Investing in Resilience: How the Community Foundation Is Working to Protect and Restore Our Natural Environment

Making a commitment to become a better steward of our natural environment often starts with a simple realization: There’s no other Earth out there, so all of us are charged with caring for this one as best we can.

Or as Dr. Jennifer Shafer—one of the co-executive directors of the Science & Environment Council, a nonprofit that brings together 47 science-based environmental nonprofits and government agencies—put it during a recent panel discussion hosted by the Community Foundation, “We live in a closed system.” The trash we roll out to the curb every week isn’t taken to a magical far-off land; it’s hauled to a landfill in our community. The forever chemicals that end up in our wastewater aren’t carried away to a distant ocean; they end up in our bays and estuaries. Plastic bottles on the side of the road don’t just disappear; they break down into microplastics that can show up in our own bodies. The decisions we make and the actions we take every day don’t just affect an abstract entity we think of as “nature.” They affect our beaches and waterways, our wildlife, our parks and preserves, our friends and neighbors, our children and grandchildren, and, ultimately, ourselves.

But individual action only goes so far. Building an environmentally resilient community takes sustained commitment from citizens, activists, elected officials, and business leaders, and our area’s environmental nonprofit sector is playing a leading role in strengthening that commitment by collaborating across disciplines, attacking environmental challenges from multiple angles, and working to inform and engage with the public.

That was evident from the foundation’s panel, which, in addition to Shafer, included Tanna Horner, the president and CEO of Peace River Botanical & Sculpture Gardens; Dominic Marino, the president and CEO of Oyster Boys Conservation; and Brooke Langston, the director of land protection at Big Waters Land Trust. The panelists emphasized how deeply interconnected our ecosystems are and that, while their nonprofits’ missions vary widely, they each create ripple effects that make our community more resilient in a holistic way.

Big Waters Land Trust, for example, concentrates its efforts on working with landowners to conserve natural areas and ranch lands. That benefits wildlife because it gives animals more space to roam, but conserving land also plays a critical role in keeping our waterways clean. That’s because natural areas like marshes, prairies, grasslands, and forests absorb, clean, and store rainwater. In contrast, when rainwater hits pavement, it washes directly into nearby streams and other bodies of water, bringing pollutants and trash along with it.

But what do you do with waterways that are already impaired? That’s where Oyster Boys Conservation comes in. The organization creates what they call vertical oyster gardens—ropes studded with oyster shells that dangle in the water and provide safe settlement areas for juvenile oysters. One oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water every day, absorbing excess nutrients and other elements and cleansing the water around them. Oyster gardens also serve as an important habitat for creatures besides oysters, sheltering barnacles, mussels, worms, crabs, and small fish.

The interconnectedness of environmental resilience extends beyond the natural world and touches human lives, as well. Peace River Botanical & Sculpture Gardens is a 27-acre sanctuary in Punta Gorda situated on low-lying ground that blends marshlands, wetlands, mangrove forests, and other ecosystems. Created to showcase sculptures and rare botanicals, it also serves a vital role as a place of healing and recovery for people who have been affected by storms and flooding. Each month, the property hosts 20 different free wellness programs that allow survivors to experience the calm that comes with spending time in nature. Those offerings build up our community’s mental and emotional resilience, in addition to the role the garden plays as a hub for natural resilience.

All these nonprofits, and many others in our region, are weaving together different strands to create a strong web of environmental resilience, and philanthropy has a key role to play in fortifying that web. The enduring red tide outbreak of 2018 and the catastrophic hurricanes of 2022 and 2024 have made the links between land conservation, water quality, and human health clear. With the right investments and smart decisions about urban planning and infrastructure, our resilience will rise and we, as a community, will be better prepared for whatever might come our way.

Luckily, we already have the nonprofit know-how and the technology to make that happen. As Shafer pointed out, “We know how to do this.”