Stand with Us to Preserve the Greater Western Everglades

“Hey guys, check this out!” my friend called out from beyond the campsite. Stepping into the open meadow, we saw what she was so excited about. Hundreds of lightning bugs do their firefly dance as the sun sets. Our annual campout at Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed (CREW) always creates special memories for us: watching the campfire crackle, star gazing, and exploring the trails for snakes, flowers, or even signs of an endangered Florida panther. 

Every trip to CREW, the sights along Corkscrew Road seem to be changing before our eyes – a sign advertising new development units for sale or the road under construction to be widened. Lee County’s Density Reduction/Groundwater Resource (DR/GR) area - intended for limited growth to protect vital drinking water and wetland resources- has been eaten up by sprawl development. In just the last ten years, more than 7,300 acres have been converted to urbanization. 

As the Conservancy of Southwest Florida is a long-time CREW Trustee, we worry about what is happening around this ecosystem and other rural landscapes in our region threatened by growth. The proposed Kingston project, which the Army Corps of Engineers is currently considering for a permit, would add another 3,300 acres of new homes and commercial development to this environmentally sensitive area. 

The Kingston site is adjacent to CREW, a 60,000-acre ecosystem connecting Collier County and Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. As the recent controversy surrounding intensification within our State Parks has shown, Floridians love these remaining special places and naturally rich landscapes and will fight for their preservation. What will happen to the dark skies we marveled over if Kingston adds 10,000 homes across the street? How many of the only 120-230 remaining Florida panthers would meet the same fate that cats are already experiencing, like FP268, a six-year-old female panther that got hit and killed this summer on Corkscrew Road? 

But Kingston isn’t the only development threatening our public lands, water resources, and imperiled species. A notice was just released indicating that the Rural Lands West project (AKA Rivergrass Village, Longwater Village, Town of Big Cypress) is also being considered for a permit. The permit (to be decided by the Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) is the last major hurdle before this project could break ground. 

Rural Lands West, even bigger than Kingston at 4,400 acres, is located in eastern Collier County. It is upstream of the 26,000-acre Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, which is perhaps the single most important area for the panther population. Rural Lands West (and the adjacent Bellmar development) threatens not only the Refuge, but the very linkage that connects it to CREW – the Camp Keais Strand flowway and wildlife corridor. Experts warn that if the project gets the green light, this critical corridor will be fragmented. Refuge staff have long expressed concerns that these nearby developments could impact the ecological integrity of our cherished public lands. 

These projects aren’t “death by a thousand cuts,” as the old adage goes, they are chopping off limbs. These proposals are not in the urban periphery, but rather the heart and soul of the green space that remains in southwest Florida. They are key to our land, water, wildlife, and our future. With just a few bad permitting decisions, thousands of acres of Florida panther habitat necessary for the species’ survival will be gone. Hundreds of acres of vital wetlands will also be destroyed, and no longer able to provide function as natural floodwater storage areas and water quality cleansers. 

The Conservancy has spent decades engaged in local planning efforts and in providing alternatives. Unfortunately, the proposals we see before us today are unacceptable and therefore, must be denied. 

As so beautifully depicted in the 2004 David O. Russell film “I Heart Huckabees,” in which characters debate the importance of green space, the main character retorts: “I’m talking about not covering every square inch of populated America with houses and strip malls until you can’t even remember what happens when you stand in a meadow at dusk.” What happens in a meadow at dusk? Some responded, “nothing,” but for which the protagonists conclude: “Everything, it’s beautiful.”

Stand with us to preserve our last wild spaces by taking action now at: www.conservancy.org/takeaction.