A couple’s quixotic quest to save their drowning island – one rock at a time

Frank and Monica Woll bought two beautiful islands in the Florida Keys only to see storms and rising waters wash away much of it away. Then they got serious

When Frank and Monica Woll bought two tiny islands in the Florida Keys in 2016 for their semi-retirement, they considered themselves privileged caretakers rather than owners. The day they arrived on Molasses Key, twin islands encircled by the turquoise-blue waters of the Florida Straits, a dolphin swam beside their boat. Already resident were scores of pelicans, anhingas, egrets, herons and numerous other species of birds in a plethora of mangrove trees.

Then came the hurricanes: Irma in 2017, and Ian last year. Today the trees, and the birds, are mostly gone. The storms, combined with rising sea levels, have stripped about one-fifth of the islands’ land mass.

Frank and Monica Woll sit on a branch that used to be over firm ground