Visiting Freedom Park

On April 10, 2014, we visited a park located just across the Coastland Mall in Naples. The park is an initiative by the residents of the city on Naples to create a 50 acre park that would ensure green public space since the area has been developed entirely. The project cost $10 million and it was achieved through a federal grant.

As we walked inside the park, we found ourselves into a shady forest of cypress, palm, and pond apple trees. Our guide explained the importance of having this park available in the area since it was home to "wading birds, hawks, an owl, otters, alligators, and other species". A recent article by the Naples Daily News describes the park in the following way: 

The project’s plant list is enough to turn a gardener green with envy: 400 cabbage palm trees, 300 bald cypress, 8,000 golden canny  1,300 water lily and 656 leather ferns among a long list of others.

To be able to receive the grant, the park had to be functional, and it is in the sense that it serves as a drainage for the water that comes from rain in other neighborhoods  From the park, the water flows to the Gordon River, Naples Bay and finally into the Gulf of Mexico. During this process, some of the water filters back into the soil and recharges the soil. 

Freedom park is home to many types of species

Although the completion of this park was controversial due to the turn of the economy, I was amazed that it was completed and that the organizers of this project saw the importance of creating this type of areas.If it wasn't for strong leaders in our community this area could have been turned into just another development and would have affected the area negatively. A park such as Freedom Park gives me hope that there can be a brighter future and that many more things can be done to protect the environment.