Gulfshore Life Men and Women of the Year award honoree: James Evans

The environment and economy are nearly synonymous in Southwest Florida, and while many people work to protect both, one man stands out and has made the environment his life’s work.

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who loves nature and the environment more than James Evans.

“What you’re looking at here is a Spartina marsh. It’s a type of marsh grass that grows here on the islands, but what’s so important about this habitat is we have a number of important species that live here. One is the Sanibel rice rat, which is an endemic species that lives nowhere else on the earth except in this type of habitat. Also, wading birds depend on these areas.”

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He continued, “It’s very unique for a barrier island to have as much of this type of habitat that we have here on Sanibel.”

He developed his passion at an early age, hunting and fishing with his dad and exploring the woods around the family farm.

Florida Gulf Coast University brought him here from the north in 1997 to study environmental science, and he’s spent his professional career on this island, now serving as CEO of the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation.

“One of the major accomplishments here on the islands has been able to preserve more than 70% of the entire island for conservation,” he said.

They’ve had to adapt after Ian, then Helene and Milton.

“It’s really changed our focus and our mission here at SCCF as well. Now we really focus on resiliency to ensure that we’re making the island resilient, not only for the humans that live here but also for the wildlife that depends on it,” Evans said.

The significance of that goes well beyond this coastline. It hits home for Evans.

“For my son, Ben, who is 8 years old, as well as the kids that he’s growing up with, and hopefully his grandkids, they’ll have a legacy where they can enjoy the same things that I did here in Southwest Florida, going out and catching a snook or a redfish or a tarpon, being able to see manatees and dolphin and all of the other really cool wildlife that we have here,” he said.

Preserving in the present so we all have a future.

You can read more about Evans and the rest of this year’s men and women of the year in this month’s Gulfshore Life.