Vester\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\nUnfortunately, Hurricanes Ian, Milton and Helene wiped out most of the facility\u2019s first floor. The rebuilding process took months. On Feb. 16, it reopened its space for student research.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve built resiliency in the system. So anything that\u2019s really of value, we can remove and get out of harm\u2019s way, and also, with some of the rebuilding that\u2019s been done, we can recover, clean up better, dry out faster, so we should be able to rebound a lot faster,\u201d said Mike Parsons, the director of Vester Field Station.<\/p>\n
Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n
The reopening was made possible by the Collier Community Foundation (CCF), which provided a $150,000 grant to FGCU to help Vester purchase all necessary new equipment to make it fully operational.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis grant represents confidence and it represents our shared belief that protecting our environment and educating our future leaders is essential to protecting our community,\u201d CCF President and CEO Eileen Connoly said.<\/p>\n
The mission of CCF is to invest in the people and organizations that strengthen and sustain the community and more recently, a concern among that group has been the environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure that whatever money we are putting into the community that we\u2019re actually trying to fix a problem,\u201d Connolly said. \u201cThey actually have put a lot of thought into it here at Vester, and have really helped prepare themselves for the next storm because there will be one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vester houses a fleet of boats that frequently take students out to collect samples and measure the flow of water at the nearby artificial reef called Kimberly\u2019s Reef, a wet lab with aquariums, a dry lab equipped with microscopes and test tubes, classrooms and a spawning room with more high tech equipment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In anticipation of storms, much of the larger equipment is placed on wheels or is at least easy to disassemble and load into trucks to transport faster back to the main campus. The walls were also rebuilt with pop out plastic panels instead of replacing all the drywall.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo before the hurricanes end up coming through here, basically what we need to do is just pop all these panels out and then that lets the water flow through. Because there\u2019s going to be storm surge in here, and then once it\u2019s gone, we can dry it up and then pop these back in,\u201d postdoctoral research associate Nicholas Culligan said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Through Vester\u2019s mission and the renovation, students gain the hands-on research needed to explore coastal waters, monitor ecosystems and investigate environmental challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cVester is my bread and butter at this point. I work here part-time and this has been the start of my research,\u201d research assistant Jenna Knutson said. \u201cNow that everything is right here, not only does it save so much time, but it\u2019s a lot more efficient and having this hands-on research is something you won\u2019t get at any other university, in my opinion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the past few years, Vester has served as only a jumping-off point for research without having to go back to campus. Last year, only one class was taught there, but with all new equipment and the entire building up and running again, it is more active, with classes being taught three days a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want it to be relatively self-sustaining,\u201d Culligan said. \u201cWe want to be able for people to come here and do their research here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vester Field Station serves as a resource not only for FGCU students, but also for those in the Collier County Public Schools district.<\/p>\n
Student researchers like Knutson spend time educating the younger generation every other week through field trips and over the summer during their marine science summer camps. Both programs involve taking campers on boats and giving them experience in water quality research to help them become more interested in marine science.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no substitute for doing science to learn science,\u201d Dean of the Water School Greg Tolley said. \u201cThis place has a certain field, a certain culture to it. You can\u2019t help but love what\u2019s going on here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the heart of Southwest Florida, amid coastal environments, FGCU is often known for its marine science program.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-229845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229845","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=229845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}