As we celebrate Mother Earth all month long and our achievement as a nation and throughout the world to encourage environmental education and protection, we have people like our 2022 Mayor’s Environmentalists of the Year.
Yes, you heard right, this year we selected a couple who have been environmentalists even before it became fashionable. Pam Reid and Jack Fell have committed their lives to the environment, attempting to make the global world a better place. They have been proud Palmetto Bay residents for over four decades!
Pam has a PH.D. in Marine Geology and Geophysics and has spent over 30 years in research and teaching Marine Geosciences at the University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. She has also taught non-major undergraduate students at UM- Environmental Oceanography stressing climate change and sea level rise, marine pollution, fisheries, habitat destruction, threatened and endangered species, with a focus on solutions. She's the President of the Bahamas Marine Eco Center, a non-profit organization that promotes awareness and respect for the unique Bahamian land and seascapes. Pam has been featured on the PBS NOVA series, Making of North America regarding her work on stromatolites. Can we say Palmetto Bay's Got Talent? We can highlight so much more of her works but then we wouldn’t have enough time to speak about the other winner, her husband Jack Fell.
Jack has a Ph.D. in Microbiology and postdoctoral work in Yeast Biochemistry. He's a
UM Professor Emeritus at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science where he's taught since 1958. As a trained marine microbiologist and oceanographer, the focus of his research was the occurrence and activities of micro-eukaryotes (mainly micro-fungi) in marine habitats. Jack was a pioneer in the development of molecular sequencing methods for the identification of micro-fungi.
Many of his studies resulted in the discovery of genera and species of fungi related eukaryotes that were previously unknown to science. And as if we weren’t already impressed…Jack is the only known Palmetto Bay resident to have a mountain named after him...Mount Fell is a mountain 8 nautical miles west of Mount Hemmingsen in the northern part of the Werner Mountains in Palmer Land., Antarctica. Jack has also served as a valuable long-time member of the village’s Tree Advisory Board.
Pam and Jack don't just "talk the talk", they also "walk the walk". Their solar-powered home sits on a lushly wooded acre with numerous varieties of naturally pollinated fruit trees and native plants. It is all but invisible from the street. The house was built around 1904 as a farm shed by the Mitchell (mango) family and later converted to a house. The large screen porch cools the house without the need for air conditioning. Needless to say, their carbon footprint is virtually zero.
They are environmental to the core and that is why they are this year's Mayor's Environmentalists of the Year!
Congratulations Pam Reid and Jack Fell.
