CREW official informs about land for water
Deb Hanson has been involved in the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed for 30 years now. She defines the 63,063 preserved acres quite simply: land for water.
The environmental education specialist informed members of the Estero Island Historical Society and the public about the vital land at St. Raphael’s Episcopal Church Monday evening. CREW Land & Water Trust was established in 1989 and formed as a private, nonprofit organization to ensure the land was managed and protected.
“Our mission is to preserve and protect the land in and around the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed,” said Hanson. The acreage spans southern Lee and northern Collier Counties in Southwest Florida and includes the Corkscrew Marsh, Bird Rookery Swamp, Flint Pen Strand, Camp Keais Strand, and National Audubon’s famous Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.
The CREW official stated the watershed became important to our area because of the need to increase the drinking water supply due to a population increase in the 1980s and the drought years that followed.
“In the mid-1980s, the state of Florida put together a legislation called the ‘Save of Rivers’ program. The purpose of that program was to buy land to conserve water. They were looking for wetlands that stored water,” she said.
At roughly the same time, both county factions placed applications to buy neighboring land from the state.
“That is when the state decided to call the whole project CREW,” said Hanson. “They drew these boundaries around the path of least resistance, which is the wettest property, because that was the property that people were willing to sell and get rid of. So, CREW started because it was a project to protect the water resources in Southwest Florida.”
Without watersheds, drinking water and other usable water would be scarce or come from a saltwater source.
“If we didn’t have big chunks of property like CREW where water can sit on the ground for long periods of time and soak into the ground, we would not have the water we need for drinking in Southwest Florida,” said Hanson. “We would have to take it from the ocean.”
The watershed’s grass and plants aid in the cleaning of the water.
“When the water has a chance to sit on the land and soak down, all those grasses and plants that live on that land help to filter it and pull out the pollutants that we put into it,” said Hanson. “So, it creates a natural filtration system for the water that we drink.”
CREW Land & Water Trust became the first ever public/private partnership in the country. Due to the trust’s small staff, CREW partnered with governmental agencies such as South Florida Water Management District (primary land owner/management) and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (wildlife monitoring/ law enforcement). It has also partnered with Conservation Collier.
This unique watershed not only provides Southwest Floridians with an aquifer recharge for our drinking water and water purification, but also is detrimental for natural flood protection as well as for wildlife habitat and a beautiful space for public recreation.
“If we have chunks of land where water is allowed to flow and stretch across the land, then we don’t have water that is running off of highways and pavements and quickly getting into people’s yards, houses and businesses,” said Hanson. ‘When you protect land for water, you are also protecting all of the wildlife and threatened species. It also creates a spaces for recreation.”
When CREW became compatible for public access, 12 miles of hiking trails were created for guided or individual hikes, academic field trips, nature appreciation, hunting, horseback riding, bicycling and camping for great public outreach and education.
“More than 12,000 people visit the trails each year,” said Hanson.
Over the course of 22 years, CREW Land & Water Trust has protected almost 48,000 of the 63,000 acres. Land management has also kept exotics trees and plants -such as Melaleuca plant and Brazilan pepper trees- from taking over and is involved in rotating prescribed fires on a 3 to 5 year basis to recycle nutrients, open space and keep underscoring low.
“We spend a lot of time in controlling exotics,” said Hanson. “Wild hogs also need to be controlled because they root up the ground and plant the seeds that get on their fur that grows more exotic plants.”
CREW Land & Water Trust officials would like everyone to get involved by joining the organization as a volunteer, make a donation attend events and/or hike around the land. Go to www.crewtrust.org, email crewtrust@earthlink.net or call 657-2253 to learn more.
“We have a whole slate of events for adults and kids,” said Hanson. “We are trying to get more people out to CREW. You never know what you are going to see when you go out there.”