Everglades advocate Adams to speak in Bonita Springs Feb. 18
Everglades activist and local history enthusiast Franklin Adams will speak at the Feb. 18 meeting of the Southwest Florida Archaeological Society (SWFAS) at the Bonita Springs Community Hall, located at 27381 Old U.S. 41 (by the banyan tree). Refreshments are available at 7 p.m., the meeting begins at 7:30 and meetings are free.
Attendees will learn about the lifeways of the ancient (and not-so-ancient) residents of the Everglades/Big Cypress/Ten Thousand Islands area as Adams will be showing some slides as he talks about the early Indian mounds/middens. He will ask – and answer – who used these mounds over time and why?
Adams will also talk about some of the early settlers and where and how they made a living. And as a lifelong resident of South Florida, he’ll share some of his own personal experiences.
Born and raised in Miami, Adams has been a long-time advocate for the Everglades. He helped fight the Dade County Port Authority’s Big Cypress Jetport, lobbied for the establishment of the Big Cypress National Preserve and having the Big Cypress watershed declared an Area of Critical State Concern by the Florida legislature. He has worked for the restoration of water flows to Everglades National Park as well as restoration of the Kissimmee-Okeechobee-Everglades system.
Now a charter boat captain, fishing guide and eco-tour operator, he worked as a land surveyor after serving in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 841st Engineer Battalion. His varied career also included jobs with Hertz Corporation and as President of Jerry’s Carpet, Inc.
Adams has served on the boards of numerous environmental organizations, including Friends of the Everglades, the Big Cypress Nature Center, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the Izaak Walton League of America, Florida Conservation Foundation; he was a conservation representative of the Florida Governor’s Big Cypress Swamp Advisory Committee. He was a founding member of SWFAS and of the Florida Native Plant Society.
He has received many awards, including the Everglades Coalition’s George M. Barley Award as Conservationist of the Year; recognition by the State of Florida House of Representatives for serving on the State Water Task Force, a group that met for two years and led to the passage of the Water Quality Assurance Act of 1983; National Widllife Federation Conservation Achievement Award; Izaak Walton League of America Hall of Fame Award for his Big Cypress/Everglades work.
The Southwest Florida Archaeological Society (SWFAS) was founded in 1980 as a not-for-profit corporation to provide a meeting place for people interested in the area’s past. Its goals are to learn more of the area’s prehistory, to help disseminate this information, and to help preserve its evidences. Its members number both professional and amateur archaeologists, come from all walks of life and age groups. They share a lively curiosity, a respect for the people who preceded them here, and a feeling of responsibility for the conservation of the mementos they left behind. SWFAS is a chapter of the Florida Anthropological Society.
For more information, please call SWFAS President Theresa Schober at 239-851-9040.