More than 100 years ago, people came together to save the wading bird rookery in Collier County’s Corkscrew Swamp from slaughter by poachers hellbent on selling the birds’ feathers for personal gain. Seventy years ago, the next generation came together to save Corkscrew’s old growth bald cypress swamp — the largest remaining in the United States — from clear-cutting, and thus Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary was born.
Today, the sanctuary encompasses over 13,000 acres — more than 20 square miles — in the heart of the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed. It is home to endangered Florida panthers and black bears, ghost orchids and wading birds, and delights as many as 100,000 visitors each year from all over the world on its 2.25-mile boardwalk.
This Ramsar-designated Wetland of International Importance isn’t just the beating heart of the Western Everglades, and a vibrant economic engine, it also safeguards the water quality of a watershed. The water flowing through the swamp eventually reaches the Gulf of Mexico at Wiggins Pass and Estero Bay, contributing to the health of our coasts. And as goes Corkscrew, so goes the watershed.