For the past century, local conservation centered on a near-singular mission: Save the wild lands before they disappeared. Residents organized grassroots efforts—from Sanibel and Captiva Island’s state designations as sanctuary islands in the 1930s, to the state park systems, to organizations like the 1964 Conservancy of Southwest Florida, which began with residents seeking to block the construction of a new road through Rookery Bay to Marco Island. In recent decades, the tax-based Conservation Collier and Lee County’s Conservation 20/20 preserved more than 38,000 acres between them, an area slightly larger than the city of Miami.
Still, over the years, success has been largely measured in acres saved and land acquired, set aside before it could become neighborhoods. Now, the mission is expanding from acquisition to access, introducing a growing and changing population to the places earlier generations fought to protect. “We start having conversations with visitors about how our livelihood in Florida depends on a healthy Everglades,” says Pedro Ramos, superintendent of Everglades National Park. Preserves created to keep development at bay encourage exploration through low-impact trails, visitor centers and observation towers.
Photography by Brian Tietz
how to explore florida wild parks elevated everglades boardwalk
The Elevated Everglades Boardwalk, opened in August 2025 on Alligator Alley.
The most organic expression of the idea opened in February in Everglades City: the $47 million Marjory Stoneman Douglas Visitor Center. The facility, named for the famed Everglades writer and advocate, replaced the temporary structure destroyed by Hurricane Irma in 2017. The new concrete center and 18-foot-elevated main floor aim to help it survive future storms. “[Everglades City] has been knocked down by hurricanes over and over again, and every time they stand back up,” Pedro says. “This center is a reflection of the community itself.” Inside, exhibits built around Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ The Everglades: River of Grass anchor guests before rangers send them out on kayaks or trails. Pedro says it’s one of the few places where people can experience the Everglades without an expert or a backcountry trip.
Convenient access drives the growth of the eco-escape network. Assembled over 25 years by a local trust, Gordon River Greenway Park positioned Florida’s wilds as a part of everyday life when it added a 2-mile trail connecting to Baker Park in downtown Naples. The newest frontier sits off one of Florida’s busiest highways. In August 2025, an underused truck lot at mile marker 35 on Alligator Alley became the Elevated Everglades Boardwalk, with an arboretum holding 31,000 plants and a three-story observation tower overlooking miles of wetlands. “It’s all blue skies and waving grass, and it just takes your breath away,” says Ali Westbrook, a Florida Department of Transportation project development engineering specialist. She says the tower provides a strong vantage point for lunar events, like wolf and pink moons.
Courtesy Naples, Marco Island, Everglades CVB
how to explore florida wild parks corkscrew swamp sanctuary
While many of the attractions focus on lowering the barrier to entry, others help draw us deeper into the landscape. The Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk—which has long served as one of the few accessible entry points into the otherwise remote Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park—reopened in November 2025 with some major upgrades after being shuttered by Hurricane Ian. Florida’s largest state park, Fakahatchee Strand, began with 640 acres purchased in the ’50s by local philanthropist Lester Norris to protect the land from logging, and now encompasses 85,000 acres. David Corban, the Naples architect behind the site’s new pavilion and nearly half-mile boardwalk expansion, says the path is one of the only ways to see the park without hip waders, hiking boots or a water vessel.
In addition to the solar-paneled pavilion, the boardwalk now stretches over a mile, carrying trekkers through a 500-year-old bald cypress forest, where the trees’ thick trunks flare out at the base as if melting into the watery ground. A new parking lot means visitors no longer have to pile up along the shoulder of U.S. 41. The pavilion, which leads to a platform overlooking the newly accessible Green Heron Lake, matches the new stretch of boardwalk, with recycled steel and open-grate decking that lets sunlight and rain reach the swamp below. Francine Stevens, executive director of Friends of Fakahatchee, recommends driving the 11-mile Janes Memorial Scenic Drive, which winds deep into the preserve, and holds 40 native orchid species, including the famously elusive ghost orchid.
1 of 2
Photography by Brian Tietz
how to explore florida wild parks fakahatchee strand preserve
2 of 2
Photography by Brian Tietz
how to explore florida wild parks fakahatchee strand preserve
The balance between access and preservation has long defined the region’s approach. Today’s projects build on the legacy established by destinations: The LEED-certified Interpretive Center at Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve (born from a group of high schooler advocates in the ’70s) in Fort Myers, the network of trails that spawned from the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed’s (CREW) water-management efforts, and Babcock Ranch Preserve, which stretches 73,000 acres across Lee and Charlotte counties.
Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary established the model over 70 years ago, when it debuted its first boardwalk. Now, the sanctuary has a discovery center and is in the middle of an extensive $20 million campus-wide renovation. Riding the momentum, The Conservancy of Southwest Florida is working on the $25 million expansion of its campus and operations, including expanded walking trails and more electric boats for tours. After the success of its first venture, FDOT has more feasibility studies underway for potential projects along Alligator Alley.
1 of 2
Photography by Brian Tietz
how to explore florida wild parks marjory stoneman douglas
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Visitor Center opened in February as a striking, $47 million gateway to Everglades National Park. “This center is a reflection of the community itself,” says superintendent Pedro Ramos, who oversees park operations from the center’s Everglades City base.
2 of 2
Photography by Brian Tietz
how to explore florida wild parks marjory stoneman douglas
Regardless of how or when they arrived in Southwest Florida, locals find their stake in the landscape by experiencing the region’s wildest spaces. They inherit not just stewardship of the land, but a keen understanding of what it means to live in harmony with its delicate ecosystems.
Courtesy Visit Florida