Contacts:
Phil Kloer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; (404) 679-7125, philip_kloer@fws.gov
Cathy Olson, Lee County Conservation 20/20 Senior Supervisor; (239) 533-7455

Bokeelia, FL – Smokehouse Bay Preserve, located on the north end of Pine Island about 25 miles west of Fort Myer, Fla., is home to Wood Storks and Snowy Egrets, Roseate Spoonbills and Tricolored Herons. And unfortunately, it’s also home to some of the past’s alteration of Florida’s natural state.

Reversing those past practices is the work of Lee County’s Conservation 20/20 program, which bought two parcels of land in Smokehouse Bay in 1999 and 2007 and is now in the process of restoring them. That process will get a boost from the Recovery and Reinvestment Act, popularly known as stimulus funds, now that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has awarded a $225,000 contract to Lee County Department of Parks and Recreation for improvements in Smokehouse Bay.

“We want to get it back to the way Mother Nature intended” in order to protect the preserve and the adjacent bay, said Cathy Olson, Lee County Conservation 20/20 Senior Supervisor.

“The issue is human practices of the past,” said Debbie Devore, South Florida coastal program coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Environmental contamination from fertilizers and pesticides can cause water quality problems, and just taking the palm groves in the area out of commission has already reduced the contamination to the watershed.”

Much of the rest of the preserve is a tidal swamp filled with mangroves and several exotic plant species. Mangroves are important nursery areas for many of the commercial and recreational fisheries in the area.
The new stimulus-funded project calls re-grading parts of the palm grove and removing the palm trees. The trees are non-native plants that were being grown on an agricultural farm, and the land managers want to allow the natural ecosystem to flourish, Olson explained. They will also plant native species to help return the uplands to its natural state, a pine flatwoods system.

The remainder of the project will be to treat invasive species within the mangroves, including Brazilian peppers, Australian pines, seaside mahoe and other assorted exotic plants growing where mosquito ditches were dug back in the 1950s.

Originally posted 11/09/2009