Former vice mayor talks about love for Matanzas Pass Preserve
Former Beach vice mayor and Lee County Department of Recreation land steward coordinator Terry Cain was the featured speaker at the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce membership luncheon last week at the Red Coconut RV Resort.
Cain discussed one of her favorite subjects – the Matanzas Pass Preserve on Estero Island.
Cain, who also was a charter member of the town’s Marine Resources Task Force, now oversees the preserve but has been involved since the 1970s.
The preserve was originally purchased by a group of Estero Island residents who wanted to keep the 44 acres from being developed.
“The local people got together with the newspaper, which was the Beach Bulletin at that time, and said, “We cannot let this land be sold for development,'” she said. “A real grassroots organization came into being and they went to the only gentleman on the island that might have a little bit of cash. His name was John Dunning and he was a nature photographer. They asked John is he could come up with some money to buy this property and the community would get together and pay it back. You couldn’t do that today.”
The group of citizens borrowed the money in 1974 and worked to pay off the loan, Cain said.
“They paid it back in two years,” she said. “The community got the property – they got the title and John kept one acre for himself and about 42 acres was going to the Nature Conservancy. But it was this community that created the preserve. No tax dollars to buy the Matanzas Preserve – it was all donations.”
During the 1990s, the Nature Conservancy decided that the preserve was too hard to handle, Cain said.
“It was costing them too much money,” she said. “The community again came together and went to the county and said, ‘We need some management of this property. Please take it over for us because we don’t want it to go into the wrong hands.’ So the county took it over in the ’90s and since that time we’re now up to 59 acres.”
The preserve is divided into three plant communities, Cain said, that include the mangrove forest, coastal grass lands and the maritime hammock.
Currently the preserve is maintained by Lee County and a group of volunteers, the Friends of Matanzas Pass Preserve, Cain said.
“Some of the very original Friends of Matanzas Pass Preserve are the people who started the preserve over 35 years ago, Cain said. “We couldn’t do what we do without the Friends of Matanzas Pass Preserve or the volunteers.”
For more information on the Matanzas Pass Preserve, call Cain at 707-3015.