Hurricane Ian left an indelible mark on southwest Florida, especially our barrier islands, when it made landfall on Sept. 28, 2022 as a powerful category 4 storm with 150+-mile an hour winds and storm surge levels we hadn’t seen in this part of Florida for many decades.
Our guest has lived on Sanibel Island for nearly 40 years, and he writes about this area’s flora and fauna so has a keen sense of the natural world around us, particularly on the barrier islands.
Charles Sobczak has published ten books, including “The Living Gulf Coast: A Nature Guide to Southwest Florida” and “Living Sanibel: A Nature Guide to Sanibel & Captiva Islands” — and he gives lectures on topics like “The Changing Face of Nature” and “The Great Florida Invasion – From Pepper to Pythons” and his newest one, which reflects on Hurricane Ian, is called “Surviving the Storms: Hurricanes, Humans & Wildlife.” He’ll be presenting it a number of times in the coming month so we brought him by the studio for a bit of a preview.
Upcoming lecture opportunities.
- March 6, 2024, 6:30 PM for the Friends of the Pine Island Library at the Pine Island United Methodist Church, 5701 Pine Island Rd, Bokeelia, FL 33922
- March 14, 2024 for the "Ding" Darling Wildlife Society at both 10:00 am and 1:00 pm. At the J.N. "Ding" Darling Interpretive Center, 1 Wildlife Drive, Sanibel, FL 33957
- March 28, 2024, 6:00 pm at Copperfish Books, 212 W Virginia Ave #112, Punta Gorda, FL 33950
- April 2, 2024 at 4:00 pm at CROW (Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife), 3883 Sanibel Captiva Rd, Sanibel, FL 33957
*There is a small entrance fee for the CROW presentation but the others are free and open to the public.
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