Pioneer ‘arbornaut’ Meg Lowman seeks to raise $50,000 for the Myakka Canopy Walkway.
By Brice Claypoole
Original Air Date: November 12, 2025
Host: There’s only one way for nature lovers in this area to walk among the treetops: The Myakka Canopy Walkway. And Dr. Meg Lowman is its main ambassador. The former Selby Gardens employee and New College professor enjoys global fame as an “arbornaut”—someone who studies forest canopies—and she has termed forest treetops earth’s “eighth continent.” WSLR’s Brice Claypoole listened in at a fundraising event to renew the quarter-century old structure at Myakka State Park.
Photo via TREE Foundation
Brice Claypoole: The TREE Foundation is helmed by Dr. Meg Lowman, a former New College professor of biology and environmental sciences. She’s known for her pioneering work in the field of canopy ecology—studying the life that flourishes in treetops—and for her work to engage the public in forest conservation. She founded TREE Foundation 25 years ago to help build the Myakka Canopy Walkway. There are now half a dozen canopy walkways in the United States, but the one in Myakka was the first. Today, the walkway is a staple of eco-tourism in Sarasota County. Located in Myakka State Park, it extends 100 feet through the oak canopy, while a tower allows visitors a view from above the treetops. Lowman explains that, after more than two decades, the walkway is in need of an upgrade.
Lowman. Photo: Claypoole
Meg Lowman: We’d like to sustain it. We’d like to add some ADA—meaning access opportunities for people that might have mobility limitations—like putting signage at the base, having cameras at the top project to the bottom and basically just ensuring safety for the next 25 years.
Dr. Stephen “Dr. Beach” Leatherman. Photo: Claypoole
BC: That’s what sparked a fundraiser last Monday at the Michael’s on East restaurant in Sarasota. Local nature-lovers gathered to socialize and learn about Florida’s environment from Lowman and keynote speaker Dr. Stephen Leatherman. More widely known as “Dr. Beach” for his popular rankings of U.S. beaches, he talked about both beaches and pythons at the fundraiser. The goal of the event was to raise $50,000 from ticket sales and donations for the walkway’s makeover. Lowman says it’ll be an investment in the community.
ML: They’ve brought a half a million visitors to Sarasota County every year, which means more business for restaurants and airlines and hotels. They’ve given a lot of families a chance to go to nature and actually climb the tower and see a view, which is really hard in a flat state like Florida. And hopefully, they’ve given kids a chance to have a field biology experience and maybe go on to become a scientist someday.
Meg Lowman and a student arbornaut at the Canopy Walk. Photo: Courtest TREE Foundation
BC: Lowman also explains how the idea behind the Myakka Walkway is now benefiting communities and forests around the world.
ML: We founded the TREE Foundation to encourage people to give to build the walkway, which cost about $150,000 back in the year 2000. Then we thought, “Oh, we’ll be finished.” And then kids wanted to go to see the walkway in the Amazon. And we said, “Oh, we’ll fundraise for that.” And then people in Madagascar said, “We need a walkway because our forests are getting cut down.” So we kept the TREE Foundation going to do different projects that both link kids to nature and build walkways in very endangered forests around the world to help them be saved by ecotourism.
BC: For WSLR News, this is Brice Claypoole.
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