FFCU Logo Header Photo
SWFL ENews: Oct 19, 2006 SWFL ENews:
Oct 19, 2006 / go to archive


BIG CYPRESS

Restoration projects being overtaken by development
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Oct 9
A modest repair job on Henderson Creek and its watershed was to be the"showcase" of what the Everglades restoration campaign could accomplish on alocal level. Six years later, those leading the $5.6 million restoration project have little to show for their efforts except for a few reports and dashed ambitions. Meanwhile, development is spreading like a brush fire across what those officials had hoped to save."It's turned into an urban restoration project, and it really didn't start out that way," said Judy Haner, a former resource management coordinator at the state-run Rookery Bay research reserve. Haner helped hatch the Henderson Creek rescue plan in 1994 and guided the project toward its inclusion five years later in the then-$8 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. "The reason we put that in there is it was a doable project," Haner said. "They want ...

Black bear dies in S.R. 29 crash
staff /Naples Daily News /Oct 10
A Florida black bear died this morning after it was struck by a pickup truck on State Road 29 south of Interstate 75. The bear was alive when a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologist arrived at the scene. The 310-pound male bear had been struck by aFord F-250 pickup some time before 8:30 a.m. but didn't appear to have any major injuries, the biologist, Rebecca Mihalco, said. After tranquilizing the bear with a dart, she drove the injured animal to a nearby wooded area, called Deep Lake, intending to release it. But when she checked on the bear after stopping, it was dead. "He was obviously more injured than what I thought," Mihalco said, adding that the bear likely died of internal injuries. The accident happened five miles south of the interstate in an area bordered by Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park on the west and Big Cypress National Pr ...

Big Cypress looks to increase exotic plant eradication budget
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Oct 11
Three years after officials celebrated the killing of the last melaleuca tree at Big Cypress National Preserve, a new plan calls for giving a 100-fold increase to the preserve’s exotic plant eradication budget. The goal: to keep the fast-spreading melaleuca away and bring seven other unwanted plants in the Big Cypress to the same fate. For the past few years, park managers at nine national parks in southern Florida and the Caribbean have been developing a strategy for dealing with exotic plants. The 1,000-page draft plan, released last month, recommends spending up to $634 million to poison, burn and hand-clear exotic plants and replant infested areas with natives.“It’s not likely we’ll be able to eradicate everything,” said Sandy Hamilton, a National Park Service environmental protection specialist in Denver. If park service officials approve the plan and Congres ...

Eco-Tour Operator Series, Part II: How do we live here responsibly
Carl Kelly /Marco Sun Times /Oct 12
A juvenile wood stork has feathers on the neck and head and the beak is a light color. As they age, the beak darkens and they lose their neck and head feathers. How do we live here, work here and play here without also adversely affecting the ecosystems in which we all live? A wide range of public and private agencies and organizations in Southwest Florida currently work on that question as well as its corollary. But how do we undo some of the damage we have already done? Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and co-sponsor Society for Ethical Ecotourism in Southwest Florida in their Eco-Tour Operator's Series has provided a forum where eco-tour guides can meet with scientists who study this environment, thusestablishing one link between scientific study and public education. It is their hope that better informed guides will lead to a better informed ...

Board approves Mirasol wetlands permit
Eric Staats /Naples Daily News /Oct 12
The governing board of the South Florida Water Management District voted unanimously this morning to approve a revised permit for the controversial Mirasol golf course community in northern Collier County. A coalition of environmental groups plans to file a legal challenge to the revised permit "very, very shortly,'' said Brad Cornell, Big Cypress policy advocate for Collier County Audubon Society and Audubon of Florida. Mirasol is planned for up to 799 homes and two golf courses at the northwestcorner of the intersection of Immokalee Road and Collier Boulevard. The water management district approved a permit for the project in 2002 thatincluded a meandering shallow channel cut through wetlands. Project engineers, calling it a flowway, advertised it as a way to restore historic water flows. But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rejected the permit in 2005, citing theflowwa ...

