On an overgrown cattle path near Lake Okeechobee, an art teacher, environmental educator, wetland scientist, and a documentary team push through tall grass and sand spurs on their way to the Caloosahatchee River.
It’s their sixth and final day on an expedition called “Strand to Slough,” which started in the Picayune Strand State Forest east of Naples, and ends here on the banks of the Goodno Ranch in Glades County, over 58 miles away.
The trek, organized by the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation, aims to bring public awareness to the natural beauty of the Southwestern portion of the Florida Wildlife Corridor: a nearly 18 million-acre contiguous stretch of land and waterway that serves as a safe roaming zone for endangered wildlife, like the gopher tortoise, black bear, and Florida panther.
Trekker Kenton Beal described the experience as “Kinda magical in some ways? We’ve experienced vast landscapes on this trek that are seemingly untouched, with little light pollution, with no traffic.”
Beal, who grew up in Fort Myers, says the expedition into these wild spaces made him think about how much the landscape of his home has changed over the years.
“I personally witnessed a lot of development occur. And you know, it seemed like it happened so fast, at such a rapid pace in the span of history, that there's just not much green space left, especially west of 75 and east of 95.”
Scary roads
Em Kless is an environmental educator with the Naples Botanical Garden and frequent hiker. The expedition helped them realize just how dangerous major Florida roadways can be for native wildlife.
“We spent six and a half days encountering water moccasins in tall grass and gators in the water right there with us. And if you're not a nature-y person, that's really scary, right? But we felt super safe in those moments. What felt scary and what got our adrenaline pumping was when we were getting on the roads in between those critical patches of ecosystems and preserved land. I know I'm probably safe, but a panther doesn't know that, a bear doesn't know that. It really drives it home far more than reading an article or seeing some data ever could. You're going from peaceful and calm to extreme alert and just trying to get out of there alive.”
While Beal, Kless, and fellow trekker Laura Foht are new to 60-mile hikes, this isn’t the first expedition that the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation has put on.
In fact, the very concept of a wildlife corridor in Florida didn’t really exist until a statewide trek in 2012. That’s when three conservationists traveled over 1,000 miles on foot in 100 days. Their goal was to draw attention to the diminishing wild stretches of Florida being threatened by a proposed expansion of roads.
An act passed
That expedition, and the media buzz surrounding it, led to the creation of the Florida Wildlife Corridor Act in 2021, which set aside $300 million to conserve key habitat through purchases and conservation easements.
The nonprofit Wildlife Corridor Foundation continues to organize expeditions into segments of the corridor, each with a different focus. Strand to Slough is the first of seven such treks to focus exclusively on Southwest Florida. The area has seen a nearly 20% increase in its population over the past decade — and corresponding development.
Carlton Ward Jr. is a nature photographer with the National Geographic Society, and one of the original trekkers. He says that the foundation focused on Southwest Florida for this trek specifically because of such population growth — and the threat it poses to native wildlife.
“We have 4 million acres of contiguous public land down here. That's an area twice the size of Yellowstone National Park. It's an amazing, connected, largely public landscape, but its only lifeline that keeps it connected to the north is the Florida Wildlife Corridor, and it switches from mostly public land to mostly private land, ranches, groves, timber, timber farms, and those are the ones that are under threat. Climate change is driving more inland migration of people. There's already 1,000 people a day moving here, but now the people who are already here are going to start moving inland.”
The final crop
While agricultural land like orange groves and ranches may not seem like perfect wildlife habitat, Ward says that the alternative of rapidly developing housing is worse for iconic Florida creatures such as the panther.
“You can go to the edges of Naples or Fort Myers, where you can literally see orange groves converting to rooftops. As some people say in the agricultural community, that's the final crop. That's going to happen in some places, but that's not what we want to see everywhere. If all the orange groves go to rooftops, that's the nail in the coffin for a connected landscape in Florida.”
Despite encroaching development, Ward and the trekkers have hope for the future of the corridor.
“When you leave Naples, you leave Fort Myers, and you see the pace and the intensity of development, it could be feeling hopeless, but you get beyond that, and you realize that there are a lot of people who want to save the land like it is,” Ward said.
Kless and Beal say their experiences on this six-day expedition have shown ways that they and others like them can help.
Beal says that experiencing the corridor in its natural beauty was powerful for him.
“We've got some of the most unique ecosystems in the world. When you really talk to someone face to face, and you get them into the field to understand what wild Florida really looks like, it's a whole different experience. And not only does that help with wildlife, but it also really paints the picture of what Florida has been like for so long.”
Kless says it’s the human connections they’ve made that will increase environmental action.
“I've really learned along this journey that it's the people. We are the hope and the connections that we make, the ways that we can find love for nature with each other and understand its value. I would encourage people to get involved. Go outside, find something that lights your spark, and then talk to other people about it. If you can save an acre, 10 acres, it seems small, but in the grand picture, that's how 18 million acres comes together.”
Copyright 2024 WGCU
