The Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center, Inc. (CHEC), is a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation.

CHEC Facilities

• Alligator Creek Preserve

• Cedar Point Park
  

Get Involved with CHEC!

• Become a CHEC Volunteer
• Become a Friend of CHEC
• Charitable Giving
• Memorial Tree Program
• Other ways to support CHEC

CHEC Points Newsleter

• Current issue and archives

CHEC's operations:

To achieve continued expansion of educational, research, marketing, conservation, land management and awareness programs, The Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center, Inc. will acquire and manage the financial resources to provide the facilities and the personnel to support the vision of the organization.

Vision and Values

Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center, Inc. is regionally and nationally recognized for the excellence of its people, facilities, research, educational programs and conservation activities.

• Natural resources are valuable and must be preserved.
• Educational programs must be unbiased and science-based.
• Partnering improves credibility and effectiveness.
• We are credible: We realize that our actions influence the perception others have.
• We are objective and fact-based.
• We are reliable: We deliver dependable and consistent performance and products.
• We value people who care about and work to preserve our natural resources.

CHEC Board of Directors

History of CHEC

In 1983, a man named Charles E. Caniff envisioned a nature center in Charlotte County where children and adults could come to experience the real Florida as it was hundreds of years before Florida’s radical population explosion. Caniff, an active retiree, was then the president of the Peace River Audubon Society. He believed that Charlotte County was lacking something; a place for the public to commune with nature, a resource for teachers (or the general public) to seek out environmental education, a local organization that would oversee preservation land management from an unbiased perspective, and a research facility that would also operate impartially. This niche needed to be filled and he saw to it that the seeds were planted.

Through hard work and dedication, Caniff convinced government officials that it was important to preserve environmental history and create educational environmental programs in this southwest Florida community; thus, the Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center was opened in 1987.

The Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center, Inc. is the result of state, county and city officials working with the private sector to preserve a piece of paradise. This union and cooperation continues today through CHEC's Corporate Members. Each Corporate Member contributes either in monetary or in-kind services to operation of the Center. Each Member also has a representative sit on the Center’s Board of Directors.

Now, thanks to its spirited originator, the Charlotte County government, the City of Punta Gorda, the Charlotte County Public Schools and the Peace River Audubon Society, and CHEC's CEO, Al Cheatham and his dedicated staff, the Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center, Inc. is a valuable asset to the Charlotte Harbor area and beyond.

Charles E. Caniff is still a major contributor to the organization he helped create in 1987.

The first program to ever be offered through CHEC was the 4th grade program, taking 4th grade students from Charlotte County on an educational hike and boat tour of the area.

Today, the Center provides over 20 different educational programs, has 7 major research projects, manages 8 sensitive lands and provides a total of 8 + miles of hiking trail and other recreational opportunities to the community.

Staff/Business Structure

CHEC currently employs 8 full time staff persons.
CHEC is managed through a volunteer Board of Directors, the acting CEO-Rich Dorken