"When you look out, this is the window into the Fakahatchee — there is so much more to see."
That was but one description of what the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk and educational interpretive center at the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park offers those who visit the Collier County site.
The Department of Environmental Protection Division of Recreation and Parks, in partnership with the Friends of Fakahatchee, hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the boardwalk site Saturday — the official opening of the entire boardwalk, extending from the new section opened in February 2024 to the reconstructed original boardwalk completed in mid-November 2025.
That opening remark was made by Francine Stevens, executive director of the Friends of the Fakahatchee, a Citizen Support Organization that greatly supports park operations. She added that the boardwalk project is proof that when people work together, great things really do happen.
"As impressive as this boardwalk is today, isn't just about wood and nails. It's the celebration of the collaboration between the Friends of Fakahatchee and Florida Department of Environmental Protection and more specifically, our relationship with the Fakahatchee."
The boardwalkexpansion project came about after the walkway was damaged by Hurricane Ian and closed in 2022. Reconstruction began in 2024 and it reopened in late 2025.
Jeremy Sweeney, park manager at Fakahatchee, offered some perspective about the park:
"We're the largest state park within the state park system. We're about 20-miles-long, five-miles-wide, approximately 85,000 acres. Everybody knows we're home to that recluse, the ghost orchid. That's that fancy flower. But we're so much more than that. This boardwalk gives us an opportunity to show what Fakahatchee is really about."
Sweeney said the newly dedicated boardwalk is going to be the educational center for most of the park’s interpretive programming.
"This was a very important step for the state, for the people and the people that need to be or want to be educated about Fakahatchee and the Everglades," he said. "It gives us an opportunity to share the culture of the people that were here before us, and educate to the future all on the past."
Debra Taylor, vice president of the Friends of the Fakahatchee, said people love going into the area the boardwalk leads them to, because it is old growth cypress, very unusual, and it ends at an alligator pond.
“It allows the public to see a habitat that's the prairie, but then a path leads around the Green Heron Lake and connects what we call the original boardwalk, which was originally established in the 1960s and has been newly reopened in November. So it's a delightful and interesting two-mile walk," she said.
Already enjoying the boardwalk before the ribbon-cutting Saturday were Rose and Mike Powers of Naples. The couple said it's a site they had frequented before.
“We live here year round and we come here regularly. We haven't been since before Ian, before the pandemic, really. And just hearing that it was open again, we couldn't wait to check it out," Rose Powers said. "And it's really nice to have it back."
Mike Powers added: "It's in excellent, great condition now."
The walk is relatively easy and accessible, with smooth pathways whether on the boardwalk or hard packed gravel. The boardwalk site is on US 41 about 25 miles east of Naples in Collier County.
More information about the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park is available at this link.
About the park
Hours
8 a.m. to sunset.
Fees
$3 vehicle (up to eight people).
$2pedestrians and bicyclists.
Pay stations are located at the visitors center and the East River canoe launch.
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