News

April 27, 2026.
While my artwork does fulfill one of my primary objectives – to create beauty, I also achieved my other objective – do good in the world – by being a citizen activist, focused on land preservation. I’m one of the founding members of a local land trust called the Gulf Coast Conservancy. 

Founded in 1992 along the Nature Coast in West Central Florida, we had a mission to protect as many acres of coastal lands as we could. To that end, we created a conversation between the landowners and the funding agencies and then kept the negotiations moving forward until contracts were completed. Initially, we committed to facilitating the preservation of 3,000 acres – but now, after 32 years of dedicated volunteer work, we’re celebrating the permanent protection of 15,000 acres locally, and 75,000 acres along the Nature Coast. 

While there were many different public and private partners who aided in this mission, our primary partner was the Southwest Florida Water Management District. The Gulf Coast Conservancy is proud to have played a role in these endeavors, and we have now chosen to move our resources and support to the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation.

The challenges to preserve environmentally sensitive lands is ongoing.  Much of the funding for purchases was due to a program called Preservation 2000, which morphed into Florida Forever. This program used to be funded at $300,000 million annually but over the years, funding has shrunk considerably, with the Florida legislature now threatening to reduce the annual commitment to zero.