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  Naples News 28 Jul 07
Rediscovered documents 'flush out' history of Estero Bay preserve
By Julio Ochoa

There is no mystery to what makes Estero Bay a fisherman’s paradise.

Take away the jagged, mangrove-lined shore and the seagrass beds and the fish will follow. The bay is a massive seawall and dredging project away from looking like, and fishing like, many of Florida’s once productive estuaries.

With the Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve in place, the area is safe from the scenario that made so many bays in Florida barren.

But the protection didn’t come without a fight. A developer had purchased waterfront property along the bay and drew up plans to develop it. Then, locals took a stand.

The documentation of exactly how local fishermen and residents saved Estero Bay from dredging and a concrete lip was recently uncovered. Searching for material for a video for the preserve’s 40th anniversary, a researcher uncovered 21 nearly forgotten boxes of records stored in the Southwest Florida Museum of History.

“If this stuff were lost, it would be a loss of local history,” said Neil Ayers, a resource management specialist for the Estero Bay Aquatic and State Buffer Preserve who created the video based on much of the information. An archivist is working to index and catalog the information so it one day may be put on display or digitized and placed on a Web site.

The files document in full detail the history, the lawsuit and the personal struggles to save Estero Bay by creating the state’s first aquatic preserve.

It all started in 1958 when Barry C. Williams and Investors purchased 5,500 acres along the northern and eastern coast of Estero Bay for $1.6 million.

Robert Troutman, an Atlanta attorney representing investors, drew up a plan to expand a seawall deep into Estero Bay along 18 miles of coastline. The seawall, called a bulkhead, would straighten out the jagged coastline by using 17 million cubic yards of fill. Along the way it would swallow up submerged lands and islands, creating 1,100 acres that previously was under water.

For fill, Troutman proposed dredging a 12-foot channel through the seagrass beds around his bulkhead. The same technique had been employed along the east coast and in areas to the north, such as Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota.

The results were well-documented. Some of the most productive estuaries in the state turned barren when developers removed the mangroves and seagrass beds that served as a nursery for fish, shrimp, mammals and birds.

Determined to keep Estero Bay from the same fate, local residents and fishermen formed the Lee County Conservation Association.

“This was a homegrown effort by local citizens interested in preservation,” said Matt Johnson, general manager of the Southwest Florida Museum of History. “They battled some pretty large developers and corporations interested in development and won.”

At one point during the 1960s, it’s estimated that about 50 percent of the registered voters in Lee belonged to the association. Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann was a state legislator when the association still was active.

“That group lived in my office for two years,” Mann said. “That little committee was very active and very loud and they single-handedly beat Troutman.”

Up until the creation of the Lee County Conservation Association, residents had quietly tolerated local developers mowing down mangroves to create small communities along the waterfront, said Wayne Daltry, director of Smart Growth for Lee County.

But Williams’ plan was destruction on a much larger scale.

“There was a casual tolerance of the little things,” Daltry said. “But there became an awareness, a realization that if they didn’t have protection, it was going to be toast.”

The members of the association wrote letters, engaged politicians and used their voting bloc to change leadership in Lee County.

They argued that submerged lands belonged to the state and tried to create the Estero Bay State Park. The law clearly states that any land above the high tide mark can be owned privately but property below it belongs to the state.

Their efforts led to the creation of the first aquatic preserve in Florida. The state eventually would use the preserve as a model to create 41 others along Florida’s coastal waters.

“We now have over 2 million acres in the program protected from dredging and habitat loss and damage to resources,” said Larry Nall, environmental administrator for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Coastal and Aquatic Managed Areas.

Johnson is working with members of the Estero Bay Aquatic and State Buffer Preserve to find grants so the historical data can be preserved and archived.

Knowing about Southwest Florida’s history is important as the environmental battle rages on, Johnson said.

“This is the cornerstone of a success story in preserving our environment, which down here is a major issue,” he said. “The battle between development and preservation is not something that’s gone away.”
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