FGCU Vester Research Station reopens after storm damage

Vester is back. That sentiment was expressed with Pride Monday by Doctor Greg Tolley, Dean of Fgcu, the water school. The best field station is connected to the Water School. Along with Ftx's, Cap Mix Center at the Naples Botanical Garden plays a crucial role as a gateway for research and exploration. Our faculty, staff and students whose vast are to explore coastal waters, monitor ecosystems and investigate environmental challenges. Tolley was joined at the Bay Beach Road station by Fgcu President Icicle Timber, Q Community Foundation CEO Eileen Connolly Keister and Vester director Doctor Michael Parsons as they officially reopened. Investor stations. I think the biggest hope was that we'd have this back up and running and students would be back here doing their research. That is so important. So, you know, I'll tell you, they took that 150,000 and have stretched it beyond my wildest dreams of how many pieces they were able to replace with that amount of money. So really stewarded that grant to get the biggest bang for their buck. And that, from a donor perspective, is really great to see the structures you see around you sit on land that once hosted a commercial fish house and later an old Florida style resort. Today, they serve as a launchpad for discovery, an outdoor laboratory where students and scientists and together study the coastal systems that define this region. It was the second reopening since Hurricane Ian decimated the site in 2022. It's a celebration, really, of coming back online and being active and just, having everybody see what Vesta's about and what our potential is and what our capabilities are moving forward. So really it's, you know, a big open house celebration to let everyone know that we're back and that, you know, Vesta is vibrant and ready, ready for action. Hurricanes Milton and Helene in 2024 also caused damage and investor, but the recovery is now complete. Each method we use kind of gives us a bigger snapshot of what we're looking at, and the fact that we can do it instantly is pretty cool. Parsons has some regrets, especially with research and samples lost, but it was resigned to those losses. We unfortunately, a lot of the samples we lost are gone, and so we'll just have a blank space in that record. But we can work around that. We do have some samples that were up on campus, and we have other data streams that came in. But that's just just like people who lost all their fans and personal belongings. That's some of the things that we lost that's just gone. And one thing that Tolley, Parsons, Timmer and others were all in agreement about it. With the station now back to operating status. Research can continue and education can resume. That was very exciting to see everything back together and functional at the end of the day, that it's going to continue. Of course, you look around and go, you always have to worry about getting things off the ground, but it's nice that they have been able to set this up. So when the hurricanes come in, they can actually take pieces apart and move things up, get it off the ground so that we're not re flooding and replacing. And that's the piece with resilience and mitigation. You want to make sure that that whatever money we are putting into the community that we're actually trying to fix a problem and not just Band-Aid in it in the future, hits another storm. And we're right back to where we started. They actually have put a lot of thought into it here at Bester, and, have really helped prepare themselves for the next storm because there will be one. Just as Southwest Florida's resilient investor is resilient as well. And so, Vester, while we were gone, we've had three hurricanes in two years. We're back. We're still standing and we're better than ever. And we can't wait for you to come here. And more about our coastal. For WGCU news, I'm Mike Braun.