Good news for Everglades National Park: New visitor facilities planned for Flamingo

The new Flamingo will be user-friendly and eco-conscious.. Image from NPCA.

With a groundswell of popular support and several years of careful planning and review, the project to replace and rebuild the hurricane-ravaged visitor services at Flamingo in Everglades National Park has taken another giant step forward.

This month, the National Park Service issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI), which means that the plan to rebuild Flamingo with modern services will have no negative impact on the natural resources and environment in place there.

Flamingo, the much-loved center of visitor activity inside the park on the shores of Florida Bay, about 38 miles west of the park’s main entrance, was virtually demolished by Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma in August 2005.  The violent storms forced the closing of Flamingo’s lodge, restaurant, visitor center and most other services, temporarily ending its long run as a gateway to the bay and to the park’s famous Wilderness Waterway, a 99-mile water route through the Ten Thousand Islands to Everglades City and Naples, FL.

Flamingo’s many fans remember the area as a haven for boaters, paddlers, anglers, and tourists who wanted to get as far away from the commercialism and congestion of eastern Florida’s coastline as they could, while still enjoying the comforts of civilization.  Providing a sort of rustic gentility to the park’s guests, Flamingo had the “old Florida” charm reminiscent of a Humphrey Bogart movie or Ernest Hemingway’s era—airy rooms that belied the often blistering heat, a restaurant with an elegant seafood menu and expansive views of the bay, shorebirds bustling madly along the beach while long-legged wading birds passed overhead.

The reconstruction plan focuses on eco-friendly development and sustainable design, addressing the hazards of this high risk flood zone with an elevated lodge and restaurant, elevated cottages, houseboats and “eco-tents.” A new amphitheater and electrical hookups for RVs at the existing campground are also part of the plan. Visitors can look forward to a new shuttle service in the Flamingo area, a more efficient ground plan and new trails and paths for pedestrians and bicycles.

Now, all the project needs is funding … and as supervisory park planner Fred Herling recently told the South Florida Business Journal, “…if we wait for full congressional funding, we’ll be waiting a long time.”  Private sector funding is one major target, and the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) is working closely with the park to secure the needed funds.

For more information, see the park's website at http://www.nps.gov/ever, NPCA's website at www.npca.org/southflorida/redeveloping_flamingo.html.