In this episode of Water for Fighting, Brett sits down with State Representative Toby Overdorf, a biologist, environmental consultant, four-term member of the Florida House of Representatives, and Vice President and Environmental Director for Haley Ward. Born in Newport, Rhode Island, to a Navy family with roots in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and Orchard Park, New York, Toby grew up moving from Coronado to Washington, D.C., to Massachusetts. Along the way, summers on Cape Cod, sailing near Bar Harbor, Maine, and fishing trips to Sarasota and Sanibel with his grandfather drew him to the water.
That pull led him to study gulls around Schenectady, Troy and Albany at Union College, and to sail a brigantine from Miami to San Andrés, Colombia, and Roatán, Honduras. He arrived in Florida the day after Hurricane Andrew to teach on Big Pine Key. Graduate work at Florida Atlantic University then put him on the Kissimmee River before its restoration, and he went on to build Crossroads Environmental from a two-person office in Stuart.
Frustrated by regulations that didn’t make sense, Toby ran for the Florida House after the algae-filled “lost summer” in Martin and St. Lucie counties. He and Brett talk about life in Tallahassee, his work with the Byron Donalds campaign on a Coastal Corridor stretching from Pensacola to Key West, and taking lessons from the Everglades to the Indian River Lagoon, the St. Johns River and Florida’s springs. Toby closes with the work he’d still like to see done, from state parks like Jonathan Dickinson to protecting menhaden, and explains why he remains optimistic about Florida’s future.
This episode is brought to you by my friends at Sea and Shoreline.
Sea and Shoreline is the Southeast’s leading innovator in protecting coastal communities from devastating storms and restoring ecosystems that once faced ecological collapse. Visit their website at www.Seaandshoreline.com.
Please be sure to check out the Florida Specifier Podcast hosted by Brett Cyphers and Ryan Matthews, as part of a new venture where we’re striving to become Florida’s first source for environmental news, educational tools, and unique perspectives on our state’s natural environment and the events that shape it. To learn more about its flagship print publication and more, visit The Florida Specifier.
You can follow the show on LinkedIn and Instagram @flwaterpod, and you can reach me directly at FLwaterpod@gmail.com with your comments and suggestions for who and/or what you’d like to know more about.
Production of this podcast is by Lonely Fox Studios. Thanks to Karl Sorne for making the best of what he had to work with. And to David Barfield for the amazing graphics and technical assistance.
And finally, a very special thank you goes out to Bo Spring from the Bo Spring Band for giving permission to use his music for this podcast. The song is called Doing Work for Free, and you should check out the band live, or wherever great music is sold.
