Developer Privately Funding Building Wildlife Crossing

Crossings, or underpasses for wildlife, aren’t a priority for county government so having a private developer step to the plate to pay for one is that much more important, Payton said.

GOLDEN GATE ESTATES — Environmentalists are wild about a new privately funded road crossing that’s expected to save the lives of Florida panthers and other wildlife.

The developer of City Gate Commerce Park in Collier County is paying for the crossing as part of a Habitat Conservation Plan, which it created in partnership with local environmentalists.

The plan, authorized by the Endangered Species Act, ensured that the commerce park would get its U.S. Fish and Wildlife permit, making its land truly “shovel ready” for businesses wanting to locate in the commercial-industrial complex.

The developer will spend more than $1.3 million to build the crossing in a rural area where many endangered Florida panthers have lost their lives trying to get get across the road. Construction is under way.

The crossing is being built on Immokalee Road, east of Immokalee and three miles west of the Hendry County line. The wildlife crossing site isn’t in the same location as the City Gate development, which is near Collier Boulevard and Interstate 75.

Last week, biologists attending a ground-breaking ceremony for the crossing spotted fresh panther tracks on the site near Immokalee.

“They were for sure panther tracks,” said Nancy Payton, a field representative for the Florida Wildlife Federation in Southwest Florida. “Two biologists confirmed it. It was exciting to know this indeed is the right spot.”

Payton worked closely with the developer, actually suggesting the idea to build the crossing.

Typically, when a construction project results in a loss of habitat for wildlife a developer will buy land, or buy credits in a “mitigation bank” that sets aside land for conservation elsewhere.

“Black bears, panthers, deer, maybe turkeys. All sorts of wildlife have been documented using underpasses, even snakes,” said Nancy Payton, a field representative for the Florida Wildlife Federation in Southwest Florida. “There is no doubt the underpasses work. The key is to make sure they are properly maintained.”

“It’s not the best system,” Payton said. “It’s a lot easier to just go off and buy credits in a bank. All you have to do is pony up some money. But City Gate’s developer did something much better, much more rewarding to our environment. We thank them for it.”

The project involves raising the road gradually by about 7.5 feet so that panthers and other wildlife can go underneath it at the same level they’re used to crossing at today. Fencing on both sides will help funnel wildlife through the crossing.

“It’s a gradual rise. People don’t realize they are going over a wildlife crossing,” said Roger Rice, a Naples attorney and the point man for the developer on the crossing project.

Meetings on the Habitat Conservation Plan began in September 2003. It has been a long road to get to where the developer is today.

“We wanted to have a plan that was not only based in biology, but we wanted a plan that wasn’t controversial — that local environmental groups believed in as well and we involved them in the process almost from the very beginning,” Rice said.

In 2005, the developer helped pay for a wildlife crossing study, contributing $56,000 toward it. One of the locations the study identified for a crossing is where City Gate is building one.

“What makes this kind of unique is in the past wildlife crossings have been built when road-widening projects were being done,” Rice said. “This is the first one on a county road, in an area where the county had no intention of doing any widening and where the funds only would have been available if City Gate provided them.”
Livestock protection from panthers in Golden Gate Estates

The developer will be required to monitor and maintain the crossing, at least for a couple of years. The project includes motion-sensitive cameras that will help track the wildlife that’s using the crossing.

City Gate off Collier Boulevard at I-75 is one of only a few active commercial projects in a bad economy. The project is a development of regional impact, or DRI, with 288 acres zoned for commercial, light industry, office, warehouse and distribution uses. It’s a mile deep along the Golden Gate canal, east of I-75.

The commerce park is home to two Marriott hotels, along with several other businesses, including a BP gas station and a car wash. Recently, the South Florida Water Management District purchased 5.02 acres for nearly $2.1 million to build a field station for the Big Cypress Basin water management agency.

“All of our sites are 2 acres and over and we have flexibility to combine sites and have room to take quite large projects,” Rice said. “We have zoning for 2.9 million square feet of buildings.”

While building the crossing is more expensive than other options for habitat conservation, it’s the right thing to do, said Ron Rice, president and CEO of City Gate.

“What our goal is — and the goal of the industry should be — is to participate in events like this and not try to evade our responsibility to the environment,” he said.

The developer has taken other steps to protect wildlife: In return for its federal environmental permits, it also agreed to mount a woodpecker recovery plan. City Gate has relocated 30 endangered woodpeckers to the Picayune Strand State Forest — and purchased and restored land for woodpecker habitat in Collier County.

The new wildlife crossing is expected to be completed by the end of April.

Crossings, or underpasses for wildlife, aren’t a priority for county government so having a private developer step to the plate to pay for one is that much more important, Payton said.

“Black bears, panthers, deer, maybe turkeys. All sorts of wildlife have been documented using underpasses, even snakes,” she said. “There is no doubt the underpasses work. The key is to make sure they are properly maintained.”

Maintenance is minimal. It involves keeping the entrances to the crossing clear and making sure the fences aren’t broken or torn down.

There is an alarming number of panthers killed on the roadways in Collier County every year. While they all won’t be saved by the new crossing, it’s a big step in the right direction, Payton said.

“It’s one of the highlights of my work in Southwest Florida to conceive an idea, and to work with a developer, who was willing to say, ‘Yeah we can do that,’” she said. “It was just a very rewarding project. It’s one of the few where there is a beginning and an end. You know once that crossing is built, it can’t be undone.”

Connect with Laura Layden at www.naplesnews.com/staff/laura_layden.

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