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The Great Florida Invasion: From Python to Pepper!

Charles Sobczak
The Living Gulf Coast book cover

Florida is home to a wide array of flora and fauna, but not all of it is native, actually quite a lot of what you see in the wild world around you is considered to be invasive. We’re getting a lesson on Florida’s many invasives from Charles Sobczak. The Sanibel-based author will be presenting two lectures on Florida’s invasives later this month, the first one is at the downtown Fort Myers Regional Library on Monday, June 18 at 6:30 p.m. and the other is at the Gulf Gate Library in Sarasota on Friday, June 23 at 1:00 p.m. His lectures are based on information he gathered for his book, The Living Gulf Coast – A Nature Guide to Southwest Florida.

 

Rachel Iacovone is a reporter and associate producer of Gulf Coast Live for WGCU News. Rachel came to WGCU as an intern in 2016, during the presidential race. She went on to cover Florida Gulf Coast University students at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Capitol Hill and Southwest Floridians in attendance at the following day's Women's March on Washington.Rachel was first contacted by WGCU when she was managing editor of FGCU's student-run media group, Eagle News. She helped take Eagle News from a weekly newspaper to a daily online publication with TV and radio branches within two years, winning the 2016 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award for Best Use of Multimedia in a cross-platform series she led for National Coming Out Day. She also won the Mark of Excellence Award for Feature Writing for her five-month coverage of an FGCU student's transition from male to female.As a WGCU reporter, she produced the first radio story in WGCU's Curious Gulf Coast project, which answered the question: Does SWFL Have More Cases of Pediatric Cancer?Rachel graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University with a bachelor's degree in journalism.