Sometimes the best outcome is undoing what was never meant to be. The Picayune Strand—a vast rectangle of South Florida wetland northwest of Everglades National Park—is living proof that nature can make a spectacular comeback when we finally get out of its way.
Back in the 1950s, real estate company Gulf American bought up an enormous chunk of this landscape with a bold vision: America’s largest suburban housing development, called Golden Gate Estates. They drained the swamp, carved four massive canals to channel water away, and paved causeways across the drained ground. But nature had the last laugh. Picayune Strand sits just two feet lower in elevation than the land to the north—a seemingly small difference that made it virtually impossible to keep dry. The swamps kept winning. Gulf American eventually went bankrupt.
Fast forward to 2000, when the Everglades Restoration Plan identified Picayune Strand as a priority. What followed was two decades of painstaking work: conservationists bought up scattered parcels of often-unbuilt land (tedious lawyer’s work, as the article notes), consolidated it all by 2004, and then launched the real rewilding. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Everglades Foundation, and the Conservancy of Southwest Florida tore out roads, filled in those massive canals, and restored the natural“sheet flow”—that slow-moving river of grass that defines the Everglades hydrology and kept huge areas flooded year-round.
The results speak for themselves. Ecologist Michael Duever, who’s been monitoring the project, told Yale News that restoration has reached roughly 90 percent success. Native vegetation is surging back—even species like wild sunflowers that had been missing the constant wetness are returning. The increased insect abundance is already benefitting the bonneted bat, Florida’s largest bat species with a wingspan greater than a foot. Endangered species including the red-cockaded woodpecker and the Florida panther are expected to flourish as habitat continues improving.
There are compromises, of course. Three pumping stations still manage water levels for nearby residents who live within the Picayune boundaries, and the hydrology isn’t perfect—water levels sometimes run higher or lower than strictly natural conditions would allow. But Stephen Davis, chief science officer at the Everglades Foundation, sees something bigger here.“I kind of view Picayune Strand as a microcosm of the entire [Everglades] plan,”he told Yale. What once was a cautionary tale of hubris and misplaced faith in the power to“tame”wild places has become a blueprint for how ambitious restoration can actually work. Not by force, but by humility—by undoing the damage and letting nature remember what it was supposed to be.
About the Author
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.
