Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary Celebrations | Audubon

Spurlino Basis Discovery Heart

One thing thrilling has been brewing at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples: The brand new customer expertise, which opened on February 4, 2026, immerses all ages in swampy goodness. With displays like “Life Beneath the Floor,” “Defending Migratory Birds,” and plenty of others, the brand new Spurlino Basis Discovery Heart shines a highlight on the Sanctuary’s animals and vegetation, from charismatic wading birds to ghost orchids, like by no means earlier than.

 The renovated exhibit area is within the Blair Customer Heart, which welcomes 80,000+ annual guests to this outstanding, 13,000- acre wildlife sanctuary and serves as a gateway to the Western Everglades. With a beneficiant reward from the Spurlino Basis, Audubon has up to date the unique 1,600 square-foot discovery heart with new interactive displays illustrating the historical past and ecology of the Sanctuary whereas inspiring curiosity and a conservation ethos in all guests. The immersive studying expertise is the right complement to a stroll alongside the famend 2.25-mile boardwalk. 

The opening of the Spurlino Basis Discovery Heart marks the completion of the primary section of building for a visionary Capital Marketing campaign campus transformation. This section included different customer expertise enhancements, reminiscent of new navigational indicators for the car parking zone, a brand new campus entrance, and 95 new wayfinding, interpretive, and academic indicators on campus and alongside the boardwalk.

Breaking Floor of Section Two

Strategic investments within the Sanctuary’s mission-critical amenities will enhance effectivity and broaden our conservation influence. Sustainably constructed with nature and other people in thoughts, the deliberate campus infrastructure enhancements will increase our group’s capability to conduct modern science and analysis, shield susceptible wildlife, educate and encourage individuals of all ages, and join conservationists with nature in new and significant methods.

The capital enhancements will maximize our management with new, state-of-the-art amenities to help the essential collaborations between our analysis and land stewardship groups, and the coverage and restoration choices they inform throughout the state. Situated on the website of the Chickee classroom, the Corkscrew Commons (which can embody the Western Everglades Analysis Heart, the Land Stewardship Operations Heart, and extra) will carry our schooling and conservation groups collectively in a centralized, public-facing area to bolster collaboration and lift consciousness of our work past the boardwalk.

Into the Future

Because the gateway to the Western Everglades, the 13,000 acres of untamed Florida habitat inside Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary maintain the important thing to finding out, and saving, Florida’s vanishing wetlands. The brand new John “Jack” Hayworth Western Everglades Analysis Heart, about to interrupt floor in Naples, will present lab area for Audubon scientists finding out ecology and wildlife whereas additionally offering area to host and collaborate with visiting researchers from world wide.

The campus transformation underway provides a novel alternative to spend money on preserving the Everglades whereas additionally creating your legacy as a conservation champion. Recognition alternatives for areas like the brand new Outside Moist Lab and an interpretive wetland for youngsters’s applications, in addition to many others, may be reviewed right here: Audubon.org/corkscrew/vision

To this point, we’ve raised practically $17 million of the $20 million wanted to finish these enhancements. Be part of us!

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2026 State of the Everglades Report.