Cela Tega Conference Series

James (Jim) William Beever III is an expert in Natural Resources and Climate Change Planning in southwest Florida. Jim is a Planner IV for the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council (SWFRPC). He has worked in in four different agency roles (FDER, FDNR, GFC/FWC, SWFRPC) protecting wetlands, native uplands, wildlife and fisheries, endangered species, and water quality in Southwest Florida for 36 years.  His work in land conservation goes back to 1972 at the age of 16 in the protection of Estero Bay mangroves from development and establishing the Six-Mile Cypress Preserve in the Monday Group.   He has initiated/ worked on/ provided major assistance on 81 major land conservation projects encompassing at least 650 thousand acres over 44 years from Hernando County to Monroe County and inland eastward to the middle of the state of Florida. His work at the SWFRPC includes environmental planning review for a multi-county area in southwest Florida including Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry, Lee, and Sarasota Counties.  Work includes original applied research, Coordinating Regional Wildlife Habitat Planning, Review of the Developments of Regional Impact before that was eliminated by the Florida legislature, Review of Department of Transportation Projects, Review and Planning of Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), Southwest Florida Comprehensive Watershed Study (SWCWS), and other restoration projects, Review of large and significant State Clearinghouse, Florida Department of Environmental Protection/Southwest Florida and South Florida Water Management Districts/US Army Corps of Engineers permits, Wildlife Resource Inventory, Fish and Wildlife Technical Assistance, 17 Committees and Partnerships including: Estero Bay Agency on Bay Management (which he helped found and chaired for 6 years;  the Myakka River Coordinating Council;  Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan including Picayune Strand (Southern Golden Gate Estates Restoration), US 41 Culverts Collier County west of BCNP, Lake Trafford restoration;  Southern Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed Restoration; C-43 (Caloosahatchee River) Reservoir; Lakes Park Restoration; Henderson Creek Restoration; and South West Florida Regional Restoration Coordination Team; Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program (which he helped found) Management Committee, Policy Committee Alternate, Technical Advisory Committee; Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed Committee;  SWFRPC GREENPRINT and Coastal Conservation Corridor Plan and the City of Bonita Springs Regional Watershed Working Group His work in climate change planning includes the Comprehensive Southwest Florida/Charlotte Harbor Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment,  City of Punta Gorda Adaptation Plan Adopted November 18, 2009, Model Ordinances/ Comprehensive Plan Language Development, Lee County Climate Change Resiliency Strategy, Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Opportunities for Salt Marsh Types in Southwest Florida, Estimating and Forecasting Ecosystem Services within Pine Island Sound including Sea Level Rise Effects, The Pelican Cove Climate Change Adaptation Plan, the City of Cape Coral Climate Change Adaptation Plan, Estimating and Forecasting Ecosystem Services within Pine Island Sound, Sanibel Island, Captiva Island, North Captiva Island, Cayo Costa Island, Useppa Island, Other Islands of the Sound, and the Nearshore Gulf of Mexico. and Identifying and Diagnosing Locations of Ongoing and Future Saltwater Wetland Loss and Death From the Hydrologic and Biogeochemical Impacts of Climate Change and Human Impoundment With A Treatment Protocol for Restoration of Afflicted Areas He has been an author of four of the five Estero Bay State of the Bay reports. He plans to retire at the end of 37  years of public service to write, do science as a citizen, and enjoy his family and life.

