Groundbreaking Kicks Off Major Gift to Conservancy

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida took a big step on Saturday. Naples’ preeminent natural preservation organization held a groundbreaking for the $25 million John and Carol Walter Nature Experience, a major addition to the Conservancy’s campus off Goodlette Rd. in Naples.

The groundbreaking took place during the Conservancy’s annual Earth Day celebration, which saw hundreds of families throng the facility, taking advantage of the already impressive facilities the Conservancy offers to showcase the natural Southwest Florida environment. The timing kind of makes the infusion of funds an “Earth Day present” for Mother Nature.

Made possible by a $25 million gift from the Walter family, the new expansion is “a dream come true,” said Conservancy president and CEO Rob Moher, designed to inspire individuals to support the organization’s mission to “preserve Southwest Florida’s water, land, wildlife, and future for generations to come. New spaces will address one problem Moher highlighted: “So many times, when people walk in here, they can’t find our front door.”

A new 7,000 sq. ft. welcome center and exploration space will help show visitors where to go, and a new amphitheater and expanded covered deck will provide additional space for programs. A parking garage with a solar rooftop will help ease vehicle congestion, and a new preserve trail and half-acre stormwater lake will offer more ways to interact with nature. The work is scheduled to be completed in 2028.

The area is already a nature preserve. Walking to the groundbreaking ceremony – no onsite parking was possible – the first sight was wild creatures, including a pileated woodpecker and a gopher tortoise enjoying natural salad for brunch.

Another feature will be more electric boats for touring the mangroves along the Gordon River. Water and water quality have always been central to the Conservancy, ever since it was formed 60 years ago to – successfully - fight the infamous “bridge to nowhere,” which would have turned Keewaydin Island and the sensitive lands between Naples and Marco Island into a highway.

“In Southwest Florida, water quality is the foundation of our way of life,” said Moher. The new exploration space will feature exhibits showing threats to water quality, including untrammeled growth, red tide, blue-green algae, and flooding, “and ways to take action – answering the question, ‘how can I help?’” said Moher.

John and Carol Walter, whose largesse is funding the expansion, have lived in Naples for 11 years, after coming across the peninsula from Boca Grande. He is the retired president and COO of AT&T, and retired chairman and CEO of R.R. Donnelly and Sons, as well as a tech entrepreneur. He serves as vice chair and treasurer of the Conservancy’s board of directors.

“I’ve had cancer for 16 years, so every day is a blessing,” said John Walter. He said that choosing to make the Conservancy the beneficiary of his family’s giving was a vote of confidence in Moher’s leadership. “Rob is the best not-for-profit CEO I’ve ever met.” Their daughter, Lindsay Walter Carlton, is head of the foundation overseeing the family’s charitable giving.

Conservancy board chair Jim Nolte, speaking before the shovels turned ceremonial mounds of ground, emphasized that one $25 million gift, wonderful though it is, is not enough to fulfill the organization’s vision.

“We’re in the middle of a $70 million campaign,” he said. “We just passed the $53 million mark.”

While the Conservancy campus is undergoing its makeover, some programs and exhibits at the site will not be available. But the group will be expanding their offsite outreach efforts, and all those programs will be free, said Moher. One program that will continue uninterrupted is the work of the von Arx Wildlife Hospital, rehabilitating sick and injured wild creatures. In just the past two-week period, said volunteers Claire and Sue, manning the von Arx information booth, they took in 191 animals.

John Walter said he and Carol were moved to help for the sake of their grandchildren and “younger people – although when I look around, everybody’s younger,” said the 79-year-old.

Looking around the Conservancy campus on Saturday for the Earth Day celebration, children and their parents were everywhere, touring the existing nature exhibits, thrilling to gee-whiz experiments at the Super Science Show, and touring the grounds. Many of the other nature-based organizations in the area had booths, including Rookery Bay, Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp, Big Cypress Preserve, Naples Botanical Garden, and next-door neighbor the Naples Zoo.