South Florida Water Management District and Army Corps of Engineers completed a component of the Picayune Strand Restoration Project in eastern Collier County. The plugging of the Faka Union Canal marks one of the final components needed to accomplish the project’s goal of restoring the natural hydrology of more than 55,000 acres of native wetlands and uplands on Florida’s Southwest coast. Three out of the four canals are plugged. The restoration project is expected to result in improved water flow into Collier Seminole State Park, Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge and the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.