Bill Mitsch is currently Eminent Scholar and Director, Everglades Wetland Research Park, Florida Gulf Coast University, Naples, Florida. He is an ecosystem ecologist and ecological engineer who was co-laureate of the 2004 Stockholm Water Prize in August 2004 as a result of a career in wetland ecology and restoration, ecological engineering, and ecological modeling Mitsch graduated from University of Notre Dame where he majored in mechanical engineering. He then worked for two years in the power industry—for American Electric Power in Ohio and for Commonwealth Edison in Chicago. It was at the latter utility that he became part of their then-new environmental planning staff in 1970, being influenced by the first Earth Day in May 1970. He then went to the University of Florida in Gainesville and received an M.E. degree (1972) and Ph.D. (1975) in environmental engineering sciences. In his Ph.D. program he transitioned to become more of an ecologist, studying wetlands and lakes in Florida under Professor H.T. Odum. Prior to arriving at Florida Gulf Coast University in late 2012, he was on the faculties at Illinois Institute of Technology (1975–79), University of Louisville (1979–85), and, for 26 years at Ohio State University (1986-2012).

Bio: Research Director

Dr. Shawn Clem, Research Manager

B.S., Marine Science and Mathematics; minor, Chemistry Eckerd College 1998

Ph.D., Biology, Florida International University 2004

 

Dr. Shawn Clem is the Research Director of Audubon Florida's Western Everglades Research Center, located at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Dr. Clem is a community ecologist with twenty years of experience in researching and describing the ecology, hydrology, and impacts from environmental stressors on our region, with past positions and projects at Everglades National Park, Audubon’s Everglades Science Center in Tavernier, and Big Cypress National Preserve.

 

Helping establish our research center in 2013, Dr. Clem is focused on filling science gaps in order to answer critical questions about Western Everglades’ conservation and restoration. Current long-term monitoring projects include tracking and understanding hydrology, Wood Storks and other wildlife changes at Corkscrew, gauging restoration success on Panther Island Mitigation Bank, and documenting changes in fish communities within the Picayune Strand Restoration Project. Under her direction, Audubon’s research program is focused on better understanding and describing our region’s unique ecology in light of increased environmental pressures, and using this understanding to guide wetland conservation, stewardship, and restoration throughout the boundaries of Corkscrew and beyond.

 

Dr. Clem is the founder and leader of the annual Corkscrew Watershed Science Forum, co-director of Corkscrew’s Conservation Internship program; co-organizer of Audubon Florida’s Conservation Leadership Initiative; adjunct graduate faculty at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU); and a Research Affiliate of FGCU's Everglades Wetland Research Park.

Brad Cornell currently is Policy Director for both Audubon of the Western Everglades and Audubon Florida, a joint position he has held since Summer 2005, and for the regional organization since 2001. He works on land use, wetlands, coastal habitats, and Western Everglades restoration issues to protect and recover imperiled species, especially the Florida Panther, nesting shorebirds, Corkscrew’s Wood Storks, and Marco Island’s Burrowing Owls. He has degrees from Oberlin College and the University of Texas at Austin and played trombone for the Naples Philharmonic for ten years prior to joining Audubon. Brad and his wife Martha have two native Floridian children, one in graduate school and one in high school.

Nicole Iadevaia is the Research & Outreach Manager of the Coastal & Heartland National Estuary Partnership (CHNEP, formerly the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program), is responsible for working with diverse stakeholders and local, state and federal government to restore and protect the water resources in the CHNEP area in Central and Southwest Florida. Prior to joining CHNEP, Nicole worked in the Sarasota County Stormwater program conducting county-wide water quality testing and environmental assessment of seagrass as well as leading the Seagrass Survey citizen-science program in Sarasota Bay and the Sarasota County environmental dive team. She has also served as an environmental biologist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission- Fish and Wildlife Research Institute working in the Fisheries Independent Monitoring Program and the Coastal Charlotte Harbor Water Quality Monitoring Network. She has a background working in ecology and water quality at the University of Colorado Mountain Research Center and in policy- serving as Western Regional Chair for the United States Student Association and working on behalf of the Outreach Centers within the state university systems providing pathways to higher education for underrepresented groups. Her time at CHNEP has allowed her to bring both pursuits together to help monitor, restore, and protect our valuable natural resources at all levels.

