STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

Tell us about it

• What would you add to this story? Tell us what we missed.
• Do you have photos from this event? Documents we need to see? Share with us.
• Upload photos & videos
• More ways to get your stuff online and in the paper.

Related Links

• Web: Check out River Of Grass Greenway's Web site

More Local News

• YMCA cuts budget, staff
• Marco Community Bancorp launches private placement stock offering
• City Manager's Weekly Report

Share and Enjoy [?]

NAPLES — Swim or drive.

There aren’t many other options for getting across the Everglades.

A dedicated group of Collier County residents is out to change that.

For the last 11⁄2 years, Patty Huff and Maureen Bonness have been leading the charge to create a multi-use path reaching across the state, following the footprint of U.S. 41 to Miami.

At the moment, it is still purely conceptual, but with the help of the Naples Pathways Coalition, the two have been working to reach out to local governments and nearby parks to grow support for the plan.

“Certainly, important for any trail project to be successful is grass-roots support for it,” said Marsha Connell, a regional representative for the Office of Greenways and Trails, under the state Department of Environmental Protection.

“They do seem to be a very ambitious group,” said Connell, who has met with the Naples Pathways Coalition to discuss the trail.

At the Sept. 12 Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting, the board voted unanimously to pass a resolution supporting the project.

In the meantime, Huff and Bonness are working on crafting the first steps toward creation of the 70-mile pathway, which is to gather the resources for a feasibility study. They applied for a grant from the National Park Service in August to work toward that study, which would examine possible routes for the path, environmental impacts and the expected cost.

But neither woman is ready to estimate the possible costs of the trail’s construction, or the time-frame in which it might be constructed.

“This is obviously going to be built on public land, and it will need a lot of public input,” Bonness said.

Bonness said she hopes to have the feasibility study completed in two years, but Connell said every trail varies in its complexity to secure the land and build. The entire process has been known to take a decade.

“Yes, we are thinking big,” Bonness said. “One of the reasons we’re doing it, it’s not just recreation, it’s also transportation. How do you get across the state either walking or bicycling? Right now you can go across the trail, but it’s not very safe.”

Huff of Everglades City excitedly discusses the way the trail would connect through the national parks across U.S. 41, providing ready amenities to hikers and bikers and built-in sightseeing opportunities.

“What we think is so exciting about it is it’s going to increase the awareness of the Everglades area and make it more accessible,” Huff said. “This will be an access for them to be off the main highway when they want to walk or bird watch.”

Huff and Bonness, both biking enthusiasts, met during an annual bike ride sponsored by the Naples Pathways Coalition about two years ago. Both had independently formed a dream of being able to bike across U.S. 41 without fear of the sometimes unpredictable traffic.

Bonness, who has biked the road herself many times, said she has come across other cyclists with bags on their bikes, making the trek to Key West from Fort Myers and as far away as Sarasota.

But the route is not recommended by any cycling groups, Bonness said, and Huff said she has tried twice with frightening results. The Adventure Bicycling Association, for example, directs bikers through LaBelle and near Lake Okeechobee to get across the state.

“If we get this, it will open up bicycle travel to Southwest Florida that’s never been available before,” Bonness said.

The corridor under consideration is one already on the opportunity map at the state’s Office of Greenways and Trails, said Connell. The map is something like a wish-list, showing the areas with current trails and that could support new trails, ideally connecting with existing ones.

One trail that has helped serve as an example for Bonness and Huff is the Everglades-Biscayne Greenway, a 27-mile path that came to fruition for the city of Homestead and Miami-Dade County over the last two years.

It is open but a long way from being complete, said Homestead Community Development Manager Laurin Yoder. Her city partnered with the county and both Everglades and Biscayne national parks to make the trail come to life, but still want to add picnic areas, benches and bathrooms to make the trail full-service as it stretches between the two national parks and through the center of Homestead.

For Bonness and Huff, it is a success story and an inspiration for what is possible with enough buy-in from the surrounding community.

“The most important thing is you have community support for it,” said Connell. “The group definitely wants it and they’re working hard. I’d say that’s the No. 1 thing they have going for them.”

To learn more or contact the project’s organizers, visit www.evergladesrogg.org.