FLORIDA PLACE TO EXPLORE
Conservancy of Southwest Florida
Collier County · South Florida & the Keys
A nature center of twenty-one acres at 495 Smith Preserve Way in Naples, founded in 1964.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
It began when local people stopped a road being driven through Rookery Bay, and that founding fight set the pattern: the organization works on environmental policy and science as much as on visitors, across five counties, Collier, Charlotte, Lee, Hendry and Glades. The von Arx Wildlife Hospital opened on the site in 2013 and treats around 3,300 animals a year, roughly half of which go back to the wild. It has separate wings for mammals, reptiles and birds and a pediatric unit for the young ones, and it handles about a hundred threatened or endangered species. The Dalton Discovery Center holds a patch reef aquarium of five thousand gallons and a touch tank. Electric boats run tours on the Gordon River from the Allyn Family Dock and Lagoon, quiet enough not to scatter what you came to see. There are walking trails, kayak rentals, a nature store and a play area for children of five and under
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