FEATURED STORY
Brittany Piersma | Coastal Breeze News | January 15, 2026
We are happy to report that the Marco City Council and city staff have agreed to go poison-free at all of their properties starting February 2026! This is a huge step in leading the way to protect all wildlife on the island and to help educate other businesses, churches, condos, hotels, and residentials. Marco Island can be a role model for all other cities in their support of conservation efforts. Read more...
AWE IN THE NEWS
We love it when publications seek us out to highlight our work. Here are some favorite articles.
By Brittany Piersma | Coastal Breeze News | April 23, 2026
Ten years of Owl Watch on Marco Island: honoring our longtime volunteers and looking back at starter burrows, banding and the fight against rat poison. Read the story!
Gulf Coast Life | WGCU | April 7, 2026
Bridget Washburn and Brad Cornell join landscape architect Ellin Goetz to talk about biodiversity loss and how native plants in your own backyard can help. Listen in!
By Maria Lamb | Coastal Breeze News | May 22, 2025
Marco Island City Council proclaimed an Owl Watch Volunteers Appreciation Day to honor the people who monitor our burrowing owls. Read the story!
By Maria Lamb | Coastal Breeze News | October 3, 2024
AWE and the City of Marco Island teamed up on an island-wide survey of gopher tortoise burrows, along with tracking road strikes. Read the story!
By Maria Lamb | Coastal Breeze News | May 19, 2022
Construction on Marco Island's vacant lots puts burrowing owls and gopher tortoises at risk from vehicle strikes and habitat loss. Read the story!
By Brittany Piersma | Coastal Breeze News | April 1, 2021
How a Marco Island lot full of gopher tortoise burrows was saved, and became AWE's Dogwood Preserve. This month our volunteers and Naples Zoo horticulture staff helped restore it. See the progress!
By Scott Weidensaul | Audubon Magazine | July 21, 2020
We are excited to have our Owl Watch Program featured in Audubon Magazine’s latest Summer 2020 edition. Check it out!
NEWS of interest archives
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Action Alert 10-22-2026
AWE Action Alert
Urge Collier Commissioners to pursue negotiations for the purchase of 68 acres near Marco Island!
This agenda item has been moved to a future date. We will alert when it is determined. Thanks!
The Collier County Board of Commissioners will vote on whether to pursue negotiations for Conservation Collier to purchase an important 68 acre parcel on Horr's Island in the City of Marco Island. It is next to Rookery Bay preserves, would help protect Key Marco and City from storms, and hosts 19 acres of coastal strand with many threatened gopher tortoises as surveyed by AWE's biologist, Brittany Piersma. Those 19 acres of upland habitat make this parcel vulnerable to development. Offered by the Spottswood family, this is a rare opportunity to protect such a large property with so many amazing resources! Audubon Western Everglades urges all our members and friends to contact the commissioners to briefly urge their support for giving direction to negotiate a purchase by Conservation Collier.
Updated Nov 2, 2026
Reach out to:
Rick LoCastro — District 1: Rick.LoCastro@collier.gov
Chris Hall — District 2: Chris.Hall@collier.gov
Burt L. Saunders — District 3: Burt.Saunders@collier.gov
Dan Kowal — District 4 (current chair): Dan.Kowal@collier.gov
William L. McDaniel, Jr. — District 5: Bill.McDaniel@collier.gov
While writing them, please thank them, again, for their recent approval of purchase contracts for three Marco Island lots that protected over 40 state-threatened gopher tortoises.
Past News
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