Water was on everyone s mind on a recent Dunbar morning.
Not just because renowned Southwest Florida water scientist Rae Ann Wessel had come to the I Will Mentorship Foundation s urban farm, but because the stuff was pouring from the sky, soaking the nonprofit s crops and hammering its tin roof.
After a decades-long environmental career, most recently with the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, where she retired as its Natural Resources Policy Director, Wessel is poised to help others learn about what she loves: natural systems and the water that sustains them.
On this rainy morning, though, she settled for joining a handful of volunteers from Florida Gulf Coast University making wooden picnic tables under I Will’s pavilion.
Wessel honored as Conservationist of the Year at annual conference
By SANIBEL-CAPTIVA CONSERVATION FOUNDATION - | Feb 12, 2021
SCCF
Rae Ann Wessel
Rae Ann Wessel, retired natural resource policy director for the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, received the 2021 Conservationist of the Year Award at the recent 36th Annual Everglades Coalition Conference.
Wessel was on staff at the SCCF from 2006 to 2020 and currently serves on the Lee County Conservation Lands Program Advisory Board.
“No one does this work alone,” she said. “We all know it takes partnerships, relationship building, and trust to make sure we can achieve goals that are for the common good, not just for individual benefits.”