ATVs: Nowhere to run, nowhere to ride
Silvia Guzman /News Press /Oct 17
The father of a Fort Myers teen killed in the collision of two all-terrain vehicles Sunday in Lehigh Acres is trying to cope with the loss of his son as he hopes the boy’s death serves a purpose. Mark Flint said he hopes a place can be found for people to rideall-terrain vehicles safely after his son, Kyle, was killed in a collision on Sunday. “There’s no space for them to ride,” Mark Flint said. “As long as theykeep building four-wheelers and not having a place for them to ride, this is going to continue to happen. I don’t want my son to die in vain."Kyle Flint, 16, was killed when the ATV he was riding hit head-on into one driven by Wesley Aaron Sullivan, 16, also of Fort Myers.The teenagers were riding along State Road 82, west of Rue Labeau Circle, an area popular among ATV riders. High vegetation prevented them from seeing each other. Both were ejected in the crash ...

Scientists say panther response plan is flawed
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Oct 16
It is the "what-if" that shakes Southwest Florida conservationists to the core: What if a Florida panther ever injures or kills a human? State and federal wildlife officials are finalizing a plan that will prescribe how agencies should respond to panthers behaving badly. Called on to review the plan recently, several independent scientists and officials reached a similar conclusion: The plan, as written, is "self-designed to allow problems to occur" and should do more to prevent attacks before they happen. Wildlife officers and officials have been using a draft of the plan since February 2005. In that time, panthers have attacked goats in Golden Gate Estates, carried off a Chihuahua in Immokalee, eaten cats and hogs in Copeland and swiped a turkey from a petting zoo in Ochopee. "We understand the situation; we have the priority of people No. 1 and safety," said C ...

SOUTHWEST COAST

Water resource policy all spin, no reform
John Cassani /News Press /Oct 4
Recent developments and associated news of progress with the C-43 WestStorage Reservoir (Caloosahatchee Reservoir) cause one to reflect on the general state of water resource policy here in Florida and in Washington, DC. Much of the PR associated with this massive public works project costing taxpayers nearly $400 million has been a happy spin by the South Florida Water Management District and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineersthat real progress is being made. In reality, it’s a form of domesticating the policy issue. This is accomplished most commonly by funding more research, more workshops and venues to get stakeholders involved and by tweaking regulations or policies that provide the illusion of substantive action. The E in WSE(Water Supply and Environment), the Lake Okeechobee Regulation Schedule, is just such an illusion. The long-standing situation involvin ...

Lee joins effort urging that voters elect Water Management boards
Charlie Whitehead /Naples Daily News /Oct 5
The South Florida Water Management District will collect more than $125 million in property taxes from the citizens of Lee and Collier counties during fiscal 2007. The property tax rate helps drive a $1.3 billion budget and was set byKevin McCarty, Irela Bague, Miya Burt-Stewart, Alice Carlson, Michael Collins, Nicolas Gutierrez, Lennart Lindahl, Harkley Thornton and Bubba Wade. Don’t bother checking your sample ballot. You didn’t vote for any of them. That, say Lee and Collier county commissioners, is just not right. Any public body that collects property taxes and handles that much taxpayer money — thedistrict also borrowed $1.8 billion for Everglades restoration projects thisyear — should be elected, not appointed. Lee commissioners unanimously addedtheir voices to Collier’s on Tuesday, urging the rest of the state’s cities and counties to throw out the “tyranny” of t ...

Red tide suspected in sea turtle deaths
staff /Naples Daily News /Oct 17
Red tide is suspected of killing at least two 20 sea turtles and sickening four others during the last three weeks in the waters off Collier County. The exact cause won't be known until researchers perform necropsies on some of the dead loggerheads in November, said Maura Kraus, who runs Collier County's sea turtle monitoring program. The spike in sea turtle deaths since Sept. 22, though, coincides with an intensifying red tide bloom. Red tide is the common name for a bloom of microscopic algae that emits a toxin that can kill fish and causes respiratory problems in humans. Samples taken last Thursday revealed medium concentrations of red tide at Vanderbilt Beach, Naples Pier and South Marco Beach; low at Seagate; and very low at Barefoot Beach. The algae can collect in shell fish and crabs, which are staples of sea turtles' diet. "So not only are they breathin ...

