforts.
Knowledge of issues is important, but action-based knowledge — gained through direct experiences in nature — has the most profound impact on nature connectedness. Learning about marine life through textbooks can raise awareness, but diving into the estuary and seeing fish dart between red mangrove roots creates a more vital connection.
Sanibel Sea School believes that experiential education can change the fate of our oceans one person at a time. It’s a place where discovery and exploration create a bond with nature strong enough to last a lifetime.
We encourage kids to use their senses to explore. We push kids out of their comfort zones and encourage them to try new things. We teach kindness and
“We encourage kids to use their senses to explore.”
Shannon Rivard
inspire them to care about the tiniest creatures. Whether it’s feeling a seahorse wrap its tail around a finger, snorkeling under a full moon, or sinking knee-deep into fetid mangrove mud, every moment allows kids and families to love and connect deeply with coastal ecosystems.
Experiential education is needed now more than ever. Many individuals, especially children, spend less time outdoors than previous generations. This physical disconnection from the environments in which we evolved is alarming. The need for collective action has never been clearer. For action to be effective, it must come from a place of love. When we feel part of something greater than ourselves, we are more motivated to protect it. And this begins with a simple yet profound step: getting outdoors.
— Shannon Rivard Sanibel Sea School Director
Taking Note of What is Thriving
It's amazing to see, with a little patience, the resilience of the native flora of our islands as ecosystems rebound and change from the recent hurricanes. Barrier islands adapt to changing conditions, and once we can let go of our idea that permanence is a necessary characteristic of a garden or landscape, then we are free to allow ourselves to take advantage of what nature has provided for us.
Post-Ian, we were amazed at the Bailey Homestead of the oddball species resprouting on the ground: from dune-loving bay bean (Canavalia rosea) and seacoast marsh elder (Iva imbricata) to salt-marsh plants such as sea blite (Suaeda linearis) and seaside heliotrope (Heliotropium curassavicum)
Our low-lying, previously freshwater gardens became salty overnight. Although they gradually transformed back to freshwater systems in the two years following Ian, Hurricanes Helene and Milton once again shifted our ecosystems, causing us to reevaluate our expectations.
Rather than focusing on what has not survived, it’s more instructive to study what is thriving. It is important to observe the native species that are still surviving from the pre-Ian
days — and where they are growing. Noticing what native species have resprouted on their own is also illuminating. If the conditions are suitable for a seed to sprout and for the plant to grow on its own, then mimicking that situation in other parts of the landscape will likely be successful. Of particular importance, pay attention to locations where saltwater sits in the landscape for a long period of time. As sea level rise continues, saltwater intrusion will likely occur more frequently, so understanding the plants that can tolerate higher salinities is critical.
Understanding that our native plant species take some time to rebound and being patient and observant during this process is a lesson that will pay dividends in the aftermath of future disturbances.
— Jenny Evans Adult Education Director
POST-IAN SPECIES RESPROUTING AT THE BAILEY
SEASIDE HELIOTROPE
HOMESTEAD
BAY BEAN
SEA BLITE
SEACOAST MARSH ELDER
Community Action is Key to Resilience
The Coastal Watch team knows that resilience is not just about bouncing back individually but about working together to support the community and the natural environment that surrounds and protects us.
Thanks to the overwhelming response from local volunteers, Coastal Watch’s projects focused on building resiliency are growing in impact and scope.
MANGROVES
As the Adopt-A-Mangrove program marks its fourth year, it’s exciting to announce that more than 700 mangrove propagules are currently being raised in foster homes throughout Southwest Florida. Mangroves, which stabilize and protect vulnerable shorelines, truly are nature’s most resilient coastal guardians. The adoption program educates the community about the importance of mangroves while actively participating in restoration.
Some “Mangrove Mamas” fully complete the cycle by nurturing propagules mangroves then joining Coastal Watch to plant them at a restoration site.
CLEANUPS
Coastal Watch has been the leader in post-hurricane cleanup efforts. Even though cleaning the same preserve multiple times can feel defeating, it has allowed us to get a closer look at the resilience of preserved lands. At the Gretchen C. Valade Preserve near Blind Pass, volunteers and staff discovered mangrove seedlings sprouting near a five-foot sandpile that was displaced by Hurricane Milton. Those mangroves had been planted on the preserve earlier in the year by a group of local high school students, exemplifying that every effort makes a difference.
VOLUNTOURISM
The goal of Coastal Watch’s new voluntourism program is twofold: to educate visitors on our local environments and how SCCF is trying to make them more resilient to the impacts of climate change, and to encourage them to take that knowledge home and apply it in their own communities. We want program participants to consider “What would Sanibel do?” when it comes to sustainable practices and conservation initiatives no matter where they call home.
— Kealy Pfau Coastal Watch Director
Bailey’s General Store
SCCF commends our long-time partners at Bailey’s — an island icon that is modeling the time and resolve required when rebuilding for resilience.
For the family-run store that first opened in 1899, it’s the third rebuild, each time seeking more storm protection and ways to better serve the community.
When Hurricane Ian’s intense storm surge destroyed Bailey’s beloved “brown box” shopping center in September 2022, the family already had plans to do a redesign.
Those plans have been amped up for a shopping center that is even more resilient than initially intended.
“We can’t wait to welcome our community back and know that we will be able to be there for them through the storms and every day,” said Calli Johnson duPont, coowner/operator. “The community
has always been the heart of what we do.”
With plans to break ground on the 2-year project in summer 2025, the sleek and resilient design of the new shopping center will also feature enhanced green building efficiency.
“We can’t wait to welcome our community back and know that we will be able to be there for them through the storms and every day... The community has always been the heart of what we do.”
Calli Johnson duPont
“All new buildings will be elevated and will bring us up to all of the most recent codes for resiliency while adding more robust construction required for grocery purposes,” she said.
Solar capacity will be expanded, while proposed battery packs will reduce energy needs at peak demand and provide power during outages. Plans also feature solar shade parking structures and increased electric vehicle charging capacity, and a heat reuse system that uses waste heat from refrigeration cooling to heat water.
Along with the sustainable design, the family emphasizes that friendly island service and serving as a community hub will continue to be the true mark of resilience.
Rendering by Coastal Vista Design as landscape architect, with GMA as building architect.
THESE 3 SPECIES REMAIN ABSENT SINCE HURRICANE IAN. SEE PAGE 4 FOR MORE INFORMATION.
