Part 2: The Conservancy´s View on Naples Development
The Conservancy of Southwest Florida, a non-profit group, is urging its 6,000 members to stand up against the Mirasol golf course, a proposed Naples development that will stretch across native wetlands. While the Mirasol´s engineers claim they will be restoring natural flow-ways to the area, The Conservancy argues that the Naples development would “negatively impact water quality in the Wiggins Pass estuary and Cocohatchee River” and further impact already endangered wood storks and Florida panthers.
The golf course engineers believe that moving extra water into the wetlands will undo past damage caused by man, but Andrew Dickman, The Conservancy’s environmental policy director and legal counsel, believes that the plans are naive and too simplified. He explains that when water is moved into the Wiggins Pass area, “you get a very quick concentrated fresh water into salt water estuary. Our issue is that having this water narrowed and really shooting into the downstream habitat is really harmful. It hurts not only the water quality but also the creatures that depend on that water cycle.”
Mirasol has the right to build its Naples development on the land, but The Conservancy hopes that the company will choose to do all of its building upland, not through the wetlands.
The golf course engineers believe that moving extra water into the wetlands will undo past damage caused by man, but Andrew Dickman, The Conservancy’s environmental policy director and legal counsel, believes that the plans are naive and too simplified. He explains that when water is moved into the Wiggins Pass area, “you get a very quick concentrated fresh water into salt water estuary. Our issue is that having this water narrowed and really shooting into the downstream habitat is really harmful. It hurts not only the water quality but also the creatures that depend on that water cycle.”
Mirasol has the right to build its Naples development on the land, but The Conservancy hopes that the company will choose to do all of its building upland, not through the wetlands.