Red tide-pollution link debated
Bruce Ritchie /Talahassee Democrat /Oct 18
A government employees group on Tuesday criticized state officials for denying connections between red tide and pollution - a connection that a leading state researcher insists has not been proven. A red tide last fall killed thousands of fish in the Big Bend area and shut down Apalachicola Bay to oyster harvesting from Sept. 2 to Nov. 24, putting seafood workers out of work. The group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility says despite a growing scientific consensus that such harmful algal blooms are caused by pollution, state agencies continue to deny any connection."I don't think there is any significant scientific dispute that the discharge of these pollutants, nitrogen and phosphorus, will take a situation that already exists - but (is) minor in scope - and exacerbates that problem," said JerryPhillips, the group's Florida director in Tallahassee. Bu ...

Mack to focus on red tide legislation
staff /Naples Daily News /Oct 18
U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fort Myers, said Monday he'll be proposing legislation that will concentrate red tide research -- and research funding -- under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Mack said NOAA, which is already conducting its own research and monitoring activities, would coordinate research and keep different groups from competing for research dollars."Right now we have congressmen running around getting appropriations for research in their own back yards," Mack told the Lee Republican Women Federated on Monday in Fort Myers. "We have Gulf Coast University, Mote Marine and University of Florida, all competing for funding. I believe we ought to pool the research, run it through NOAA's peer review. Let the scientists determine where the money goe Mack says he remembers red tides from when he was growing up in Cape Coral, with events lasting perhaps a week or ...

Group works to maintain Alva's character
Justin St. Clair /News Press /Sep 29
Shady oaks shelter narrow streets lined with historic homes. Newbusinesses are built in Southern Victorian style. All are connected bybike and walking trails that lead to park-like settings along the Caloosahatchee River. This is the vision of Alva's future that a group of residents wants Lee County officials to use as they decide what kind of growth to allow and projects to fund in this east Lee County community of about 3,000 residents. The group, called A Living Vision of Alva (ALVA), recently submitted acommunity plan it hopes commissioners will adopt into the county's comprehensive land use plan, which commissioners use as a guide when considering new developments and other projects for approval. "I'm hoping that it will give Alva a voice, a voice in how it grows," said resident and ALVA member Ruby Daniels. "We don't want it changed to a bedroom communit ...

LAKE OKEECHOBEE

Lake O flow-way good for 'Glades
Marti Daltry /News Press /Oct 5
Riverwatch appreciates the opportunity to respond to the comments offered by Mr. Paul Reynolds regarding our guest opinion, "Make your voice heard for the Caloosahatchee." It is simply incorrect for Mr. Reynolds to conclude that our editorial seeks or serves to distract from pursuit of an Everglades Agricultural Area flow-way solution to our region's water quality problem. We join with Mr. Reynolds and many other individuals and organizations in strongly endorsing the flow-way concept. An Everglades Agricultural Area flow-way in Palm Beach County would connect Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades via the Water Conservation Areas in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties. The flow-way would provide a true reconnection of Lake Okeechobee to the Florida Everglades, thus partially restoring south Florida's historical flow pattern. An EvergladesAgricultural Area flow-way would help ...

Pipeline for dirty water from Lake O bad solution
Herbert Zebuth /Palm Beach Post /Oct 6
The Sept. 23 article "Engineers study pipeline to move dirty lake water" represents a narrow, shortsighted approach that proves how little we have learned. Many of the Everglades' problems have resulted from our failure to consider the systemwide effects caused by our actions. Such a pipeline would carry Lake Okeechobee and Everglades Agricultural Area water too polluted with excess phosphorus, niThe pipeline would discharge into the Miami Canal, in developed Miami-Dade County. That canal also serves as a major flood-control waterway. Contaminating it and the surrounding groundwater with polluted water would affect Biscayne Bay during discharge events. The Army Corps of Engineers claims benefits in lowering lake levels, but the pipeline would have to operate at maximum capacity for more thIt is extremely unlikely that the Miami Canal could handle such a flow without major effects to Bisc ...

