28th-29th-Giving Challenge
5-7 pm-Party to celebrate
150th Earth Day
The Conservancy Promotes the Mini Reef Project
with their entry in the Annual New Year's Day Golf Cart 2022
A golf cart was decorated with a mini reef, a dock and pilings covered with representations of the many kinds of ocean life that can be supported by the artificial reef. Conservancy board members dressed as ocean life that can grow in the nursery habitat created by the reef. The creative costumes were a hit with the parade crowd!
Thank you to these dedicated volunteeers who came out on February 26, 2021 for our second "Nifty Ninety"--just 90 minutes of volunteer time to help with 5 projects around the island.
Teagan Stout leads the group at Pinfish Point in marking Gopher tortoise burrows as active or inactive.
On Friday, December 11, a group of volunteers met to give the gift of their time and energy to a variety of Conservancy projects and also donated a carload of food items and over $500 dollars in contributions for the St. David's Food Pantry in Englewood.
The group dug holes and set pilings to protect the lot at the corner of Bocilla and Kettle Harbor.Golf cart traffic through the lot was destroying the vegetation and wildlife habitats there. They also planted a variety of native plants along the roadside easements on Kettle Harbor. The Gnome Garden at our Environmental Education Park on Gasparilla Way was spruced up with new paint and a donated bench was painted with a sunset graphic. Weeds were pulled and plants were trimmed.The "Slow Down" Gopher Tortoise crossing sign on North Gulf Blvd. was also repainted.
Thank you to our awesome volunteers. See their work in these photos.
RED TIDE SYMPOSIUM
Sponsored by Bocilla Islands Conservancy, Inc. (BICI) and Palm Island Estates Association (PIE)
October 23, 2018 – Clubhouse at Palm Island Resort
"Captain Planet" visits our Conservation Properties
Following Red Tide Symposium Oct. 23, 2018
RECAP OF RED TIDE SYMPOSIUM
Sponsored by Bocilla Islands Conservancy, Inc. (BICI) and Palm Island Estates Association (PIE)
October 23, 2018 – Clubhouse at Palm Island Resort – Approximately 65 attended.
Speakers: Nicole Ladevaia, Environmental Specialist, Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program (CHNEP) and Garrett Stewart – Captain Planet Project, and the Eco Preservation Project
The presentation was very interesting and detailed regarding their programs and how they are interwoven with improving water quality, restoring wetlands, managing storm water runoff, etc. and how it affects red tide and green algae.
CHNEP covers the entire watershed area for Charlotte Harbor (4,700 square miles) - from the headwaters of the Peace, Myakka and Caloosahatchee Rivers in Polk, Hardee and DeSoto Counties, including all the creeks and sloughs that drain into them – also Lemon Bay, Charlotte Harbor, Pine Island Sound and Estero Bay. Please refer to web site www.chnep.org for full information
Nicole stated Red Tide is not caused by only one component and every person, business (including agriculture, phosphate mining, big vegetable farms, cattle ranches and big sugar) and government entity contribute in their own way to cause water pollution and red tide. So we all need to work together – she outlined the following ways we as individual citizens can help
1. Become politically active – vote, attend local government meetings with a positive attitude, write letters to government officials, support tax dollars being spent on restoration programs, purchasing wet lands, funding governmental monitoring and enforcement programs, etc.
2. Limit the amount of fertilizer and chemicals (weed killers) that are applied to our lawns, or eliminate them entirely.
3. Pick up pet waste – approximately 5 tons a day are deposited in the CHNEP area.
4. If you use a septic system have it checked annually.
5. Stop using plastic bags, straws, Styrofoam containers, etc.
6. Support local organization, i.e., BICI, who is purchasing lands to be preserved for wild life and water filtration and retention.
7. Volunteer
Garrett Stewart – Captain Planet Project, Eco Preservation Project.
Goggle: Captain Planet Project and Eco Preservation Project and you will find a wealth of information
Garrett – emphasized also that there are many causes for red tide and green algae and we have to stop pointing fingers, but find cures – this means stop polluting, cleaning up the water and protecting healthy aquatic plants, especially sea grasses and oyster beds. He has proposed a project in Lake 0 – An Aquatic Plant Farm (reference web page)
His talk was packed with facts and figures about pollution, not only in our area of Florida but in other parts of the world, and you are encouraged to reference his web page and follow him on facebook.
Points of Light Volunteer Program
Family Event
September 3, 2018
