NAPLES, Fla. — Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is making efforts to help with water quality and to protect wildlife.
Located about 30 minutes northeast of Naples, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is home to a wide variety of birds, as well as alligators, otters, white-tailed deer, and red-bellied turtles.
Keith Laakkonen is the director. He says they are working to rebuild. Laakkonen says the almost raised $15 million they have already fund-raised, will build an outdoor classroom, revamp existing buildings, and preserve the 13,000 acres of swampland.
But they still need $5 Million more.
"Without Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, it's entirely possible, Wood Storks would have gone extinct in the last century. This was traditionally the largest colony of nesting wood storks anywhere in the world," he said.
Neil Hargen works at the sanctuary and says, historically this space was meant to keep a healthy watershed in Southwest Florida.
"The Audubon Society was in the area, enforcing the plume hunting ban, the shooting of birds to put in women's hats," Hargen said.
"It supports clean water and reduces those risks of damaging algal blooms, such as red tide," he said.
Click hereto donate or learn more.
