Perico Preserve to open May 14 in Manatee County

BRADENTON, FL – The Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources department is hoping its newest preserve will be for the birds.

Perico Preserve, the county’s newest conservation land, will open Saturday, May 14 at 9 a.m. The Parks and Natural Resources department will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony which will include guest speakers, educational exhibits and naturalist-guided tours of the preserve.

The preserve is located on the north side of Manatee Avenue, east of the Anna Maria Bridge and Neal Preserve.

The 176-acre Perico Preserve features a packed-shell trail with boardwalks and bridges that loops around a large seagrass basin, a favorite feeding ground of many wading and shore birds. The grand opening of the park, which is intended to also serve as a rookery, coincides with International Migratory Bird Day.

“A major focus of this costal site is that it’s intended to serve as a haven for birds and wildlife,” said Melissa Nell, Parks and Parks & Natural Resources volunteer and education division manager.

Along the trail, visitors will find platforms that overlook the seagrass basin and a bird blind for quiet wildlife viewing. There are park benches and shaded swing benches to provide visitors with places to relax and enjoy the surroundings.

Nell said that during the park’s extensive restoration, Perico designers planned and gave special attention to developing habitat that would host a wide variety of species, specifically wading birds. In the center of the preserve’s 16-acre seagrass habitat is a specially designed rookery island intended to serve as a nesting site for wading birds.

The Rookery at Perico Preserve recently won a 2016 National Environmental Excellence Award from the National Association of Environmental Professionals.

The upland portion of Perico Preserve was abandoned farmland with exotic plants such as Brazilian pepper trees and Australian pine that were removed during restoration. Thousands of native plants were planted during the restoration. The remaining 120 acres of the property remain preserved mangrove forest and bayou with seagrass.

Volunteers from the Southwest Florida Water Management District, the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program and Tampa Bay Estuary program helped with the restoration as well.

For more information and updates about Perico Preserve, visit www.facebook.com/manatee.natural.resources.

Image courtesy of Manatee County

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