Rookery Bay Environmental Learning Center

About Rookery Bay Environmental Learning Center

By the ULTIMATE Naples Editorial Team

Rookery Bay protects one of the last undisturbed mangrove estuaries in North America, between Naples and Marco Island. Here is how it was saved and how to explore it.

A road that was never built

In 1963 a ten-mile loop road was proposed through Rookery Bay, which would have opened the whole estuary to development. A grassroots campaign by the Collier County Conservancy, The Nature Conservancy, the Collier Audubon Society and private donors bought 3,362 acres instead. In 1980 the federal government designated the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Sanctuary, later renamed a research reserve.

A mangrove estuary

Today the reserve protects 110,000 acres of coastal land and water at the northern end of the Ten Thousand Islands, including Keewaydin Island. It is a near-pristine subtropical mangrove estuary, where fresh water from the land mixes with the Gulf, and it is a nursery for fish, crabs and shellfish as well as a feeding ground for dolphins, manatees and wading birds.

It began with a fight against a ten-mile loop road proposed in 1963 that would have opened the bay to development.

Much of the research and conservation work is done with volunteers, and school programmes bring thousands of children out to the mangroves each year.

The Environmental Learning Center

The learning centre, off the Tamiami Trail East on Tower Road, is the best introduction: exhibits and aquariums explain the estuary, and a pedestrian bridge looks out over Henderson Creek. Guided paddles and boat trips with local operators then take you into the mangroves themselves.

Our advice: visit the centre first to learn what you are looking at, then book a guided kayak trip on a calm winter morning.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Rookery Bay Environmental Learning Center before you go.