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What a privilege it is to explore my world, one person, one issue, one story at a time.

The New York Times •

Stepping Into a Hidden World in the Everglades

Deep within the seemingly endless saw-grass marshes of the Florida Everglades, I found myself standing on an unexpected speck of dry land on a bright spring day. The boat ride to this spot had fully exposed my tour group to the blustery wind and midday sun, and the island, by contrast, felt lush and welcoming, ringed by trees that cast shadows and tempered the gusts and insulated us from the elements beyond.Betty Osceola, a member of the Miccosukee Tribe whose salt-and-pepper hair was pulled bac...
The New York Times •

Agony, and Relief, for Island Residents Who Were Hit Hard 2 Years Ago

The wait to return to Sanibel Island on Thursday was agonizing for residents and business owners, many of whom were still rebuilding from Hurricane Ian in 2022 and just digging out after Hurricane Helene two weeks ago.“The anxiety and PTSD with Ian, I swear every one of these is taking another five years off my life span,” said Sean Niesel, 34, who took over the Shalimar Beach Resort from his grandparents after it was battered by Hurricane Ian.The resort still hasn’t recovered from the hurricane...
The New York Times •

Fort Myers Beach, Devastated by Hurricane Ian, Floods Again

Island communities in Lee County, Fla., endured another bruising overnight — almost two years to the day after Hurricane Ian killed dozens of people in the county and devastated Fort Myers Beach.Even though Hurricane Helene made landfall hundreds of miles to the north, its storm surge inundated roads and gushed into buildings in Fort Myers Beach, which sits on a barrier island on the southwest Gulf Coast. Many of the damaged buildings were newly renovated or still in the process of being repaire...
Naples Botanical Garden •

Coastal Cactus's Extinction in US Signals Impact of Rising Seas | Naples Botanical Garden

A plant made headlines this month, though not for reasons we like: Scientists believe the United States has lost its first vascular plant species in the wild due to sea-level rise.The Key Largo tree cactus (Pilosocereus millspaughii) was known to exist in the U.S. in only a single location, a limestone outcrop at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. A biologist discovered it in 1992, after seeing its columns, which can reach as tall as 20 feet, emerge from a mangrove canopy. Writing in the July...
Gulfshore Life •

One of the Most Influential Men in Saltwater Fly-Fishing Lives in Fort Myers

"OK , I’m gonna put the hook in the vise. We want the shank parallel to the floor … The next thing we’re gonna figure out is what size eyes we want. The eyes will affect the sink rate.”

I am sitting in the home workshop of Drew Chicone, saltwater fly-tying master, watching him create a salmon-colored imitation shrimp to attract fish. He wraps thread around the hook to form a body, secures little black bead chain eyes and adds silicone legs to mimic the crustacean’s anatomy, sparkling fibers f...
Gulfshore Life •

Naples' Leading Lady of Philanthropy

The first time I meet Dena Rae Hancock, she’s wearing a sunshine yellow business dress. The second time I see her, on Zoom, she’s in her Naples home office, in front of a brazen, hot pink wall. “Oh, I love pink,” she says, unabashed. “It’s a color that brings that happy feeling.” (Her electronic avatar is a grinning blonde ringed in bubblegum pink.)

Some will accuse me of being corny, but I’ll go ahead and say it: There’s a vibrancy to Dena Rae, and it goes well beyond her color palette. For...
Gulfshore Life •

Behind-the-Scenes with Artis—Naples' Film and Literature Guru

Some three decades ago, Elaine Newton, a humanities professor at York University, Toronto, approached a sabbatical leave and sought a required academic pursuit to round out an upcoming year of adventure. Vacationing i n Naples for the first time, the literary expert glimpsed a sign announcing the soon-to-be Phi lharmonic Center for the Arts (now Artis—Naples). Inspiration struck. “I thought, ‘During the day, nobody uses a Philharmonic. What if I could start a book club here? What if I could be s...
Gulfshore Life •

One Year After Ian: We Celebrate the Landmarks that Remain and Stand Strong in SWFL

One year ago, Hurricane Ian battered Southwest Florida. But these resilient institutions rallied and returned—stronger than ever.

J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge

Sanibel was gray the day Toni Westland and her colleagues returned to the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge. Gray silt. Gray sludge. Gray forests, stripped of green leaves. But, wait, a flash of brown—Toni, the supervisory refuge ranger, and fellow ranger Jessica Barry fixed their eyes on the movement in th...
Gulfshore Life •

Walker Farms in North Fort Myers embodies the sweet life

A conversation with Allen Walker one January morning calls to mind an old children’s rhyme: “I know an old lady who swallowed a fly …” The woman went on to consume a spider to eat the fly, a bird to eat the spider, a cat to swallow the bird, and on up the food chain.
And so it is with the bees that Allen has tended for more than 50 years. “I wish people understood our entire food chain starts with bees,” he says. A bee pollinates a flower; a bug crawls in to enjoy the pollen; a bigger bug eats...
Gulfshore Life •

The Florida Gladesmen Way

J ack Shealy raps on a piece of wood. The concrete-like density deadens the sound. Lighter pine, he announces. It’s the center, or heartwood, of a tree that had been struck by lightning and dried in the sun over many years.
“That’s how I lit the (camp) fire so fast this morning,” he explains. In addition to the lack of moisture, the wood contains flammable turpentine, a natural byproduct of some pine species. A modest-sized piece of lighter pine will spark an impressive flame. Jack points out...
Gulfshore Life •

Floridian food isn't what you think: Dive into the true, authentic flavors of Southwest Florida