Forget Lake O pipeline
Editorial /Palm Beach Post /Oct 7
It is impossible to be enthusiastic about the Army Corps of Engineers' latest pipe dream - a $1 billion pipe to send Lake Okeechobee's polluted water to Miami-Dade - when Congress still hasn't paid for the first Everglades restoration proposal.The National Academy of Science's National Research Council reports, in fact, that six pilot projects have been delayed, some as long as eight years, and work isn't finished on 10 major restoration plan components that were supposed to be finished by 2005. With land and construction costs rising rapidly, the bill for fixing the Everglades is up from $8.2 billion to $10.9 billion. Adding an expensiThe pipeline is touted as a way to keep polluted lake and farm runoff out of the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee river estuaries by sending the water to Miami-Dade, which wants it, without polluting the Everglades. Two or three 10-foot diameter pipes would ru ...

Eye on Okeechobee
Scott Travis /Sun Sentinel /Oct 7
Port Mayaca · A plan to restore an aging dike could protect thousands of residents near Lake Okeechobee from a Hurricane Katrina-like flood, but it could also force some residents to give up their homes. The Army Corps of Engineers gave a tour Friday of a portion of the 140-mile-long Herbert Hoover Dike. The corps released an updated plan this week of how the70-year-old levee would be repaired. Construction began earlier this year but was stopped in June when questions emerged about whether the materials wouldhold up.The new plan enlarges a concrete wall and adds berms along the outside base to stop water from seeping through and eroding the structure. The project is slated to take 20 to 25 years, but Congress could vote to expedite that, said Stephen Duba, chief of the corps' engineering division. The corps would likely start at the bottom half of Lake Okeechobee, whic ...

Army Corps unveils new, more costly plan to prevent flooding from Lake Okeechob ee
Andy Reid /Sun Sentinel /Oct 6
Stalled repairs of the aging dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee could resume in February, but a new design to reinforce the earthen levee will need more land and money. The Army Corps of Engineers on Thursday released a plan that calls for enlarging a concrete wall intended to increase the stability of the dike. The plan also includes adding berms along the outside base to help stop water that seeps through and erodes the 70-year-old levee. The need to strengthen the dike gained urgency in May after an independent engineering report declared the dike "poses a grave and imminent danger to the people and the environment of South Florida." Corps officials said they do not yet know how long it will take to reinforce the entire 140-mile long Herbert Hoover Dike or how much the cost could rise beyond the original $300 million price."This is a work in progress, but t ...

Project may clean up Lake O
Suzanne Wentley /TC Palm /Oct 8
Officials from counties surrounding Lake Okeechobee hope state legislators will pay for restoration projects on their wish list for a healthier lake and watershed. This week, state water management district officials will begin to work with members of the Nine-County Coalition for Responsible Management of Lake Okeechobee to refine a new list of water quality projects designed to benefit the beleaguered waterway. Even though county commissioners submitted projects for consideration last week at a meeting in Okeechobee, the list — which must include detailed benefits and cost estimates, as well as a commitment for a 50 percent match from the local commission — is far from complete. "We have a very tall order to put together, but it's definitely doable," said Garrett Wallace, director of legislation and operations for the South Florida Water Management District. "We ...

Stalled repairs on Lake Okeechobee dike may resume by February
Andy Reid /Sun Sentinel /Oct 5
Stalled repairs of the aging dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee could resume in February as part of a new plan to reinforce the earthen levee.The Army Corps of Engineers today released more details of the plan, which calls for increasing the size of a concrete wall to be added to the middle of the dike. It also calls for reinforcing ditches and adding berms to the outside base of the dike to stop water that seeps through the structure. The need to reinforce the dike gained urgency in May, after an independent engineering report declared the 70-year-old dike "poses a grave and imminentdanger to the people and the environment of South Florida." The corps convened a group of dam and levee experts from around the country to come up with the new concept. Corps officials said they do not yet know how long it will take to reinforce the entire 140-mile long dike or how much the co ...

Lake O reform focuses on dike
Suzanne Wentley /TC Palm /Oct 6
In response to public pressure and lingering fears from Hurricane Katrina, federal water managers on Thursday announced the overhaul of a construction project to strengthen the dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee. While the new construction plans will not include a flowway south into the Everglades Agricultural Area as a way to move excess freshwater out of the lake, the proposal would make the Herbert Hoover dike safer for those living in western Martin County and northern Palm Beach County, officials with the Army Corps of Engineers said in a teleconference Thursday. "The driving factor with repairing the Herbert Hoover Dike is public safety, and public safety trumps everything else," said Stephen Duba, chief of engineering with the corps' Jacksonville district. "It's important to put a value on human life, to protect life and property."Corps officials began construction o ...

