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ROOKERY BAY
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receives international support
innovative project to restore 225 acres of mangroves
T he Florida Department of Environmental Protection is around the globe.”
partnering with China’s Rilin Group to help restore 225 “We want our investment in Rookery Bay to help
acres of mangroves in Collier County. The industrial group
has committed $5 million to restore and monitor the mangrove forest restore that mangrove system, and other mangrove
at Fruit Farm Creek within the Rookery Bay National Estuarine ecosystems in other parts of Florida and the United
Research Reserve (RBNERR). States,” said Wenliang Wang, chairman of China’s Rilin
Group. “We believe the results can also be deployed
RBNERR and its partners have been researching causes of the to China’s coastal areas where mangroves have been
mangrove die-off in the area, which includes construction in the impacted, and urgently need to be restored and
1940s of State Road 92, to develop a plan to restore environmental regenerated. The Rilin Group will continue to make
conditions such as historical water flows in the estuarine area. This strategic investments in environment and ecosystem
project will enable implementing these advances in research that preservation, and make its humble contribution to
support the importance of restoring water flows to improve habit the protection of international ecosystems and the
vital to encourage natural mangrove growth. environment.”
The project’s first phase, which entailed permitting, engineering Partners on the project include: Coastal Resources
and design, site surveys, vegetation clearing, excavation and fill Group, Inc. (the project manager), the Ecology Group,
removal, was completed in 2012 and included funding from private J.R. Evans Engineering, the Conservancy of Southwest
donations, a grant from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and in- Florida, the city of Marco Island, Friends of Rookery
kind donations from local businesses. Bay and China’s Rilin Group.
“We are pleased to work with China’s Rilin Group and our Mangroves are instrumental to protecting Florida
community partners to continue to restore this forest,” said Keith shoreline and providing habitat for marine life that
Laakkonen,director of Rookery Bay Reserve and Southwest Regional are the basis of the $7.6-billion sports fishery industry,
Administrator for DEP’s Florida Coastal Office. “Mangroves are which employs 109,000 people. The Rookery Bay
not only vital to our local economy but provide numerous benefits National Estuarine Research Reserve encompasses
worldwide. This innovative project and accompanying research may 110,000 acres of coastal lands and waters on the Gulf
prove beneficial to restoring and protecting these critical ecosystems coast of Florida in cooperation with the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
70 Life in Naples | March 2016
