Note: Mr. Reed served as a Board Advisor to The Guardians of Martin County for a decade. His friendship & advice will be missed.
From the Washington Post:
Nat Reed overlooking his property on Jupiter Island, October 2012
Nathaniel P. Reed, an environmentalist and onetime Interior Department official who helped write the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act and who spearheaded efforts to preserve wildlife and open spaces from Alaska to his longtime home state of Florida, died July 11 at a hospital in Quebec City. He was 84.
He was on a fishing expedition to the Grand Cascapédia River in Quebec on July 3, his son Adrian Reed said, when he caught and released a 16-pound salmon. Shortly afterward, Mr. Reed slipped and struck his head on a rock. He never regained consciousness and died eight days later.
Mr. Reed was a courtly developer and investment banker born into wealth. His deep-seated appreciation for the environment had its roots in his mother’s efforts to block the development of an early Florida theme park.
He went on to fight the state’s environmentally damaging sugar industry and led efforts to block the building of a barge canal across Florida and an airport that would have paved over much of the Everglades.
“He was a transformational figure in Florida,” former senator Bob Graham (D-Fla.) said in an interview. “Florida’s a different place today than it would have been without him.”
Read more HERE
Read the obituary from The New York Times: HERE
Read the tribute from The Stuart News HERE