At the start of the summer, Dr. Thomas Van Lent—a 65-year-old hydrologist—was bird-watching with his wife when he discovered he had been found guilty of criminal contempt.
The judgment had been the result of a case brought against him by his former employer the Everglades Foundation—an environmental organization “with a mission to restore the Everglades through science-based strategies”—at which Van Lent had worked for 17 years, and been the director of science and policy since 2012.
