I am glad this is a start to rebuilding a better facility in Everglades. Back in 2005, Adventure-Crew.com attempted to have a fundraiser for Everglades to help with the result of the hurricanes, but due to the (at that time) red tape of the national parks being limited in what they could accept from a private enterprise, we were not allowed to have the fundraiser. It’s a beautiful area and any of you who have not been there need to go.  Corie Marks

Originally posted on February 05, 2008

The Everglades National Park Visitor Center at Everglades City will get a $300,000 spruce up this year that park officials admit is long overdue.

But the improvements at the Gulf Coast Visitor Center on the park's westernmost entrance are only a temporary fix for a facility badly in need of updating, said Fred Herling, supervisory planner for Everglades National Park.

Visitors to Everglades National Park in Everglades City take a tour. The Park Service received $300,000 to improve office space at the Gulf Coast Visitor Center, in the background.

"It's not adequate or appropriate for the gateway to the Gulf coast side of the park," he said.

The spruce-up includes constructing an elevated building to house administrative facilities and a law-enforcement ranger.

This will free up the existing building at the park entrance to serve as a bigger visitor’s center, Herling said.

And down the road, there will likely be additional construction for:

• A state-of-the-art visitor’s center.

• Overnight accommodations.

• A restaurant.

• Possibly more boating access.

The plan to improve the Gulf coast center is particularly important to Southwest Florida because park rangers say it's the entrance most used by area residents and tourists.

Bob Beville of Fort Myers welcomes the improvements. He uses the park for boating, fishing and overnight wilderness camping.

"I look forward to every trip down there, and I don't care if I catch any fish. It's just gorgeous," Beville said.

The visitor’s center needs more space, he said. "They need displays. They need to market what they have."

The center also needs a boat ramp because motorboats have to use the Chokoloskee ramp to launch, he said.

Herling said the bigger need is for a new, state-of-the art center first mandated in legislation in 1989.

The center, which would be renamed the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Visitor Center in honor of the late writer and Everglades champion, would provide lodging, a restaurant and more programs, activities and amenities.

It would be comparable to the proposed $20 million rebuilding of the park's Flamingo Visitor Center on the east coast, Herling said. That center was destroyed by hurricanes Katrina and Wilma in 2005.

Options at Flamingo include re-establishing overnight lodging with cottages, all constructed using green technology. The amenities would bring the center back to its heydays in the 1970s through the 1990s, Herling said.

The decision on the Flamingo center plan will be made in two months, but the plan for the Gulf coast center won't be designed and finalized until at least 2009, Herling said.

That's a full 20 years since the 1989 legislation was passed.

The fact that nothing happened for almost two decades at the Gulf coast center is not a matter of neglect, Herling said. It's a matter of money.

"They told us to build it and didn't provide the funding for it," he said.

The temporary improvement, to be completed by Christmas, comes as the National Park Service struggles to refine a massive plan for managing the entire 1.5- million acre park during the next several decades.

The plan addresses six major areas of concern the public has expressed about access, use of the park and its amenities.

Herling called the plan "extremely important" in that it lays out the stewardship of the park for the next 20 to 30 years.

"It will let the public know how they will be able to work with us over the next many years to make sure park goals are being met," he said.

The management plan is also important because the park is a major destination for ecotourists from around the world drawn to the Everglades' unique ecosystem and its endangered and threatened wildlife.

Everglades National Park had almost 1 million visitors in 2006, the latest yearly report available on its Web site.

The management plan will not be finalized until late next year.

"It is a priority because it is long overdue," Herling said.