Unique ecosystems and ‘that old Florida knowledge’ to discover across campus
- Laurie Dionne Babcock
- Community
- Contributors: James Greco, Photos | Tim Clark and Chris Noonan, Videos
6 – minute read
Florida Gulf Coast University’s campus is more than just classrooms and walkways — it’s a living laboratory for learning. From mangrove forests to cypress domes and edible landscapes, FGCU students, employees and visitors have the chance to study unique ecosystems firsthand. The university serves as both steward of Florida’s environment and a gateway for the next generation to gain “old Florida knowledge.”
Nature trails accessible to all visitors
As a campus naturalist, Macy Noll led University Colloquium field trips for two years. A double major in art and biology, Noll was born in Tallahassee, grew up in Orlando and spent summers on Marco Island — so she’s experienced a range of Florida environments.
Guiding fellow students through FGCU’s nature trails, she would talk about the pine flatwoods, oak hammocks, marshes, cypress swamps and estuaries that are signature habitats.
“All the trails are really fun to explore and a little rugged [but] open to anyone. There’s an ADA-compliant trail and it’s the most used for tours, so it’s well-maintained, and the most easily accessible.” Noll’s favorite cypress dome on campus, its entrance is across from The Water School on the campus loop road.
Pine flatwoods are the driest ecosystem on campus, once tapped by settlers for turpentine. Freshwater marshes provide nesting and feeding sites for alligators, otters, herons, and egrets, and they are the defining feature of the Everglades’ freshwater sawgrass system. Oak hammocks grow on slightly higher ground, where thicker forest litter holds moisture and supports diverse wildlife. Cypress domes are natural “bullseyes” of vegetation — with towering bald cypress in the middle, shorter trees around the edges and water-filled centers.
“It’s like the Goldilocks effect in ecology: When the water’s not too deep, when the water’s not too shallow, when the water’s just right, you get [a cypress dome],” said Win Everham, professor of ecology and environmental studies in The Water School, in a 2022 tour through one of the FGCU cypress domes.
“The cypress domes can go from bone dry at the peak of the dry season up to my neck during the wet season, and I’m 5’2”,” says Noll. “I’ve heard some students take pool floats into the cypress domes and just hang out. My favorite time to go is golden hour.”
If you want to see it: Visitors can get a parking pass here and look for the nature trail signs around the campus’s main loop road.
Mangrove forest and Kimberly’s Reef at Vester
Today, Noll is a research assistant at FGCU’s Vester Field Station in Bonita Springs, about 12 miles from the main campus. She studies benthic settlement on Kimberly’s Reef — an FGCU research site 10 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico — and helps teach the Scientific Diving course.
Vester sits along Fish Trap Bay, where the Imperial River empties into Estero Bay. Mangrove forests form where freshwater rivers meet the sea, creating brackish water that supports salt-tolerant trees, spider crabs, blue crabs and countless other species. A mangrove forest is essentially a swamp — a complete wetland ecosystem adapted to life between land and sea.
“Mangrove forests are often referred to as a brackish swamp — a ‘swamp’ sounds gross and smelly and icky, but it’s not — it’s so beautiful,” Noll says. “And estuaries stabilize coastlines and create nursery habitat for young fishes and sharks.”
FGCU students can get involved at Vester through their courses such as Marine Ecology Field Methods and Marine Invertebrates and some Colloquium faculty-run field trips. While dive safety classes are in the Aquatic Center on FGCU’s main campus, they sometimes leave from Vester for dives. Students can also take part in the monthly crab-monitoring program, helping with traps and field data collection.
Food Forest a model of sustainability
Back on campus, FGCU’s Food Forest covers a half-acre near the Sugden Welcome Center that was transformed from a gravel lot to a thriving edible landscape. Built in 2011 by students, staff and community members, it demonstrates permaculture — a planting system for long-term sustainability with minimal upkeep.
FGCU’s Food Forest serves as a hands-on classroom for soil science, agriculture and sustainability while also fostering leadership and civic engagement. Hurricanes and student turnover have tested it, but it continues to thrive and attract prospective students.
As students stroll under ripening papayas, sapodillas and mulberries, the Food Forest stands as a living example of sustainability and innovation.
If you want to visit: Campus guests can get a parking pass here. From the main campus entrance, turn right toward the Sugden Welcome Center. The Food Forest is just beyond, on the left.
Passing down “old Florida knowledge”
These varied microhabitats on and off campus connect students, visitors and others with Florida’s wild past and help inspire the desire to know more.
“If you don’t pass it down, if you don’t learn about it, we’ll lose that old Florida knowledge. I encourage people to get out into spaces and get a taste of what Florida was like before a lot of people were here,” Noll says. “It can be like walking into a room full of people you don’t know, which is intimidating, but as you get to know the environment and the native flora and fauna, as you learn their names and personalities, it’ll start to feel more like home, like old friends.”
A university built in the wetlands, FGCU is actively engaged in passing down “old Florida knowledge” and preserving native landscapes as part of its mission.
This article is one in a series highlighting FGCU’s distinctive campus.