Coastal & Heartland National Estuary Partnership - CHNEP

06/11/2026

Yesterday CHNEP participated in the Southwest Florida Estuarine Restoration Team (SWERT) meeting. SWERT's mission is providing a platform for coastal restoration practitioners to collaborate and share knowledge, ideas, and resources. We focused on priority restoration needs and discussing how to streamline restoration permitting to expedite progress. If interested in learning more, go to
https://sites.google.com/site/swertinfo/home.

06/01/2026

Happy June everyone! We are extending the photo contest submission deadline to Friday, June 12th. We are accepting submissions in the following categories: Animals in Water, Animals on Land, and Landscapes.

A huge thank you to those of you who have already submitted, if you would like to submit more, we are accepting an additional 3 photos per photographer. This calendar would not be possible without you all, so thank you for your continued support and participation!

Please scan the QR code or visit our website here for more information: https://www.chnep.org/calendar-photo-contest

05/15/2026

Happy Endangered Species Day! Today, we celebrate the efforts to conserve and protect species like the Florida Scrub Jay, a bird native only to Florida and its scrub habitats (hence the perfectly fitting name!) Now more than ever, connecting habitats via corridors is critical for enhancing genetics between populations of Scrub Jay, as well as protecting their habitat from further fragmentation. CHNEP and its partners are actively working to protect these critical habitats through restoration projects, education and outreach, and more.

We would also like to give a shout out to the wonderful photographers who allow us to use their pictures for educational opportunities like this to share the beauty and diversity of Southwest Florida. If you haven't already, visit our website and submit your pictures to us here: https://www.chnep.org/calendar-photo-contest

📸: Christopher Harrington

05/12/2026

We encourage you all to join us next week to learn about the critical work Charlotte County, WSP USA, and CHNEP is doing to increase resiliency in your community!

Are you coming? 👀

The Charlotte County Vulnerability Assessment is complete—and we’re sharing the results with YOU.

Join us for the final public meeting to hear:

✔️Key findings from the study

✔️How risks to County assets were identified

✔️What future climate conditions could mean for flooding and infrastructure

This important work, completed by WSP USA and funded by the Coastal & Heartland National Estuary Partnership, helps us better understand how stronger storms and changing environmental conditions could impact our community.

The results will guide future planning, infrastructure investments, and increase the County’s opportunities for outside funding—helping build a more resilient future for residents and businesses across Charlotte County.

📅Thursday, May 21, 2026
⏰6:00 PM
📍Charlotte Harbor Event & Conference Center
75 Taylor St., Punta Gorda

We hope to see you there!

05/11/2026

Help us welcome our new Research & GIS Manager Alexandra Tsalickis!

Alexandra is a Floridian who just recently finished her Ph.D. and Master's at Auburn University in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences after obtaining her Bachelor's at University of Florida in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. Her research focus has been on long-term environmental and ecosystem changes that have occurred in the southeastern United States, with a strong emphasis on synthesizing large environmental datasets to understand how climate, land use, and human activity shape ecosystem processes. In her new role at CHNEP, she will be developing and managing CHNEP funded research projects and initiatives, as well as the CHNEP Water Atlas data hub website.

We are excited to have her join our team and look forward to having her meet and work with all our members and partners.

05/01/2026

It's that time of year again! CHNEP is now accepting submissions until May 29th for our annual photo contest, where winning photos showcasing the beauty of Central and Southwest Florida will be featured in our 2027 Nature Calendar.

To learn more or to submit photos, visit www.chnep.org/calendar-photo-contest

04/28/2026

Please join us for this public meeting next month to enhance community resiliency in Charlotte County!

Charlotte County’s Vulnerability Assessment is complete.

Conducted by the County’s consultant, WSP USA, this final public meeting will share initial results of the study and an overview of the methods used to identify potential risks and impacts to County assets from current and future climate conditions.

Funded by the Coastal & Heartland National Estuary Partnership, part of the EPA’s National Estuary Program, the assessment uses local and regional data along with public input to better understand how changing environmental conditions may increase flooding, particularly from stronger and more frequent storms.

These findings will help guide County decisions, including policy, planning, and future infrastructure investments. The recommendations aim to support a more resilient future for our community.

Join us on Thursday, May 21, 2025, at 6 p.m. at the Charlotte Harbor Event and Conference Center, 75 Taylor St., Punta Gorda.

04/22/2026

Happy Earth Day!! Partnerships like the one pictured above with volunteers helping at an International Coastal Cleanup are just one way the CHNEP and the surrounding community contributes to making a difference. If there’s one thing you can do to make a difference this Earth Day, it’s volunteering for an event in your area. Check out https://www.earthday.org/events-map/ for a global map of a variety of events occurring in the name of Earth Day. Progress does not happen in silence. It happens when we show up.
📸: Keep Charlotte Beautiful

04/18/2026

We had fun helping Keep Charlotte Beautiful today at Harbour Heights Neighborhood Park! Volunteers came to help pick up trash and debris throughout the park to enhance the beauty and health of the ecosystem! Everyone braved the heat and dirt to make a difference in the community and we were so happy to be a part of it. Thank you to Rhonda Harvey and her team for hosting opportunities like this to allow for people of all ages to join and enjoy!!

04/13/2026

Today we are participating in a Developing a Gulf Fishery Ecosystem Plan meeting in Fort Myers hosted by the Gulf Council. 🎣

Fisher persons from across the region are providing input on their ideas of the challenges and opportunities to better manage our fisheries. Those include water quality/pollution, increased water temperature, loss of fish breeding habitat, boat traffic and it creating seagrass scars and sediments on hard bottom, spraying of vegetation and that creating muck, reduced hard bottom due to sand migration from beach renourishment, lack of recreational harvest data, movement of fish breeding and migration northward, etc. 🐟

They have offered potential solutions like an app for recreational fishers to log fish, FWC staff at major fishing docks and fishing tournaments to gather catch number, sizes, etc., paying for Grouper tags or a reef permit, shifting seasons to outside fish breeding seasons, and doing more research on life history and species shifts statewide. 💦