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Ft Myers Beach - Good Neighbor
ST INS CARES-Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife -What Happens To Wildlife When Empty Lots Disappear
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Cape Coral has more burrowing owls than anywhere else in Florida, and the empty lots they depend on are disappearing fast. We sit down with Janet Windisch from Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife to hear how a retired chemist turned a love of birding into hands-on wildlife conservation after Hurricane Ian, and why this all-volunteer organization has become a quiet force for habitat preservation in Southwest Florida.
We dig into the real work behind protecting native species: staking and trimming burrowing owl burrows so they are not destroyed by mowing or construction, responding to community calls through a wildlife hotline, and supporting other critical animals like gopher tortoises, a keystone species whose burrows help hundreds of others survive. Janet also shares how the group maintains purple martin colonies, operates a public butterfly house, and helped rebuild the zebra longwing population after the hurricane. You’ll also hear about new monitoring efforts for ospreys, wading birds, and bald eagles that blend citizen science with local stewardship.
If you’ve ever wondered what you can do as a homeowner, we get specific: skip rat poison to prevent secondary poisoning in owls, hawks, and eagles, cut back on fertilizers and insecticides, and plant native Florida landscaping that supports pollinators and wildlife. Janet explains fundraising efforts like the Burrowing Owl Festival and the Adopt an Owl program, plus flexible volunteering opportunities for every schedule. Subscribe, share this episode with a neighbor, and leave a review to help more people find the local nonprofits protecting our community.
Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife
Janet Windisch
239-980-2593
PO Box 152761 Cape Coral, FL 33915
ccfriendsofwildlife.org
To Report:
Burrowing Owls, Gopher Tortoises
CCFW: 239-980-2593
Injured Wildlife
CROW: 239-472-3644
Harassment of Wildlife
FWC: 888-404-3922
Rotary Park Wildlife Info
239-549-4606
Monitor Lizards
CC Environmental Dept: 239-574-0785
State Insurance USA
4450 Camino Real Way
Ft Myers, FL 33966
239-567-9992
office@StateInsuranceUSA.com
stateinsuranceusa.com
https://www.facebook.com/Stateinsuranceusa
#StateInsuranceUSA
#SupportLocal
#WeLoveOurClients
@Stateinsuranceusa
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Welcome And Mission
Intro/CloseWelcome to State Insurance US Day Cares Podcast, where we celebrate the heart of our community. Each episode, we highlight local charities and nonprofits who are bringing hope, health, and healing to those who need it most. Get ready to be inspired by the amazing stories of people making a difference. Because together, we care.
Gail LangnerWell, welcome to State Insurance Cares, the charitable giving arm of State Insurance USA. I'm Gail Langner. We know that Southwest Florida is known for its beautiful wildlife, and today we're visiting with an organization actually dedicating to protect it. Joining me today is Janet Windisch, and she's from the Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife. And what they do is they preserve wildlife habitats, they educate the public, and they help people and wildlife coexist at the heart of their mission. So, Janet, I'm thrilled to have you join me today. Thanks so much. Thank you. Tell us a little
Janet’s Path From Birding
Gail Langnerbit about yourself. How did you um even become involved with the Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife?
Janet WindischYes, well, I'm a chemist by training. Um, and when I retired, I got interested in bird watching. We call that birding. And so when I moved to Cape Coral, it was right after Hurricane Ian, and I immediately went over to the local park, which is Rotary Park, and started looking at birds. And that's the way I met my first friends in Cape Coral, other birders. And one of those birders was somebody who was on Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife board, and she encouraged me to get involved.
Gail LangnerOh, that what an interesting way. Where are you from originally?
Janet WindischPhiladelphia and Buffalo, New York.
Gail LangnerOh, Philly. I'm actually from Bucks County. So um not too far from Philly, that's for sure. Um, for those that aren't um really familiar at all with the organization, could you tell our listeners what is Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife?
What Friends Of Wildlife Does
Janet WindischSure. So we were founded in 2001, and we are an all-volunteer organization. We've got about 500 members, and uh we are dedicated to preserving and protecting the wildlife in Cape Coral and its habitat, and also to educate the community about wildlife. And I also want to mention, we say we're an all-volunteer organization. Our volunteers put in over 10,000 hours last year in volunteering. So we're really uh very strong uh volunteer organization.
Gail LangnerThat is incredible. You know, Arjuna, haven't you really found since you've been here, Janet, that Southwest Florida so so many generous people doing so many wonderful things? Don't you agree?
Janet WindischAbsolutely. And uh, you know, I found being in Friends of Wildlife, some folks are so passionate about the wildlife, they really love it and put in lots of hours and and go over the really go above and beyond to protect the wildlife.
