Picayune Strand State Forest in eastern Collier County is an expansive wilderness habitat of more than 74,000 acres including cypress strands, wet prairie, pine flatwoods and subtropical hardwood hammocks.
This site in the heart of the Big Cypress Basin provides essential habitat for a wide variety of species and a healthy natural hydrologic flow through the site also benefits Collier Seminole State Park, the Ten Thousand Island National Wildlife Refuge, and Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.
Picayune Strand was once slated for a very different future. Much of the old-growth cypress and pine trees there were harvested by the logging industry in the 1940s and 1950s before the South Golden Gate Estates tract of Picayune Strand was purchased by developers. The site was drained, and roads were constructed in the initial steps of what was to become the largest subdivision in the world, but those plans never materialized.
Then in the mid -2000s, an ambitious $435 million effort called the Picayune Strand Restoration Project officially got underway. The project aims to restore the natural hydrology of more than 55,000 acres.
According to the South Florida Water Management District, 99 percent of the 285 miles of crumbling roadways and pavement have been removed, 100 percent of tram roads have been eliminated, and 70 percent of the 48 miles of canals have been plugged.
We’ll get an update on the Picayune Strand Restoration Project in a conversation with Florida Gulf Coast University Professor in the Department of Ecology & Environmental Studies Win Everham, Ph.D. For years, Everham has been monitoring the progress of the restoration project by studying the status of various indicator species.
On Wednesday, Aug. 28, at 11:30 a.m. Everham is set to deliver a talk through the FGCU Scholar Series titled “Picayune Strand Restoration Project: It could have been Cape Coral South,” on the first floor of the FGCU library. Those interested, but unable to attend in person can hear the lecture via Microsoft Teams here: https://fgcu.libcal.com/calendar/events/SSAug24.
