The Florida Acquisition and Restoration Council, part of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, voted June 13 to add the first phase of the Bonita Estero Rail Trail project to Florida Forever’s Strategic Managed Area Lands List.
The first phase of BERT consists of an 11.4-mile unused rail corridor from Wiggins Pass Road in Collier County to Estero Parkway in Lee County that would be converted into a public trail as part of a statewide network. The Trust for Public Land negotiated a purchase agreement from the rail corridor owner, Seminole Gulf Railway, and has a deadline of March 2026 to raise $70.4 million for the initial phase of the project.
Florida Forever is the state’s premier conservation in recreation lands acquisition program and serves as “a blueprint for conserving Florida’s natural and cultural heritage,” Trust for Public Land said in making the announcement. The Strategic Managed Area Lands List includes critical segments of the Florida Priority Land Trail System intended to complete gaps and connect trails.
Trust for Public Land said the BERT corridor is a designated priority trail segment of the 2024-2028 Florida Greenways and Trails System Plan, and that acquisition would also fill a strategic gap within the more than 400-mile Florida Gulf Coast Trail.
Doug Hattaway
Doug Hattaway, southeast region conservation director for the Trust for Public Land, said the addition of BERT to the Florida Forever program “provides the opportunity to tap into an important funding source toward realizing this community-transforming project.”
Hattaway said that while state funding is not guaranteed, placement of the project on the list makes it eligible for acquisition by the state. He thinks already-pledged support from the Village of Estero, City of Bonita Springs and Collier County – totaling almost $33 million – helped the state prioritize the BERT project.
“With that kind of manifestation of local support, with money on the table, it helps to prioritize this project in the state of Florida’s eyes, because whenever you have leveraged funds or matching funds, it extends everyone’s funding even further,” Hattaway said. “And that helps raise the priority of this project in the state’s eyes.”
Deborah Orton, president of Friends of BERT, traveled to Tallahassee to testify before the DEP’s Acquisition and Restoration Council about the project and agreed with Hattaway about the state’s priorities.
“The reality is this is a high priority for the state of Florida,” Orton said. “[BERT] does provide conservation opportunities for wildlife. It does provide direct access to some historical sites, which the committee also looks after, and it does connect our communities with a non-motorized transportation corridor,” Orton said. “All of those things are important to the state of Florida and important to ARC.”
Deborah Orton
Supporters say the trail will also provide a dedicated, safe and affordable transportation route in an area that has become increasingly dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians.
The Acquisition and Restoration Council evaluates projects on their merits in meeting established Florida Forever goals, Hattaway said, and once a project is on the list it is evaluated against all other acquisition projects to establish priorities and assess the available funding appropriated by the legislature.
“If we’re fortunate and the program considers BERT a priority and has adequate funding to earmark toward [the project], it then enters the robust state acquisition process, which includes appraisals, surveys, title work and environmental assessments [hazardous materials],” he said. “While placement on the Florida Forever acquisition list is significant, there are more steps that must be taken to successfully acquire the rail corridor.”
If the state does ultimately fund and acquire the land, Hattaway said local municipalities supporting the project would enter into an agreement regarding ownership and management of the corridor.
“One of the things they [ARC] were looking for from Bonita Springs, Estero and Collier County was a pledge that if this corridor were indeed purchased using funds from Florida Forever, the local governments would be willing to improve and manage the corridor,” Hattaway said. “There would be a formalized partnership to realize not only the acquisition but assuring for the improvements and the long-term management of the property.”
Hattaway said this would mean additional funding from local governments for construction, improvements and long-term management.
Riverside Park Rendering
“We have been talking about acquisition of the dirt so far,” he said. “We have not been discussing construction and management of the corridor. There are plenty of funding sources out there to help raise funds for construction; the Sun Trail program [a state program that funds trails and greenways] is an example of that. … There are also several funding sources at the federal level as well.
“That would definitely be a very important next phase of this project, and that would be the construction and management portion of it, too. So, we’re all focused on the acquisition because if you don’t actually own the land, there’s nothing to construct.”
To date, Bonita Springs City Council has pledged $17 million in total for the first phase of the project, while the Village of Estero has pledged $15 million and the Collier County Board of Commissioners has pledged $900,000.
