On Saturday I took an eco-tour at Babcock Ranch in Charlotte County, twenty miles north of Ft. Myers. Acquired in 1914 for logging and agriculture, the Babcock Ranch once comprised 91,000 acres. It was the biggest single open space in south Florida, maybe the entire state.
The state bought about a quarter of the property in the 1940s and the Babcock family donated more. Today a big chunk of the land is now being developed as a huge new town, but the adjoining state-owned preserve is farmed and logged under contract with private companies and is available for eco-tours.
We were loaded onto an ancient bus with the windows removed and taken around the property. It is still actively farmed, with horses and beef cattle in the first areas we saw.
The preserve is full of feral pigs, which raced to see us as we passed, because the guides toss corn kernels out of the bus for feed. (They do most of their feeding on their own, but they like the corn as a treat.)
Pigs were brought from Europe with the original Spanish explorers to feed the crews on the voyages, but when they reached Florida, many pigs got loose and have populated the wild areas for centuries.
Slash pines, cypress, sabal palms and palmettos are the most common trees and plants. The terrain needs fire to stimulate new growth, sometimes from lightning strikes, and sometimes from controlled burns.
Everywhere there was water, there were alligators. Many alligators.
White-tailed deer are there, though I saw only a couple.
Several shy raccoons said hello. Only one came out of the underbrush enough for a portrait.
Sandhill cranes and their colts wandered in the open spaces.
"Cracker cattle" with their long horns were in an area different from the domestic beef cattle. Their predecessors came over from Spain with the conquistadors, as early as 1565. They are grown for meat, milk and for draft work.
