Mother Nature helping Florida’s hurricane-devastated southwest coast rebound brilliantly

Visitors to Wonder Gardens check out the birds and flowers blooming in a pond at the Southwest Florida roadside attraction, along U.S. Route 41 since 1946. (Janet Podolak)

Six months after Hurricane Ian devastated Southwest Florida’s coast, nature’s miracle of spring is greening mangroves and brightening the rubble with flowers.

But nature is a strong mother, and some longtime Florida attractions have recovered and reopened to visitors who are coming with a new appreciation for what’s left.

Volunteers from around the country still load Sanibel Island’s once-lush tropical foliage into trucks, racing to clear debris before the next rainy season washes it into sewers. Memories of house-high piles of wreckage from homes destroyed by the Sept. 28 storm’s 15-foot sea surge still haunt those who recall helicopters pulling refrigerators and appliances from otherwise inaccessible mangroves around Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel Island.

“Even though I saw the TV coverage and thought I was prepared, I couldn’t stop crying when we first went back,” said Loretta Paganini of Chester Township, Ohio. “The damage was just unbelievable.”

More than one in every 10 structures was destroyed by Hurricane Ian.

A home destroyed by last September’s Hurricane Ian still awaits demolition in March on Fort Myers Beach. (Janet Podolak)

Paganini and her husband, Emil, are among the 6,500 Sanibel residents, many of them seasonal and finally were able to visit their condominium in late October after the 3-mile-long bridge and causeway to the island had been repaired.

“Only property owners were allowed, and we could only go to our own condominium, nowhere else,” she said. “The water and sewers are restored, but there still is no electricity.”

Although their building is less than 50 percent damaged and thus not required to be leveled, the Paganinis still haven’t been able to spend the night. That’s unlikely to happen before next spring.

But the 300 animals, birds and reptiles at Wonder Gardens in Bonita Springs, are luring folks to the roadside attraction operating since 1946 along Route 41. The rescued and non-releasable creatures thrive amid ponds and colorful gardens crossed by boardwalks easily accessible and ideal for both wheelchairs and baby strollers.

A water lily in flamboyant bloom brightens a pond at Wonder Gardens in Bonita Springs, Florida. (Janet Podolak)

Bill and Lester Piper, brothers from Michigan, loved the state’s tropical wildlife when they first came to Florida in 1936. After acquiring five acres of land on the banks of the Imperial River in Bonita Springs, they opened the roadside Everglades Reptile Gardens to show off the alligators they’d captured. The brothers became wildlife experts, providing animals to zoos and for movies. Privately operated for three Piper family generations, Wonder Gardens in 2014 was transferred to the city of Bonita Springs to be operated as a nonprofit.

Although the Gardens were flooded by the hurricane, original wooden buildings remained undamaged, and it reopened early this year.

Only juvenile alligators up to 6 years old are kept there, as older, larger ones go to zoos around the country. Crocodiles, turtles, land tortoises, exotic parrot-like birds, flamingos and other creatures live in enclosures where they can interact with visitors. An otter attraction is underway.

Environmental studies graduates from the nearby Florida Gulf Coast University are among the well-informed guides and curators for today’s Wonder Gardens collections.

In the 70-some years since the roadside attraction has drawn folks to this town south of Fort Myers Beach, Bonita Springs has become known for its own old time Florida charms. Its beach, contiguous to Fort Myers Beach was also damaged by Ian but not as severely.

Bonita Springs was established at the turn of the last century along the trail between Naples and Fort Myers, and many of its historic buildings now attract those coming to town along Old U.S. 41. In the 1920s, Bonita Springs touted itself as the “Mecca of the Tourist and the Land of Promise for the Settler.”

Built in the 1940s as a place for celebrities to detox from their indulgences, the still elegant Shangri-La Springs today has eight rooms for visitors, a spa and a dining room of local renown. Its 8-acre grounds tout healing waters amid riverside gardens.

Closer to Ft. Myers itself, an elevated, 1-½ mile, fully accessible boardwalk beckons explorations of the 3,500-acre Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve, where native plants such as bald cypress shelter aquatic birds, alligators, river otters, wild cats and even the occasional black bear. Pronounced “slew,” it‘s not a swamp but an 11-mile-long, one-third-mile-wide slow-moving river providing drainage and a corridor for wildlife in times of heavy rainfall.

Air plants called epiphytes bristle from a branch along the elevated boardwalk at Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve, near Fort Myers. (Janet Podolak)

Thousands of air plants line the branches of pop ash trees, making them look bristly. They’re ferns, bromeliads and orchids that grow on other plants but are not parasitic, deriving their nutrients from the air and falling debris. The boardwalk’s five observation decks and amphitheater provide places to sit quietly in the search for orchids and wildlife.

On Sanibel, the 5,200-acre J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, heavily damaged by the hurricane, has just reopened its 4-mile-long Wildlife Drive, which can be bicycled, walked or driven. During my mid-March visit, finishing touches at its Visitor Center prepared for its April 4 opening. There, a Best Restroom plaque honors the educational displays in its restrooms, including a walkway replicating an underwater view of the bottom side of a swimming alligator. Its gift shop showcases items made from recovered and cleaned-up debris, such as a vest composed of aluminum can pop tops.

A restroom hallway at J.N. Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge replicates an underwater view, including the underside of an alligator. (Janet Podolak)

Guided tram tours by Tarpon Bay Explorers have resumed, and kayaks can be rented for watery explorations. But its guided 90-minute Nature and Sealife cruises aboard a pontoon boat won’t be back until 2024. The Preserve’s many acres of mangroves likely are what saved the island from being totally destroyed when they caught much of the debris washed up in the hurricane’s big storm surge, which brought sand from the island’s storied beaches onto the land. Debris caught by the mangroves included household appliances, furnishings, parts of boats, cars and other huge things that still need to be removed by helicopter.

A vest crafted from discarded aluminum pop tops is found in the gift shop at Ding Darling Wildlife Preserve on Sanibel Island. (Janet Podolak)

The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum on Sanibel Island, featured here just a week before last year’s hurricane, is open and its restoration from the storm underway.

The live animals and corals, including a Giant Pacific Octopus, giant clam and creatures in its touch pools and nine aquariums, were destroyed when the hurricane knocked out its electricity leaving Sanibel in the dark and allowing the temperature-controlled water to heat up.