Loxahatchee Greenways Project


The Challenge and the Opportunity

Despite the existing damage and the ever-present threats to the Loxahatchee natural system, large natural areas still exist in the Loxahatchee Region. Thanks to the efforts of both private landowners and public agencies, much of the Loxahatchee River still flows in its natural course. Vast areas of wetlands provide habitat for birds, fish and mammals, as well as educational and recreational opportunities for the region's residents. Unspoiled beaches beckon to tourists as well as to sea turtles looking for undisturbed nesting areas. Fresh water remains a relatively abundant resource for the region's human inhabitants.

The southeast coast of the United States is the second largest nesting rookery for loggerhead sea turtles in the world. Over 80 percent of those sea turtles come to Florida's beaches and build over 80,000 nests per year. The beaches of Juno and Jupiter in the Loxahatchee region are densely packed with nests each year over 1,000 per mile. They also provide the northernmost nesting extreme for green and leatherback turtles.

The potential for preserving the health of the region still exists. However, it will require building a future based on the recognition that the fate of the region's natural and built environments are fundamentally connected. The challenge for the residents of the Loxahatchee Region is one of accommodating population growth while preserving and protecting the fragile natural areas that make the region a unique and exciting place to live. How will the region's communities continue to coexist with nature in the face of future population growth? Some communities continue to hold off the sprawling development prevalent in so much of South Florida. Others are actively exploring ways to create more livable spaces for their residents, restoring historic downtowns and redirecting public investment into areas with existing infrastructure to support the region's growing population. This is the life-sustaining vision of the Loxahatchee Greenways Project, developed through an unprecedented collaborative planning process involving residents of the region's communities, public agencies and businesses. By choosing to preserve this green infrastructure, the communities of the Loxahatchee Region have charted a course to guide new growth and development, meeting the dual goals of preserving opportunities for economic development as well as protecting and enhancing the region's quality of life.

Greenways can serve a community by providing a gathering place for people in much the same way as the sidewalk cafes of Paris, the neighborhood pubs of London or, as in this image, Riverwalk in San Antonio. Ray Oldenburg, a professor at West Florida University in Pensacola, writes, ". . . such gathering places are rapidly vanishing from our lives. Without them, the diversity of human contact diminishes and as citizens we become more and more isolated."


Rare and Endangered Species

The Loxahatchee Region is home to more than 100 species of endangered and threatened plants and animals including five types of sea turtles, the scrub jay, sandhill crane, bald eagle, wood stork, red-cockaded woodpecker, snail kite, gopher frog, eastern indigo snake, gopher tortoise, Florida mouse, West Indian manatee, curtiss milkweed, four petal paw-paw and hand fern, among others. The challenge for area residents is to accomodate growth while preserving vital wildlife habitat.