{"id":120869,"date":"2026-01-16T18:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T18:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/120869\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T18:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T18:31:11","slug":"ballard-to-discuss-clts-newest-preserve-at-pine-island-garden-club-meeting-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/120869\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballard to discuss CLT\u2019s newest preserve at Pine Island Garden Club meeting Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Thursday, Jan. 15, the Pine Island Garden Club, at its monthly meeting beginning at 9 a.m. at the Fishers of Men Lutheran Church, will host Robert Ballard, who will provide a history and the restoration plans of the Calusa Land Trust\u2019s newest preserve, the Chipley Sandpatch Preserve. <\/p>\n

Ballard is a fifth generation Floridian who was raised on Pine Island. He has lived in New England and traveled extensively throughout the US, Europe and South America. After retiring from a sales career, he returned to his island roots. He has been active in civic organizations throughout his career and is a past president of CLT and presently serves as its chief steward over its preserves.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1975, the Pine Island Garden Club mission includes the protection and conservation of natural resources, encouraging island beauty and stimulating the study of the fine art of gardening. Its civic duties include the creation and maintenance of the grounds at Phillips Park, Museum of the Islands, Bokeelia Post Office, Kiwanis Children\u2019s Park and the butterfly garden at Pine Island Elementary School. <\/p>\n

The club produces the annual Garden Gala, the proceeds from which are utilized to financially support several island benevolent organizations, such as the Beacon of Hope, Calusa Land Trust, CROW and the Pine Island Food Pantry. <\/p>\n

For more information, visit pineislandgardenclub.org <\/a>or contact Marty Kendall at (239) 283-8175. <\/p>\n

Calusa Land Trust to hold 50th Annual Meeting Jan. 25<\/p>\n

The 50th Annual Meeting of the Calusa Land Trust will be held Sunday, Jan. 25, beginning at 1 p.m., at Fishers of Men Lutheran Church, 10360 Stringfellow Road, just south of the 4-way stop. The meeting is open to all. <\/p>\n

Attendees will be briefed on the care of the Land Trust\u2019s 2,400 + acres of preserved land, proposals on the newly acquired \u201cChipley Sandpatch\u201d parcel, continuing hurricane challenges and pending restoration plans for 2026 and beyond. Special plans include the celebration of the land trust\u2019s 50th Golden Anniversary. <\/p>\n

The recently published 7th edition of The Nature Lover\u2019s Guide to Pine Island will also be available for purchase.<\/p>\n

There will be socializing with old and new friends, raffles and a deli spread buffet feast. <\/p>\n

To join eight continuing directors (Brian Cotterill, Cathy House, Dave Scullion, Alice Trant, Robert Ballard, Joe Perry, Sam Grisso and Kathy Weinberger), the membership will choose to elect six incumbent directors: Judy Ott, Frank Potter, Joan Rosenberg, Cheryl King, Marty Kendall and John Kendall. Additional nominations will be accepted from the floor. <\/p>\n

For any questions, contact John Kendall at (239) 283-8175 or john@calusalandtrust.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This Thursday, Jan. 15, the Pine Island Garden Club, at its monthly meeting beginning at 9 a.m. at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":{"0":"post-120869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}