Announcement: CRCA Riverwatch Is Now Calusa Waterkeeper
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January 2017 Newsletter John Capece, Editor Special Events & Meetings Feb 4: Mound Key Adventure Tour Feb 10: SW FL Birding Seminar in Ft. Myers Feb 16: Waterkeeper Party in Ft Myers Bch Feb 25: Caloosahatchee River Excursions in LaBelle Feb 25-26: Canoe Contest at Swamp Cabbage Festival in LaBelle Editorial Disclaimer Visit the CRCA web site crca.caloosahatchee.org Join us at Facebook Announcement: CRCA Riverwatch is now Calusa Waterkeeper. Win a Canoe at Swamp Cabbage Join Us for Cheers & Beers Come and win a canoe at the Calusa Party at Yucatan Beach Stand, 250 Waterkeeper exhibit at the Swamp Old San Carlos Blvd, Ft Myers Beach on Cabbage Festival on Feb 25-26 (Sat-Sun) Thursday, Feb 16 from 6pm to 10pm. in Barron Park, LaBelle. Chance tickets Each beer helps Calusa Waterkeeper, so are $2 or three tickets for $5. It's great come celebrate passing of the torch fun, a great canoe, and a chance to talk from Caloosahatchee River Citizens with our new Waterkeeper & officers. See Association, Inc. (Riverwatch) to our you there! [Contest Poster] [Old new incarnation as CALUSA Town Canoe] [Canoe Description] WATERKEEPER. [Announcement!] [Festival Web Page] [QR Code to Google Map] John Cassani, Calusa Waterkeeper Jack Green, Executive Director Career scientist and outspoken water Jack Green serves as Executive Director of advocate John Cassani is the Calusa the Calusa Waterkeeper program. Jack spent Waterkeeper. He leads the international his first career in the Coast Guard and later Waterkeeper Alliance programs in the served as Fort Myers Beach Director of Public region that includes Caloosahatchee Works (including responsibilities for water River, Lake Okeechobee and the utilities). His home is on the shores of Estero shoreline & estuary system from Bay in Fort Myers Beach. [Resume] [Short Charlotte Harbor to Estero Bay. Bio] [Photo] [Resume] [Short Bio] [Photo] Why Calusa? Why Smalltooth Sawfish? The name Calusa was chosen because Calusa Waterkeeper selected the our mandate has expanded beyond the Smalltooth Sawfish (Pristis pectinata) Caloosahatchee River & Estuary to also as its emblem because this critically include Lake Okeechobee, Charlotte endangered coastal fish is native to SW Harbor and Estero Bay. The native FL and is an ideal indicator of success Calusa people inhabited this entire area or failure of our stewardship. Its and are known for shell mounds, canals, preferred habitat is a healthy estuary ferocity, watercraft & fishing. [Calusa with balanced salinity. [Recovery Background] [The Shell People] Plan] [Shrinking Range] [Sawfish species] List of City Planning Concern Environmental First Responders Calusa Waterkeeper Vice President From Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf, Gene Gibson has presented questions our local rivers, streams and water and comments concerning the Fort bodies have new guardians: ecologist Myers downtown and midtown density John Cassani & former Fort Myers Beach study and the proposed amendments to public works director Jack Green, and a the Fort Myers smart growth code and host of volunteer "rangers" who will comprehensive plan. [Gibson List of volunteer both their time and water Concerns] vessels to help monitor local waterways. [FMB Observer] [Jack Green] Cassani on Reservoir Climate Conundrum The just released report on Everglades Have we gone over the tipping point on Restoration, “Progress Toward Restoring global climate change? According to the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Philip Schwartz, humanity is in a climate Review, 2016”, corroborates much of "conundrum" today. We may still have what Caloosahatchee Riverwatch has time, so if you ask yourself what can you been saying about the plan for the C-43 do, "Educate yourself and get Reservoir for more than a decade. involved." [News-Press] [Bill Gates [Cassani Opinion in News Press] Comments on Climate] New Facebook & Web Page Welcome Waterkeeper Movement We have launched our new Calusa Waterkeeper Alliance welcomes three Waterkeeper web page & Facebook Waterkeeper groups: Calusa page. Please visit the web site Waterkeeper - John Cassani (Florida), CalusaWaterkeeper.org and Like us on Suwannee Riverkeeper - John Facebook Quarterman (Georgia), Huong River facebook.com /CalusaWaterkeeper and Waterkeeper - Pham My (Vietnam), & share the links with friends and family. one Waterkeeper Affiliate: Voice of the We encourage everyone to stay Old Brahmaputra (Bangladesh) to the informed and engaged. [Calusa Waterkeeper Movement. [Details] Waterkeeper Facebook Page] [Photo] [Webpage] [Calusa Waterkeeper Web Page] Drones To Detect Algae Blooms New Group Protects Waterways Calusa Waterkeeper director Dr. John Calusa Waterkeeper focuses on Capece attended a workshop and immediate response like targeting seminar by St Louis University professor pollution problems and testing for high Dr. Wasit Walamu. He described using concentrations of cyanobacteria. About drones to carry special cameras to 10 rangers will be trained to take in measure light of specific wavelength water samples, but the non-profit ranges to detect algae blooms. [Dr. organization depends on you to keep a Walamu 1] [Dr. Walamu 2] look out for anything suspicious. [Microcystis Paper] [NBC-2 Article] [NBC-2 Video] Biodiversity Conference Sanibel Considers Sea Level Rise Calusa Waterkeeper is a co-sponsor Dr. Harold Wanless, Univ of Miami and John Cassani is a primary organizer Chair of the Geology Department, said of the FGCU Biodiversity Conference that sea level rise may reach 6 feet by "Conserving Biodiversity: Challenges for 2100, whereas only 3 to 4 ft will make Florida in the Anthropocene" on March most Florida islands like Sanible & 7-9 in the Cohen Center. Plenary Captiva uninhabitable. James Evans speaker is Dr. Reed Noss of University of talked about what Sanibel is doing to Central Florida. [Plenary Session deal with sea level rise issues. [Captiva Announcement] [Web Page] Sanibel] [Sanibel Chronicle] [Evans Slides] Recruiting Water Quality Rangers Lawsuit Against Cape Coral Contact Waterkeeper @ The City of Cape Coral could face Caloosahatchee.org if you are interested lawsuits on several fronts from civic in serving as a volunteer Rangers. The organizations and residents as a result Rangers will monitor quality of area of its Dec 12 vote to annex 5.67 acres of waterways (Estero Bay, Pine Island land near Matlacha. About 100 Sound, Matlacha Pass, Charlotte Harbor, demonstrators lined Pine Island Road on the Caloosahatchee River, & Lake Jan 8 to protest against Cape Coral. Okeechobee). [News-Press] [WINK News] [Subject Parcels] [Annexation Rally] [Pine Island Strong].