Gail LangnerWhat kind of uh wildlife, um different kinds of
Species Programs Across Cape Coral
Gail Langnerwildlife do you protect?
Janet WindischSo we started out protecting burrowing owls. Uh burrowing owls are um native to Florida, they're uh considered a protective species in the state of Florida. Um we started out in 2001 when um neighbors noticed that there are burrowing owl burrows in the empty lost across the street from them, and they weren't marked at that time, no one was paying attention, and Cape Coral empty lost are mowed by the city to keep the city neat and tidy. And so these great big lawnmowers couldn't see the owl burrows, and so they they would run over them. And so this this group of um uh volunteers started to like stay to mark them off and to trim around them, and that's how it started. So certainly we uh we are continue to work with burrowing owls. Um, we have volunteers who mark burrows, we have a hotline that people call can call if they have any concerns, and our uh volunteers go out immediately to check on the owls. So burrowing owls are probably the way that we started, and we're we're known for that. You know, Cake Coral has more burrowing owls in our city than in any any other place in the state of Florida. We also protect gopher tortoises. Uh these are also native species to Florida, they can live to be 50 years old. Um they are called, they're considered keystone species because their burrows um are used by over 300 other species. So they're really the the the success of the gopher tortoises impacts 300 other species at least. Um there's there's these burrows around the city that we we mark and protect those. Um purple martens are birds that live in the in South America in the winter and they come up here for the summer, and they don't have any natural habitat left. So they only they mainly um subsist on purple marten colonies that are put up by speed by humans. And these these look like gourds. Have you ever seen like a rack of these things that look like gourds? You see them in parks and in people's yards. Those are purple martin colonies. Interesting. So yeah, so we maintain one of those. We maintain one at Serena Vista Park and we help with one at a local uh elementary school. We have a butterfly house where we cultivate butterflies, we um educate the community because the butterfly house is open to the public, and then we also set the butterflies free so that they populate, you know, the neighborhoods. And we give larva and butterflies to neighbors who have habitat in their yard for the butterflies. So we're you know really spreading the butterfly population. That was really important after Hurricane Ian because the um the zebra longwing, which is the Florida State butterfly, was really the population was decimated after the hurricane. You didn't see them, and so our volunteers cultivated a lot of zebra longwings, and we're starting to see them back in Cape Corona.
Gail LangnerThat is wonderful.
Janet WindischYeah. So a couple more species I want to mention. We have an osprey monitoring program, which is new this year. So we're gonna be looking at, you know, documenting ospreys, osprey nests, and they'll, you know, the the chicks that um come from them. We do some monitoring of habitat of little blue herons and other waiting birds, some uh bald eagles as well.
Gail LangnerOkay. Wow, that's great.
Development Pressure And Starter Burrows
Gail LangnerSo if you're anything like me, I mean, I live in Estero and they're doing a lot of building here. Do you see that the building as Cape Coral is building up, um, that you have more wildlife that you need to protect? I mean, I I always think about where where are they going to go? Where are the bears going to go? Where are the panthers going to go, you know?
Janet WindischAbsolutely. It that is the biggest challenge right now. And is um the burrowing owls, they started living here in Cape Coral because after the land was developed, wide open spaces with sandy soil were left, and a lot of burrowing owls moved into the empty lots, and now empty lots are being developed very, very quickly. So it is one of our biggest challenges. What we're doing is we're trying to we raise money to um purchase and acquire land to be preserved for habitat, and that's in conjunction with Cape Coral Wildlife Trust, which is the organization that actually owns the land. Um, there's other things that we can do, like we're encouraging um the residents. If you see there's a burrowing owl nest across the street from you and it looks like that someone's gonna build there, you can put what we call a starter burrow in your yard. You basically start a dig a hole, you put a perch there, and if burrowing owls' nests are disturbed due to building, they'll move in, they want to stay where they live. So they're gonna they're gonna stay close. So we call these starter burrows, it's been very successful. We started over 60 burrows this year so far, and so that's another one of the approaches besides land acquisition that we we um are employing to try to combat the effects of development.
Gail LangnerOkay.
Fundraising With The Burrowing Owl Festival
Gail LangnerWe just talked about money. How how do you how do you raise funds?
Janet WindischYeah, so our biggest fundraiser of the year is we call it the Borrowing Owl Festival, Wildlife and Environmental Exposition. It's always held on the third or the last Saturday in February. So in 2027, it's gonna be February 27th, 2027. It's a it's a large festival. We um there's uh we invite over 40 other environmental expos uh organizations to come and uh put on an expo there. So it's highly educational. But we also have a silent auction, we sell our merchandise and lots of other fun things. So that's our biggest fundraiser of the year. We have other um events, we also encourage people to donate. We have a program called um Adapt an Owl. So it's a great little gift. So if you can adapt an owl, and then depending on your giving level, you'll also get some merchandise like a hat and a certificate. It's a nice little gift, especially for someone who has everything, but you can give them the gift of being able to support the burrowing owls and the other wildlife.
