Monthly ‘Conserveza’ Sparks Conservation Collaboration

On the first Friday of most months, conservationists from across Southwest Florida gather at the Naples Botanical Garden to share ideas, build relationships and strengthen the region’s conservation community.

What started as a simple networking idea has grown into “Conserveza” — a clever mash-up of conservation and “cerveza,” the Spanish word for beer. Over refreshments, professionals and students in the conservation field share meaningful conversations about land management and environmental stewardship — tackling issues from prescribed burns to hurricane damage and recovery. Many are Florida Gulf Coast University faculty, students or alumni.

The meetup has become a vital space to connect, collaborate and learn.

Brian Bovard is associate dean and an associate professor in The Water School at FGCU. One of Conserveza’s original organizers, he says the casual, social format lowers barriers, helps strengthen relationships and spawns new partnerships.

“That consistent connection has been one of the biggest impacts of Conserveza,” Bovard says.

But it’s not the only impact the gathering has made in Southwest Florida.

“Conserveza has become a hub for practical, hands-on knowledge sharing, and prescribed fire is a great example of that,” Bovard says. “Rather than knowledge being passed in a top-down way, it’s more like a network of mentoring relationships.”

A prescribed fire or burn is a carefully planned and intentionally set fire used to manage land and ecosystems. It reduces the buildup of combustible vegetation, which can help prevent larger, uncontrolled wildfires and decrease risks to humans and human-dominated landscapes. A burn helps maintain the health of an ecosystem by promoting the growth of fire-adapted plants and recycling nutrients back into the soil.

“Fire is the most effective land management tool we have,” says Julie Motkowicz, who graduated from FGCU in 2020 with an environmental studies degree. She’s an environmental specialist for Conservation Collier, working in land acquisition and management. At a Conserveza last spring, she was part of a small group discussing upcoming burns.

Trained professionals conduct burns under specific weather conditions to ensure safety and effectiveness. New professionals rely on seasoned pros like Maulik “Mo” Patel, who has worked at Collier-Seminole State Park southeast of Naples since 2003. While there’s a lot of practical knowledge in people’s heads, “there’s no playbook, no blueprint,” Patel says. “I have to pass on the info from those who came before me.”

Patel played a key role in mentoring and teaching 2003 FGCU grad Eric Foht about prescribed fire. Foht, in his role as director of natural resources at Naples Botanical Garden, passed on his knowledge to 2022 FGCU grad Grace McCoy, who did her first burn at the garden as an FGCU student during an internship at Conservation Collier. McCoy now works as a conservationist at Naples Botanical Garden. Patel, Foht and McCoy are regulars at the monthly Conserveza events.

“These are the types of relationships we hoped would happen through Conserveza, and it’s been exciting to see it unfold so organically,” Bovard says. “FGCU students who attend these events have the opportunity to learn directly from practitioners actively working in conservation. These interactions often lead to internships, job opportunities and meaningful mentorship connections.”

In 2022, Conserveza attendees came together soon after Hurricane Ian to discuss the data they’d collected before and after the storm. But they went a step further to talk about what Bovard calls “data we wished we had gathered.”

“That conversation helped us identify gaps in our storm response and monitoring, and led to valuable insights that could improve preparedness and coordination for future events,” he says.

Such collaborative conversations strengthen individual efforts and make collective work more effective, ultimately benefiting both the environment and the residents of Southwest Florida.

FGCU360.com