The vast, empty expanse of Southern Golden Gate Estates stretches south from Interstate 75 just after the highway turns east toward Miami.

 

http://www.news-press.com/photos/story/040531goldengate2.jpg A group of all-terrain vehicles and off-road motorcycles ride along the side of Everglades Boulevard on Sunday in Southern Golden Gate Estates. The area is part of the Everglades restoration project, which federal officials are designating as Picayune State Forest. State and federal officials say they will likely allow ATV and motorcycle riders to use the land, but it’s a matter of where it will do the least damage and appease the most people. Garth Francis/news-press.com

On a weekday, the air is still and quiet except for the occasional rumble of a dump truck stirring up clouds of dust as it carries earth from the home and aquaculture business of Jesse Hardy, the last resident here.

On weekends, the South Blocks, as the locals call the area, burst with the sounds of buzzing engines and off-road vehicles cutting through dirt and gravel.

While off-roaders, horseback riders and campers enjoy this 94 square miles of abandoned subdivision, the first phase of its restoration to wetlands has been making progress. The plan to finish it is waiting on public comment to move forward.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report outlines plans to scrape away 279 miles of road and fill 42 miles of canals, most of which run north-south.

Spreader canals will be dug east-west across the north end of the three largest canals. Water will back up into the spreaders and flow over the south banks, creating a wide, shallow sheetflow -- the way it used to be here -- to Florida Bay.

“We can't get (exactly) back to the way it was before,” said corps project manager Rick McMillen. “But we can get close.”

In the 1960s, after developing Cape Coral, Leonard and Julius “Jack” Rosen began Golden Gate City. They divided the land into 19,000 lots and dug 48 miles of canals and 290 miles of roads. In 1967, the two pleaded guilty to fraud charges, and their company, Gulf American Land Corporation, went bankrupt.

The abandoned project dropped the water table 5 feet and turned swamps into dry land, destroying the natural environment. The canals rushed water off the land and into one point of Florida Bay.

The restoration will undo much of the damage by rehydrating the land and spreading out the flow of water.

The corps plan will also rename the South Blocks to become part of the neighboring Picayune Strand State Forest.

“Southern Golden Gate Estates has negative connotations all the way up to Congress because they remember the land development,” McMillen said.

The corps will build three pump stations north of the spreaders to prevent water from backing up into populated Northern Golden Gate Estates on the other side of I-75,

The South Florida Water Management District, the partner in the restoration, moved ahead of the corps last year and is filling in the easternmost Prairie Canal. About 11/2 miles is complete six months after Governor Jeb Bush celebrated its groundbreaking as the first project to move dirt in the $8 billion Everglades restoration project.

 

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Seven miles of Prairie Canal will be filled in by fall 2005, the district said.

Meanwhile, a bill before Congress this year will authorize funding Phase II. The bill requires the corps finish its plan before the end of the year. If all goes well, Phase II will begin in late 2006, early 2007. It is expected to take about two years to complete.

At the same time, the Florida Division of Forestry must develop a plan for how the land will be used by the public.

“We're managing the forest there the same way we manage all our forests,” said forestry spokesman Gerry LaCavera. “The difference is we have a number of different agencies impacting the decisions we make.”

Aside from the corps and district, five other agencies are involved, and they don't want to allow any activity that would undermine the $362 million project. But they also want to make sure the public has access to the land. Off-road vehicles may be the most difficult use to balance.

“In some cases, (the agencies) don't want ORV use in areas they're spending a lot of money trying to restore down there,” LaCavera said.

Thousands of off-roaders spend their weekends here.

“People have been riding out there for 30 years with ATVs, swamp buggies and whatever else,” said Brian McMahon, who has been riding ATVs in the South Blocks for about 10 years.

McMahon said he wants that to continue.

“It’s a good thing to take your kid out there,” McMahon said. “They have a good time and it keeps them off the street and out of trouble.

“It gets more and more difficult to be a kid every day.”

Off-road vehicles are damaging sensitive environments, however. Aerial photographs show sandy tracks cutting through places such as Bad Luck Prairie on the south end.

The images and damage are similar to what prompted a limit on off-road use in Big Cypress National Preserve. Those limits were challenged in court but upheld by a judge last August.

The state will likely allow off-roaders in Golden Gate, LaCavera said. It’s a matter of where it will do the least damage and appease the most people. “It’s still unclear where that will be,” LaCavera said. McMahon hopes to learn soon.

Government agencies would get more support for Everglades restoration if people knew the recreational benefits, said McMahon, who also serves on the Division of Forestry’s Off-Highway Vehicle Advisory Committee.

“And not just ATVs,” McMahon said. “Hunting and camping and all the fun things that go with the outdoors.”

The group is charged with finding places for off-roading. A trust fund of about $1.5 million -- from a $35 titling fee required on ATVs in Florida -- will pay for it. No places have been found yet in Southwest Florida, but the committee has looked at property in the Belle Meade area, McMahon said.

First, the state needs to address the matter of one last resident refusing to sell.

If Hardy doesn't accept the latest offer of a land swap by August 31, the state said Tuesday it will take his 160 acres through eminent domain.