Gail LangnerIs that on your website, Janet? Can they do that on your website? Okay, yep, absolutely. Yeah, what is what is your website as long as we're talking about it?
Janet WindischIt's CC friendsofwildlife.org.
Gail LangnerCC friendsofwildlife.org. Okay, great.
Homeowner Choices That Help Wildlife
Gail LangnerAs a normal homeowner in Cape Coral or any of us here in Lee County, what can we do really to be better with the local wildlife? How can we help?
Janet WindischYeah, so well, I already mentioned that you can put in a starter borough uh if you would like. Um, you uh one really important point is don't use rat poison. Um, there are lots of alternatives. Rat poisons, the good the current generation of rat poisons, rats will eat them that poison and it takes them a couple of days to die. They will be out in the environment, and other animals will eat them, and there's secondary poisoning of owls, hawks, um eagles, even. So there's there's safer alternatives, and you can go to our website to learn about that. Don't use um or try to reduce or eliminate the use of fertilizers and insecticides on your lawn. Okay. Um you can also uh plant native species. They attract local wildlife, they attract that they're great for the butterflies, they're drought resistant, so they need less water. Um and certainly donate or volunteer for Cape Coral
Flexible Volunteering And Upcoming Events
Janet WindischFriends of Wildlife.
Gail LangnerWell, I was just gonna ask you, that was gonna be my very next question. Volunteer. What if someone would love to volunteer with you? Are there a number of specific hours that they need to commit to, or how does that work?
Janet WindischYeah, so we're super flexible. Um, and you can sign up to volunteer. If you go to our website on the upper right-hand corner, it says volunteer, and you can go in there and you can see what's available. But I do want to talk about um there, so there are some individual events where we need somebody just for a day, and then there's opportunities that are ongoing. So one-day activities are things like um volunteer for the Borrowing Owl Festival. That one day we need at least 150 volunteers. So that is it's a huge commitment. Um, I'm the volunteer coordinator for that, so it's I'm always beating the bushes for volunteers. So please, you know, consider that. We have another um educational event, it's called Wild About Wildlife, and that is going to be on October 3rd in 2026. This is our only second time we've held it. This is an educational, hands-on, fun, interactive event just for students. So we're really reaching out to educate the next generation. We need some volunteers for that one as well. A lot of our volunteers, our regular volunteers are snowbirds. So this event is in October, so some of them won't be back yet. So if you live in Florida year-round, or you're here in October and you can give a couple hours to us on that day, that would be wonderful. Um, and then if you want to do some ongoing work, you can volunteer to be one of these volunteers who works in the field, uh, monitoring the burrowing owl burrows, trimming around them. We we go around and make sure that stakes haven't fallen down and they're cleared. Um, we need volunteers to work with those purple martins I told you about. We're gonna need volunteers to volunteer to monitor the ospreys. Um, and we need people to help plan events, to be on our board, to um run for office. Um, we also have a group of people who who like sewing. We just got a truckload of fabric donated, and what we do is we make reusable fabric bags for the burrowing owl festival, so we don't use plastic bags. So we need people who like to sew or like to, in addition to bags, you can make other crafty items which we can use for the burrowing owl festival.
Gail LangnerThat is wonderful, and what a diverse different types of opportunities. So that's that's really great.
Community Thanks And Closing
Gail LangnerBefore we go, Janet, is there anything we haven't talked about today you would really like our listeners to know about uh the Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife?
Janet WindischAnd no, just reiterate that we're all volunteer. We would love to have you join us, we would love to have you donate. Um, and uh we really appreciate not only the volunteers, but lots of the residents and the people who live in Cape Coral, they watch out for the burrowing owls living in their backyard. They call us up when they see something suspicious. So I guess I want to also thank the community and the city of Cape Coral, who now works collaboratively with with the Friends of Our Life as well.
Gail LangnerOh, I'm so glad you've got that working relationship. That really doesn't make a huge difference. So, well, thank you. It was an honor for us to donate to you from State Insurance Cares. And we um are um thrilled at what you are doing there in Cape Coral. And it all starts from a small, you know, a small little mustard seed and grows into what you have now. And so I just want to thank you and and all of your volunteers and your board and so on for everything that you're doing for um our wildlife and our environment. So thanks so much. And thanks for being on today. Thanks for taking some time. Um have a great day. Thank you.
Intro/CloseThank you for joining us on State Insurance USA Cares. We hope today's story uplifted and inspired you. If you'd like to support or learn more about the incredible work happening in your community, visit state insuranceusa.com.