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                       Sarasota County's Story of Growth and Balancing the Environment

Over the past century, population growth and development patterns have increased pollution and decreased the environment’s capacity to process it. In the face of continued rapid population growth, loss of environmental function and connectivity, and climate stressors, how can we grow the environment as we grow communities? Can we find balance through more sensitive land development practices that contain and minimize impacts?  Sarasota native and three term Sarasota County Commissioner Jon Thaxton brings the last half-century of growth into focus with thoughts on our community-driven legacy of environmental stewardship and advocacy.

Jon Thaxton is a leading advocate  for protecting the natural environment. A fifth-generation Sarasotan, he was raised on a family farm near Osprey and began working at his family's real estate company at 14.  Jon began his environmental advocacy at Venice High School in 1974, as a founding member of the Ecology Club, and in 1996 he was featured in National Geographic for his efforts to protect endangered species. He served for 12 years on the Sarasota Board of County Commissioners.