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Land purchase helps restore Everglades
June 17, 1997
Web posted at: 10:48 p.m. EDT (0248 GMT)MIAMI (CNN) -- Vice President Al Gore announced a new federal-state agreement Tuesday to help restore the Everglades through a land purchase.
The Department of the Interior will grant $25 million to a state matching fund for the acquisition of 31,000 acres of Florida land now privately held.
"Parcel by parcel, we have acquired high-priority lands. They will help us both restore this pristine area and contribute to the economy of the entire region," Gore said in an address at the Everglades National Park.
The federal funds will help the Florida Department of Environmental Protection obtain land regions that were formerly part of South Golden Gate Estates, Fakahatchee Strand and Bell Meade.
Once acquired, most of the land will become Picayune State Forest in Collier County. The remainder will be divided between existing state and national preserves. Its purchase partially restores the natural flow of the so-called River of Grass, which provides drinking water to all of South Florida.
The South Golden Gate Estates, a 173-square-mile subdivision planned in the 1950s about 10 miles east of Naples, never came to fruition. Still, developers carved up the area with roads and canals that diverted much-needed water from the western edges of Everglades National Park.
It also became the best example of the land scams that became infamous in Florida: selling swampland to unsuspecting northerners craving sun. In 1967, the developer pleaded guilty to selling fraudulent plots at Golden Gate.
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who accompanied Gore on his Florida trip, expressed the need for restoration in the area.
"These lands have a history rich in panthers and black bears, royal palms, bald cypress and rare orchids, but more recent history marred by failed land developments, hundreds of miles of dredging and bulldozing for canals and roads." Babbitt said.
Related story:
- Gore announces new plan to restore Everglades - February 19, 1996
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