Drying Out and Moving On

The Garden like most of Florida is gradually drying out after the King Kong Fay rains. We had a few trees blown over and lakes where there were never lakes before, but overall we were very lucky. It is remarkable how quickly wildlife occupies these ephemeral lakes. A pair of mallard ducks showed up in one lake right after the storm, I saw several fish including a small gar in another and, of course, lots of shorebirds on the edges of the lakes.

We have had a few suggestions come in for naming Chad's camo ATV and the contest continues through September 15. Don't forget you can win a tour of the site with Chad on the ATV if your suggestion is chosen.

David Webb recently joined the Garden as Manager of Education. David's mother and grandmother worked at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island so he spent a great deal of time there as a child and became a Ding Darling volunteer as a teenager. David is an FGCU grad and has worked as a classroom teacher and, most recently as a school program specialist at the Florida Museum of Natural History. David's energy and knowledge combined with a dynamic education committee bodes well for the future of education at the Garden. The new Backpack and Discovery Cart programs that we tested last spring have been expanded for the autumn — thanks to a grant from the McGraw Foundation. We will need volunteers to assist with giving outreach presentations, so please contact David at 239.643.7275 or dwebb@naplesgarden.org if you are interested in assisting with the programs.

I had the great pleasure of presenting a program about the future of the Garden to Naples Rotary Club recently. There are several of us, staff and volunteers, who are available to speak to community groups about the Garden and, best of all we are free! Please give us a call if you would like us to present to your club or association.

We are really pleased with the new website but we are still finding mistakes and typos here and there. Please let us know if you find a mistake and we will give you a free membership for a year!

All the best,
Brian