Phil Flood serves as the Regional Representative at the South Florida Water Management District’s Ft. Myers Service Center and serves as the agency’s legislative liaison advocating natural resource issues with the Florida Legislature. He has worked for the District since 2006 serving in roles as Service Center Director and Administrator for the Big Cypress Basin. Phil has over 25 years of resource management experience with the State of Florida including the Bureau of Beaches and Coastal Systems, Department of Environmental Protection and Division of Recreation and Parks, Department of Environmental Protection. He currently serves as a member of the SW Florida Regional Planning Council, the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program Management Committee and the Hendry County Economic Development Council.

Wayne Daltry, 72, Retired.  Formerly Chief of Long Range Planning, Manatee County; Coastal Zone Planner, Planning Director and Executive Director, Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council; Director, Lee County Smart Growth.  A Sponsor and Participant of the Area of Critical State Concern for Greater Charlotte Harbor that led to the coastal acquisitions necessary for the Charlotte Harbor and Estero Bay State Parks;  A Sponsor and Participant in the founding of Estero Bay Agency of Bay Management; A Sponsor and Participant in the founding of the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program;  Fellow of The American Institute of Certified Planners;  Husband, Father, Homeowner, War Veteran, Rotarian, and (occasional) Churchgoer.  Various awards and honors.

Haley serves as 1000 Friends of Florida’s Outreach Director and promotes sustainable growth through collaboration with civic and conservation organizations across Florida. She works to connect a new generation of Floridians with 1000 Friends’ mission and assists in planning local workshops and other informational events statewide. Prior to working for 1000 Friends, Haley was the Administrator for the Florida Conservation Coalition where she helped conservation leaders build consensus on policy solutions to Florida’s pressing environmental challenges. She is a founding board member of the Florida Futures Project, a statewide scholarship competition for high school seniors to craft solutions to large-scale challenges facing the Sunshine State. A Gainesville native, Haley graduated from Eckerd College, Phi Beta Kappa (St. Petersburg, Florida), and obtained her master’s degree of Public and Urban Policy from the University of Glasgow (United Kingdom). Haley resides in St. Petersburg with her husband where she enjoys kayaking, birdwatching and long runs at Fort DeSoto Park and along the Pinellas Trail

 

Jane serves as 1000 Friends of Florida’s Policy and Planning Director. In that capacity, she works with citizens providing guidance on critical growth and development issues facing communities across Florida. She also advocates before the Florida legislature to promote legislation for sound community planning that protects Florida’s land and waters and quality of life. In addition, Jane coordinates 1000 Friends’ legal advocacy efforts related to growth management. Jane has been practicing law for 21 years and for the past 7 years has owned a boutique litigation law firm focused on precedent-setting public interest land use and environmental cases throughout the state. She is an AV-rated attorney admitted to both in Florida and Maine, as well as the southern and middle districts of Florida, the 7th and 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and the US Supreme Court. 

The majority of her case load has involved land use litigation in circuit court and the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH) along with federal litigation. Previously, she practiced law in Portland, Maine at Conservation Law Foundation, and Jupiter and West Palm Beach, Florida. Jane was raised in Athens, Greece and Budapest, Hungary before moving to Florida as a teenager. Almost immediately she became involved with environmental causes including a door to door campaign to stop offshore oil drilling off the coast of Florida when Governor Martinez was in office. Over the years, she has cultivated a niche practice of public interest environmental law that boasts the preservation of 75,000 acres of the Babcock Ranch in SW Florida, 500 acres of agricultural land in Sumter County, stopping a Wal-Mart Supercenter from being built on the banks of the scenic & historic Anclote River in Tarpon Springs, blocking a sewage outfall pipe in Lake Worth, and saving 7 acres of coral reef from being buried in Palm Beach. She currently serves as the Chair of the City of St. Augustine Planning and Zoning Board and was the founding member and President of the St. Johns Association of Women Lawyers, is a long-standing member of the Florida Association of Women Lawyers and chaired the Agriculture and Environmental Council for the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce. Jane lives in St. Augustine, Florida.