On September 18, 2008, Congress passed important “No Child Left Inside” legislation that will fund environmental education programs at a national level. As Vice President of the Ecological Society of America overseeing the portfolio of education and human resources, Dr. Lowman worked with the ESA policy staff to create this press release last year. It was based on an earlier editorial that Lowman wrote in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment in fall 2006.

Video segment from SNN about the problem with invasive reptiles locally, with footage from the recent Invasive Reptile Workshop organized by Dr. Lowman here in Sarasota.  TREE Foundation was a sponsor of the workshop and provided lunch for the scientists, educators, and students in attendance. Photos and videos of the workshop can be found here.

From Sarasota Herald-Tribune:

Rounding up invasive reptiles
By CATHY ZOLLO

The signs of an iguana takeover are scattered across Manasota Key.

They strip the fruit from the sea grape trees and chew the leaves. Gone are the little brown anole lizards — themselves an introduced species — that used to scurry over the ground, and iguana tracks lead down gopher tortoise burrows.

Black spiny-tailed iguanas, known for their speed and voracious appetite, are threatening native animals, reptiles and birds — a sign of Sarasota County’s growing problem with invasive reptiles that escaped from the pet trade, gained a foothold in South Florida and are now heading north in greater numbers.

Burmese pythons and monitor lizards have also been sighted in Sarasota County.

Full article

In 2007, Dr. Lowman was featured on the May 31st episode of A Gulf Coast Journal on PBS.  Here is that segment:

You can watch the full episode online here.  From Google Video:

Treetop Traveler: Most of her career has been up in the air–and with good reason. Meg Lowman—a.k.a. Canopy Meg—is a pioneer tree canopy scientist. For 20 years, Meg has traveled the world climbing trees to study the health of our environment from above. Meet this amazing author, educator, adventurer and single mom who helped design Myakka River State Park’s scenic canopy walkway so others can see nature from her point of view.

ABC 7 News did a segment about Ricardo’s visit to Sarasota and the Earth Day festival in April 2008.  (Read more)