Everglades pipeline idea draws mixed reaction
Robert King /Palm Beach Post /Oct 11
A proposed 30-mile water pipeline under the central Everglades could ease the glut of runoff plaguing Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie River.But it also could dump pollution into Miami-Dade County's drinking water and Biscayne Bay. Those were the early mixed reactions today to an idea that the Army Corps of Engineers says needs years of study before it could become part of the $10.5 billion Everglades restoration. The corps presented the pipeline suggestion last month as a way to move polluted runoff from western Palm Beach County's farming region to Miami's suburbs without contaminating the Everglades in between. The underground pipeline would replace 30 miles of the Miami Canal, which the corps already plans to fill to restore natural water flow on the Everglades' surface. Among other benefits, the pipeline could carry about 500,000 gallons a minute away from the lake, re ...

New plan adds $50 million to cost of strengthening Lake Okeechobee dike
Andy Reid /Sun Sentinel /Oct 12
A new plan to reinforce Lake Okeechobee's aging dike could cost $50 million more than once proposed and should be jumpstarted to finish in a few years instead of a few decades, water regulators said today. The cost of acquiring more land for the project to strengthen the Herbert Hoover Dike could range from $20 million to $50 million, said Carol Wehle, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District.The need to strengthen the dike gained urgency in May after an engineering report, commissioned by the water district, declared the dike "poses a grave and imminent danger to the people and the environment of South Florida."Wehle said the district would push for help from the Florida Legislature to pay for the land and call on Congress to fast track the project to allow construction in 5 years instead of 30."The federal government has a responsibility to speedup ...

Army Corps has new plan, no cost for Lake Okeechobee dike repair
Phil Davis /Bradenton Herald /Oct 5
TAMPA, Fla. - The Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday it has anew, more robust plan to fix the aging 143-mile Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee, but the agency can't say how much the project will cost or when it will be completed. The new concept was developed with the help of an independent review panel that found flaws with the corps' original repair plan. Oneanalysis said the earthen barrier bears "a striking resemblance to Swiss cheese" and could fail in another major hurricane. Concerns were heightened last year when Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans' levee system. A recent study said a major dike failure could irreversibly damage the Everglades, contaminate South Florida's drinking water supply for millions of people and threaten up to 60,000 residents. "Are the challenges over? No," said Col. Paul L. Grosskruger, commander of the corps ...

Back to nature on the Kissimmee River
Daphne Sashin /Sun Sentinel /Oct 12
ON THE KISSIMMEE RIVER -- Back and forth, all day long, mammoth yellow dump trucks take on loads of dirt from the 10-foot-high mound that's been sittingnext to the Kissimmee River for 40 years, left behind by dredges that turned the once-meandering river into a straight-walled canal. One by one, they drive to the river's edge and dump the soil so bulldozers can push it into the water. Meanwhile, just upstream, a dredge sucks out mud and decayed plant matter from the original riverbed, spewing a brown fountain of muck into the canal where the earth is being dumped. This is the latest phase in a $578 million federal and state project to return the river's midsection back to the way it used to be, before the Army Corps of Engineers turned the winding, 103-mile river into a 56-mile canal for the sake of flood control. The goal is to fill in almost two miles of the ...

EVERGLADES RESTORATION

A report ignored
staff /Gainesville /Oct 4
A National Research Council's report says important projects for restoration of the Everglades National Park have experienced "troubling delays," and a boost in federal spending is needed if this massive public-works undertaking is to becompleted on schedule. None of the more than 40 major projects for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) has been completed. All 10 of the plan's components scheduled for completion last year have been delayed, as have six projects scheduled for 2004 completion. When Congress signed on to support restoration, in 2000, it agreed to a 50-50 partnership with the state and local governments in South Florida for cost sharing. But the review committee found that federal spending proposed through 2009 "is expected to account for only 21 percent of the total during that period. If federal spending does not increase, projects di ...

