The evening will begin at 7:00 PM with a social and brief meeting. The program will begin at 7:30 PM.

Dan Tonsmeire will give an overview of the condition of the Apalachicola River and Bay and also provide an update on litigation and restoration concerning these waters.

Dan has served as the Apalachicola Riverkeeper since 2004. He is passionately committed to saving not only the Apalachicola River, which is truly an American treasure, but to protecting and restoring the Apalachicola Bay, one of America’s last great estuaries. He is an expert on the flora, fauna and hydrology of the Apalachicola’s estuary. “We’ve got sturgeon, rare mussels and other extraordinary animals in the river,” he says. “Plus herons, osprey, eagles, swallowtailed kites – in fact, the Apalachicola has the highest biodiversity of any river system in North America.” Dan was a backcountry guide in Idaho, a commercial fisherman in Alaska, and the owner/operator of a small marine construction company in Alabama and Florida. He graduated from Auburn University with a degree in Civil Engineering and currently holds a United States Coast Guard Ocean Operator’s license. “I’ve lived in magnificent landscapes in Alaska and Idaho, and worked in other parts of Florida,” he says, but he cherishes Apalachicola’s wildness and authenticity: “There are a lot of places in Florida that would be as pretty as Apalachicola; but they’ve all been developed and covered up. People here still make a living from the water. It’s not only a beautiful place; it’s a real place.”