A Slice of Old Florida at Gore Nature Education Center

The late Robert Gore III left behind a gift to residents of Collier County and the world beyond when he passed away in 2017, a roughly 180-acre swath of unspoiled Florida landscape he transformed into a nature center. 

Initially privately held, the Golden Gate Estates property became a nonprofit after Gore’s 2017 death. Today, the unspoiled expanse of native flora and fauna is poised to officially begin a new chapter as a Conservation Collier Nature Education Center.  

Conservation Collier has purchased 5,059 acres of land since 2003 that meet its criteria of rare habitat, aquifer recharge, flood control, water quality protection, and habitat for listed species. The result is 21 nature preserves, with the eponymously named Gore Nature Center officially becoming the latest, effective July 22.  

Located off 40th Ave S.E. and near Desoto Boulevard. S., the preserve occupies a wetland hardwood cypress swamp forest near the Big Cypress Critical Area of State Concern. It links the Golden Gate area with wildlife corridors that connect to the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, and Picayune Strand State Forest. Those corridors are utilized by panthers, black bears, bobcats, white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, and other local species.  

The grounds are home to a variety of native plants and other organisms, some of them found on endangered and threatened species lists. 

Robert Gore was a noted research scientist, environmentalist, educator, consultant, and author who grew up in Fort Lauderdale. After earning a PhD in marine invertebrate zoology from the University of Miami, his career brought him to Collier County’s Natural Resources Management Department as the coastal zone management supervisor for five years.  

During the 1980s, he began purchasing what, over about two decades, would ultimately become 71 mostly adjoining, still-wooded lots in the county’s far eastern reaches. His goal was to preserve an undeveloped portion of Collier County to educate children and adults about the region’s subtropical ecosystem.  

He also built himself a Florida Cracker-style home on the 10-acre parcel that’s now a nature education center, which he named Naithloriendun, inspired by the "Garden of the Fairies" found in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. 

The lifelong conservationist’s mission was fueled by a disappointment he experienced during his college years, said a longtime friend, Linda Weinland, who can recall when he first began purchasing land for the nature center. A retired professor of biology and environmental science at the Naples campus of what is now Florida SouthWestern State College, she was an educational program volunteer at the preserve from its start.  

“When Bob came home from college to visit, he found that the hammock, a wild, beautiful nature area in back of his parents’ home, had been bulldozed and developed,” she said. “Oh, it broke his heart. He decided that he would someday preserve some land. When he took the job over here, I don't know that he came with the intent of buying land and having the nature center. I think he was interested in seeing what Collier County was all about. He realized Collier County still had a lot of good natural areas, and he wanted to be a part of saving them because he couldn't(do that) over in Ft. Lauderdale. He didn't own enough property.” 

Weinland delivered those remarks during a one-hour-long presentation on Gore and the nature center held recently at the Collier Museum at Government Center.  

“I think he wanted to educate people about the value of preserving such land,” she added. “He was very passionate about that. He just really cared about all the animals and the plants.”  

In the early 1990s, after paths and a boardwalk were created on the property, which includes a pond, Gore began conducting tours and classes, aided by Weinland, who had built a home near the preserve on land she purchased from him.  

After Gore’s death, the 10-acre preserve was purchased in 2019 by the Naples-based nonprofit Cypress Cove Landkeepers, which has operated the facility since then. The organization is dedicated to protecting the region’s ecologically critical habitats from overdevelopment and encouraging conservation through environmental education and experiences in nature. 

Gore’s home has been renovated and now serves as the Gore Nature Education Center. It’s home to a variety of events and educational programs, such as native butterfly counts, pollinator garden workdays, presentations by local experts on such topics as beekeeping, native plants, bears and panthers, and photography workshops.  

His study has been converted to honor his memory, with its copies of his published books, articles, photographs, and more. 

Next door to the Education Center is the 170-acre Dr. Robert H. Gore III Preserve, with its hiking trails, wildlife, and environmental education opportunities.  

During her presentation, Weinland, who is an advisor to Cypress Cove Landkeepers, credited its president, Shane Duff, and his wife with being “instrumental in carrying forth Bob's (Gore) tradition.” 

After her remarks, Shane Duff said he and his wife, Christy, were drawn to purchasethe property for the opportunity it presented “to educate kids on the ecosystem and to get people to be better stewards of the environment they live in.” 

Since then, they’ve overseen the conversion of Gore’s home into the nature center, improvements to the trails, boardwalks, and other amenities, and establishing a relationship with Collier County Schools and homeschool groups that have led to regular student field trips since the facility opened in late 2021.  

“It is truly a unique property in Collier County and frankly, all of South Florida,” added Shane Duff. “So,it's been a pretty rewarding thing seeing kids out there. You know, we've had so many children out there that have never seen a dragonfly.”