Better ideas are out there
Lisa Interlandi /Sun Sentinel /Oct 9
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Sept. 24 editorial on Mecca Farms demonstrated a lack of understanding of the full implications of overdevelopment in and around Palm Beach County's central western communities and of state land-uselaws. The paper's view that the county's current desires for Mecca Farms are a done deal is flat wrong; the state has raised major objections to the current proposal. Luckily for county residents, these things don't happen just because the County Commission wants them to happen. While the Sun-Sentinel laments the traffic impacts of the county's latest proposal to build 4,000 homes on Mecca Farms, it was one of the strongest supporters of the ill-conceived attempt to site Scripps there. That proposal -- with its 6,000 homes and 8.5 million square feet of industrial development -- would have caused far worse traffic, environmental and qua ...

Judge to decide on setting deadlines for Everglades restoration
Curt Anderson /Bradenton Herald /Oct 16
MIAMI - Lawyers for the state Department of Environmental Protection and South Florida water managers urged a federal judge Monday not to issue an order imposing deadlines for Everglades restoration work, contending it is both illegal and unnecessary.Charles Demonaco, attorney for the state agency, told U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno that a federal court has no business imposing its will on how a state follows its own laws. Demonaco said a cleanup plan meeting court approval for the Everglades is already enshrined in state law, making a court order unneeded. "There is a long-term plan that is in effect," Demonaco said at a hearing. "A federal court would be intruding in the daily activities of a state. That would be an unlawful order." But Dexter Lehtinen, attorney for the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, said court orders are the only way to ensure th ...

Miccosukee tribe sues S. Florida water management
staff /Tallahassee Democrat/Oct 11
MIAMI — The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida have sued the South Florida Water Management District to obtain records it claims are public information, but water regulators refused to hand over. The tribe is seeking an injunction to release records about what became of the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed amendment, Regulations Implementing the Clean Water Act, according to the lawsuit filed Oct. 5 in the 11th Judicial Circuit of Miami-Dade County. The tribe issued the requests through regular mail and e-mail in August 2006, but water regulators said they were not required to release any of the records, the lawsuit said. According to the tribe, water regulators violated the Florida Public RecordsAct, which states all state, county, and municipal records are open for personal inspection. After hours telephone messages left at the offices of ...

Water District to explore alternative water sources for South Florida
Andy Reid /Sun Sentinel /Oct 11
South Florida's water regulators might become water wholesalers to meet the needs of a growing population. The governing board of the South Florida Water Management District on Wednesday called for exploring ways to develop alternative water sources to help supply fast-growing communities that could find themselves tapped out. The agency's duties would expand from deciding how communities can use water and managing drainage facilities, to creating alternative water supplies. Using the district's financial muscle to build reservoirs, water treatment plants and other facilities aimed at recharging water supplies are among thepossibilities, said Chip Merriam, the district's deputy executive director. "The toolbox is completely wide open," said Merriam. The governing board on Wednesday called for conducting a feasibility study to suggest ways to develop water supp ...

Fla. environmental groups ask for more money
Aaron Deslatte /News Press /Oct 9
TALLAHASSEE — Florida environmental groups are asking the next governor and Legislature for a lot more green. Specifically, they want $1 billion a year for conservation buys beginning in 2008, a dramatic boost in funding they say the state has to spend or risk losing much of its remaining open lands. The Florida Forever Coalition, in an ad in Monday's edition of the Tallahassee Democrat, argues the state is blowing through its annual allotted cash lawmakers set aside for conservation buys and needs moremoney to keep endangered green spaces from being developed. The coalition, comprised of 16 conservation groups including the Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife "wants to make surethat they know that we see business as usual is not enough," said EricDraper, a lobbyist with Audubon of Florida. Florida dedicates $300 million each year to conserva ...



© FGCU 2006. This is an official FGCU web page.
Florida Gulf Coast University is accredited by the
Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
(1866 Southern lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097; Telephone number 404-679-4501)
to award associate, baccalaureate, and master’s degrees.

Florida Gulf Coast University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution.

Florida Gulf Coast University, 10501 FGCU Blvd S., Fort Myers, FL 33965-6565
Contact the Webmaster