T he platter arrives overflowing with local bounty­—big, pink Gulf shrimp and dense, fleshy grouper—but my daughter and I reach for the unfamiliar first: fried frog legs. We glance at each other, at our jointed pieces of meat and bite. “Tastes like chicken,” we decree, because that’s how unfamiliar white meat always tastes. We bite again, and a more complex flavor profile emerges. They are a little gamey, a little briny, a little lighter in color and density than poultry.
I’m searching for Sout...
Gulfshore Life •

Naples Canning Co. Captures the Flavors of Local Farms in a Jar

David McCone is a young man working to perfect an old tradition. The 34-year-old created Naples Canning Co. three years ago, inspired by Southwest Florida’s bounty and a desire to capture its just-off-the-vine flavors. He is—for now—a one-man operation that partners with local organic farmers, transforms their produce into various jarred and pickled foods, and sells them on his website, at Naples’ Third Street South Farmer’s Market and at his five-month-old retail shop, The Farm Stand at Naples...
Gulfshore Life •

Raising the Sails

The most high-end of Naples’ fine-dining establishments is run by an executive chef who just cracked 30 this month. Darren Veilleux assumed the top job at Sails Restaurant at 27, about a year and a half after starting out as a sous chef.
This being the Futuremakers issue, age matters to us. It does not, however, matter to Darren’s bosses. “I don’t believe in age, on the side of youth or on the side of maturity,” says Veljko Pavicevic, who co-owns Sails with Corinne Ryan. “It’s all about the min...
Gulfshore Life •

The Fisherman's Daughter Seafood Brand

The world is dark and sleepy when Chanda Jamieson climbs onto her father’s commercial fishing skiff one Monday morning. But not for long. In the time it takes her father, Bobby, to pilot the boat from Cape Coral to downtown Fort Myers, emergent light illuminates the Caloosahatchee River, the city’s skyline and the bridges spanning the water. “This is the best part of the day out here, watching the sun come up,” says Bobby, who descends from a line of New England and Nova Scotia fishermen and has...
Gulfshore Life •

Under the Mangroves

Mangroves take care of people in ways almost too numerous to count. They serve as nurseries for fish, filter excess nutrients from water, capture and store carbon, prevent soil erosion and act as coastal barriers against wind and waves.
Globally, however, these watery forests have been disappearing. But there’s good news: The rate of decline has slowed and efforts to protect and restore mangroves have surged. That’s evident locally thanks to two significant undertakings.
On Marco Island, the reg...
Gulfshore Life •

Home Sweet Home

The handsome, two-story building on Goodlette-Frank Road is the physical manifestation of a declaration: We are here to stay.
Shouting that are the trustees and staff of the Naples Children & Education Foundation. Even with its age (22), its accolades (ranking as Wine Spectator’s top charity wine auction 13 times) and a trove of affirmational data (including an astounding 93% graduation rate in Immokalee), a sense of impermanence shrouded the foundation, which has bounced around Collier County,...
Gulfshore Life •

Cream of the Crop

Once upon a time, a change in seasons brought with it a different set of foods: squash in winter, asparagus in spring, berries in summer and apples in fall. Seasonal fare still exists, of course, as food magazines and marketers constantly remind us. But the reality is, you can get pretty much anything any time you want. Tomatoes not growing in Florida in July? No problem! Thanks to industrial farming, California will ensure they grace your plate, just as the Midwest supplies corn during those mo...
Gulfshore Life •

The Great Everglades Endeavor

Once upon a time in Florida, a pair of brothers in the real estate business eyeballed the eastern Collier County wilderness and saw dollar signs.
Baltimore natives Leonard and Julius “Jack” Rosen descended on the Sunshine State in 1957, the year they founded Gulf American Land Corp. Their arrival coincided with the completion of I-75, opening the state’s west coast to the cold-weary, the curious and the charlatans.
The Rosens (who’d gotten their start peddling an anti-baldness tonic), marketed S...
Gulfshore Life •

A House Full of Love

“Ok, let’s go… now!” Karen Reynolds Scott strides through her front door, no-nonsense but not harried in spite of the clock inching closer to church time. She’s a singer and an ex-cheerleader, and her voice projects over a bouncing basketball and whirling bike tires. The ball falls still. The bikes too. Their three operators—boys ages 12, 7 and 8—scramble toward her 15-passenger van. The others emerge, a 15-year-old girl, two friends, her boyfriend, three more teenage boys, and an 11-year-old gi...
Naples Botanical Garden •

Botanical Gardens Protect Wildlife, Too! | Naples Botanical Garden

Seventeen pairs of eyes recently scanned our scrubby flatwoods habitat, heads down, eyes peeled, looking for displaced sand and gently sloped, half-moon-shaped burrows — telltale signs of gopher tortoises.These dogged observers, representing various organizations, were part of an authorized gopher tortoise agent permitting class that the Garden agreed to host in exchange for data about the threatened reptiles’ status on our land.The survey, completed as part of the course, yielded important info...
Naples Botanical Garden •

Botanical Gardens Protect Wildlife, Too! | Naples Botanical Garden

Seventeen pairs of eyes recently scanned our scrubby flatwoods habitat, heads down, eyes peeled, looking for displaced sand and gently sloped, half-moon-shaped burrows — telltale signs of gopher tortoises.These dogged observers, representing various organizations, were part of an authorized gopher tortoise agent permitting class that the Garden agreed to host in exchange for data about the threatened reptiles’ status on our land.The survey, completed as part of the course, yielded important info...
Gulfshore Life •

Defenders Of The Gulf - Hannah Rinaldi

There’s something about the composting fad that strikes Hannah Rinaldi as odd.“It seems like composting is a buzz word, the hot thing. You go to all these restaurants and they have compostable cups and compostable straws. Everybody wants to do it but nobody was actually picking up compost.”On Earth Day 2018, she and her husband, Tom, launched Naples Compost, a company focused on picking up and recycling household food waste and educating the public about the whys and hows of turning food scraps...
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