Everglades Restoration Enters Collier County

Everglades Restoration finally made its way to Collier County, connecting east and west through restored water flow.

Numerous governmental, tribal and nonprofit leaders celebrated the first portion of the Western Everglades Restoration Project on July 10 in Ochopee. 

Due to the way U.S. 41 was developed in the expansive area of the Everglades between the more heavily populated areas of Naples and Miami, much wildlife was choked of water while others drowned in it for decades. This was detrimental to the landscape, animals, Gladesmen and Tribes, including the Seminole Tribe and Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, as well as the independent Indigenous people of the area. 

The first segment of WERP seeks to correct that with the insertion of culverts to restore some level of historic water flow near what is called Water Conservation Area 3.

Until this project began in July, Everglades Restoration had been in central and northern portions of the Everglades. 

The main focus of this project is to move water from east to west. 

“The Everglades are half the size they used to be. The Everglades sacrificed for those houses. At the time, there was not an environmental culture. It just wasn’t on most people’s radar,” said Randy Smith, a spokesman with South Florida Water Management. 

“The levy has been a dam between the two, separating Big Cypress National Preserve from Water Conservation Area 3,” Smith said.

The project will cut holes in that dam and install culverts to allow water to flow. The water will be controlled remotely. 

How that flow is managed will be a large part of determining the project’s success for the livelihood of wildlife and people alike. 

There are 69 Everglades Restoration Projects and the groundbreaking on July 10 marks the first one in WERP, occurring in Collier County in the area of Ochopee, said Chauncey Goss, chairman of SFWMD.

The project is estimated to cost $50 million and includes federal funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state funding from the South Florida Water Management District, Goss said.

This portion of WERP will take about three years to complete, estimated Octavio Castillo, a project manager with SFWMD. Meanwhile, WERP projects are in the design phases further east in Collier County, including near Loop Road and 11 Mile Road, Castillo said. 

The project’s challenges include weather in the wet season; traversing one main single-lane road off U.S. 41; constructing temporary roads where the culverts are to be installed at several mile increments; and then removing those temporary roads at the project completion. 

There are structures, including tribal hunting camps, several miles into the area. Because each culvert is several miles from U.S. 41, heavy equipment slowly makes way to the project sites to bring materials. 

Furthermore, there are significant restrictions on how much the water can be disturbed, explained Castillo. 

“You’re in pristine water out here,” he said. “The turbidity needs to be zero,” Castillo added. 

This requires moving slowly to stop silt from contaminating the water, he said. 

Right now, water is not flowing. This lack of flow has created a forest in what used to be a marsh on the west side, pointed out Naples resident Ellen Goetz, a member of The Everglades Foundation nonprofit board. 

Meanwhile, flooding the east side is killing wildlife, including flooded turtle nests turned into graves this summer, as pointed out by Betty Osceola, an environmentalist and member of the Panther Clan of the Miccosukee Tribe. 

Once installed, culverts allow water to flow at specific rates offsite from West Palm Beach, said Castillo. 

While this portion of WERP continues, plans by Erdman Anthony, an engineering consulting firm out of Palm Beach County, are in the works for installing five culverts along the Loop Road; five culverts along 11 Mile Road and four bridges along U.S. 41., said Phoebe Cuevas Mohina, a design engineer with Erdman Anthony.

SFWMD and USACE coordinate on those designs, which are estimated to take until 2026 to complete. Meanwhile, the construction on this first part of WERP is to be completed in mid-2027. The subsequent projects at Loop and 11 Mile Roads cost about $7 million to design and more than $60 million to construct, SFWMD officials estimated. 

U.S. 41 may need to be elevated to make way for wildlife crossings, said Castillo. 

“It’s a big project in the midst of an infinitely bigger project, “ said Goss. 

Everglades Restoration spans from Orlando to the Keys and almost coast to coast, Goss added. 

From the Tribes to the U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to nonprofits and other stakeholders, Everglades Restoration is an enormous, collaborative effort with many viewpoints. 

Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Shawn Hamilton lauded Gov. Ron DeSantis for his leadership on Everglades Restoration, making it a cornerstone of his environmental policy and campaign, Hamilton said. 

The state committed $6.5 billion since 2019, including $850 million in 2024-2025, making it the largest single investment in environmental restoration, he added. 

Culverts may not sound “sexy,” as Goetz said, but their effects could be life or death for countless animals and plant life, as well as for human wellbeing. 

Lostmans Slough is cut off, leaving as many as 200,000 nests of a breeding colony of wading birds cut off— that’s mom, dad and kids, said Drew Bartlett, executive director of SFWMD.

“It’s a super colony of wading birds cut off from water,” Bartlett said.

“We could bring back a wading bird super colony that has been cut off for years,” said Bartlett. 

Ron Bergeron, known as “Alligator Ron,” is an eighth-generation Gladesman who attended the groundbreaking of the first phase of WERP with his daughter Diamond Bergeron, vice president of the nonprofit Bergeron Everglades Foundation. 

“I’m the last generation that’s seen the Everglades before all these levies, compartmentalization and pump stations,” said Alligator Ron Bergeron. 

“This is the largest environmental restoration in the history of the world ever attempted,” he said.

“Long live the Everglades,” cheered Hamilton.