Annual Science Forum Inspires Collaboration, Innovation in Southwest Florida

Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary hosted the 11^th Annual Corkscrew Watershed Science Discussion board on June 6, 2025, welcoming a file crowd of greater than 130 individuals to the College of Florida/IFAS Collier County Extension.

What’s the Corkscrew Watershed Science Discussion board?

Based by Sanctuary science employees in 2015, this one-day assembly brings collectively scientists, engineers, and different professionals working throughout the Corkscrew Watershed to current their work to their colleagues, coverage companions, determination makers, and different stakeholders. This assembly has grown as a platform for scientific displays in addition to alternatives for networking, productive dialogue, and constructing collaborations.

Keynote Presentation by Charlette Roman

The occasion kicked off with a keynote presentation by Charlette Roman, South Florida Water Administration District Governing Board & Chair, Big Cypress Basin Board, who expressed her appreciation for the cross-section of specialists and lovers gathered to debate watershed science. She touted the progress already made round Southwest Florida as a part of the Complete Everglades Restoration Plan. She additionally shared views concerning the Corkscrew Watershed Initiative, a three-year venture planning examine which, following science performed and shared by Audubon, is now underway to establish restoration alternatives to enhance water flows in and across the Sanctuary.

“It’s working!” says Roman, who defined how a results of this advanced compendium of restoration initiatives will present higher flexibility for water managers sooner or later.

Shows

Shows centered on water amount and high quality points, together with how native seashores are recovering from a number of hurricanes, a venture being designed to enhance water storage in Lee County, developments noticed in waterbird and aquatic organism communities, and “the water-fish connection,” offered by Audubon’s Director of Conservation and discussion board creator Shawn Clem, PhD.

Different displays lined the usage of machine-learning in Audubon’s camera-trapping venture, a historical past of prescribed hearth in Florida, how the Florida Division of Transportation is incorporating wildlife crossings across the state, and a set of land stewardship updates from Collier County, SFWMD, and Audubon’s Land Stewardship Supervisor Allyson Webb.

The occasion culminated with a networking social on the Sanctuary, the place extra concepts have been shared amongst individuals and sparks ignited for future collaborations for extra resilience across the watershed.